Support

Napless Help

Updated October 8, 2026

Napless keeps your Mac awake from the menu bar. This manual covers Napless 1.5.

Free trial and Napless Pro

A new install starts a free 7-day trial of everything, Napless Pro included, the first time you open Napless. You don’t need an account or a card, and there’s nothing to click.

After 7 days, keeping the Mac awake needs Napless Pro. Your settings stay put, and buying Napless Pro turns everything back on. The price is $8 for the first 50 licenses, then $24. That’s one payment for a lifetime license on up to 3 Macs, with no subscription.

The app shows a Get Napless Pro window at the end of the trial, when you click a Pro feature, and as a reminder 2 days before the trial ends and on the last day. To enter a key you already have, open Settings › Pro and choose Enter License Key….

Macs that installed Napless before 1.5.0 keep the free features they already had, such as timers, Keep Awake Until and presets. Pro features still need Napless Pro on those Macs.

Getting started

Napless lives in the menu bar. Its icon is a filled moon with a small light while it keeps your Mac awake, and an outline moon when it doesn’t. Click the moon to open the menu. For the System Settings and Terminal options that work without Napless, see every way to keep a Mac awake.

The header is titled Keep Awake. The switch on that row turns Keep Awake on or off. The line under the title names the current reason, such as Until you turn it off or Your Mac can sleep. Turning the switch on uses your default duration. With the switch focused, press Return or Space to turn it on or off.

Under the header, Napless shows a row for each thing keeping your Mac awake right now, up to four: a coding agent at work (Claude Code · Working · 12 min), a download, app or command you are watching, and each trigger that matches, such as a call or Time Machine. Each row has the app’s icon when Napless knows the app, otherwise a symbol. The rows update while the menu is open. Click a watched download, app or command to stop watching it.

Keep Awake For starts with your presets (see Presets), then lists Indefinitely, the preset durations, then Custom Duration…. The presets shipped with Napless are 5, 10, 15 and 30 minutes, and 1, 2 and 5 hours. You can add more in Settings › Durations. The shipped default is Indefinitely. The duration marked (Default) is the one the header switch, the keyboard shortcut and the menu bar icon use. Option-click a duration to make it the default.

Keep Awake Until opens a submenu. A Specific Time… asks when Keep Awake should end.

Add 15 Minutes appears while a timed session is running. It adds 15 minutes to that session.

When a timer is running and Show time left in the menu bar is on, the time left appears next to the icon as hours and minutes.

When an activity keeps your Mac awake, a small badge next to the moon shows what it is. When Napless knows the app, it shows that app’s icon: Claude, Codex, Cursor or Gemini while a coding agent works (if the desktop app is installed), Zoom, Teams, FaceTime or Webex during a call, the app in full screen, or the app a trigger is waiting on. Otherwise it shows a symbol: ✦ an AI agent, a camera for a call or meeting, a record button for a recording, a play button for full screen, a down arrow for a download, up and down arrows for network traffic, two pages for files being copied, the Time Machine clock for a backup, a speaker for audio, and an hourglass for a command or job that has to finish. Conditions such as the power adapter, a display, Wi-Fi or a schedule keep the plain moon. When you turn Keep Awake on yourself, the moon stays plain unless an activity such as an AI agent is running underneath. Only one badge shows at a time, and the menu and the icon’s tooltip name the reason in words. Turn the badge off with Show what’s keeping your Mac awake in Settings › General.

While Napless keeps your Mac awake on battery, the menu shows roughly how much battery time is left.

Click the menu bar icon to turn Keep Awake on or off is off by default, in Settings › General. With it off, a click opens the menu. With it on, a click turns Keep Awake on or off using the default duration. Control-click, right-click and accessibility presses still open the menu. Option-click always turns Keep Awake on or off.

Allow display to sleep is in Settings › General › Display. See Screen saver.

Automatic Keep Awake turns triggers on or off; a checkmark shows it is on. Hold Option to change it to Pause Automatic Keep Awake for 1 Hour; while paused, Resume Automatic Keep Awake shows when the pause ends.

The menu ends with Insights…, Settings… and Quit Napless. Napless Help, Contact Support… and About Napless are in Settings › General › Support. When Keep Awake needs attention, the menu also adds Check Health… and Dismiss. See Honest status and Check Health.

Also Keeping Your Mac Awake lists up to three other apps that are preventing sleep, with their icons and how long they have held it. Click one to open Insights.

Settings has six tabs, in order: General · Durations · Triggers · Agents · Insights · Pro. Set up coding agents in Settings › Agents.

Presets

Keep Awake For starts with Download, Meeting, Render, and AI Run under Presets. Choose one to start keep-awake in one click.

Change them in Settings › Durations › Presets. Pick a duration, including Until Turned Off. Keep Display On decides whether the display stays on for that choice. Show in Menu hides a choice without deleting it. Add Preset adds another, up to 8. Restore Built-in Presets puts the original four back.

