Why is there no island on my external monitor?

Because the monitor has no notch. You get a row of agent logos along the top edge instead. If you would rather have the island shape there, you can switch that screen over in Settings and it will draw a bar in place of the notch.

I have both Codex and ChatGPT on. Why is there only one OpenAI logo?

They share the same logo, so they share one spot. Either of them working makes that logo bob.

Why is a tool I am not tracking quota for showing up?

Because you ran it. Anything used in the last day joins the row on its own, which is how an agent billed by the API — or one whose quota window you turned off — still shows you it is working. It leaves again a day after its last turn.

How do I keep one of them off the row?

It depends why it is there. If you are tracking its quota, turn that window off under Agents in Settings. If it is only there because you ran it, leave it a day and it drops off by itself — or turn its live status off, which also stops it coming back that way. Live status alone will not clear a tracked agent: its logo stays and simply never bobs again. It is a wider switch than it looks — with it off you stop getting that agent's turn-complete alerts too, and one missed while it is off is not replayed afterwards. Quota warnings are unaffected.

Do the logos block the menu bar?

No. The row ignores clicks entirely, so the menu bar and your windows behave as if it were not there.

Will a second monitor slow my Mac down?

The HUD draws for every screen out of one budget, so a second monitor is nothing like twice the cost. Picking the soft glow style and a slower animation brings it down further.

Do I lose my settings when I unplug the monitor?

No. Every display keeps its own settings and picks them up again next time you plug it in.

Agent HUD · Guides

Agent HUD on an external monitor

Plug a monitor in and it gets its own HUD straight away. Nothing to set up, and nothing you change there follows you back to the laptop.

What shows up on the new screen

A screen with a notch keeps the island wrapped around it. A screen without one gets a row of small logos along the top edge instead — the agents you are watching, plus anything you have actually been running, floating there with no black shape behind them.

That is on purpose: a monitor has no notch, so drawing a fake one would leave a black bar sitting in the middle of your desktop for no reason.

Reading the row at a glance

The agents you are watching come first, in your own order. Claude is Claude whether you have one window open or four.
After them come the ones you have simply used. Something you ran this morning joins the row whether or not you are tracking its quota, and drops off again a day after its last turn — so the row follows what you are actually working with.
A logo bobs gently while that agent is working — including while it is waiting for you to approve something — and sits still when it is not. If nothing is moving, nothing needs you.
Colour never lands on the logos. Status is the glow behind them, so the marks stay recognisable.
Codex and ChatGPT share OpenAI's logo, so they share one spot rather than putting the same picture on screen twice.

Making each screen look the way you want

Open Settings and each attached display gets its own row. You can swap a screen to the other shape — the island on a monitor, or the logo row on the laptop — resize the logos, space them out, or hide them and keep just the glow.

The glow is set per screen too: its style, how it moves, how fast, and how far down the screen it reaches. A soft wash on the big monitor and a tight rim on the laptop is a perfectly normal setup.

Each display remembers its own settings, so unplugging the monitor at the end of the day changes nothing, and plugging it back in tomorrow picks up where you left it.

Does a second screen cost anything

Adding a monitor does not double the work — the HUD draws for all your screens out of one budget rather than starting again on each. If you want it lighter still, the soft glow style is the cheapest, and slowing the animation down costs less than speeding it up.

The HUD keeps moving when nothing is running, just slower, so a quiet Mac still looks alive rather than frozen.

It stays out of the way

The row does not catch clicks. Anything you click up there goes to the menu bar or the window underneath, exactly as before.
Hover to open the panel. If you keep brushing past it by accident, you can ask it to want the Option key held down as well.
An alert appears once, on whichever screen your pointer is on, rather than on all of them at the same time.
With Reduce Motion turned on, the HUD holds still and fades between shapes instead of animating.

Common questions

Why is there no island on my external monitor?: Because the monitor has no notch. You get a row of agent logos along the top edge instead. If you would rather have the island shape there, you can switch that screen over in Settings and it will draw a bar in place of the notch.
I have both Codex and ChatGPT on. Why is there only one OpenAI logo?: They share the same logo, so they share one spot. Either of them working makes that logo bob.
Why is a tool I am not tracking quota for showing up?: Because you ran it. Anything used in the last day joins the row on its own, which is how an agent billed by the API — or one whose quota window you turned off — still shows you it is working. It leaves again a day after its last turn.
How do I keep one of them off the row?: It depends why it is there. If you are tracking its quota, turn that window off under Agents in Settings. If it is only there because you ran it, leave it a day and it drops off by itself — or turn its live status off, which also stops it coming back that way. Live status alone will not clear a tracked agent: its logo stays and simply never bobs again. It is a wider switch than it looks — with it off you stop getting that agent's turn-complete alerts too, and one missed while it is off is not replayed afterwards. Quota warnings are unaffected.
Do the logos block the menu bar?: No. The row ignores clicks entirely, so the menu bar and your windows behave as if it were not there.
Will a second monitor slow my Mac down?: The HUD draws for every screen out of one budget, so a second monitor is nothing like twice the cost. Picking the soft glow style and a slower animation brings it down further.
Do I lose my settings when I unplug the monitor?: No. Every display keeps its own settings and picks them up again next time you plug it in.

Guides

Last updated: 2026-09-20 · The behaviour described here is documented in full, with the code it comes from, in Agent HUD Open. github.com/jazzenchen/agent-hud-open