Keep your Mac awake from the menu bar
Wakeful is a lightweight macOS utility that prevents your Mac from sleeping — with optional timers, display control, and zero Dock clutter. It wraps Apple's built-in caffeinate command so you get reliable system behavior without reinventing the wheel.
- Download
Wakeful-x.x.x.dmgfrom Releases - Open the DMG and drag Wakeful into Applications
- Open Wakeful — look for the coffee cup in your menu bar
On first launch, macOS may warn that Wakeful is from an unidentified developer.
Right-click → Open to confirm.
Long builds, downloads, presentations, and screen shares all need the same thing: a Mac that stays awake without fiddling with System Settings. Wakeful lives in the menu bar, starts in one click, and stays out of your way.
| One-click toggle | Start or stop with a single menu action |
| Timed sessions | Presets from 15 minutes to 4 hours, or run until you stop |
| Custom duration | Pick exact hours and minutes |
| Display control | Optionally keep the screen on, not just the system |
| No dependencies | Native SwiftUI app, no runtime to install |
Click the coffee cup in the menu bar:
- Start Wakeful — prevents idle sleep for the selected duration
- Duration — choose a preset or open Custom... for a specific length
- Settings → Keep display awake — also prevents the display from sleeping
- Stop Wakeful — ends the session immediately
When active, the icon fills in and the menu shows a live countdown.
| To run | macOS 13.0 (Ventura) or later |
| To build | Xcode 15+ (full Xcode, not Command Line Tools only) |
git clone https://github.com/alphapseudo/wakeful.git
cd wakeful
open Wakeful.xcodeprojIn Xcode, select the Wakeful scheme and press ⌘R. The app appears in the menu bar.
- Set the scheme to Release (Product → Scheme → Edit Scheme)
- Product → Archive
- Export the app and zip it for GitHub Releases
Wakeful spawns /usr/bin/caffeinate as a child process and manages its lifecycle:
| Setting | caffeinate flags |
|---|---|
| Default | -i — prevent idle sleep |
| Keep display awake | -i -d |
| Timed session | -t <seconds> |
| Until stopped | no -t; runs until you stop or quit |
Your duration and display preferences are saved in UserDefaults and restored on relaunch.