Your Mac, awake
with the lid shut.
Click once, close the lid, walk away. Whatever you kicked off — a build, a render, an AI agent mid-thought — keeps going in your bag. No Terminal, no caffeine tricks, no babysitting.
Lives quietly up top. yellow star = staying awake · grey star = back to normal sleep.
Actually works in your bag
Caffeine apps only block the idle sleep. Lidless stops clamshell sleep too — lid shut, still running.
One click is the whole app
Tap the star in your menu bar. Yellow means awake, grey means normal. There’s nothing else to learn.
Tiny, and notarized by Apple
About a megabyte of native Swift, signed and notarized. Double-click and it just opens — no scary warnings.
For the stuff that takes a while
Anything that should keep going while you don’t.
AI agents on the move
Claude Code, Codex or Cursor keeps building while you walk to the office — check in or nudge it from your phone, laptop zipped in your bag.
Renders & exports
Final Cut, a DaVinci render, a Logic bounce — let it finish on the train.
Big up- & downloads
Push the 4K cut, pull a dataset — without hovering over your desk.
Long builds & Docker
Compile, build images, run the whole test suite with the lid shut.
Remote access
Keep your Mac reachable over SSH or Tailscale while it’s closed.
Backups & sync
Let Time Machine or a cloud sync finish before you unplug and pack up.
Three steps
- 1
Open it
Drag it to Applications and double-click. A little grey star shows up in your menu bar.
- 2
Click the star
“Keep Awake with Lid Closed.” It turns yellow — that’s your Mac promising not to doze off.
- 3
Close the lid and go
Shut the laptop, drop it in your bag and wander off — keep poking at your code from your phone while it runs back home.
Free
Open source. Yours forever.
Download for macOSor with Homebrewbrew install --cask sshykvlv/tap/lidless
FAQ
Will a MacBook stay awake with the lid closed without an external monitor?
Normally no — macOS sleeps the moment you close the lid unless an external display is attached (clamshell mode). Lidless removes that requirement: turn it on, close the lid, and your Mac keeps running with nothing else plugged in.
How is Lidless different from caffeinate, Amphetamine or Caffeinated?
Those mostly block idle sleep — the screen stays on, but close the lid and the Mac still sleeps unless a monitor is connected. Lidless specifically stops clamshell (lid-closed) sleep with no external display, which is the part the others leave out.
Can I keep Claude Code, Codex or an AI agent running on my Mac while I’m out?
Yes — that’s the main reason Lidless exists. Start your agent (Claude Code, Codex, Cursor, a long script), turn Lidless on, close the lid and drop it in your bag. The agent keeps working on your Mac, and you can watch or steer it from your phone over SSH, Tailscale or a chat bot while you walk around.
Does it really work with the Mac in a bag?
For a short carry — an hour or two — yes. Your Mac stays awake with the lid closed, so whatever’s running keeps running. Two honest caveats: the battery drains, and a fanless MacBook gets warm with no airflow. So it’s great for the walk across town, less great sealed in a bag all afternoon.
Will it ask for my password?
Changing system sleep needs admin rights, so macOS asks the first time you turn it on — a normal system dialog. Lidless never sees or stores your password; it just asks macOS to change the setting.
Why isn’t it on the Mac App Store?
The App Store requires a sandbox that forbids touching system power settings — which is exactly Lidless’s one job. So it ships directly, signed and notarized by Apple, the normal route for utilities like this.
Which Macs does Lidless support?
Apple Silicon (M1 and newer) and Intel Macs, on macOS 13 Ventura or later. It ships as a universal binary.
Is Lidless really free?
Yes — free and open source under the MIT license. Every line is on GitHub. There’s an optional tip jar if it saves you a headache.