Presets are part of the trial. After it ends, they need Napless Pro.

Custom times and widgets

Choose Keep Awake For › Custom Duration… in the Napless menu to pick any time up to 24 hours. Drag the dot around the dial: one full turn is an hour, and each extra turn adds another. It snaps to 5 minutes; hold Option for single minutes. You can also use the arrow keys, or click a quick button such as 1 hr. The dial shows when the time runs out, and Keep Awake starts it.

In Settings › Durations, the Keep Awake For list holds your saved durations. Right-click a duration for Make Default or Remove. Use + and − to add or remove a duration. Custom durations here can be up to 7 days.

Below the list are Restart the timer when you use your Mac, the presets, and Reset Durations….

To add the Keep Awake widget, click the date and time in the menu bar, then click Edit Widgets at the bottom of Notification Center, or Control-click the desktop and choose Edit Widgets. The small widget counts down the time left and has a Turn On or Turn Off button; the medium one adds 15 min, 1 hr and 2 hr. The widgets include Pause. Widgets need Napless to be running. They use the same moon as the menu bar icon and your system accent colour.

Settings › General

Open Settings… from the Napless menu. The General tab has these rows.

Open at Login opens Napless when you log in. If macOS still needs approval, Open Login Items… takes you to System Settings › General › Login Items. Check that Napless is on in both Open at Login and App Background Activity on macOS 26 and later. Before macOS 26, the second list is called Allow in the Background. Check Health and napless doctor use the same Open at Login name.

After a macOS update, Napless re-checks Open at Login and registers the login item again if macOS dropped it. For the next 7 days, Settings › General and Check Health show what that check found. If the login items database itself is broken, Check Health tells you to run sfltool resetbtm, restart, then turn Open at Login off and on. Napless does this with no notification.

Keep your Mac awake when Napless opens starts Keep Awake at launch, using the default duration. It is off by default.

Click the menu bar icon to turn Keep Awake on or off is described in Getting started. It is off by default.

Keyboard Shortcut has Keep Awake shortcut. Click Record Shortcut, then press a combination that includes Command, Option, Control or Shift. Press Escape to cancel. Clear removes the shortcut. The shortcut turns Keep Awake on or off from any app.

Display has Allow display to sleep (on by default), Show time left in the menu bar (on by default) and Show what’s keeping your Mac awake (on by default). See Control Center to add Keep Awake there.

Safety has Stop keeping your Mac awake if it gets too hot and Stop keeping your Mac awake when battery is low. See Safety stops and Heat protection.

Low Power Mode has Stop keeping your Mac awake in Low Power Mode. See Safety stops.

Notifications has Notify when Keep Awake turns on or off. If notifications for Napless are off in System Settings, General shows a warning with Open Notification Settings…. See Notifications.

Advanced has Quit Napless when the timer ends and Stop keeping your Mac awake when you switch users. Both are off by default. Quit Napless when the timer ends quits only when a timed session reaches its deadline.

If this copy of Napless includes the helper, Advanced also shows Command-line tool and a Copy button for the install command. See Command line.

Share anonymous usage and crash reports is on by default in Napless 1.2.12 and later (earlier versions were opt-in). Turn it off in Settings › General. See Usage and crash reports.

Keep Awake health has Check Keep Awake Health…. Welcome has Show Welcome Again. Support has Napless Help, Contact Support… and About Napless. See Contact support.

The first time Napless opens, a short welcome asks three things: how long a click keeps your Mac awake, whether to turn on Open at Login, and what Napless Pro does. Each step has Skip, and closing the window skips the rest. Show Welcome Again opens the tour again.

Updates (the version from napless.io) has Check for Updates Automatically (about once a day, on by default), Download and Install Updates Automatically, Get Beta Updates, and Check for Updates… with the time of the last check.

A Closed Lid group appears on this tab. Keep Awake With Lid Closed is coming in an update. See Keep Awake With Lid Closed.

The last section is Menu Bar and Control Center. Can’t see the Napless icon in the menu bar? has a Show Me How button. It opens the steps for a missing icon. Settings switches use your system accent colour.

Honest status and Check Health

An orange triangle in the Napless menu means keep-awake needs attention. The menu bar icon switches to a warning glyph at the same time. The line under Keep Awake names the problem.

The menu then adds Check Health… and Dismiss.

Dismiss marks past incidents as seen. A problem that is still happening stays on the menu.

Check Health… opens Keep Awake Health. So does Check Keep Awake Health… next to the Keep Awake health row in Settings › General. The sheet lists Keep Awake, Sleep prevention, Requests to keep your Mac awake, Unexpected sleep, and the other checks Napless can inspect. When helpers, agent hooks, the Time Machine trigger or Keep chat apps active are in use, the list includes them too. Each problem line can offer Fix when Napless has a repair for it. Check Again runs a new check. Opening the sheet marks past incidents as seen after it lists them. A sleep incident also drops off after checks stay healthy for 5 minutes. Opening the menu leaves past incidents as they are.

