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Keep your MacBook awake with the lid closed, on battery, with no external display.
_{One menu-bar switch, with an auto-off timer and a battery-floor cutoff so you never drain it flat.}

Note

A closed lid sleeps your Mac, and caffeinate apps (KeepingYouAwake and friends) can't change that, by design. Sleepless flips the one setting that can, pmset disablesleep, with safety nets so it is safe to forget.

Install

brew install --cask aboudjem/tap/sleepless
/Applications/Sleepless.app/Contents/Resources/grant.sh   # one-time passwordless grant

Other ways
Download	Grab the latest release, unzip to /Applications, then approve it in System Settings → Privacy & Security → Open Anyway (it is ad-hoc signed).
Build from source	git clone https://github.com/Aboudjem/Sleepless.git && cd Sleepless && ./install.sh (no Gatekeeper prompt).

Then click the cup in the menu bar, flip the switch, and close the lid.

Features

☕	One switch	Click the menu-bar cup, flip the toggle.
⏲️	Auto-off timer	1h or 2h with a live countdown, then off.
🔋	Battery floor	Auto-off at 5–50% on battery (default 15%).
🪫	Low Power Mode	Steps aside when LPM is on, on battery.
🖥️	No dongle	Lid closed, on battery. No monitor, no HDMI plug.
🚀	Launch at login	Optional, off by default, always starts idle.
🪶	Tiny + native	One AppKit file. No Dock icon, daemon, or kext.

Menu-bar glyph: empty cup = off · full cup = awake · full cup + dot = awake on battery (auto-off live).

Sleepless vs the alternatives

	Sleepless	Amphetamine	KeepingYouAwake	caffeinate
Awake, lid closed, no monitor	✅ ¹	⚠️ ²	❌ ³	❌
On battery	✅	✅	✅ lid open	⚠️ ⁴
Auto-off timer	✅	✅	✅	❌
Auto-off on low battery	✅	✅	✅	❌
Open source	✅ MIT	❌ App Store	✅ MIT	Apple
Cost	Free	Free	Free	Free

_{As of 2026-06. ¹ Uses pmset disablesleep and reads the flag back; behavior is hardware/macOS-version dependent. ² Documents closed-display mode but is widely reported to fail on Apple Silicon on power-source changes (AE #28); the app is closed source. ³ Can't do lid-closed by design, it wraps caffeinate (#66). ⁴ caffeinate -i runs on battery; -s is AC-only.}

Use it to

• 🤖 Finish overnight jobs lid-closed: agent runs, builds, renders, ML training.
• 📡 Share a hotspot from your bag.
• ⬇️ Leave big downloads, uploads, or backups running.
• 🖥️ Keep a local server or SSH session reachable.

Tip

Set a battery floor you trust (say 20%) plus a timer, and you can walk away without babysitting the battery.

How it works

Sleepless toggles pmset disablesleep (the kernel's SleepDisabled flag), reads it back so the menu bar never lies, and reverts it at your battery floor, in Low Power Mode, when the timer ends, or on reboot. A GUI app can't type a password, so the installer adds a scoped sudoers rule for exactly two commands:

<you> ALL=(root) NOPASSWD: /usr/bin/pmset -a disablesleep 0, /usr/bin/pmset -a disablesleep 1

• Can't be widened. sudoers matches arguments literally, no wildcards.
• Nothing to hijack. No daemon, no helper script, no shell. It calls /usr/bin/pmset directly.
• Always reversible. Reboot, the floor, the timer, or ./uninstall.sh (which proves the grant is gone).

Verify a download, no Apple account needed:

shasum -a 256 -c SHA256SUMS
gh attestation verify Sleepless-*.zip -R Aboudjem/Sleepless

Full threat model, the App Store verdict, and the audit guide: SECURITY.md · docs/AUDIT.md.

FAQ

Does pmset disablesleep still work on Apple Silicon (M1/M2/M3)?

Yes. pmset -a disablesleep 1 sets the kernel's SleepDisabled flag on Apple Silicon, confirmed firsthand on macOS 26.3, which keeps the Mac awake with the lid closed on battery. Verify with pmset -g | grep SleepDisabled (it should read 1). Claims that it "stopped working" usually describe caffeinate or caffeinate-based apps, a different mechanism.

Why does my Mac sleep on lid close even with Amphetamine or KeepingYouAwake?

Those use macOS power assertions, which stop the idle timer but can't override the hardware lid-close trigger. KeepingYouAwake wraps caffeinate, which can't do lid-closed (#66). pmset disablesleep, which Sleepless uses, can.

Is it safe? Will it overheat or drain the battery?

It is safe for light unattended work (downloads, syncs, a hotspot). Heavy sustained load with the lid fully shut reduces airflow, so use judgement. The battery floor, Low Power Mode auto-off, and the timer all stop it before it drains the Mac.

Does it need sudo, a kernel extension, or a daemon?

One tightly scoped sudo grant (two exact pmset commands) so a GUI app can flip the setting without a prompt. No kernel extension, no daemon. The whole app is a single AppKit file.

How do I stop it or remove it?

Flip the switch off, or let the timer or battery floor do it, and normal sleep returns. A reboot also resets it. ./uninstall.sh removes the app, login item, and the sudoers grant, then proves the grant is gone.

Why isn't it notarized?

It is a personal open-source tool with no paid Apple Developer ID, so it is ad-hoc signed. Build from source to skip Gatekeeper, or use Open Anyway for the prebuilt app. The notarization steps are documented in docs/AUDIT.md.

Contributing

Issues and PRs welcome, especially translations and reports from other hardware. See CONTRIBUTING.md and the Code of Conduct. Sleepless stays deliberately small.

License

MIT © 2026 Adam Boudjemaa.

_{If Sleepless saved you a trip to Terminal, a ⭐ helps other people find it.}