SleepControl — macOS Power & Sleep Management Utility

Keep your Mac awake with the lid closed. A lightweight alternative to Amphetamine / Caffeine, built on pmset disablesleep.

SleepControl.app is a modern native macOS utility built with Swift + SwiftUI + AppKit + IOKit. It seamlessly bridges sudo pmset -a disablesleep 1 (preventing system and clamshell sleep) and sudo pmset -a disablesleep 0 (restoring default energy conservation) into an elegant, lightweight desktop app.

---

📸 Screenshots

Bento Control Dashboard

English (en)	Simplified Chinese (zh-Hans)

Menu Bar Quick Popover

English (en)	Simplified Chinese (zh-Hans)

---

✨ Key Features

1. One-Click Toggle & Real-Time Status Synchronization

   • Live telemetry monitoring of SleepDisabled via /usr/bin/pmset -g, display sleep timer, system sleep mode, and battery status.
   • Seamless toggling between sleep allowed and sleep disabled from either the Menu Bar Popover or the standalone Bento Dashboard Window.
   • External CLI changes (e.g., executing pmset in Terminal) are automatically synchronized in real time.

2. Smart AC Power Automation (Zero-Polling Hardware Events)

   • Monitors AC/Battery power transition events in real time using macOS IOKit.ps (IOPSNotificationCreateRunLoopSource) with zero CPU polling overhead.
   • When "Auto Disable Sleep on AC" is enabled:
     • Connected to AC Power: Automatically executes sudo pmset -a disablesleep 1 (keeps Mac awake even when the lid is closed).
     • Switched to Battery Power: Automatically restores sudo pmset -a disablesleep 0 (preserves battery life).

3. One-Click Passwordless Sudo Authorization (Safe visudo Verification)

   • Built-in one-click setup to configure passwordless execution exclusively for /usr/bin/pmset.
   • Requires administrator authentication only once via macOS native Touch ID / Password prompt.
   • Safely verified using /usr/sbin/visudo -cf before writing to /etc/sudoers.d/mac_sleep_control (permissions 0440).
   • All subsequent toggles and power-event triggers execute silently in milliseconds without intrusive password dialogs. Can be revoked at any time.

4. Multi-Language Support (i18n)

   • Fully localized across 5 languages:
     • English (en) (Default fallback)
     • Simplified Chinese (zh-Hans)
     • Traditional Chinese - Taiwan (zh-Hant-TW)
     • Traditional Chinese - Hong Kong (zh-Hant-HK)
     • Japanese (ja)
   • Supports instant runtime language switching from the menu bar or dashboard without requiring an application restart.

5. Clean Dock & Menu Bar Integration

   • Compact 22pt status bar icon with ⌘ Command + Drag position reordering.
   • Automatically hides from the Dock (.accessory activation policy) when the main dashboard is closed, maintaining a clutter-free workspace while running silently in the background.
   • Re-summon the dashboard anytime via the Menu Bar Popover, Dock click, or Finder.

---

📥 Download & Installation

1. Download the latest SleepControl-*.zip from the Releases page.
2. Unzip it and drag SleepControl.app into your /Applications folder.
3. First launch (Gatekeeper): the app is ad-hoc signed (not notarized), so macOS may block it on first launch. Either:
   • Right-click SleepControl.app → Open → Open, or
   • Run in Terminal:

     xattr -dr com.apple.quarantine /Applications/SleepControl.app

Requirements: macOS 14.0 (Sonoma) or later, Apple Silicon or Intel.

First-Time Setup

On first use, click Configure in the app to enable passwordless sudo for /usr/bin/pmset (one-time Touch ID / password prompt). After that, all toggles and AC automation run silently.

Uninstall

1. In the app, click Revoke to remove the passwordless authorization (or manually delete /etc/sudoers.d/mac_sleep_control).
2. Quit the app and delete SleepControl.app.

---

🛠 Building from Source

Prerequisites

• macOS 14.0 (Sonoma) or later
• Xcode 15.0+ or Swift 5.10+ command line tools

Build & Package Bundle

Clone the repository and run the automated build script:

git clone https://github.com/himanzero/macos-sleep-control.git
cd macos-sleep-control
./build_app.sh

The script compiles the release binary, creates the iconset, packages the .app bundle with all localization .lproj directories, and applies an ad-hoc codesign signature.

# Launch the app directly
open SleepControl.app

# Or copy to Applications
cp -R SleepControl.app /Applications/

---

🔒 Security & Privacy

SleepControl is completely open-source and respects your system integrity:

• No Network Telemetry: Zero data collection, tracking, or network requests.
• Scoped Privilege Boundary: Passwordless sudoers configuration is strictly scoped to /usr/bin/pmset with read/write protections and syntax validation.
• Safe Sandboxing of Settings: Preferences are stored locally in standard UserDefaults.

---

🤝 Contributing

Issues and pull requests are welcome! Please open an issue to report bugs or suggest features.

---

📄 License

This project is open-source software licensed under the MIT License.