Limitless

Keep your Mac awake. Close the lid. Let the work finish.

I made Limitless to keep my Mac awake while it works. A small, native macOS menu-bar app, written in Swift. Free and open source. I also added Touch ID for sudo because I was tired of typing my long password.

https://github.com/user-attachments/assets/15da3854-5b99-43b1-89f6-534bf4ab5946

Original soundtrack: MP3 & WAV

Install

Intel & Apple Silicon · macOS 14 or later

GitHub Releases is the only download location.

Unzip the archive, drag Limitless.app to Applications, then open it. The icon appears in your menu bar. Click Enable Limitless and approve the macOS administrator prompt. Your password is never stored. Launch at login turns on with the helper; you can turn it off in the menu.

On first opening, macOS may ask you to allow the app in System Settings → Privacy & Security → Open Anyway. Apple’s instructions.

Use it

Choose a duration and click Keep awake. The orange dot means it is active.

• Stop after a timer, at a date, or when all selected processes finish.
• Choose battery, power adapter, or both. Reserve 20% battery by default.
• Keep awake with the lid closed, without an external display on compatible Macs.
• Let Codex, Claude, Cursor or Gemini keep your Mac awake during their tasks.
• Launch at login and automatic updates turn on when you enable the helper; both can be turned off.
• Optionally use Touch ID for sudo, with password fallback.

Right-click the icon to Check for Updates, Quit or Uninstall.

For the terminal and AI integrations, enable Allow CLI & AI tasks in the app:

limitless --help
limitless status

CLI and one-command AI setup →

Good to know

Keeping your Mac awake uses battery. Limitless stops at your battery limit; setting it to 0 disables that protection. Keep the Mac ventilated, especially with the lid closed.

Closed-lid behavior depends on macOS and your Mac. Forced restarts and company management policies can interrupt a session. Launch at login never resumes one.

The name was inspired by the film Limitless.

No NZT. Just an app. Hopefully, its impact won't be limited to the sidewalk.

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By Arthur Barreau. MIT · © 2026 Arthur Barreau · Contribute · Security