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PavlokPager — in plain English

No jargon. For the engineer's version see ../technical/ARCHITECTURE.md.

The one-sentence idea

It's a little program that can make a Pavlok wristband buzz, beep, or zap — so that when Claude is working through the night and either finishes everything or gets stuck on something only you can decide, it can physically wake you instead of sitting idle until morning.

Why it exists

You wear a Pavlok band that's paired to your phone. Normally an AI assistant working overnight has no way to reach you — it just waits. This gives it a "phone line": a way to tap you on the wrist, gently or firmly, when it genuinely needs you.

Think of it like a pager from the hospital era, except the pager is on your wrist and can escalate from a polite tap to a real jolt if you're a deep sleeper.

How a "page" works

You (or Claude) run one command. The program:

  1. Looks up your saved login so it's allowed to talk to Pavlok.
  2. Sends a "buzz/beep/zap" instruction to Pavlok's servers.
  3. Pavlok relays it to your phone, which tells the band to fire.
  4. Writes a line in a private logbook so there's always a record of what was sent and why.

If the internet hiccups, it tries a few times before giving up.

Gentle → firm: the "ladders"

A ladder is just a sequence that gets stronger if you don't stir:

  • Gentle — a couple of soft buzzes. "You up?"
  • Normal — buzzes and beeps. "I could use you when you get a sec."
  • Urgent — a buzz, a loud beep, then five full-strength zaps. "Wake up, I'm stuck." This one is deliberately strong because you sleep deeply.

Each step waits a bit before the next, giving you a chance to wake and respond.

The safety rules (so it can't go haywire)

Because this thing can shock you, it has hard limits built in that can't be bypassed by accident:

  • A nightly cap — at most 3 "pages" in any 8-hour window. After that it refuses, so a stuck-in-a-loop program can't zap you all night.
  • A strength ceiling — zaps are capped at a maximum you set.
  • A reason is required — every page has to say why, and it's all written down.
  • A "dry run" mode — Claude can rehearse a page without actually firing anything, to check it lined things up right.

Keeping your login safe

  • Your password is never stored and never shown on screen — you type it into a hidden prompt, it's swapped for a token, and the password is thrown away.
  • The token is scrambled on disk (using Windows' built-in encryption tied to your account), and the file is locked so only you can read it.
  • Nothing secret is ever put where it could be seen — not in your command history, not in logs.

What it is not

  • It's not always running in the background — it only does something the moment it's told to, then stops.
  • It never creates accounts or keys for you — you bring your own Pavlok login.
  • It doesn't need Docker or a server. It's just a small command.

Setting it up (once)

  1. Log in: type pavlok login, enter your Pavlok email and password.
  2. Test it: type pavlok test — your band should buzz.

That's it. From then on it's ready whenever it's needed.