If the last update check failed, Check Health says why. Check for Updates starts a new update check.

From Terminal, with Napless running, napless doctor prints the same checks. See Command line. To check the macOS side without Napless, see reading pmset -g assertions yourself.

A deliberate pause (heat, battery, Low Power Mode) shows a reason with no orange triangle. The orange triangle is for a check that failed, keep-awake that could not be held, closed-lid sleep that could not be turned back on, or a sleep that happened while Napless was keeping the Mac awake. A maintenance wake does not show the orange triangle. Neither does a sleep while Napless was paused.

Check Health shows your battery’s health and cycle count. When your Mac sleeps while Napless is keeping it awake, the menu and Check Health say why. See Why did my Mac sleep?. If a system setting stops your Mac from ever sleeping, Check Health shows that, with a command to copy. Napless repairs its own keep-awake if macOS drops it, and reports what it fixed.

Why did my Mac sleep?

macOS can put a Mac to sleep even while Napless is keeping it awake. When that happens, the menu and Check Health say what happened, in one sentence, and what to do next.

• The lid was closed. Closing the lid puts a Mac to sleep unless it is connected to a display, keyboard and power.
• The battery was almost empty. Connect power for long tasks. Napless stops at your battery limit before this happens.
• The Mac was too hot. Let your Mac cool down and keep its vents clear.
• A maintenance wake. macOS wakes on its own to do brief maintenance, then goes back to sleep. The menu says this is normal and not a Napless problem. It does not show the orange triangle.
• Napless was paused. The Mac went to sleep during a pause.
• No specific cause. Wi-Fi, Bluetooth and network connections pause while a Mac sleeps. Sleep can also come from the Apple menu, a sleep schedule or your organization’s settings.

Network connections pause while a Mac sleeps. Downloads and calls stop until the Mac wakes. For a long download, turn on Allow Display to Sleep and let the display sleep instead of the Mac. The Mac stays awake, so the network stays up.

Sleep schedules. A sleep or shutdown schedule can put your Mac to sleep even while Napless is keeping it awake. Check Health says so when one is set.

Low Power Mode. Napless pauses while Low Power Mode is on. Turn it off in System Settings › Battery when the Mac needs to stay awake.

Screen lock. Your Mac can still lock when the display sleeps, if Lock Screen settings ask for a password. That setting is separate from Napless.

Tell Me When My Mac Sleeps During Keep-Awake is in Settings › General. It is off by default. When it’s on, Napless posts one notification, Your Mac slept, with Check Health. Napless asks for notification permission when you turn it on.

Insights (Napless Pro)

This is Napless Pro on the version from napless.io.

Settings › Insights (or Insights… in the menu) shows:

• What’s keeping your Mac awake right now lists the apps and tools that asked macOS to stay awake, and for how long.
• Kept awake today, over 7, 30 or 90 days, as a chart by kind (manual, timed, automatic, agent), with the time on battery and the battery used.
• What kept your Mac awake shows the conditions and apps behind that time, and the other apps that held it awake.
• Sleep and wake counts how often your Mac slept and shows its longest awake stretch.
• Suggestions to save battery, each with a button to the setting, and Export CSV….

On Battery and Battery Used show None if your Mac never ran on battery in the selected range.

Insights data stays on your Mac (~/Library/Application Support/Napless/insights, kept for 13 months) and isn’t sent anywhere. Napless records this history even before you buy Napless Pro, so it’s already there when you do. Weekly Summary (Settings › General › Notifications) posts one Monday-morning notification with last week’s total. It is part of Napless Pro too.

Safety stops

Settings › General › Safety has Stop keeping your Mac awake when battery is low. It is off by default. When it is on, Stop at offers 10%, 15%, 20%, 25%, 30%, 40%, 50%, 60%, 70%, 80% and 90% battery. The default level is 20%. Napless then stops keeping the Mac awake at that level. The menu says Stopped: battery low.

Settings › General › Low Power Mode has Stop keeping your Mac awake in Low Power Mode. It is off by default. When it is on and Low Power Mode is on, the menu says Stopped: Low Power Mode is on. Turn on Low Power Mode in System Settings › Battery.

Heat protection is a separate Safety switch. See Heat protection.

Heat protection

Settings › General › Safety has Stop keeping your Mac awake if it gets too hot. It is on by default.

When it is on and the Mac’s thermal state is serious or critical, Napless stops keeping the Mac awake. The menu says Stopped because your Mac is too hot. Timed keep-awake ends. After the thermal state stays at fair or cooler for 5 minutes, automatic keep-awake can start again. Start a timed session yourself if you still want one.

