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kageroumado

Show HN: Adrafinil – keep a lid-closed Mac awake only while agents work github.com

A month ago there was a wave of posts and tweets about engineers walking around cafes and parks with their MacBooks propped half-open, as fully closing the lid forces sleep that stops their AI agents. Some people made snarky comments about using tmux or Amphetamine, and some defended their choice with “but I only need it sometimes, and forgetting to disable Amphetamine and finding my laptop discharged in my bag is worse.”

This is a solution to this problem. Unlike caffeinate, it will prevent your MacBook from sleeping even with the lid closed, with no external power or display, using pmset disablesleep 1. Unlike other sleep-preventing apps, Adrafinil only activates when there’s an agent actively doing something. It detects agent activity through hooks it installs into Claude Code, Codex, and others. To reassure you it’s working, the app shows the active status in the menu bar, and it plays a chime when you close the lid.

Once the agent is done, Adrafinil detects it and lets the laptop go to sleep by setting pmset disablesleep back to 0. It will also let it sleep in case of overheating. And if you want to manually toggle it, you can install an optional MCP and tell your agent to keep the MacBook awake for a specific time.

It has four binaries, one of which is a root helper exposing a single setSleepBlocked call. All the logic and policy live in the unprivileged parts. They’re all notarized, and the app is fully open source (MIT).

exabrial2 days ago

Amphetamine is what I use. It has a robust set of triggers, like if you ip address changes to a certain subnet (like private IPs on a work network)

https://apps.apple.com/us/app/amphetamine/id937984704?mt=12

anonuser1232 days ago

Came to say this. I've used it for years. Simple and works great!

chopete32 days ago

This is great. Will check it.

Recently I bought a usb-c empty external monitor card to prevent mac from going to sleep. There are many of these external monitor simulators on Amazon.

I still see the laptop go to sleep many times with the external monitor simulator.

This is the one I bought.

4K 60Hz USB-C Type-C Virtual Display Adapter DDC EDID Dummy Plug Headless Ghost Display Emulator 2K 60hz1080P@120Hz

kageroumadoop2 days ago

The dummy display enables “clamshell mode,” which lets your MacBook stay awake even with the lid closed, provided that it’s also on AC power. If the MacBook is not connected to power, the clamshell mode isn’t activated and it will sleep normally.

Adrafinil simply disables the global sleep without spoofing hardware, and re-enables it once the agent is done working, the temperature is too high, or the battery is low.

chopete32 days ago

My requirement was to keep the laptop on with the lid closed. Sleep normally when idle but wake up when a nomachine request comes in.

I will see how this app fits into my specific need.

I have to check this on Mac Sequoia 15.7

kageroumadoop2 days ago

The app is built for 26+, as I never tested it on earlier versions. It won’t solve your specific case, though, as it only prevents sleep. It won’t wake it once it’s already sleeping.

bluedino2 days ago

Can't you just use a hot corner configured as "prevent sleep"?

fragmede2 days ago

How does it sleep when the agent is done working with the hot corner?

doubled1122 days ago

Have the agent write an app that moves the cursor our of the hot corner and trigger it when done.

hhha day ago

this feels like https://xkcd.com/1172/ waiting to happen

darig2 days ago

[dead]

processunknown2 days ago

Does it also make my Mac irritable?

loeg2 days ago

I guess we are getting the entire modafinil, R-modafinil extended universe.

kageroumadoop2 days ago

Probably less irritable than amphetamine~

472 days ago

I have been using the builtin macOS `caffeinate` command for this.

For example:

caffeinate -dimsu

That keeps the Mac awake so I can use Claude remotely from phone.

You can also wrap your command as well, but I rarely use it.

caffeinate -dimsu your-agent-command

zxexz2 days ago

Caffeinate is burned into my muscle memory at this point. I attribute that to the realization that you could repeat opt flags. There's something catchy about

caffeinate -dimsum

port116 hours ago

Yum, dim sums with caffeine! I didn’t know you could repeat flags, I’m gonna steal the idea for some of my own scripts.

kageroumadoop2 days ago

Claude Code actually uses caffeinate -i -t 300 during Claude’s turn, restarted automatically until the turn finishes.

steve-atx-76002 days ago

The new wave apps named after speed / modifinil must be hard core?

aqme282 days ago

Thank goodness. I can’t leave my laptop for a second unattended because my cat loves nothing more than to dance on the keyboard. I’ve need something like this.

