🪤 vibe-trap

macOS AFK Anti-Tamper & Jumpscare Utility
Keeping your MacBook screen awake, watching for unauthorized hands, and springing the ultimate trap.

Built for the DEV Hacktoberfest 2026 Week 4 Challenge: Ghost in the Machine.

⚡ Overview

When you're vibe coding with autonomous agents, long builds, downloads, and model generations mean you always run caffeinate to keep your MacBook awake while stepping away. But an unattended, awake laptop invites snooping coworkers or friends to touch your trackpad or browse your terminal history.

vibe-trap is a lightweight macOS AFK security trap that:

1. Keeps your MacBook screen awake using macOS caffeinate.
2. Listens for global system-wide input events (mouse and keyboard).
3. If an unauthorized person touches the mouse (any click) or types an incorrect key, it immediately launches a borderless, topmost, fullscreen jumpscare/meme window and blasts an eerie audio payload using native afplay.
4. It engages persistent kiosk lockout: loops audio at full volume, swallows controls, and locks macOS immediately if bypass is attempted.
5. If the laptop's rightful owner types the secret password (default: vibetrap), the trap silently disarms and exits safely.

🚀 Instant Run via npx

Zero setup, no Python environment, and no manual dependency installation required. Just run:

caffeinate -d npx vibe-trap

(Or simply npx vibe-trap)

🔐 macOS Permissions Setup

Because vibe-trap monitors global input events across macOS (even when running in the background while other applications are in focus), macOS requires two privacy permissions:

1. Accessibility

1. Open System Settings ( > System Settings...).
2. Navigate to Privacy & Security > Accessibility.
3. Toggle ON your terminal application (e.g. Terminal, iTerm2, Ghostty, or VS Code).

2. Input Monitoring

1. In Privacy & Security, scroll down to Input Monitoring.
2. Toggle ON your terminal application.

[!NOTE] If run without permissions, vibe-trap prints a reminder notice. If macOS prompts you with an access dialog, click "Open System Settings" and enable the toggle.

🏃 Usage & How It Works

Arming the Trap

Execute with caffeinate -d to keep your MacBook display awake while armed:

caffeinate -d npx vibe-trap

By default, vibe-trap provides a 5-second countdown (⏳ Arming in 5s...), giving you time to release your mouse and step away. Pressing Ctrl+C during the countdown aborts cleanly. Customize the countdown using --countdown <sec> (or -c 0 to arm instantly).

[!TIP] Keep Awake with Lid Closed (Clamshell Mode):
By default, closing your MacBook lid puts macOS to sleep immediately. To keep background processes running even with the lid shut:

# Prevent sleep when closing lid:
sudo pmset -a disablesleep 1

# Restore default sleep behavior afterwards:
sudo pmset -a disablesleep 0

Disarming the Trap

When you return to your computer, simply type the secret password on your keyboard:

vibetrap

The trap silently checks each keystroke prefix. Once the complete password is typed:

[✓] PASSWORD VERIFIED ('vibetrap')! Vibe Trap disarmed.
[✓] Welcome back. Exiting safely.

The trap disarms and cleanly terminates without triggering any alarms or locking your screen.

☕ Coffee Shop Anti-Theft Defense (--anti-theft)

Stepping away from your table at a coffee shop, library, or co-working lounge? Standard vibe-trap watches for mouse clicks and keyboard tampering, but opportunistic thieves often grab the machine without touching the trackpad.

Enabling --anti-theft (or -T) activates a Tri-Vector Hardware Protection Suite:

# Multi-vector protection (AC power disconnect + lid closure):
caffeinate -d npx vibe-trap --anti-theft

# With root privileges to unlock Apple Silicon hardware IMU accelerometer & gyro:
sudo caffeinate -d npx vibe-trap --anti-theft --sensitivity high

1. 📳 Apple Silicon IMU Accelerometer & Gyroscope

• Hooks into the undocumented 6-axis MEMS IMU (AppleSPUHIDDevice) hidden inside Apple Silicon MacBooks (M1–M4) via low-level IOKit HID callbacks at 800Hz.
• Auto-Baseline Calibration: When arming, vibe-trap samples and establishes a resting gravity baseline vector ($g$). This filters out subtle table nudges and heavy coffee mugs while immediately detecting if someone lifts, slides, or tilts your MacBook.
• Root/Sudo Requirement: Because macOS restricts userland access to raw SPU HID streams, hardware accelerometer tracking requires running with sudo. If run as a standard user, vibe-trap gracefully continues with AC Power and Lid sensors active and displays a helpful tip in the terminal.

2. 🔌 AC Power / Charger Disconnect Guard (IOPowerSources)

• Monitors MagSafe and USB-C power delivery in real time using native IOPSNotificationCreateRunLoopSource callbacks with zero polling latency.
• If a thief unplugs your charger to run off with your laptop, the alarm triggers instantly before they even pick up the device.

3. 💻 Lid / Clamshell Closure Guard (AppleClamshellState)

• Watches AppleClamshellState from IOPMrootDomain and hooks NSWorkspace.willSleepNotification.
• If an intruder snaps your MacBook lid closed to flee, the trap fires immediately.

Motion Sensitivity Tuning

Configure motion detection sensitivity with --sensitivity <level> (or -s):

| Sensitivity | Threshold ($\Delta g$) | Best Used For | |:---|:---|:---| | low | 0.45g | Noisy environments, communal benches, or wobbly cafe tables. Triggers only on significant physical lifts or moves. | | medium (default) | 0.25g | Balanced default. Ignores coffee cups and typing while catching any deliberate lift, slide, or tilt. | | high | 0.12g | Maximum security. Triggers on any slight nudge, shift, or tilt. |

💥 The Payload ("The Vibe Check")

If an intruder touches your laptop:

• Mouse Click: ANY mouse click (left, right, scroll-wheel click) triggers the trap immediately.
• Wrong Keystroke: Any key that deviates from the password sequence (e.g. typing a, admin, or pressing Space, Enter, Shift, Backspace) triggers the trap immediately.