Restart the timer on activity

Settings › Durations has Restart the timer when you use your Mac. It is off by default.

Turn it on to count a timed session from the last time you used the Mac. A 15-minute session then ends 15 minutes after that use. Add 15 Minutes adds 15 minutes to that length. Keep Awake Until a specific time keeps its original end time.

This setting applies to Keep Awake For timed sessions. Keep chat apps active dims the checkbox with the note Turn off “Keep chat apps active” to use this setting.

Screen saver

Settings › General › Display has Allow display to sleep. It is on by default.

When it is on, Napless keeps the Mac from idle sleep and the display can sleep. When it is off, Napless also keeps the display awake.

Control Center

On macOS 26 and later, you can add a Keep Awake control. Open Control Center and click Edit Controls, then add Keep Awake.

The control turns Keep Awake on or off. It shows On or Off. Turning it on uses the default duration. Napless needs to be running. The control uses the same moon as the menu bar icon and your system accent colour.

Notifications

Settings › General › Notifications has Notify when Keep Awake turns on or off. It is off by default. Turning it on asks macOS for permission to show alerts.

When that switch is on, Napless can notify you that Keep Awake Is On, Keep Awake Is Off, or Keep Awake Timer Ended. The timer-ended notification includes Add 15 Minutes. Finishing a watched download or app also notifies you.

Safety stops still notify even when that switch is off. Those notifications are titled Keep Awake Stopped.

To silence Napless notifications in macOS, open System Settings › Notifications and choose Napless. If they are off there, Settings › General shows a warning. Click Open Notification Settings… to turn them back on.

Shortcuts, Siri and Spotlight

Napless registers App Intents for Shortcuts, Siri and Spotlight.

These intents work during the trial and need Napless Pro after it:

• Keep Mac Awake
• Keep Awake For (minutes)
• Keep Mac Awake Until
• Stop Keeping Mac Awake
• Add Time to Keep Awake
• Is My Mac Being Kept Awake?
• Keep Awake (the Control Center control)

These intents need Napless Pro:

• Keep Mac Awake Until App Quits
• Keep Mac Awake Until Download Finishes
• Turn Automatic Keep-Awake On or Off

Siri phrases include “Keep my Mac awake with Napless”, “Stop keeping my Mac awake with Napless”, “Is Napless keeping my Mac awake” and “Add 15 minutes with Napless”.

Focus filter

This is Napless Pro. In System Settings › Focus, add a Napless filter and set Mode to Off, Keep Awake While on Power, or Keep Awake. Keep Awake While on Power applies only while a power adapter is connected. While the filter is keeping the Mac awake, the menu reason is Focus is on. Without Pro, the header says Focus needs Napless Pro.

Use Napless with Spotlight, Siri and Shortcuts

Napless adds its actions to Shortcuts, Spotlight and Siri. Most work during the trial and need Napless Pro after it. On a Mac that installed Napless before 1.5.0, the list above stays free and the intents below still need Napless Pro. When you start or stop Keep Awake by hand, from the menu or a link, Siri Suggestions and Spotlight learn your habit and offer it sooner. Automatic starts and Shortcuts you run yourself are not counted.

Spotlight

Spotlight runs actions on macOS 26 and later.

1. Press Command-Space bar to open Spotlight.
2. Type Keep Awake. To see only actions, press Command-3.
3. Double-click the action you want, then press Return if it asks for more.

To run an action with a few keys, assign it a quick key. In Spotlight, click Add quick keys next to the action, then type the keys you want, for example ka for Keep Awake and kz for Stop. Spotlight also suggests a quick key after you run an action once. To change one later, click the quick key, edit it, and press Return.

Run Keep Awake automatically with Shortcuts

Shortcuts can start a Napless action at a set time or when you open an app. Both need macOS 26 or later.

When I open Final Cut Pro, keep my Mac awake:

1. In the Shortcuts app, click the create button to make a new shortcut.
2. Search for Keep Awake, then double-click Napless’s action to add it.
3. Click Edit, then Automation, and choose the App trigger. Pick Final Cut Pro.

At 9:00 on weekdays, keep my Mac awake for 8 hours:

1. Make a new shortcut and add Napless’s Keep Awake For action. Set Minutes to 480.
2. Click Edit, then Automation, and choose the Time of Day trigger. Set 9:00 and the weekdays.

By default, Shortcuts asks you before it runs an automation, with a notification you click. Time of Day and App automations can run without asking: select the shortcut, click Edit, then the Info button, click Privacy, and turn on Allow Running When Locked.

