LidAwake

Close your MacBook lid and keep working. A tiny macOS menu bar app that stops your
Mac from sleeping on lid close — so Claude Code, Codex, builds, downloads, and
other long-running terminal jobs keep running with the laptop shut. No external display needed.

A focused, closed-lid alternative to Amphetamine / Caffeine.

Why

• macOS sleeps the instant you close the lid → your task dies mid-run.
• Clamshell mode needs an external monitor + keyboard you don't always have.
• LidAwake keeps the Mac awake lid-closed and switches the internal screen off, so nothing's wasted.

Features

• LidAwake switch — pause or resume sleep prevention without clearing your AC, battery, or display preferences. The choice survives relaunches.
• ☕ / 🌙 menu bar status — staying awake vs. sleep enabled, at a glance.
• Per power source — independent AC and battery policies; auto-applied on plug/unplug.
• Screen off when closed — blanks the internal panel on lid close, and the external monitor too (uncheck the toggle to keep clamshell mode and leave the external on).
• Launch at Login (⌘L) — starts the installed copy, including outside /Applications.
• Sleep restoration — quitting restores the app's sleep override; a background worker also restores it if the menu app crashes.
• Manual update checks — “Check for Updates…” checks GitHub Releases and offers the newer release page.
• Developer credits — “About LidAwake” credits TurboKach and links to the source.
• Readable live status below the master switch, e.g. “Sleep enabled · Battery”.

Use the LidAwake switch at the top of the menu as the master control (⌘E while the
menu is open), then choose Connected to Power and/or
On Battery under Keep awake when:. With only AC selected, unplugging allows
sleep and reconnecting keeps the Mac awake again. Turning the master off restores
sleep, stops LidAwake's display blanking, and dims the dependent controls while keeping
their selections. Setup, login, and update actions remain available. Existing installs
retain their saved power-source choices with the master enabled on first upgrade.

How it works

Toggles pmset disablesleep (0 = sleep, 1 = stay awake) — one live, system-wide
value, so LidAwake watches power changes and applies your per-source policy itself. A
single background worker owns these writes. On lid
close it runs pmset displaysleepnow to blank the internal screen — and the external one
too, unless you keep clamshell mode on. Requires macOS 12+.

[!NOTE]
Keeping a Mac awake lid-closed in a bag can get warm and drain the battery. Keep it
ventilated; prefer AC-only if unsure.

Install

1. Download LidAwake.dmg from Releases, open it, drag LidAwake → Applications.
2. It's unsigned, so the first launch is Gatekeeper-blocked. Either:
   • Open it → click Done (not Move to Trash) → System Settings → Privacy & Security → Open Anyway, or
   • run xattr -dr com.apple.quarantine /Applications/LidAwake.app

First run offers a scoped passwordless rule at /etc/sudoers.d/lidawake-<your UID>.
It allows exactly /usr/bin/pmset -a disablesleep 0 and ... disablesleep 1, validated
with visudo. Setup is required before enabling keep-awake so crash recovery can restore
sleep without a password prompt. “Not Now” leaves keep-awake unavailable; setup remains
accessible from the menu. “Repair Sleep Setup…” also migrates the old wildcard rule,
preserving its account while narrowing its permissions.

Quit the old app before running an updated copy. Only one new LidAwake session can own
sleep control at a time. Avoid using another disablesleep manager concurrently.

If restoring sleep fails, Quit offers to stay open and repair setup. If the menu app
crashes, the worker restores sleep independently. If both processes die, or permission
is revoked, a private recovery marker survives and restoration is retried on next launch.
This cannot guarantee immediate restoration after both processes fail. The menu reports
failed changes and unavailable status instead of treating a failed read as sleep enabled.

To uninstall, choose “Uninstall LidAwake…” from the menu. It restores sleep, removes
/etc/sudoers.d/lidawake-<uid> and the legacy /etc/sudoers.d/lidawake after one admin
prompt (the legacy rule only if it names your account; otherwise it is left in place and
LidAwake says so), turns off Launch at Login, deletes its settings and
~/Library/Application Support/LidAwake, moves the app to the Trash, and quits. Canceling
the admin prompt removes nothing; if a step fails, LidAwake stops there and lists what remains.

To uninstall manually instead, quit LidAwake first, confirm sleep is enabled, then remove its rule with
sudo rm "/etc/sudoers.d/lidawake-$(id -u)". An older installation may also have
/etc/sudoers.d/lidawake; remove that only if it is no longer used by another account.
If necessary, restore sleep manually with sudo pmset -a disablesleep 0.

Build

./build.sh                 # compile + bundle + install to /Applications
./build.sh --no-install    # build a local app without installing
swift test                # regression tests with simulated power settings
./release.sh              # universal (arm64 + Intel) LidAwake.dmg
./scripts/check-build.sh universal  # verify the universal bundle and macOS 12 target

Both build paths use Package.swift for the macOS 12 deployment target and Info.plist
for bundle metadata. Before publishing a new release, increment CFBundleShortVersionString
and CFBundleVersion in Info.plist; use a corresponding GitHub release tag such as
v1.2.0. The update checker compares numeric stable versions, accepts an optional v
prefix, and never downloads or installs anything automatically. It contacts GitHub only
when you choose “Check for Updates…”.

The macOS CI workflow runs regression tests and verifies both architectures. See
manual validation for checks that require a real MacBook and displays.
The keep-awake lease integration in docs/prompts/ remains a future feature.

Credits

Developed by TurboKach.
Source and releases: TurboKach/LidAwake.