# Awake

Awake is a macOS app that stops a Mac from sleeping, from the menu bar or the terminal. One binary, four modes, published as an open source release.

- Date: 28 July 2026
- Role: Solo.
- Status: Shipped
- Source: https://github.com/eitan-que/Awake

Replacing `sudo pmset -a disablesleep 1` typed by hand with something that runs
from one command, shows its state so you never leave it on by accident, and
asks for the password **once** instead of every time.

The menu bar app, the CLI and the privileged daemon are the same binary invoked
differently, so there is nothing to keep in sync and nothing to copy on install.

## The decisions worth reading

**The helper is a LaunchDaemon, not a sudoers rule.** That is what makes the
single password prompt possible — it survives reboots.

**`AuthorizationExecuteWithPrivileges` is marked unavailable in the macOS 26
SDK**, not merely deprecated. Its official replacement requires a Developer ID
certificate, which an open source project cannot assume.

**`pmset -g` is the source of truth**, not IOKit and not the preferences plist.
The IOKit call is private SPI, and the plist lags a write by seconds. Measured
cost of reading it: about 0.3 ms of CPU.

## The limitation I will state plainly

The `notify(3)` channels the app uses are global and unauthenticated: any
process on the machine can post `com.awake.on`. What that grants is exactly one
thing — toggling `disablesleep` — because the events carry no payload and the
helper runs `pmset` with fixed arguments. It is the same capability as a
password-less sudoers rule scoped to two commands.

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Page: https://eitanf.com/lab/awake · Español: https://eitanf.com/es/lab/awake.md · llms.txt: https://eitanf.com/llms.txt