dawnerd2 days ago

But Amphetamine has an option to end when an app closes. I’m just so confused why everyone using ai is reinventing solutions that already exist.

kageroumadoop2 days ago

Claude Code or Codex (normally) don’t close the terminal window after a turn ends, they wait for the user’s reply.

neoecos2 days ago

I think the same...It happend to me that I just ask Claude to build whatever I need for my personal very specific use case without looking what else it's outhere

conception2 days ago

Easier to ask Claude than ask google I guess.

flexagoon2 days ago

Everyone dreams about making the next cool AI tool and doesn't bother checking if someone has already made the same thing years ago without the word "AI" in the description

kageroumadoop2 days ago

In order to get the same behavior with Amphetamine you’ll need to: 1. Install it from the AppStore (no brew, no GitHub) 2. Not forget to enable lock on lid close 3. If you ever connect/disconnect power while the lid is closed without the optional “Power Protect” system, the MacBook will sleep. The system is a script and a configuration file making sudo pmset -a disablesleep passwordless. 4. Add hooks to Claude Code configuration that will use Apple Script to start and stop Amphetamine sessions. For Codex you’ll have to make a script that will watch process activity to know when a turn ends.

It’s not like Amphetamine can’t do the same, it’s that this app is made specifically for AI agents and nothing else.

[deleted]2 days agocollapsed

rancar22 days ago

For MacOS, keep awake with:

sudo pmset -a disablesleep 1

Reset back:

sudo pmset -a disablesleep 0

kageroumadoop2 days ago

This is exactly what the app does, except it ties it to agent activity and re-enables sleep once the turn ends, the laptop is close to overheating, the battery is low, or on a timer.

xbar2 days ago

Nice. I needed this yesterday, and will need it again today.

hamza_q_2 days ago

This works great. Only downside is display doesn't turn off when you close the lid. Made a little status bar utility to wrap the disablesleep command and address that downside:

https://github.com/narcotic-sh/modafinil

(yes, I know, another *afinil named Mac sleep prevention app? but hey, I was first :P)

kageroumadoop2 days ago

Afinils are cool, and your app is cool too~

hamza_q_2 days ago

Indeed.

Thanks!

freakynit2 days ago

Just tried. Bare minimal and does exactly what's needed and nothing else. Love it. Thanks..

hamza_q_2 days ago

np cheers mate

lellow2 days ago

Interesting. Kind of similar in purpose, but I created a simple app to schedule and type the "continue" word in my terminal after X time has passed, since I have to wait for my usage to be restored. =)

dcan2 days ago

Does closing the M-series laptop lid no longer throttle the CPU like it did on the Intel ones?

port116 hours ago

[dead]

mr_toad2 days ago

I’ve often wondered about the thermal performance or running a MacBook with the lid closed. One argument is that the reduced surface area from a closed lid increases temperature. Others argue that not running & rendering the display (and thus GPU) generates less heat. I’m not sure who to believe.

herrkanin2 days ago

Running lid closed with external display has been officially supported since forever so I wouldn't worry about it too much.

Maxiousa day ago

It is supported https://support.apple.com/en-us/102555 but thermal throttling reduces performance https://osxdaily.com/2024/04/03/using-m3-macbook-air-in-clam...

AussieWog932 days ago

How does this differ from https://github.com/samber/cc-caffeine?

kageroumadoop2 days ago

It’s an Electron app that uses powerSaveBlocker to prevent display sleep. It won’t prevent macOS system sleep on lid close with no power.

AussieWog932 days ago

Thanks. This one looks much better!

xlii2 days ago

Um so it is

    sudo bash -c 'touch KEEP_RUNNING; pmset -b sleep 0; pmset -b disablesleep 1; while [ -e KEEP_RUNNING ]; do sleep 1; done; pmset -b sleep 5; pmset -b disablesleep 0'

and

    Agent, when you're done do `rm KEEP_RUNNING`, kthxbye.

