Decaffeinate - v1.1.0

Highlights

• The crash watchdog now restores your Low Power Mode settings too, not only lid-close sleep.
• The app reacts to lid, display, battery and heat events instead of polling every 2 seconds.
• The menu is slimmer: set-and-forget options, including Uninstall…, moved under Settings.
• The battery cutoff has finer steps and defaults to 20%.

Fixes

• After a crash or force-quit with the lid closed, the watchdog used to turn sleep back on but leave Low Power Mode on until the next launch. It now also puts back the Low Power Mode settings the app had saved, and clears them so the next launch doesn't apply them again.

Improvements

• Event-driven instead of polling. The 2-second lid timer is gone. The app listens for lid state, screen changes (desk mode), power source changes (battery cutoff), thermal state changes (heat cutoff) and wake from sleep. Macs without a lid register nothing.
• Slimmer menu. The first level keeps the on/off toggle, the two alerts (crash protection off, update available) and Quit. Low Power Mode, screen lock, battery cutoff, launch at login, update checks and Uninstall… are under Settings, so Uninstall no longer sits next to Quit.
• Finer battery cutoff. Choose Never, 5, 10, 15, 20, 30, 40 or 50%. The default is now 20% (was 15%) for installs that never chose one. A choice you already made is kept. "Off" is renamed "Never".
• Plainer first launch. The install dialog uses plain language (Continue… instead of Install…). The README walks through the one-time Open Anyway step, with a Terminal alternative.
• Nicer download. The release .dmg opens with a laid-out window (app icon, arrow to Applications, volume icon).
• Project page. A minimal site at decaffeinate-app.pages.dev with a download button that links straight to the latest .dmg.
• The app icon is recolored, and LICENSE now ships inside the app bundle.

Removed

• The measured lid-open and lid-closed power averages in the menu. They were a measurement feature, not part of keeping the Mac awake safely. measure.sh stays in the repository to reproduce the numbers.

What's Changed

• feat: lay out the release dmg window with icons, arrow and volume icon by @dstmrk in #20
• docs: plain-language install dialog and first-open steps by @dstmrk in #21
• fix: watchdog restores Low Power Mode after a crash by @dstmrk in #22
• feat: add a project page and recolor the icon by @dstmrk in #23
• fix: draw the menu bar glyph in the site mockup as a template by @dstmrk in #24
• chore: ship LICENSE inside the app bundle by @dstmrk in #25
• feat: link the page's download button straight to the dmg by @dstmrk in #26
• docs: add Ko-fi link and correct the authorship claim by @dstmrk in #27
• refactor: slim the menu to a Settings submenu, drop power stats by @dstmrk in #28
• perf: react to lid, display, battery and heat events instead of polling by @dstmrk in #29

Full Changelog: v1.0.0...v1.1.0

Decaffeinate - v1.0.0

What it does

• Keeps a MacBook awake with the lid closed, using the system sleep setting (pmset disablesleep). Power assertions like caffeinate don't survive a lid close.
• Switches to Low Power Mode and turns the display off while the lid is closed. When the lid opens, it restores your exact battery and charger settings.
• Lets the Mac sleep anyway on serious heat, or when the battery drops below your limit (15% by default, configurable).
• Keeps working behind the lock screen. Keep awake when screen locked is optional.
• Logging out or switching users gives normal lid-close sleep. A connected external display is treated as a desk setup and left alone.
• Shows your Mac's own measured power draw with the lid open and closed.
• Prevents idle sleep with the lid open while the app is running. The display still turns off.

Setup and distribution

• Ships as a .dmg with a universal build (Apple silicon and Intel), for macOS 13+.
• The app is ad-hoc signed, not notarized. The README explains the one-time Open Anyway step.
• The first launch asks for admin rights once (Install…). It installs a sudoers rule limited to the exact pmset sleep and Low Power commands.
• The helper is required at launch. If the rule disappears while the app runs, the install is offered again.
• Uninstall… in the menu turns sleep back on and removes the helper, watchdog, login item and settings. It then moves the app to the Bin.

Safety

• A background watchdog (LaunchAgent) turns lid-close sleep back on within a minute if the app crashes or is force-quit.
• The watchdog does not restore Low Power Mode: it stays on until you open Decaffeinate again or turn it off in System Settings › Battery.
• The app warns at launch and adds a menu item if macOS has the watchdog switched off.
• The sudoers temp file is now created as root, not in the user's temp dir (hardening fix).

Updates and footprint

• The update check is opt-in. Check for updates… checks once, and Check for updates daily is off by default.
• Each check is one anonymous request for this repo's latest release. Nothing is downloaded or installed automatically.
• About 25 MB of memory and about 0% CPU while waiting. The lid timer is coalesced.
• New coffee-cup icon (Lucide) for the menu bar and the app, replacing the flame.

Changes from Pilot Light

• Rebranded to Decaffeinate and restructured into one source file per domain.
• It uses its own helper, so remove Pilot Light's helper first (Remove helper… in its menu, or sudo rm /etc/sudoers.d/pilotlight). Otherwise the two apps fight over the same pmset setting.

What's Changed

• chore: clean up the fork, rebrand to Decaffeinate, add macOS CI by @dstmrk in #1
• perf: coalesce the lid timer and drain run() output before waiting by @dstmrk in #3
• feat: require the helper at launch, replace Remove helper with Uninstall by @dstmrk in #4
• feat: replace the menu bar flame with a coffee cup by @dstmrk in #6
• feat: Lucide coffee icon for the menu bar and the app, rendered at build time by @dstmrk in #7
• ci: publish a .dmg release on v* tags, move timeouts to steps by @dstmrk in #8
• fix: re-offer the helper install when the sudoers rule vanishes while running by @dstmrk in #9
• test: cover isArmed, the sudoers rule and the watchdog whitelist by @dstmrk in #10
• feat: warn when the crash watchdog is not running by @dstmrk in #11
• fix: create the sudoers temp file as root, not in the user's temp dir by @dstmrk in #12
• build: take the default version from the latest git tag by @dstmrk in #13
• docs: say a crash leaves Low Power Mode on until the next launch by @dstmrk in #15
• feat: opt-in update check against this fork's releases by @dstmrk in #16
• refactor: split main.swift into one file per domain under Sources/ by @dstmrk in #17
• ci: attach the dmg to a release published on GitHub by @dstmrk in #18
• ci: run only the jobs a change can affect by @dstmrk in #19

Full Changelog: https://github.com/dstmrk/decaffeinate/commits/v1.0.0