Turn a typed request into a Napless action

Shortcuts has a Use Model action that asks an Apple Intelligence model, or ChatGPT, to read some text. It needs macOS 27 and Apple Intelligence. You can use it to turn a request such as “keep my Mac awake for an hour and a half” into minutes:

1. Make a new shortcut and add the Ask for Input action.
2. Search for Use Model, double-click it, and choose a model. On-Device is enough for this.
3. In the text field under “Use model”, write: Reply with only the number of minutes in this request: and then add the answer from Ask for Input.
4. Add Napless’s Keep Awake For action and put the model’s response in Minutes.
5. Click the play button to test it. Shortcuts sends the model’s response to the next action in a form that action can read.

The model can turn a length of time into minutes. It cannot know when your render finishes. To keep your Mac awake until a command finishes, use napless run -- <command> (Pro).

Keep Awake With Lid Closed

Keep Awake With Lid Closed is coming in an update. It will stop on heat, at a battery floor and after a time limit. Until then, Apple’s external-display setup is described in using a MacBook with the lid closed today.

Automatic Keep Awake

This is Napless Pro on the version from napless.io. Open Settings › Triggers.

Turn on automatic Keep Awake is the master switch at the top of Settings › Triggers. The Napless menu item is Automatic Keep Awake (checked when on). Conditions below it apply only while that switch is on. The footer says it keeps your Mac awake while at least 1 condition applies. Quick setups, apps and conditions follow the switch. Chat Apps is further down this tab.

Quick Setups can add At My Desk, During Calls, Overnight Download and Presenting.

Apps keeps your Mac awake while apps you add are running. Add offers Choose App… or a running app. Only while this is the active app limits a row to the frontmost app.

Conditions includes:

• During calls (when a microphone or camera is in use)
• While audio is playing
• While Time Machine is backing up (see While Time Machine is backing up)
• While a Download Is in Progress (see While a Download Is in Progress)
• While Connected to VPN (see While Connected to VPN)
• While Commands Are Running (see While Commands Are Running)
• While a Local Server Is Running (see While a Local Server Is Running)
• While a power adapter is connected
• While an external display is connected
• Wi-Fi networks, with Add Current Network

If Location access for Napless is denied, the Wi-Fi condition shows Open Location Settings…. Click it to allow access in System Settings.

Napless can also keep your Mac awake during calendar events that have a video-call link, or, from Shortcuts, until the current meeting ends. Napless Pro can also keep your Mac awake while a drive or USB device is connected, and while you present.

While a Remote Login Is Open works during the trial and needs Napless Pro after it, except on a Mac that installed Napless before 1.5.0, where it stays with the free features that Mac already had. See While a Remote Login Is Open.

Only while connected to power limits those conditions to when a power adapter is connected. For each condition, choose whether the display stays on and whether to pause on battery.

If you keep starting Napless for the same thing, Napless suggests an automatic condition for it. Each app suggestion is one row. Hold Option to see Don’t Suggest Again.

Keep your Mac awake on a schedule uses Days, From and To. A schedule prevents sleep while your Mac is already awake. It does not wake your Mac from sleep.

Advanced has Network activity, Processor activity and Disk activity, each with When activity exceeds. Overnight Download turns on network activity while on power.

Each matching trigger gets a row at the top of the menu, for example In a call, Audio is playing, Power adapter connected, External display connected, Network is busy, Copying files, CPU is busy, Scheduled, or Time Machine is backing up. When nothing matches, there is no row and the header says your Mac can sleep.

Hold Option on Automatic Keep Awake in the menu for Pause Automatic Keep Awake for 1 Hour; Resume Automatic Keep Awake ends a pause. Open this tab from Settings….

See also Agent Mode, AI agents, Keep chat apps active and Watches.

Watches

This is Napless Pro on the version from napless.io.

To stay awake until a file or download finishes, drag the file or folder onto the Napless menu bar icon, choose Keep Awake Until › A Download Finishes…, or use Watch a Download… in Settings › Triggers.

To stay awake until an app quits, choose Keep Awake Until › An App Quits and pick the app, or use Keep Awake Until an App Quits in Settings › Triggers.

To stay awake until a Terminal job ends, use napless run or napless wait. See Command line.

To end an active watch, choose Stop Watching in the menu or Stop in Settings › Triggers.

Agent Mode

Agent Mode is Napless Pro on the version from napless.io. Open Settings › Agents. Each agent row has one switch. Hook agents are covered below; process agents are in AI agents.

Turn on Keep Awake While It Works to install Napless’s hooks for that tool. Turn it off to remove only Napless’s hooks. Update appears when the hooks are out of date.

Before changing an agent’s settings file, Napless saves a backup in ~/Library/Application Support/Napless/AgentBackups/. It keeps the newest 5 backups per agent. If something fails, the error says what happened and offers Show in Finder or Try Again.

Trust the hooks once in Codex with /hooks.

