Yet another tiny macOS menu‑bar utility that intelligently keeps your Mac awake on demand.
Most keep-awake utilities are simple, aggressive toggles. They keep your Mac awake no matter what, which is often not what you want. A common frustration is leaving a docked Mac with its display off, only to find it has been on all the time. Your Mac should be smart enough to sleep when you're not using it.
This app was built around a simple, intuitive principle: if no screens are on, the user probably isn't there.
NoDoze provides the keep-awake functionality you need, but with a layer of intelligence that other utilities lack. It's designed to be polite by default, respecting both your hardware and your power bill.
NoDoze is a macOS menu bar app that gives you precise control over your Mac's sleep behavior. Its main feature is "Intelligent Mode," which automatically allows your Mac to sleep when all displays are off, preventing unnecessary power consumption. For power-users who need to run headless tasks (like servers or long computations), Intelligent Mode can be disabled for an aggressive, unconditional keep-awake assertion.
- On-Demand Activation - Keep your Mac awake indefinitely or for a set duration (1h, 2h, 5h, or until the end of the day).
- Allow Sleep When Screens Are Off - When enabled, NoDoze temporarily releases its keep-awake hold whenever macOS reports that every display is asleep. The timer keeps counting down and the hold is restored when a screen wakes. Turn this off if you need headless or lid-closed sessions to stay awake.
- Simple Menu Bar Interface - A quick left-click on the menu bar icon toggles the app on/off. A right-click reveals the full menu with all options, including whether the Mac may sleep when the screens are off.
- 100% Public APIs - Built entirely with modern, sandbox-safe APIs like
ProcessInfo.beginActivity, ensuring stability and App Store compatibility.
This is the second app built as an experiment in "Vibe Coding"—a hobby project to explore the capabilities of AI-driven development.
The entire development process was a deliberate learning exercise. I intentionally didn't write any of the code myself. Instead, I focused on building a well-architected application purely by articulating detailed requirements, user stories, and architectural decisions to an AI developer. The goal was to test the limits of creating quality, real-world software without traditional coding, treating it as a personal exploration of what's possible with modern AI tools.
Full disclosure: Every single file in this project was generated by an AI—the code, icons, and this README. I haven't read every line, so there are probably mistakes and hallucinations throughout. Use at your own risk. However, the code is open source, so you can read through it yourself or evaluate it through AI to understand what it actually does.
- Open the Xcode workspace (
NoDoze.xcodeproj). - Select the NoDoze scheme.
- Build and run (⌘-R).
The app will appear in your menu bar.
This project welcomes contributions! Whether it's bug reports, feature suggestions, or code improvements, feel free to create an issue or submit a PR.
Especially interested in: If you see something in the codebase that could have been architected better, or have thoughts on how to achieve better outcomes through AI-driven development, I'd love to hear about it!
This project is licensed under the MIT License.
This is one of several projects I've built using this AI-driven development process. Check out the others:
- AudioProfiles: A macOS utility to automatically switch audio devices based on location and connected hardware.
- Swish: A macOS menu‑bar window manager that lets you swish windows into place—throw, resize, and move them across multiple monitors with keys or a flick of the mouse, no title bars or edges required.
- (More to come!)