Introducing awake: a tiny CLI that keeps your Mac awake with the lid closed
AI-driven development has become part of my daily workflow, and I often want my Mac to keep running without sleeping — for long jobs, or so…
Introducing awake: a tiny CLI that keeps your Mac awake with the lid closed
AI-driven development has become part of my daily workflow, and I often want my Mac to keep running without sleeping — for long jobs, or so I can open the lid briefly during a commute, hand a task to an AI, and let it keep working after I close the lid. You can already do this by combining pmset and caffeinate, but I got tired of remembering the commands, so I wrote a thin wrapper.
- Repository: https://github.com/tanabee/awake
- Install:
git clone https://github.com/tanabee/awake.git ~/.local/share/awake
ln -s ~/.local/share/awake/bin/awake ~/.local/bin/awakeTL;DR: A single awake command does the equivalent of sudo pmset -a disablesleep 1 + caffeinate -is, and reliably undoes it on Ctrl+C or awake stop. Background, status, and stop subcommands included. The whole thing is about 200 lines of bash.
Why I built it
caffeinate alone does not prevent clamshell (lid-closed) sleep. To stop clamshell sleep you need pmset disablesleep 1, which requires sudo and — crucially — persists until you explicitly set it back to 0.
Typing two commands every time and remembering to clean up got old, so I wrapped it in a script that always runs the cleanup itself.
Usage
Foreground (recommended)
awakeYou’ll be prompted for your sudo password. Once the running message appears, you can close the lid. When you’re done, Ctrl+C automatically runs sudo pmset -a disablesleep 0 and restores the original state.
awake: disabling sleep (sudo required)
Password:
awake: running (PID=12345, caffeinate PID=12346)
awake: the Mac will stay awake with the lid closed. Press Ctrl+C to release and exit.
^C
awake: restoring sleep settings (sudo pmset -a disablesleep 0)Background
For when you don’t want a terminal window tied up. Just remember to stop it.
awake start # run in the background
awake status # check state
awake stop # stop (pmset is restored automatically)awake status output:
awake: running (background)
pid: 39189
started: 2026–05–24 13:24:59 JST
uptime: 1h 03m 12s
pmset disablesleep: 1
log: /Users/yuki.tanabe/.local/state/awake/awake.logLimitations
- macOS only. It depends on
pmsetandcaffeinate. - sudo required.
pmset disablesleepneeds root. - Heat. Closing the lid traps heat in the chassis. Avoid sustained heavy CPU/GPU loads in clamshell mode.
Give it a try
If you want to do AI-driven development on the move, or let a local AI keep working without your Mac going to sleep, give it a try.
It’s brand new, so if you hit bugs please file them on GitHub Issues.
References
메타데이터
- post_id
- 16d58ab9e99e
- slug
- introducing-awake-a-tiny-cli-that-keeps-your-mac-awake-with-the-lid-closed-16d58ab9e99e
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- https://medium.com/@tanabee/introducing-awake-a-tiny-cli-that-keeps-your-mac-awake-with-the-lid-closed-16d58ab9e99e
- canonical_url
- https://medium.com/@tanabee/introducing-awake-a-tiny-cli-that-keeps-your-mac-awake-with-the-lid-closed-16d58ab9e99e
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- https://medium.com/@tanabee
- status
- ok
- fetched_at
- 2026-06-09 15:37:30
