26Sound + Haptics

Silent by default.

Sound is the last signal, not the first. Milo speaks with type, state and motion; a cue is added only where the eye may be elsewhere — a run that needs you, a long run finishing, a failure, a Level 4 interruption. One material, eight events, never more than four a minute, and nothing that a visible state does not already say.

CUES 8 · 4 SOUNDEDMATERIAL ONE STRUCK OBJECTBUDGET 4 / MINUTESOURCE tokens/sound.json

Policy26.1

Nothing carries information by sound alone.

Every cue pairs with a row state, a toast or a pill. Turn sound off and nothing is lost; that is the test.

DefaultSilent. Cues are opt-in per event; the four sounded cues ship on, the rest never sound.

BudgetFour cues a minute. The fifth is suppressed, and the visible state still shows.

ReducedSystem Reduce Sound or reduced motion → haptics only. Do Not Disturb → nothing.

NeverAmbient loops, typing sounds, success chimes on routine work, sound while you are speaking.

The material

A single struck object: short, dry, mid-pitched — a pencil on paper, a print block registering. No synth pads, no bells, no rising arpeggios. The prototype synthesises it (Web Audio, triangle through a bandpass, 40 ms); production records one sample at 48 kHz mono and uses it everywhere. Loudness −18 LUFS integrated, so it sits under speech.

One tick · 40 ms

Two ticks · 90 ms apart

Cues26.2

Eight events. Four make a sound.

Play them. Each button fires the prototype cue and the haptic pattern the platform would use; the budget counter shows the four-a-minute rule working.

Cue table — event, sound, haptic, visible pair, default

cue	event	sound	haptic	visible pair	default
needs-you	a run stops for approval or input	one tick, 40 ms	light	◉ Needs you row + notification	on
done-long	a run longer than 2 minutes finishes	two ticks, 90 ms apart	medium	✓ Done + toast	on
error	a run fails	one low tick, 60 ms	rigid	✕ Failed row + toast	on
permission	Level 4 interruption opens	one tick	medium	confirmation	on
voice-open	voice pill appears	none	light	pill	on
voice-done	voice intent resolved	none	light	pill ✓	on
quick-entry	quick entry submitted	none	selection	toast	on
routine	task completed by hand, reorder, tab change	none	none	state	never

Platforms26.3

Same eight cues, three players.

macOS plays the bundled sample and uses NSHapticFeedbackManager; Omarchy plays it through PipeWire and has no haptics; the web prototype synthesises it.

Platform mapping and the open item

macOS	`NSSound` with `tick.wav`; `NSHapticFeedbackManager` `.levelChange` for light, `.alignment` for medium; rigid is two `.alignment` pulses.
Omarchy	`pw-play` (or `canberra-gtk-play`) with the bundled wav; mako notification carries the sound flag; no haptics.
Web prototype	`site/js/26-sound.js`: Web Audio after a user gesture; `navigator.vibrate` where it exists.

Open: the recorded sample (assets/sound/tick.wav) is not yet cut; V1 ships the synthesised prototype. Everything else on this page is specified in tokens/sound.json.