With Claude Code, Codex and Grok, Napless keeps the Mac awake while a turn runs, for up to 10 minutes after the last prompt, even if the turn is still running. With Cursor, it stays awake while a turn runs, for up to 60 minutes after the last prompt. With Gemini CLI, it stays awake until the session ends, or for up to 60 minutes after it starts.

What each tool already does about sleep on its own is covered in keeping a Mac awake for AI coding agents.

For a command that is not one of these tools, use napless run. See Command line.

Napless must be running to keep your Mac awake during AI agent tasks. Turn on Open at Login in Settings › General.

Your organization can turn Agent Mode off with NAPDisableAgentHooks.

AI agents

This is Napless Pro on the version from napless.io. Settings › Agents shows the coding tools installed on this Mac. Each agent row has one switch.

There are two kinds of tools.

Hook agents are Claude Code, Codex, Grok, Cursor, and Gemini CLI. Turn on Keep Awake While It Works to install Napless’s hooks. Turn it off to remove them. Update appears when the hooks are out of date. Napless doesn’t touch anything else in the tool’s settings.

Before changing a settings file, Napless saves a backup and keeps the newest 5 per agent. Errors offer Show in Finder or Try Again. See Agent Mode for the backup folder.

In Codex, enter /hooks and approve the Napless connection.

With Claude Code, Codex and Grok, Napless keeps the Mac awake while a turn runs, for up to 10 minutes after the last prompt, even if the turn is still running. With Cursor, it stays awake while a turn runs, for up to 60 minutes after the last prompt. With Gemini CLI, it stays awake until the session ends, or for up to 60 minutes after it starts.

While a tool is running covers the process agents: GitHub Copilot CLI, Aider, OpenCode, Amp, Goose, Qwen Code, Factory Droid, Kiro, Crush, Cline, Windsurf, and Continue. Turn on Keep Awake While It Runs. Napless keeps the Mac awake while that tool’s process is running, and for 30 seconds after it exits. The menu says, for example, Aider is working. Napless writes nothing to the tool’s settings.

Show All Agents lists tools that are not installed. It is closed until you open it.

For a command that is not one of these tools, use napless run. See Command line.

When a command you started with napless run lasts a minute or more, Napless posts one quiet notification when it ends. Turn it on or off in Settings › General › Notifications with Tell Me When Commands Finish.

Agent Mode needs Napless running. Turn on Open at Login.

Your organization can turn Agent Mode off with NAPDisableAgentHooks.

Keep chat apps active

This is Napless Pro on the version from napless.io. The switch is in Settings › Triggers › Chat Apps. It is off by default. The apps’ own presence rules are explained in why Slack and Teams show Away on a Mac.

The first time you turn it on, Napless shows this explanation:

Some chat apps show you as away when you haven’t used the mouse. Napless can move the pointer by 1 pixel and back while keeping your Mac awake. This requires Accessibility permission to control your Mac. Check your workplace’s attendance policy before turning this on.

Continue asks for permission to control your computer. Allow Napless to control your Mac in System Settings › Privacy & Security › Accessibility.

The Settings footer repeats the workplace-policy point: Check your workplace’s attendance policy before turning this on.

Napless moves the pointer by 1 pixel and back once a minute while it keeps your Mac awake and you have been idle for at least 60 seconds. It skips the move when:

• Napless is not keeping the Mac awake
• Accessibility permission is off
• the lid is closed, or Napless cannot read the lid
• Keep Awake With Lid Closed is armed
• every display is asleep, or Napless cannot tell
• the screen is locked
• Napless can’t tell whether your screen is locked, so it won’t move the pointer
• you used the Mac in the last 60 seconds

If you move the pointer yourself after the outward pixel, Napless skips the return move.

Napless writes each move and each skip to an activity log on your Mac, with how long you had been idle and why a move was skipped. The log stays on your Mac for seven days. Settings › Triggers › Chat Apps shows the latest entry and offers Export Activity Log… (a CSV file) and Clear Log. Turning the switch off keeps the log; only Clear Log erases it.

Your organization can turn this off with NAPDisableChatPresence.

While Time Machine is backing up

This is Napless Pro on the version from napless.io. Settings › Triggers › Conditions has the checkbox While Time Machine is backing up. It is off by default.

Turn on automatic Keep Awake must also be on. While Time Machine runs a backup, the menu reason is Time Machine is backing up.

Your organization can turn this off with NAPDisableTimeMachineTrigger.

While a Download Is in Progress

This one is Napless Pro too, on the version from napless.io. The While a Download Is in Progress checkbox in Settings › Triggers › Conditions is off by default, and it only works while Turn on automatic Keep Awake is on.

While the Downloads folder contains a Safari .download, Chrome/Edge/Brave/Arc/Vivaldi .crdownload, Firefox .part, or generic .partial/.opdownload file that has been written to within the last two minutes, the menu reason is A download is in progress. Once a download settles or stalls, it stops matching.

