---
title: What do the coloured dots on the tabs mean?
question: tab status lights
area: quadrants
surface: desktop
audience: beginner
keywords: [status light, tab dot, red dot, green dot, amber, orange dot, idle, working, needs input, done, pulsing red, flashing red, blinking light, chime, chiming, beeping, alert sound, notification sound, mute, turn off sound, bell, re-chime]
related: [what-is-a-quadrant]
updated: 2026-07-21
---

# What do the coloured dots on the tabs mean?

Each tab shows a small coloured dot for every quadrant inside it, so you can tell what your agents are doing without switching tabs. Grey is **Idle** (nothing pending), amber is **Working** (an agent is busy), green is **Done** (an agent finished and needs nothing from you), and pulsing red is **Needs input** (an agent has stopped and is waiting for your answer). Only red pulses, because it is the only one that needs you. Click the tab to open it and its red and green dots clear back to grey on their own, so any tab still showing red or green is one you have not dealt with yet. Hover a dot to read the agent's one-line note, which is often the exact question it is asking. When a quadrant turns red while you are not looking at it, codus also plays a chime.

## Control the chime

The chime is on by default. codus plays it once when a quadrant turns red while you are not looking at it (codus is behind another app, or the red is on a tab you are not viewing), and never for the tab you are currently in. While you are away in another app it repeats every 7 minutes until you come back or the red clears.

- The **bell** to the left of your first tab turns all chimes on or off; a line through it means off.
- Right-click a tab (or hold **Control** and click) for its **Sound alerts** menu. There you can mute **This tab**, mute one quadrant (listed by folder name or position, like **Top-left**), or set **Re-chime when away** to cycle through **Off**, **3 min**, **7 min**, and **15 min**. Muting silences the sound only, so the red dot still shows. If the bell is off, this menu is greyed out.

## Good to know

- The dots are indicators, not buttons. Clicking one does nothing, so click the tab itself to go there.
- Red and green are set by the agent, not by codus, so occasionally an agent forgets to flag that it needs you and its dot stays amber or grey. If a quadrant has gone quiet, open it and check.
- Prefer one dot per tab? Click the **chevron** at the far left of the tab strip to collapse each tab's row of dots into a single dot for its most urgent status; click again to expand.