(personally I have Ruby scripts that check activity on "tmux capture-output" for that)

fragmede2 days ago

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9224

da_grift_shift2 days ago

Yeah, I'll stick with the oneliner.

https://ghloc.vercel.app/kageroumado/adrafinil?branch=main

Rutvik_Pansare19 hours ago

Finally a smart tool to keep laptops awake, i have frained my battery several times with caffeinated. Thanks

tam1592 days ago

It would be great if adrafinil can also track the battery and token usage while agents are working

NDlurker2 days ago

Adrafinil never seemed to work for me. I tried it a few times when I worked an overnight shift.

strus2 days ago

I am always baffled how many people does not know about Amphetamine.

geor9e2 days ago

Codex recently built this in - "Prevent sleep while running" toggle

slopinthebag2 days ago

15k loc for this? holy cow

moralestapia2 days ago

What's old is new again, but I welcome this.

I used to do this 15 years ago to keep listening to music from my laptop (one of the white chiclet ones) in my backpack, can't remember the name of the app I used then.

One caveat, your laptop cannot cool inside a backpack, it will overheat and shut down anyway. This happened to me several times.

kageroumadoop2 days ago

It has a setting for thermal cutoff that you can set to something like 60º C. Sleeping will stop heavy work (like a build) before it leads to overheating.

dmd2 days ago

that was true of intel but definitely not of arm macbooks.

NewJazz2 days ago

Then why do they have fans?

loeg2 days ago

Many ARM Macbooks do not have fans?

NewJazza day ago

Many do. I would argue most do, although i don't have air vs. Pro sales numbers so I can't speak definitively there.

Even those that don't may rely on passive cooling strategies that are less effective in enclosed spaces.

moralestapia2 days ago

Fans !== heat

loeg2 days ago

My comment is only in response to https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48701824 , which is contending that ARM Macbooks have fans.

dominotw2 days ago

had a coworkers whose laptop keys melted into mush

Msurrowa day ago

> month ago there was a wave of posts and tweets about engineers walking around cafes and parks with their MacBooks propped half-open, as fully closing the lid forces sleep that stops their AI agents

Why don’t they just ask the agents to code up something to prevent the Mac sleeping.. and that will auto enable/disable depending on if they have the agent running or not

I mean, agents makes human devs redundant, right? This seems like a trivial little problem for an agent to fix

felixlu202615 hours ago

honestly this is the kind of boring tool that matters once agents run for hours. laptop sleep has killed more useful runs than bad prompts for me.

operatingthetan2 days ago

So now we're naming apps after obscure Modafinil derivatives?

hamza_q_2 days ago

I'll take credit for starting this trend :P

https://github.com/narcotic-sh/modafinil

operatingthetan2 days ago

There were mac apps called caffeine and amphetamine years ago.

oenton2 days ago

In that case from what I understand, Adrafinil has a much lower abuse potential than amphetamines, in particular because it doesn't give you a rush. If we're going to name mac apps after pharmaceuticals then this feels a little bit classier. No rush, just steady wakefulness.

hamza_q_2 days ago

Was referring to the *afinil specifically

operatingthetan2 days ago

Alright, well I guess I thought were were talking about naming apps after stimulant drugs lol.

hamza_q_2 days ago

[dead]

unacorner2 days ago

Adrafinil's discovery and use predates Modafinil, I believe.

operatingthetan2 days ago

I admire your pharma knowledge.

treme2 days ago

https://kagerou.glass/#dispensary-shelf

He's a connoisseur.

hopppa day ago

I thought it was related to sildenafil and gives the laptop an erection lol

Maybe as a metaphor that you can't close the lid cuz the boner is in the way and keeps it awake

[deleted]2 days agocollapsed

kylehotchkiss2 days ago

`sudo pmset -a sleep 0`

2001zhaozhao2 days ago

We need people to rediscover remote development desperately, lol.

[deleted]2 days agocollapsed

WUMBOWUMBO2 days ago

reminds me of ye old caffeinate

kageroumadoop2 days ago

Caffeinate doesn’t prevent sleep with the lid closed.

IncreasePosts2 days ago

At some point, if you closed the lid and didn't have an external monitor plugged in, macos would put the GPU in power save mode, which would tank local llm performance. Is that not the case any more? There were even small singles you could get which would trick the ps into thinking an external monitor was plugged in

loeg2 days ago

I don't think this is for running local llms.

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cyanydeez2 days ago

you can run opencode inside a docker container and expose it's webui.

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impartshadowa day ago

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VaporJournalAPP2 days ago

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rnagulapalle2 days ago

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tangweigang2 days ago

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huflungdung2 days ago

[dead]

shobhit982 days ago

[dead]

cyclopeanutopia2 days ago

Ridiculous bloat.

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