When triggered, vibe-trap engages Persistent Kiosk Lockout:

1. Full-Volume Audio Blast: Instantly unmutes system audio and ramps macOS output volume to 100% (scalar 1.0) via CoreAudio hardware services, continuously looping the jumpscare audio until disarmed. When disarmed, your original volume and mute state are cleanly restored.
2. Kiosk Screen Takeover: Instantly renders a borderless, fullscreen window forced above the Dock, Menu Bar, and all applications (.screenSaver level) across all desktop spaces.
3. Control Lockout: Hides the mouse cursor and swallows all mouse clicks/shortcuts, preventing intruders from switching apps or accessing macOS controls.
4. Invisible Disarm: Type the secret password (vibetrap) blindly anywhere on the keyboard. A continuous sliding-window validator detects the sequence, immediately kills the audio, restores your original volume, closes the window, and restores normal desktop access.
5. Anti-Tamper Bypass Defense: Any attempt to interrupt or kill the process (Ctrl+C, Ctrl+\, Ctrl+D, SIGINT, SIGTERM, SIGHUP) is caught instantly and triggers immediate workstation lock down (SACLockScreenImmediate() + pmset displaysleepnow).
6. Fallback / Auto-Lock: If no image file is found, it renders high-visibility emergency warning text. An optional --timeout <ms> flag is also available if you prefer auto-sleeping the screen after a set duration.

🎨 Asset Pairing & Customization

vibe-trap dynamically pairs and randomizes payload assets found in the assets/ folder:

assets/
├── scream.webp & scream.mp3 # Ghostface with knife + piercing scream
├── smile.webp  & smile.mp3  # Creepy smiling face + eerie echoing laughter
└── zombie.jpeg & zombie.mp3 # Hallway crawler ghoul + jumpscare roar

Whenever triggered, it picks a random matching image and audio pair from assets/. You can drop any custom meme or horror pair (.png, .jpg, .webp, .wav, .mp3) into assets/!

Command-Line Options

| Flag | Description | Default | |------|-------------|---------| | --countdown, -c | Grace period in seconds before arming sensors | 5 (or $VIBE_TRAP_COUNTDOWN) | | --password, -p | Set a custom disarm password | vibetrap (or $VIBE_TRAP_PASSWORD) | | --timeout, -t | Optional auto-lock timeout in milliseconds | Persistent until disarmed | | --image, -i | Override with a specific image file | Auto / Assets | | --audio, -a | Override with a specific audio file | Auto / Assets | | --assets-dir | Custom directory containing assets | assets | | --trigger-on-move | Also trigger on mouse movement (in addition to clicks) | Disabled | | --max-volume | Force system output volume to 100% on trigger | Enabled (or $VIBE_TRAP_MAX_VOLUME) | | --no-max-volume | Preserve current volume when trap triggers | Disabled | | --dry-run | Test mode: triggers payload but skips screen sleep lock | Disabled | | --anti-theft, -T | Coffee shop anti-theft mode: tracks accelerometer movement, AC unplug & lid close | Disabled | | --sensitivity, -s | Anti-theft motion sensitivity (low, medium, high) | medium | | --version, -v | Show version number and exit | 1.3.0 | | --help, -h | Show help message and exit | |

Examples:

☕ Coffee Shop Anti-Theft Protection:

# Multi-vector protection: triggers if charger is unplugged or lid is closed
caffeinate -d npx vibe-trap --anti-theft

# With root privileges to unlock Apple Silicon hardware IMU accelerometer & gyro:
sudo caffeinate -d npx vibe-trap --anti-theft --sensitivity high

Custom Countdown & Immediate Arming:

# Give yourself 10 seconds to step away
caffeinate -d npx vibe-trap --countdown 10

# Arm immediately without countdown
caffeinate -d npx vibe-trap -c 0

Safe Test Mode (Dry Run - No Screen Sleep & No Max Volume):

# Safe for headphones while testing
npx vibe-trap --dry-run --no-max-volume

Custom Password:

caffeinate -d npx vibe-trap --password "opensesame"

Custom Jumpscare:

caffeinate -d npx vibe-trap --image "assets/ghost.png" --audio "assets/ghost.wav"

🛠️ Architecture & Under the Hood

vibe-trap utilizes a high-performance Hybrid npm + Native Swift Architecture:

• Node.js Wrapper (bin/cli.js): Provides instant, zero-install execution via npx vibe-trap, verifying macOS compatibility and relaying system signals.
• Native macOS Binary (bin/vibe_trap): Ultra-lightweight (170 KB) native binary compiled from Swift (src/main.swift). It leverages macOS AppKit (borderless fullscreen topmost window) and Quartz CGEvent taps + raw terminal stdin streams, starting in under 10ms with zero runtime dependencies.

Local Development & Building

If you want to run or rebuild from source:

# Clone the repository
git clone https://github.com/ntsd/vibe-trap.git
cd vibe-trap

# Recompile native Swift binary
npm run build:bin

# Test CLI execution
npm test

🧪 Testing

To test the trap safely without locking your screen:

# Safe dry-run test
npx . --dry-run

• Test Disarming: Type vibetrap on your keyboard. The script silently disarms and exits.
• Test Trap: Touch the mouse or type any incorrect letter (e.g. a). The jumpscare window and audio payload will fire for 3 seconds.

📄 License

Distributed under the MIT License. See LICENSE for details.