A tiny macOS menu-bar app that stops your Mac from sleeping — and keeps your builds, servers and agents running even when the lid is shut and unplugged.
Free & open source · Version 1.3.0 · macOS 12+ · Apple Silicon & Intel · Apache 2.0
The coffee is the battery gauge. Let it run out and watch what happens.
Why CaffeinateCat
Everything you need to keep your Mac running, nothing you don't.
Keeps your screen on and prevents idle sleep with a single click, or a right-click on the cup. On the moment you launch, if you like.
Shut the lid, unplug, and walk away — your Mac keeps running on battery. Perfect for travel.
Run indefinitely or switch off after 15m, 30m, 1h or any time up to 23h 59m. Timers keep counting while the Mac sleeps, and show when they end.
The cup is a battery gauge, and keep-awake switches itself off at 20% and again at 10%, so a Mac in a bag can't run itself flat.
New versions arrive through Sparkle, signed and verified before they install. A handful of Swift files, no Dock icon, no background bloat.
Restores normal sleep when you turn it off or quit, and a tiny watchdog does it even after a crash or Force Quit. It can't leave your Mac stuck awake.
Two modes
| Mode | Screen stays on | Blocks idle sleep | Lid closed |
|---|---|---|---|
| Keep Screen Awake | Yes | Yes | Mac sleeps |
| Keep Awake on Lid Close | Yes | Yes | Stays awake ✦ |
Lid-close mode is a superset of the other — lid open, it behaves exactly the same; lid shut, it keeps going, even on battery.
Click the cup and the panel drops down; right-click it to switch keep-awake on or off in one go. The drink inside shows your battery, and the cup steams in lid-close mode.
27:14Under the hood
Caffeinate uses macOS's own beginActivity API to hold off idle and display sleep. No permissions required.
For lid-closed mode it sets the SleepDisabled flag via pmset — the only reliable way to stay awake with the lid shut on battery.
A tiny, tightly-scoped permission rule is installed with one native admin prompt (Touch ID works too). After that, it just works.
A watchdog in its own process restores sleep if the app dies, and the app re-checks every 30 seconds and after each wake.
Download CaffeinateCat 1.3.0 and keep your Mac running exactly as long as you need. It keeps itself up to date from then on.
If macOS asks the first time, right-click the app → Open.