disablesleep

A tiny, dependency-free macOS TUI for controlling caffeinate.

Run

npx disablesleep

bunx disablesleep

Requires macOS and Node.js 18+ or Bun. The terminal must be interactive.

Controls

Use ↑/↓ or j/k to move, Space or Enter to toggle, ←/→ or h/l to switch off/on, 1–5 to toggle a switch by number, r to refresh, and q or Esc to quit.

While a switch is paused by the current system state (for example, on battery with On battery off), the status line explains why. Colors follow your terminal and respect the NO_COLOR environment variable.

The switches control:

• Keep Mac awake: enable or release the sleep assertion.
• Allow lid closed: keep the policy active when macOS reports the lid is closed.
• On battery / On AC power: choose which power sources are allowed.
• While locked: continue asserting after the screen locks.

The TUI polls power, lid, and lock state while it runs. It uses caffeinate -s on AC power and caffeinate -i on battery power. No persistent pmset settings are changed.

Settings are saved automatically at ~/Library/Preferences/disablesleep.json and restored the next time you run the TUI.

The lid switch is intentionally best-effort. Apple documents that an idle-sleep assertion can still lose to forced sleep, including lid close. For reliable closed-lid use, use macOS closed-display mode with power and a supported external display, keyboard, or mouse.

Development

npm install
npm test
npm run build
node dist/bin/disablesleep.js

The source is TypeScript; the published package contains compiled JavaScript and has no runtime dependencies. Publish with:

npm publish

License

MIT