SleepOff

SleepOff is a small macOS menu bar app for one specific job:

• keep your Mac awake when the lid is closed
• force the built-in display brightness to 0 only while the lid is closed
• restore brightness when the lid opens again

It lives in the menu bar, uses a simple sun / moon state, and avoids repeated password prompts by installing a narrow one-time privilege rule for pmset.

What It Does

• click the menu bar icon to toggle SleepOff on or off
• long press the menu bar icon to open a small menu with Change Shortcut… and Quit
• right click or Option-click also opens the menu
• adds a global toggle shortcut, defaulting to Control + Command + S
• prevents sleep with pmset -a disablesleep
• reads lid state from AppleClamshellState
• drops brightness to 0 only on lid close
• restores brightness only when SleepOff actually forced it to 0
• installs a one-time sudoers rule so future toggles stay quiet

Why It Exists

This started as a tiny shell-command workaround and turned into a menu bar app so the behavior is always one click away.

Install

Homebrew

brew tap sabraman/sleepoff
brew install --cask sleepoff

Upgrade later with:

brew upgrade --cask sleepoff

Nix

There is also a small Darwin-only flake for people who already use Nix:

nix run --extra-experimental-features 'nix-command flakes' github:sabraman/sleepoff

Or build the app bundle output:

nix build --extra-experimental-features 'nix-command flakes' github:sabraman/sleepoff

This is intentionally lightweight and is not being pushed into nixpkgs right now.

Quick Install From GitHub Release

curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/sabraman/sleepoff/main/scripts/install-release.sh | sh

This will:

• download the latest release zip
• install SleepOff.app to ~/Applications
• install the LaunchAgent
• start the app

Build From Source

./scripts/install.sh

This will:

• build SleepOff.app
• copy it to ~/Applications/SleepOff.app
• install ~/Library/LaunchAgents/local.sleepoff.menubar.plist
• start the menu bar app

Release Assets

Each GitHub release ships with:

• .zip Best for Homebrew and scripted installs
• .dmg Best for manual downloads

The .dmg opens as a drag-to-Applications window.

Password Prompt

macOS requires admin privileges for:

pmset -a disablesleep 1
pmset -a disablesleep 0

SleepOff handles that by installing a one-time sudoers rule limited to those exact commands. After the first approval, later toggles should not keep asking for a password.

Controls

• click the menu bar icon to toggle SleepOff immediately
• long press the menu bar icon to open the context menu
• right click or Option-click also opens the context menu
• use Control + Command + S to toggle from the keyboard
• change the shortcut from the long-press menu

Unsigned App

SleepOff is distributed unsigned on purpose.

This project is intentionally lightweight and does not rely on a paid Apple Developer account just to notarize a tiny personal utility.

If macOS blocks the app, see docs/UNSIGNED_APP.md.

Safety Notes

• closed-lid awake mode can create heat
• do not use it in a bag
• do not leave it on soft surfaces like blankets or pillows
• behavior may vary across macOS versions and MacBook models

How It Works

Main pieces:

• SleepOffMenuBar.swift
• install_sleepoff_privileges.sh
• build.sh
• install.sh
• install-release.sh
• release.sh
• sleepoff.rb
• sleepoff-icon.svg

Homebrew Tap

• app repo: github.com/sabraman/sleepoff
• tap repo: github.com/sabraman/homebrew-sleepoff

Development

Build the app:

./scripts/build.sh

For Nix users:

nix develop --extra-experimental-features 'nix-command flakes'

Build release artifacts:

./scripts/release.sh

That creates:

• dist/SleepOff-<version>-macos.zip
• dist/SleepOff-<version>.dmg