# Caffeinum - Keep your agents awake

Caffeinum is a menu bar app for macOS that keeps your Mac awake and sets the daily wake and sleep schedule. It does nothing else.

macOS 13 or later, Apple silicon.

## Download

A menu bar app for macOS 13 or later, Apple silicon. Keep your Mac awake, set the schedule, get on with your day.

[Download the latest release](https://github.com/vojtechmares/caffeinum/releases/latest)

Or install with Homebrew:

```sh
brew trust vojtechmares/tap
brew install --cask vojtechmares/tap/caffeinum
```

## A thin, honest front end to two macOS tools

Keep-awake is a supervised `caffeinate(8)` process. The schedule is a `pmset(1) repeat` power event. The flags Caffeinum passes are shown right in the UI.

### One switch

Starts and stops caffeinate, the tool macOS already ships for preventing sleep. Four checkboxes map straight onto its flags. Run it indefinitely, for 15 minutes up to 5 hours, or until a time you pick - the time left shows next to the menu bar icon.

### Daily schedule

Pick wake and sleep times and the days they apply on. Caffeinum turns them into a single pmset repeat power event. The schedule lives in the system, so it keeps working when the app is not running and survives a reboot.

### Fails safe

caffeinate is started with -w and Caffeinum's process ID. If the app is force quit or crashes, the assertions are released instead of leaving your Mac awake forever.

### Stays out of the way

Everything lives in one panel behind the menu bar icon. Launch at login, restore keep awake on launch, and a global shortcut (⌃⌥⌘C by default) that needs no Accessibility permission. No privileged helper stays installed - the admin password is asked for only when you change the schedule.

## Every flag is on screen

No hidden magic. Tick a box and watch the exact command Caffeinum runs.

| Option | Flag | Effect |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Prevent display sleep | `-d` | The display stays on. |
| Prevent idle sleep | `-i` | The system does not idle-sleep. |
| Prevent disk idle sleep | `-m` | The disk does not spin down. |
| Prevent sleep on AC power | `-s` | No sleep at all - only honoured on AC power. |

With every box unchecked it falls back to `-i`, which is what a bare `caffeinate` does anyway.

Pick wake and sleep times and days, and they become one `pmset repeat` event. macOS only lets root set power events, so Caffeinum asks for permission at the moment you press Apply schedule. Wake and sleep share one day selection - that is how pmset models it.

```sh
sudo pmset repeat wakeorpoweron MTWRF 08:00:00 sleep MTWRF 23:30:00
```

This is a demo of the real flags. Nothing runs on your Mac.

## Good to know

- Apple silicon only. Intel Macs are not supported.
- macOS supports exactly one repeating wake event and one repeating sleep event system-wide, so applying a schedule replaces whatever was there - including one set in System Settings > Battery > Schedule.
- Builds are ad-hoc signed but not notarised, so the first launch of a zip downloaded from GitHub needs the usual right-click, Open. The Homebrew cask clears the quarantine flag for you.

---

Website: https://www.caffeinum.app/
Source: https://github.com/vojtechmares/caffeinum
Copyright 2026 Vojtěch Mareš (https://www.mares.cz)