Duck's up. Mac stays awake. Work does not faceplant.
Free Apple Silicon Mac menu-bar Duck that keeps local AI agents, renders, and downloads alive when macOS really wants a nap. No account. No telemetry. No weird cloud leash.
Close the lid. Local AI agents, model servers, renders, and downloads can keep working. Good Duck.
Close Lid. Walk. |
Mac(Book) Mini. |
Ducking Auto. |
- Don't Let Work Die. Close the lid. Duck keeps the Mac up.
- Ducking Auto. Trusted local work starts. Duck wakes. Work stops. Duck naps.
- Walks With You. Carry the Mac. Duck waddles. Important science.
- Don't Die. Low battery? Duck taps out before the Mac faceplants.
Amphetamine is excellent and packed. If you want the big cockpit, use it.
StayUp is the tiny weird Duck for local AI/tool work. Activity Source receipts prove the job is alive, Auto keeps the Mac awake, then Duck stands down when the receipts go quiet. It is built for the awkward moment where a long local AI run, model server job, render, or download is still working but the lid needs to close.
If there is no real external monitor, Duck can also make a small fake display for remote GUI tools. The hard battery + lid-closed promise comes from the Helper path, not from pretending a display is magic.
My creator hatched a Duck before Googling hard enough. Duck has learned humility. Duck remains up.
Download StayUp from getstayup.app.
First setup has a few macOS prompts:
- Welcome window: Launch at Login, Helper setup, update preference.
- Helper setup: macOS approval plus one password prompt. This is the lid-closed-on-battery part.
- Sparkle updates: optional signed automatic updates. Turn them on and Duck checks once right away; manual Check Now is always there.
No Helper, no hard-case promise. Duck is bold, not fake.
Most keep-awake tools answer "stay on until I remember to turn it off." StayUp's Auto mode answers a narrower question: "is trusted local work still alive?"
That matters for agent sessions. Local AI tools can run for a long time, go quiet between steps, or finish while you are away. StayUp watches local, opt-in Activity Sources so the Mac can stay awake while work is real, then release after the grace period.
StayUp is a small AppKit app built with swiftc. No Xcode project. No SPM.
Sparkle is vendored so a fresh clone can build without dependency setup.
git clone https://github.com/NongKnot/StayUp.git
cd StayUp
bash build.sh
cp -R StayUp.app /Applications/
open /Applications/StayUp.appFor the real StayUp setup:
StayUp menu -> Settings -> Helper -> Set up
Auto mode is Duck with timing:
work starts -> Duck up
work stops -> grace timer
quiet again -> Duck down
Starter sources: Claude, Codex, Cursor, LM Studio, and Ollama. Sources are local and opt-in. Cloud/web work somewhere else does not keep this Mac awake unless a local thing writes a heartbeat.
No telemetry. No analytics. No crash reporting. No accounts.
StayUp reads local Activity Source receipts, optional local session details for the menu, and accelerometer samples only while engaged. Sparkle checks for updates only if enabled or manually requested.
Security notes live in SECURITY.md.
Polite path. Good Duck:
- Open StayUp -> Settings -> Helper -> Uninstall Helper.
- Quit StayUp.
- Drag
/Applications/StayUp.appto the Trash.
Fast path:
pkill -x StayUp
sudo launchctl bootout system/app.getstayup.helper 2>/dev/null || true
rm -rf /Applications/StayUp.app
defaults delete app.getstayup 2>/dev/null || trueIf System Settings still shows a background item afterward, remove it from:
System Settings -> General -> Login Items & Extensions
- BetterDummy by Istvan T.
- apple-silicon-accelerometer by Olivier Bourbonnais
- OxWearables stepcount
- Sparkle for signed updates
/usr/bin/caffeinate, Apple's built-in sleep-prevention tool
The code is MIT. Forks should use their own name and artwork so this Duck keeps his pond.
MIT. See LICENSE.