NoSleep
A menu bar switch that keeps a Mac running with the lid closed. Turn it on for
good, for a set time, or until the battery reaches a level you pick.
Install
Paste this into Terminal:
curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/intuito-studio/nosleep/main/install.sh | bash
It downloads the latest release, puts NoSleep in Applications and opens it.
Running it again reinstalls the latest version.
Needs macOS 14 or later, on Apple silicon or Intel.
Use
Click the cat in the menu bar. It sleeps curled up when the Mac sleeps normally, and stares at a laptop, dark circles under its eyes, while the Mac is kept awake.
- The big tile is the switch. Click it to keep the Mac awake, and click
again to go back to normal sleep.
- Keep awake for sets how long a session lasts, from 15 minutes to 8 hours.
All the way right means no limit. Moving it during a session restarts the
clock from now. A ring around the cat shows how much time is left, and the
menu bar shows it as
1:42.
- Stop at battery switches sleep back on once the battery drains to that
level. It only applies on battery power. It's set to 20% by default, and
dragging it all the way left turns it off.
- Open at login keeps it in the menu bar after a restart.
When a timer or the battery stop ends a session while the lid is shut, NoSleep
puts the Mac to sleep straight away, so it isn't left running in a bag.
While the lid is closed
During a session, closing the lid turns the display off, mutes the audio and
switches on Low Power Mode. Opening it unmutes and switches Low Power Mode back
off. NoSleep only undoes what it did itself, so a mute or Low Power Mode you
set yourself stays. The timer keeps running throughout. The built-in microphone
is cut off in hardware while the lid is closed, so record with AirPods or an
external mic.
Closing the lid
On a MacBook with a lid angle sensor, the cat comes up from below the screen
in Liquid Glass as the lid passes upright during a session, its paws over the
bottom edge and its lit eyes following the pointer: a sign NoSleep is holding
on. Fold the screen as the lid closes,
in Settings, adds Mac Duo's fold: the desktop holds still while the lid turns
around it, frosting and darkening from the top. The fold needs Screen
Recording, asked for when you switch it on. Nothing shows with NoSleep off or
with the lid open as usual.
Safety rules
- Battery: below 40% on battery, Low Power Mode goes on. At the stop you
set (20% by default), the session ends.
- Heat: when macOS reports the Mac as seriously hot, Low Power Mode goes
on. At critical heat, the session ends.
- Notifications: you get one when a timer, the battery or the heat ends a
session.
- Backstop: a small launchd agent checks once a minute. If NoSleep has
crashed or been force-quit while holding sleep off, it switches sleep, Low
Power Mode and the mute back. It never touches a session the terminal started.
Staying online
NoSleep keeps the Mac awake; macOS keeps it connected. To fall back to your
iPhone when the Wi-Fi drops, set System Settings → Wi-Fi → Ask to join
hotspots to Automatic. The iPhone needs the same Apple Account.
Activity
Settings… in the panel lists what recent sessions did: when the lid closed
and opened, what changed, and why a session ended.
Updates
NoSleep checks for a new release once a day. When there is one, a notification
and the panel both offer Update: one click, and it restarts on the new
version a few seconds later, still keeping the Mac awake if it was.
Quitting NoSleep switches sleep back on if NoSleep was the one holding it off.
Features 1 to 6 follow Insomnia
(MIT), which got there first.
Acknowledgements
The fold, the hinge angle maths and the lid sensor reader are ported from
Mac Duo by Nino Bouchedid (MIT; the
notice is in THIRD-PARTY-NOTICES.md). The lid angle
sensor's HID interface was first documented by
Sam Henri Gold.
How it works
Most stay-awake apps hold a power assertion, which stops idle sleep but not lid
sleep. Only pmset disablesleep stops lid sleep, and only root may change it.
The first time you flip the switch, macOS asks for your admin password once.
NoSleep then installs this rule as /etc/sudoers.d/nosleep, after checking it
with visudo:
you ALL=(root) NOPASSWD: /usr/bin/pmset -a disablesleep 0, /usr/bin/pmset -a disablesleep 1, /usr/bin/pmset sleepnow, /usr/bin/pmset -a lowpowermode 0, /usr/bin/pmset -a lowpowermode 1
The rule allows exactly those five commands with exactly those arguments, and
nothing else. Reading the current state needs no permission at all.
The terminal and the app use the same setting. If you run
sudo pmset -a disablesleep 1 (or a shell function that wraps it), the menu
bar shows it within two seconds. Once the rule is installed, those exact
commands stop asking for a password in the terminal too.
Uninstall
Quit NoSleep, then:
launchctl bootout gui/$(id -u)/dev.intuito.nosleep.backstop
rm ~/Library/LaunchAgents/dev.intuito.nosleep.backstop.plist
rm -rf /Applications/NoSleep.app
sudo rm /etc/sudoers.d/nosleep
defaults delete dev.intuito.nosleep
Build
Needs Xcode (for actool, which compiles the icon), not just the Command Line Tools.
make run # debug build → .build/NoSleep.app → relaunch it
make test
make release # universal build → dist/NoSleep.dmg
To ship a version: bump VERSION, run make release, and follow the steps it
prints. You tag and push, then attach dist/NoSleep.dmg to a GitHub release.
Both the install line and the in-app updater download that file, so keep its
name.