The Mac App Store version reads the Downloads folder through the system downloads.read-only permission. If the folder isn’t reachable, the row says Napless can’t see your Downloads folder. and the condition never matches.

While Connected to VPN

This is Napless Pro on the version from napless.io. Settings › Triggers › Conditions has the checkbox While Connected to VPN, off by default. Turn on automatic Keep Awake must also be on.

While a VPN tunnel (utun, ipsec, ppp, tun, or tap) is up on the system, the menu reason is Connected to VPN. iCloud Private Relay alone is not treated as a VPN. The check reads interface names and the system network path. It never reads your traffic or reports the VPN name to Napless.

While Commands Are Running

This is Napless Pro on the version from napless.io. Settings › Triggers › Conditions has While Commands Are Running. It is off by default.

Turn on automatic Keep Awake must also be on. Napless keeps your Mac awake while a command you name is running. It matches the executable name only, such as npm or OrbStack Helper. It doesn’t read the full command line, so arguments stay on your Mac and never appear in the menu.

Add Developer Tools adds node, npm, npx, pnpm, yarn, bun, deno, cargo, rustc, go, python, python3, pytest, ruby, bundle, rails, java, gradle, mvn, xcodebuild, swift, make, cmake, ninja, rsync, ffmpeg, terraform, and ansible-playbook.

Add Container Engines adds com.docker.backend, com.docker.virtualization, OrbStack Helper, colima, limactl, qemu-system-aarch64, podman, and vfkit.

Only While Busy counts a command only while it uses at least the percent you set of one processor core. The default is 10%. A command that is open but idle does not count. The same Only While Busy option is on the Apps condition, at 10% of one core, for renderers and sync tools that stay open while idle.

The menu says npm is running, npm and cargo are running, or 3 commands are running. A command has to be gone for 30 seconds before Napless stops, so a short gap between build steps does not drop the condition.

When a command you start with napless run or napless wait finishes after a minute or more, Napless tells you, and says whether it is still keeping your Mac awake. Turn this on with Tell Me When Commands Finish in Settings › General.

While a Local Server Is Running

This is Napless Pro on the version from napless.io. The While a Local Server Is Running checkbox is in Settings › Triggers › Conditions. It is off by default and needs Turn on automatic Keep Awake to be on too.

Add the ports your dev servers, databases, tunnels, and port-forwards listen on, for example 5173 for Vite or 3000 for Next.js. Add Common Dev Ports adds 3000, 5173, 8000, 8080, 4200, 5000, 5432, and 6379 in one click. Up to 16 ports count, and each port can appear once.

While something on this Mac accepts connections on one of those ports, the menu reason is Something is serving on port 5173 (the first port in your list that answers). Napless checks at most every 30 seconds, and only while this condition is on. It sends nothing to your servers: the check opens and closes a connection to 127.0.0.1 (or ::1) without sending a byte.

While a Remote Login Is Open

This condition works during the trial and needs Napless Pro after it. On a Mac that installed Napless before 1.5.0, it still works without Napless Pro. Settings › Triggers has the checkbox While a Remote Login Is Open. It is off by default.

While someone is logged in over SSH or mosh, or connected with Screen Sharing, the menu reason is Someone is connected remotely.

Only on Power is on by default. With it on, a Mac on battery can still sleep, so unplugging never pins the Mac awake. SSH and Screen Sharing choose what counts. Turning the checkbox on also turns on automatic keep-awake. If you stopped Keep Awake while this condition held your Mac awake, turning the checkbox off and on resumes it.

Your organization can turn automatic keep-awake off for everyone, and the row then shows as managed.

Alerts on Telegram and Slack

Napless Pro can send a short message to your phone when something goes wrong. Each message is one line with your Mac’s name in it, and never includes files or commands.

Set this up in Settings › Triggers › Alerts.

Telegram

1. In Telegram, open a chat with @BotFather and create a bot.
2. Send that bot a message.
3. Paste the bot token and your chat ID into Napless.
4. Turn Telegram on.

Slack

1. In your Slack workspace, create an incoming webhook.
2. Paste its URL into Napless. Napless only sends to hooks.slack.com.
3. Turn Slack on.

What is sent

Turn on the events you want. Napless sends a message when:

• It could not keep your Mac awake.
• Your Mac slept while Napless was keeping it awake.
• It stopped keep-awake for safety, because the Mac was too hot, the battery was low, or Low Power Mode was on.
• An AI agent stopped responding and its keep-awake hold ran out.
• Napless quit unexpectedly and has restarted.

Send Test Message sends one line: your Mac’s name, then “test message from Napless.”

The bot token and the Slack webhook stay in the Keychain on this Mac. They are not saved with your other settings, and they are not included in diagnostics. An organization can turn alerts off with the managed preference NAPDisableRemoteAlerts.

