awake: keep your Mac running with the lid closed

@crafter/awake does the one thing caffeinate can't: keep your Mac running after you close the lid. One command before you bag the laptop, a launchd-backed timer that restores normal sleep on its own, and --json everywhere so your coding agent can drive it.

Why not caffeinate?

macOS force-sleeps a laptop the moment the lid closes, no matter which assertions are held. The only switch that survives a closed lid is pmset disablesleep, which needs root and ships with zero guardrails. awake wraps exactly that switch with the ergonomics it deserves.

Install

npm i -g @crafter/awake

One-time setup, asks for your password once and installs a sudoers rule scoped to exactly two pmset commands (nothing else gets elevated, awake setup --uninstall removes it):

awake setup

Usage

awake on            # keep the Mac awake for 1 hour (the safe default)
awake on 3h         # durations: 30m, 2h, 1h30m, bare numbers are minutes
awake on --forever  # no timer, until you turn it off
awake off           # restore normal sleep now
awake status        # state, timer, battery

Close the lid mid-task and the task keeps running. The timer flips everything back by itself and sends a notification when it fires, even after a crash or reboot. awake status warns when you are on battery power.

For agents

Output is JSON automatically when piped. Errors land on stderr as {"error": {"code", "message", "hint"}}. Exit codes: 0 success, 1 error, 3 setup required (a human must run awake setup once). The full contract lives in AGENTS.md.

awake on 2h --json   # before a long unattended task
awake status --json  # {"data":{"enabled":true,"remaining_seconds":7080,...}}
awake off --json     # done early, restore normal sleep

Commands

Menu bar app

A SwiftUI companion (macOS 13+) with one-click durations and a live countdown next to the clock. Same repo, same CLI underneath: ./mac/build-app.sh.

Links

• Website
• GitHub
• npm