Caffeinated

A small macOS menu bar app that keeps your Mac awake for a chosen duration. A spiritual successor to the old Caffeine applet, rebuilt with SwiftUI for modern macOS.

Features

• Live in the menu bar — no Dock icon, no window clutter
• Keep awake for 15 min, 30 min, 1 hr, 2 hr, 5 hr, or indefinitely
• Keeps both display and system awake (uses PreventUserIdleDisplaySleep)
• Closing the lid still sleeps the Mac — by design
• Optional launch at login (via SMAppService)
• Optional restore of previous awake state after relaunch

Requirements

• macOS 14 (Sonoma) or later
• Xcode 15 or later
• xcodegen to generate the Xcode project

Build from source

brew install xcodegen
git clone https://github.com/<your-username>/Caffeinated.git
cd Caffeinated
xcodegen generate
open Caffeinated.xcodeproj

In Xcode, hit ⌘R. The default signing setting ("Sign to Run Locally") works for personal use — no Apple Developer account required.

To make it a permanent menu bar app, drag the built Caffeinated.app from Xcode's build folder into /Applications, then enable "Launch at login" in its Settings.

How it works

The app holds an IOKit power assertion of type PreventUserIdleDisplaySleep while active. Releasing the assertion returns the Mac to normal sleep behavior. The shell command caffeinate -d uses the same mechanism.

License

MIT — see LICENSE.