Support

What do I need?

A Mac with macOS 14 or later. To keep the Mac awake automatically, you need Claude Code, Cursor or Codex — or any app that speaks MCP. Manual keep-awake and the Verification screen work without any agent.

Where is the AIwake icon?

AIwake lives in the menu bar, as a cup near the clock. Click it to see what is keeping your Mac awake, start a manual timer, or open Settings.

If the menu bar is too full to show the cup — on a Mac with a camera notch, icons that do not fit disappear behind it — AIwake still works, and by default it shows in the Dock until there is room again. Click Move Icon Next to the Clock to bring the cup back: the button appears in AIwake's window, in Settings › General and in the welcome window whenever the icon is hidden.

In Settings › General › Show AIwake in you choose where it appears: in the menu bar, or the Dock when the menu bar is full (the default); in the menu bar and the Dock; in the menu bar only; or in the Dock only. You can also make room by holding ⌘ and dragging other icons out of the menu bar. And opening AIwake from the Applications folder always brings up one of its windows.

How do I check that it works without an agent?

Open Settings › Verification and click Send Test Signal. The tab shows “Test session: Active” and “Power assertion: Held”, the session appears in AIwake's menu, and the cup starts to steam. In Terminal, pmset -g assertions lists an assertion owned by AIwake, named “An AI coding agent is working”. Click Send Stop Signal and it is released.

The same tab shows two curl commands. Pasted into Terminal, they send the same requests an agent's hooks send: the first starts a test session, the second ends it.

How do I connect Claude Code, Cursor or Codex?

Open Settings › Integrations and click Turn On… next to the agent. AIwake shows the file it will change and exactly what it will add; nothing is written until you continue. In the Mac App Store edition, macOS then asks you to select the agent's settings folder — ~/.claude, ~/.cursor or ~/.codex. Claude Code and Cursor pick up the new hooks on their own. Codex needs one more step, below.

Codex sends no signals. What now?

Codex runs a new hook only after you approve it. In Codex, run /hooks, approve the AIwake entries, then start a new session. Until the first signal arrives, the Integrations tab reminds you of this.

If a Codex session is only released after the timeout, check that your shell profile prints nothing: Codex runs hooks through your login shell, and any output there breaks its Stop hooks, AIwake's included.

How do I connect an app over MCP?

Open Settings › Integrations. Under Other apps (MCP), the switch Let apps keep the Mac awake over MCP is on by default, and the section shows the server's address — usually http://127.0.0.1:49137/mcp, over Streamable HTTP — with a line for each agent, ready to copy. For Claude Code, run this once in Terminal:

claude mcp add --scope user --transport http aiwake http://127.0.0.1:49137/mcp

For Cursor, add a aiwake server with the address as its "url" to ~/.cursor/mcp.json. For Codex, add a [mcp_servers.aiwake] table with url = "…" to ~/.codex/config.toml. Use the address the app shows: the port differs if 49137 was taken.

The app then gets three tools: keep_mac_awake, for 1 to 1440 minutes with an optional reason shown in AIwake's menu; allow_sleep; and get_status. Only apps on this Mac can connect, and requests from web pages are refused. Turn the switch off and the server stops answering.

Why does the App Store edition ask for access to a folder?

Apps from the Mac App Store run in a sandbox, which keeps them out of your files unless you give them access. To add its hooks, AIwake needs you to select the agent's settings folder — for example ~/.claude — in a standard macOS panel, which it opens at that folder. The permission is remembered, so you are asked once per agent. AIwake changes only the agent's hooks file there and keeps a backup of it next to the original.

You can decline: AIwake stays fully usable, and manual keep-awake and the Verification screen work without any access. The direct edition asks for your agreement in the app instead.

How do I remove the integrations?

Turn an integration off in Settings › Integrations, or click Remove All Integrations… there: AIwake removes its hooks from every agent's settings and forgets its folder permissions. Your other settings are not touched. The backup saved before the first change stays next to the file, with .macaiwake-backup added to its name.

What if I quit or delete AIwake and leave the hooks in place?

Nothing breaks. Each hook prints nothing and finishes successfully when AIwake is not there to answer, so your agents carry on as usual. To tidy up, remove the integrations before deleting the app.

How do I keep the Mac awake for a set time?

Click the cup in the menu bar. Under Keep awake manually, pick 30 minutes, 1 or 2 hours, or open More and choose Custom…: For takes any length of time — say 3 h 20 min — and Until a date and time. Click Start; Stop ends it early. When AIwake is in the Dock, right-click its icon for the same durations under Keep Awake.

What happens on battery?

In Settings › General › On battery power you choose what happens when the battery runs low. By default, AIwake lets the Mac sleep once the charge is below 10% — you can set anything from 5% to 50% — and agents, apps and the manual timer stop keeping it awake until the Mac is charging again or the charge is back above the limit. Choose Keep it awake anyway to ignore the battery.

Can it keep the Mac working with the lid closed?

Not the Mac App Store edition. It prevents the sleep that comes when nobody uses the Mac for a while; closing the lid works as it always does.

The direct edition can. Turn on Settings › General › Keep working with the lid closed, read the warning about heat, and approve AIwake once in System Settings › General › Login Items. A small helper then turns the Mac's sleep-disabled setting on only while an agent works, and back off when it is done.

The option is off by default. It pauses on battery below 20% and when the Mac gets hot, and the setting goes back by itself if AIwake quits, crashes or is removed — the helper also restores it when the Mac starts up. Turning the option off removes the helper. Close the lid only on a desk: in a bag or a sleeve, a working Mac cannot cool down.

How do I change the app's language?

In Settings › General › Language. AIwake speaks 15 languages; Automatic, the default, follows the language of your Mac.

Can I leave a tip?

Thank you — you can. In the Mac App Store edition, open Settings › About and pick a coffee under Buy me a coffee — I'm not a machine, or click the cup button at the bottom of AIwake's menu. Tips are In-App Purchases handled by Apple. They unlock nothing: every feature is free either way.

The direct edition offers links to donation services in the same place instead.

Mac App Store or direct download?

It is the same app in two editions. The Mac App Store edition is sandboxed and updated by the App Store; the direct edition, available on this site, is a notarized disk image with built-in updates. Both use the same local port and the same hooks, so switching needs no change in your agents. See Editions for the details.