A tiny pixel owl for your menu bar that keeps downloads downloading, builds building, and servers serving — even when your MacBook's lid is shut.
He blinks. You can boop him. He takes his job very seriously.
Owlnighter lives quietly in your menu bar. Awake owl means on duty; nightcap owl means everything's back to normal.
Flip the big blue switch. Check “Stay awake with lid closed” for full clamshell power — macOS asks for your password once per toggle.
Music keeps playing. SSH stays connected. The 40 GB download finishes. Your Mac hums along like the lid never closed.
Everything you need to keep a Mac awake, and nothing you don't.
One switch keeps your Mac and display awake. Flip it back and normal sleep rules return instantly.
Plain caffeinate apps give up the moment the lid closes. Owlnighter uses macOS's system sleep override so your Mac genuinely keeps running, clamshell and all.
Running on battery and dip below 10%? Owlnighter tucks your Mac back in automatically instead of draining it flat in a bag.
Native Swift, ~0.5 MB, no Electron, no background junk, no login screens. It sips resources while it guards yours.
Wide sparkly eyes on duty, a nightcap and “z z z” off duty. He blinks every few seconds and hoots when you boop him.
Zero network calls, zero analytics, zero update nags. Owlnighter couldn't phone home if he wanted to — there's no home to phone.
Rendered from the actual app — this is exactly what you get.
2:37 AM
9:12 PM
Install with one command — no zip, no scary dialogs:
$ curl -fsSL https://owlnighter.notcool.in/install.sh | bash
Fetches the app from this site into Applications and opens it. 12 lines, no sudo — read the script.
Prefer clicking buttons?
Download the .zip instead ⤓Apple only skips that warning for apps whose developers pay for its notarization program ($99/year) — it's not a malware verdict, just “this indie didn't pay Apple”. Files fetched with curl don't get the browser's quarantine flag, which is why the one-command install (the same trick Homebrew uses) starts cleanly. The app is identical either way — and it builds from source (below) if you'd rather trust your own compiler.
Blocking clamshell sleep requires macOS's system-wide sleep override (pmset disablesleep), and macOS only lets administrators touch it. Owlnighter asks when you turn it on, and puts everything back when you turn it off or quit. No helpers, no daemons left behind.
Owlnighter auto-disables below 10% battery, and macOS's own thermal protections always stay active. Still: a closed running laptop makes heat — give it some breathing room, not a sealed bag.
Quit Owlnighter (it restores normal sleep on the way out) and drag the app to the Trash. If you ever force-quit with lid mode on, run sudo pmset -a disablesleep 0 once — Owlnighter also warns you about this itself.
Prefer compiling your own owl?
cd app && ./build.sh # needs Xcode Command Line Tools → build/Owlnighter.app
curl -fsSL https://owlnighter.notcool.in/install.sh | bash. No zip, no “could not verify” dialog. Like an owl, it arrives without a sound.