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airglow

Watch Claude think. A Philips Hue MCP server + Claude Code hooks that animate your lights in real time based on what Claude is doing — cyan while thinking, magenta while working, green on success, red on permission prompts. Every session, every tool call, every moment of focus: visible. Works even when your screen is locked or off — glance at the light to know if Claude needs your attention.

Prerequisites

• Node.js 18 or later
• Philips Hue bridge (gen 2+) on your local network
• At least one color-capable Hue bulb

Install

npm install

Setup

The setup tool handles everything. Call it from Claude at any point — it checks your config and tells you exactly what to do next.

1. Add to Claude Code

Drop this into ~/.claude/settings.json:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "hue": {
      "command": "node",
      "args": ["/path/to/airglow/index.js"]
    }
  }
}

2. Run guided setup

setup()

The tool will auto-discover your bridge, walk you through registering an API key (press the link button, call create_user), then list your lights and suggest one for animations — matched by name. Finish with one call:

setup({ default_group: 0, hook_light_id: 6 })

This saves everything to .env and returns a ready-to-paste hook block for your project's .claude/settings.json.

Environment variables

Variable	Default	Description
HUE_BRIDGE_IP	—	Bridge IP address
HUE_USERNAME	—	API key (from create_user)
HUE_DEFAULT_GROUP	0	Group ID for set_status (0 = all lights)
HUE_HOOK_LIGHT	—	Light ID for session animations
HUE_MAX_BRIGHTNESS	60	Brightness cap, 0–100%

Copy .env.example to .env to configure manually, or let setup() write these for you.

Claude Code Session Hooks

        thinking          working           prompt
      ~~~~~~~~~~~~      ~~~~~~~~~~      ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
     ~ CYAN pulse ~    ~ MAGENTA  ~    ~  RED pulse   ~
     ~ slow breathe~   ~ pulse    ~    ~  30s then    ~
     ~~~~~~~~~~~~~     ~~ ~~~~~ ~~~    ~  idle        ~
                                       ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

hue-status.js animates a single light based on Claude Code session events. Every hook invocation kills the previous pulse and starts fresh — no orphaned processes, no stuck colors.

Event	Color	Behavior
User submits prompt	cyan	pulse (thinking)
Tool starts	magenta	pulse (working)
Tool ends	cyan	pulse (thinking)
Plan approved	green	solid flash, then resumes
Permission prompt	red	pulse, 30s auto-expire → idle
Session ends	—	restores pre-session state

The pre-session light state is saved on the first prompt of each session and restored when the session stops.

Hook configuration

Generated automatically by setup(). To configure manually, add to your project's .claude/settings.json:

{
  "hooks": {
    "UserPromptSubmit": [
      { "hooks": [{ "type": "command", "command": "node /path/to/airglow/hue-status.js thinking" }] }
    ],
    "PreToolUse": [
      { "hooks": [{ "type": "command", "command": "node /path/to/airglow/hue-status.js working" }] }
    ],
    "PostToolUse": [
      { "matcher": "exit_plan_mode", "hooks": [{ "type": "command", "command": "node /path/to/airglow/hue-status.js success" }] },
      { "hooks": [{ "type": "command", "command": "node /path/to/airglow/hue-status.js thinking" }] }
    ],
    "Notification": [
      { "matcher": "permission_prompt", "hooks": [{ "type": "command", "command": "node /path/to/airglow/hue-status.js prompt" }] }
    ],
    "Stop": [
      { "hooks": [{ "type": "command", "command": "node /path/to/airglow/hue-status.js restore" }] }
    ]
  }
}

The light ID defaults to HUE_HOOK_LIGHT from .env. To pin a project to a specific light, pass the ID as the second argument:

node hue-status.js thinking 55

To bind different projects to different lights without git conflicts, use settings.local.json (automatically gitignored by Claude Code) in each project's .claude/ directory.

Available Tools

Tool	Description
setup	Guided onboarding — discovers bridge, registers API key, selects animation light, returns hook config
discover_bridge	Find Hue bridges on the local network
create_user	Register a new API user (press the link button first)
get_lights	List lights — filterable by room, on/off state, or color capability
get_groups	List all groups and rooms
get_scenes	List all saved scenes
get_sensors	List motion sensors, temperature sensors, buttons, and remotes
get_dynamic_scenes	List animated smart scenes — Candle, Fireplace, etc. (v2 API)
set_light	Control a single light — on/off, brightness (0–100%), color temp (153–500 mired), RGB, HSL, flash alert, transition time
set_group	Control all lights in a group simultaneously — same params as set_light
set_effect	Apply a native animated effect to lights — candle, fire, prism, sparkle, opal, glisten, cosmos. Pass no_effect to clear.
set_status	Set lights to a semantic status color
activate_scene	Activate a saved scene by ID
activate_dynamic_scene	Activate an animated smart scene with optional speed control
create_scene	Snapshot current light state as a named scene

Status Colors

set_status maps named statuses to specific light states — great for CI pipelines, agents, or anything that has a "mood."

Status	Color	Vibe
idle	warm white	nothing happening
thinking	soft blue	Claude is reasoning
working	bright blue	tools firing
building	amber	compiling / CI
waiting	purple	blocked on review
success	green	nailed it
deployed	teal	shipped
error	red	something broke
alert	red flash	wake up
pulse_once	one breathe cycle	gentle nudge, returns to prior state
off	off	done

set_status({ status: "thinking" })
set_status({ status: "success", group_id: 3 })
set_status({ status: "pulse_once", light_id: 6 })

Dynamic Scenes

get_dynamic_scenes and activate_dynamic_scene use the Hue v2 CLIP API to access animated smart scenes. Requires gen 2 bridge with current firmware and scenes created in the Hue app.

get_dynamic_scenes()
activate_dynamic_scene({ scene_id: "uuid-from-above" })
activate_dynamic_scene({ scene_id: "uuid", speed: 0.7 })   // speed: 0.0–1.0

Scene Snapshots

create_scene captures exactly what your lights look like right now as a named scene you can recall anytime:

create_scene({ name: "Evening Work" })                      // captures HUE_DEFAULT_GROUP
create_scene({ name: "Office Focus", group_id: 3 })         // specific room
create_scene({ name: "Desk Only", light_ids: [6, 55] })     // specific lights

Returns a scene ID ready for activate_scene.