Command line

The napless tool lives at /Applications/Napless.app/Contents/Helpers/napless. If you moved the app, Settings › General › Advanced › Command-line tool shows the path for this copy. Copy copies:

sudo ln -sf '/Applications/Napless.app/Contents/Helpers/napless' /usr/local/bin/napless

Napless has to be running for these commands to keep the Mac awake or to read status.

napless status prints the header reason line. Exit 0 if Keep Awake is on, 1 otherwise.

Napless also provides napless status --json, and commands to start, stop and resume keep-awake. napless pause needs Napless Pro. The napless:// URL scheme takes durations and end times. Napless supports AppleScript.

napless mcp connects Claude Code, Codex, Cursor and other agents to Napless, so they can check its status and keep your Mac awake while they work. With Napless Pro, an agent connected through napless mcp can hold your Mac awake for a named task that releases itself when the task ends.

napless doctor prints Keep Awake Health. napless doctor --json prints the same checks as JSON. If Napless is not running, doctor prints Napless is not running — start Napless to keep the Mac awake. and exits 69.

napless doctor

napless doctor --json

napless run -- <command> runs that command. Napless Pro keeps the Mac awake until the command exits. As of 1.2.8, without Pro the command still runs and Napless returns its exit status, but the Mac is not kept awake, and napless prints a note that says so.

napless run -- make release

macOS has a built-in command for the same kind of hold; see how napless run compares with caffeinate.

napless wait <pid> waits until that process exits. Napless Pro keeps the Mac awake until then. As of 1.2.8, without Pro it still waits and returns the wait status, but the Mac is not kept awake, and napless prints a note that says so.

napless wait 12345

napless hold, napless holds and napless release manage named holds. They need Napless Pro.

napless agent is used by Agent Mode hooks. See Agent Mode.

napless --help lists usage. napless --version prints the app version.

If napless is not on your PATH, call the helper by its full path, for example '/Applications/Napless.app/Contents/Helpers/napless' status.

Usage and crash reports

Settings › General has Share anonymous usage and crash reports. It is on by default in Napless 1.2.12 and later (earlier versions were opt-in). Turn it off there to stop them.

We use these reports to improve Napless. They don’t include file, app, or window names, or other personal data. The privacy policy lists what is sent. See Privacy.

Managed settings

A forced setting is enforced inside the app, and the control shows Managed by your organization. Napless reads those settings from configuration profiles in the run.bundl.napless domain. See Napless for IT administrators.

Napless Pro

Open Settings › Pro. The price, Buy Napless Pro… and Enter License Key… are at the top. What you get lists 8 features below.

Napless Pro adds automatic keep-awake, Insights, watches, keep-awake while commands or a local server run, alerts on Telegram and Slack, Agent Mode, Keep chat apps active, the Time Machine trigger, the Focus filter, and the Pro Shortcuts listed above. While a Remote Login Is Open is included in the trial; after it, Napless Pro. See Napless Pro.

If the Napless icon is missing from the menu bar

Napless lives in the menu bar and has no Dock icon. If you cannot find it:

1. Check that Napless is running. In Terminal:

   napless status

   It prints Napless’s status line and exits 0 when Napless is keeping your Mac awake, and 1 otherwise. If Napless is not running, it prints Napless is not running — start Napless to keep the Mac awake. and exits 1.

   If Napless was not running, open it from your Applications folder or Spotlight. Napless has no Dock icon and starts straight into the menu bar. The very first launch shows a short welcome window; later launches open no window, and opening Napless again while it is running shows its Settings window.

   If Napless was already running and the icon is hidden, open Napless again from your Applications folder or Spotlight. Reopening a running app shows its Settings window, so you can still reach Settings while the icon is hidden. Wait a few seconds after launch first: reopening within the first seconds only brings the welcome window forward, and only on the very first run. The icon itself comes back only through the steps below.

2. macOS 26 and later: check System Settings → Menu Bar. That pane controls which apps may show an icon in the menu bar. If Napless is switched off or set to hide there, allow it and the icon returns.

3. On Macs with a camera notch, macOS hides menu bar icons that do not fit next to an app with many menus. Quit a few other menu bar apps, or hold ⌘ and drag menu bar icons to rearrange them, and the hidden ones reappear.

4. Menu bar managers such as Bartender, Ice and Hidden Bar hide icons on purpose. Reveal Napless in that app’s own settings, or quit it to see whether it was the cause.

5. If Napless is running and none of the above applies, quit it and open it again:

   killall Napless

   Quitting releases everything Napless holds, so your Mac can sleep normally while Napless is closed.

Contact support

Use the contact form or email support@napless.io. Settings › General › Support has Contact Support…, which opens a message to that address, and Napless Help, which opens this page.

Still need help?

Send a message and a person will reply within one business day. If you can, paste in the output of napless doctor.

Or email support@napless.io.