Support

Download the disk image, open it and drag Maben Awake to your Applications folder. It's signed with my Developer ID and notarized by Apple, so it opens with a double-click. It lives in the menu bar, as a moon.

The first time it starts, Settings opens on the AI tab. Click Install next to Claude Code hooks, and next to the awake command if you want it for scripts. To keep working with the lid closed, click Lid closed in the menu once; that asks for your password. From then on there's nothing to do: the Mac stays awake while an agent works and sleeps when it stops.

Claude Code and OpenAI's Codex keep the Mac awake automatically while they work, through hooks you install from Settings, AI tab: every prompt and tool call renews a hold of 15 minutes (2 hours while a tool is running), and the hold is released when the agent stops. Other tools and scripts use the awake command, for example awake run tests -- npm test. Codex asks you to review new hooks once; run /hooks in Codex and trust them.

No. A frozen app is paused, not quit. Its windows and documents stay exactly as they were, and it carries on when it's woken. Apps are only frozen while the lid is closed, and never in their first 15 seconds after starting.

Anything at all, including receiving messages and showing notifications. If you want notifications from an app while the lid is closed, set it to Always on in Settings, under Apps.

By default: terminals and editors, AI apps, calls and chat (Zoom, FaceTime, Teams, Discord, Meet, Slack, WhatsApp, Telegram, Signal, Messages), Mail, audio (Music, Spotify), password managers, VPNs, remote access tools, sync and backup tools, Docker, OrbStack, Ollama, LM Studio, virtual machines, and apps that run long jobs such as Final Cut Pro, Logic Pro, DaVinci Resolve, Blender, HandBrake, OBS, Steam and the App Store. They show a shield in the menu. You can still change the mode of any of them. An app an AI is running inside is never frozen either.

It was frozen. While an agent works with the lid closed, every app that isn't on the never-frozen list and that no AI asked for is paused, so an export, render or download in such an app waits until you open the lid. Set that app to Always on in Settings, under Apps, or turn off Freeze apps in the menu to stop freezing altogether.

Yes, while Maben Awake is keeping the Mac awake. It stops the screen from locking so an agent can still click in apps, which means someone who opens the lid during that time finds the Mac unlocked. When nothing is keeping the Mac awake, it locks and sleeps as usual. To have it lock anyway, turn off Keep the screen unlocked in Settings, under Lid & Power; an agent can then no longer click in apps once the screen has locked.

When you set up the closed lid. macOS only lets an administrator block closed-lid sleep, so the setup adds a rule that allows exactly one command without a password: turning closed-lid sleep on or off. The same prompt installs the lid-open failsafe, a small service that brings the screen back and wakes apps when you open the lid, even if Maben Awake itself is stuck. Installing the awake command asks for it too if you don't have Homebrew, because it then goes in /usr/local/bin.

Below 20% battery the Mac is allowed to sleep with the lid closed; you can change that level in Settings, under Lid & Power. If macOS reports that the Mac is seriously hot while the lid is closed, Maben Awake stops keeping it awake so it can sleep and cool down.

No. Away means lid closed and no external display. With a display connected, nothing is frozen or dimmed.

Run awake log. It lists when and why the Mac was kept awake (which app, which AI request), lid and power changes, and the state at every sleep and wake. awake sleeplog shows macOS's own record of sleeps and wakes to compare with.

Active requests and the app's state are in ~/Library/Application Support/MabenAwake/ and the logs in ~/Library/Logs/, in files starting with MabenAwake.

In Settings, click Remove next to Claude Code hooks and the awake command on the AI tab, and turn off Open at login on the General tab. Quit Maben Awake from its menu (this wakes every app and restores normal sleep), then delete it from Applications. To also remove what the closed-lid setup installed, run these two before deleting the app: sudo "/Applications/Maben Awake.app/Contents/Resources/install-lid-helper.sh" --uninstall and sudo "/Applications/Maben Awake.app/Contents/Resources/install-failsafe.sh" --uninstall.

You don't have to: Maben Awake updates itself. It checks GitHub for a new release at start and every 6 hours and installs it while the lid is open and no agent is working, then restarts. When an update is waiting, the menu bar icon turns green. To update right away, click Update in the menu or in Settings › General; you can turn automatic installs off there too. Your settings stay where they are.