What is in one app
Agent Caffeine is free and open source. Two other tools on this page are free too, one of them open source, and one has a free plan for the lid open. Many of them also keep a Mac awake with the lid closed on battery, read the hooks of an agent, or stop for a low battery or heat.
What we put together in one app: the state of each agent, also when it waits for you, the closed lid on battery, a stop at a low battery, a stop for heat, and a notification when an agent needs you or finishes. As far as the pages of the other tools say, none of them states all of these. Their pages can be silent about a thing the tool does, so read their pages too.
Adrafinil
Adrafinil is free and open source (MIT). One installer sets up hooks for 9 agents: Claude Code, Codex, Cursor, Gemini CLI, Aider, Hermes, OpenCode, Cline and Pi. It keeps the Mac awake with the lid closed only while an agent works, and it stops when the Mac gets too hot under a closed lid. Its release notes also name a battery cutout, with no level.
An agent can ask it for more time after its answer, through an MCP tool or a command, for example for a long build. Agent Caffeine has a command and an MCP server for this too. Adrafinil has one thing we do not have: it gives you the lines to add an agent of your own.
For Claude Code it also knows when a session waits for you. A setting decides what happens then: the Mac stays awake, sleeps after a grace period, or sleeps at once. The menu shows what the session waits for.
If your agent is on that list, Adrafinil does the job. It needs macOS 26.4 or later. Its pages state a chime when you close the lid while it keeps the Mac awake, as Agent Caffeine has, and a summary when you open the lid. They do not state a notification when an agent finishes.
Hold My Lid
Hold My Lid costs $9.99 once for up to 3 Macs, and has a free trial. Its page calls $9.99 an early price and names $14.99 as the normal one. Its page gives two lists of the agents whose lifecycle hooks it reads. The answer in its FAQ names 3: Claude Code, Codex and OpenCode. The grid "Works out of the box" marks 7: those 3 and Gemini, Pi, Copilot CLI and Hermes. For others, such as Cursor, it checks the process. It runs on macOS 14 or later, on Apple silicon and Intel.
It stops at a battery level you set, it has a mode that works only when the Mac is plugged in, and it sends a notification when your agents finish.
If you want a mode that works only while the Mac is plugged in, pick Hold My Lid. Its pages do not state a stop for heat, a state for an agent that waits for you, or whether the closed lid on battery needs a helper.
LidRun
LidRun has a free plan that keeps the Mac awake with the lid open, with timers, a mode for charging only and a stop at a low battery. The closed lid and Auto Mode are in the paid plan, after a limited number of free closed-lid runs: $9.90 once for 1 Mac, $19.90 for 3 Macs, with a refund within 14 days.
Auto Mode watches the processes of Claude Code, Cursor, Docker and Ollama. LidRun also has webhooks, it can run a command and let the Mac sleep when the command ends, and it keeps a log that says why a session started and stopped. It runs on macOS 13 or later, on Apple silicon and Intel.
If you also leave Docker builds or local models running, or you want webhooks, pick LidRun. If the lid stays open, its free plan may be all you need. Its pages do not state that it reads the state an agent reports about itself.
Clamshell
Clamshell keeps a MacBook awake with the lid closed, on power or on battery, with no admin rights, no helper and no sudo. No other tool on this page states that, and ours needs a helper for battery. It costs $9.99 once for 1 Mac or $19.99 for 3 Macs after a 7-day free trial, with a refund within 14 days.
Its page says that it does not detect agents. You arm it yourself: hold Option and close the lid. A script can also arm and disarm it. The stop for heat is always on, and the stop at a low battery is there when you turn it on.
If you do not want to give a tool admin rights, or you want to decide yourself when the Mac stays awake, pick Clamshell. It runs only on Apple silicon laptops with macOS 14 or later.
Amphetamine
Amphetamine is free on the Mac App Store, with no in-app purchases. It is a keep-awake tool for general use, with many triggers: an app that runs, a Wi-Fi network, a display or a drive that is connected, the charger, processor use.
It can keep a MacBook awake with the lid closed, and it can end a session when the battery is low. Its listing names no AI coding agents. The nearest trigger keeps the Mac awake while an app you pick is running. The latest version on the listing is 5.3.2, from November 10, 2023.
If you want a tool for more than agents, such as downloads, a presentation or a Mac that must stay awake on one network, pick Amphetamine. We wrote more about it in our guide to Amphetamine.
Sources: Mac App Store.
The caffeinate command
caffeinate comes with macOS and is free. It keeps the Mac awake until a time you give or until a process ends. Its manual says that the option that prevents system sleep is valid only on AC power, and it lists no option for agents, the battery level or heat (a copy of the manual). If one command in one terminal is all you run, it may be enough. We wrote more in our guide to caffeinate.