Menu bar utility for macOS

Awake

Keep your Mac and its display awake with one click in the menu bar.

Download for macOS Read the source

Requires macOS 14 or later.

# Start with your defaultsawake on
# One hour, then sleep normallyawake on --minutes 60
# Active, held assertions, time leftawake state --json
# End the sessionawake off

How Awake works

Click the moon in the menu bar to start a session. It turns into a sun while your Mac is kept awake.
Click the sun to stop. Quitting Awake also ends the session.
Option-click or right-click the icon to choose what stays awake and for how long.

Choose what stays awake

Awake holds the same public macOS power assertions as caffeinate. Set your defaults once, or override them for a single session.

Prevent system sleep: The Mac does not idle-sleep; the display may still dim.
Keep the display on: The screen stays lit and the screen saver never starts.
Prevent disk idle: Disks are not spun down while idle. Off by default.

Timed sessions up to 24 hours, or until you stop
Optional start-at-launch session
A global shortcut you record in the panel
No Dock icon or extra windows

Scriptable from the terminal

Awake bundles an awake command that can do everything the menu bar can. Install it from the panel, then start, stop, and inspect sessions or change settings from scripts and agents.

Every command accepts --json
Results go to stdout, errors to stderr, with distinct exit codes
Settings live in a plain TOML file at ~/.config/awake/config.toml

Permissions and privacy

No Accessibility permission, even for the global shortcut
Assertions are released the moment Awake quits
No analytics or network access

Closing the lid still sleeps your Mac

macOS enforces lid-closed sleep below the public power assertions, and getting around it takes private API, so Awake doesn't try.