automove

You know that thing where you step away for a few minutes and come back to a locked screen? This fixes that.

automove is a dead simple CLI tool that nudges your cursor a few pixels every 5 seconds, keeping your screen awake and your session alive. Run it in a terminal, do whatever you need to do, and hit Ctrl+C when you're done.

Install

npm install -g automove

That's it. No config files, no setup, no nonsense.

Usage

Just run:

automove

You'll see:

automove running — cursor nudges every 5s, 5px radius.
Press Ctrl+C to stop.

Leave it running in any terminal window. When you're done, hit Ctrl+C and it exits cleanly.

Options

automove --interval 10        # nudge every 10 seconds instead of 5
automove --radius 2           # smaller movement (2px instead of 5px)
automove -i 10 -r 2           # combine both
automove --help               # show all options

| Flag | Short | Default | What it does | |------|-------|---------|--------------| | --interval | -i | 5 | Seconds between each nudge | | --radius | -r | 5 | How many pixels to move |

How it works

Every interval seconds, the script grabs your current cursor position and moves it by a tiny amount in a 4-step circular pattern — so it ends up roughly back where it started. You won't even notice it unless you're staring at your cursor waiting for it to move.

It doesn't click anything. It doesn't type anything. It just moves the mouse a little.

Stopping it

Hit Ctrl+C in the terminal where it's running. It'll print automove stopped. and exit.

Requirements

• Node.js 14+
• Works on macOS, Windows, and Linux

Note for macOS users: You may need to grant your terminal app accessibility permissions the first time you run it. macOS will prompt you — just allow it and re-run the command.

License

MIT