Close a Windows laptop and it goes to sleep, and whatever Claude Code or Codex was doing stops with it. Nightcrew keeps the laptop working with the lid shut for as long as an agent is busy, then lets it sleep the way it normally would.

https://github.com/user-attachments/assets/200be945-4714-42fb-981e-1815e68ddf0e

• Automatic. It notices when an agent is working. No hooks, no plugin, nothing to configure.
• Only when needed. With no agent working, closing the lid does what it always did.
• Leaves your settings alone. It changes power settings only while an agent works and puts them back afterwards, even after a crash.
• Agents get the machine. While you're away, apps they don't need go into Efficiency mode, the way Task Manager does it.
• Light. One 1.7 MB exe in the tray, using well under 1% of a CPU core.

Install

1. Download nightcrew.exe from Releases.
2. Put it somewhere it can stay, such as %LOCALAPPDATA%\Programs\Nightcrew, and run it. A lantern appears in the tray, the panel opens once so you can find it, and Nightcrew starts with Windows from then on.

The exe isn't code-signed, so the first run shows "Windows protected your PC". Click More info, then Run anyway. With Smart App Control on, Windows may block it outright. To check the download, compare its hash with the nightcrew.exe.sha256 file on the release, or verify its GitHub build attestation:

Get-FileHash .\nightcrew.exe
gh attestation verify .\nightcrew.exe -R leikauskas/nightcrew

How it works

1. An agent starts working. Every 10 seconds Nightcrew looks for a Claude Code or Codex session that's growing, a build or script one of them started, or heavy GPU use. For Claude Code it also reads the status in ~\.claude\sessions\<pid>.json (busy, idle or waiting), so a long, quiet command still counts. That's the only file it opens in ~\.claude: session transcripts are watched for size only, and the login .key files are never touched. Nightcrew has no network code. The lantern lights up.
2. You close the lid. The laptop keeps running and locks itself, unless your lid action is Do nothing or Lock when lid closes is off. When the work started, Nightcrew saved your power settings, then set the lid to Do nothing and the sleep timer to Never. On battery the timer is your lid-closed limit plus an hour instead, or Never if the limit is off.
3. Other apps ease off. Five minutes later, apps the agents don't need go into Efficiency mode. Agents, what they're connected to, terminals, editors, browsers with a Claude or Codex connector and games are left alone. Everything's back to normal the moment you open the lid.
4. The work ends. Five minutes after the last sign of work, your settings go back.
5. It sleeps. Once nobody has touched the laptop for 5 minutes, it follows your lid action: sleep, hibernate or nothing. If Windows hasn't gone to sleep 5 minutes later, Nightcrew hibernates it.

Safety limits. With the lid closed, Nightcrew stops early and hibernates at 20% battery or after 8 untouched hours, even mid-task. You can change both.

Your settings always come back: when the work ends, when you pause or quit, when you sign out, and on the next start after a crash. If Nightcrew is killed, a watchdog task restores them within 5 minutes. If your organization locks the power settings, Nightcrew stays idle and tells you so.

The panel

Click the lantern to see what's keeping the laptop awake, your battery, and what happens when the work is done.

• Hold awake keeps the laptop awake until you turn it off, for anything Nightcrew can't detect on its own.
• Pause hands the lid back to Windows until you resume.
• Settings, or right-click the lantern: battery floor, lid-closed limit, lock on lid close, stay awake for approvals, start at login, Efficiency mode while away, and the tray mark.
• Stay awake for approvals: with the lid closed, Claude Code waiting for your approval or answer counts as work, so you can answer from your phone. Claude Code only. With the lid open, Windows' own sleep timer applies.
• Starting nightcrew.exe again opens the panel.
• If an app keeps misbehaving after you've been away, add it under Keep at full speed in Settings.

Good to know

• A game or video that keeps the GPU busy counts as work.

Other agents and advanced settings

Nightcrew knows Claude Code and Codex. Any other agent is covered when it uses the GPU, or with Hold awake. To teach Nightcrew about another agent, quit Nightcrew, edit %LOCALAPPDATA%\Nightcrew\settings.json, and start it again:

• add its process name to AgentProcessNames, so programs it starts count as agent tools
• add it to SelfCpuAgentNames too if the agent works in its own process
• add the folder where it writes *.jsonl session files to TranscriptRoots

A key you leave out keeps its default. The log, nightcrew.log, is in the same folder. To see what Nightcrew would do without letting it change anything, quit Nightcrew, run .\nightcrew.exe --dry-run in its folder and read the log.

Key	Default	Meaning
GraceMinutes	5	How long work stays live after the last sign of work
BatteryFloorPercent	20	Hibernate at this charge with the lid closed on battery; 0 = off
LidClosedCapHours	8	Hibernate after this long with the lid closed and no input. While working, the battery sleep timer is this plus an hour. 0 = off (timer Never)
AwayMinutes	5	Minutes without input before the lid action runs, before lid-closed time counts toward the limit, before the lock when work starts with the lid closed, and before apps go into Efficiency mode
LockOnLidClose	true	Lock the PC when the lid closes
StartAtLogin	true	Start Nightcrew when you sign in
DryRun	false	Log what Nightcrew would do without doing it
TranscriptRoots	Claude Code and Codex folders	Where session files are watched
IgnorePathContains	claude-mem-observer	Session files whose path contains this are ignored
AgentProcessNames	claude, codex	Agent processes; programs they start count as agent tools
SelfCpuAgentNames	codex	Agents whose own CPU use counts
SelfCpuPercent	2	CPU threshold for those agents, % of one core
ToolCpuPercent	10	CPU threshold for agent tools, % of one core
GpuPercent	30	GPU engine threshold, %
SampleSeconds	10	Seconds between checks
Mark	lantern	The tray mark: lantern or moon
EfficiencyWhileAway	true	Put apps the agents don't need into Efficiency mode while you're away
LeaveAlone	none	Process names never put into Efficiency mode (Settings > Keep at full speed)
LeaveAloneLabels	none	The names Settings shows for LeaveAlone entries
ConnectorHostNames	chrome-native-host, extension-host	Browser connector helpers; their browser is left alone
StayAwakeForApprovals	true	With the lid closed, a Claude Code session waiting for you counts as work
ClaudeSessionsDir	%USERPROFILE%\.claude\sessions	Where Claude Code keeps its session status files

Update

Quit Nightcrew: right-click the lantern, then Quit Nightcrew. That puts your settings back. Replace the exe with the new one, then start it.

From a script, run Start-Process .\nightcrew.exe -ArgumentList '--exit' -Wait in its folder. PowerShell doesn't wait for .\nightcrew.exe --exit on its own.

Uninstall

Quit Nightcrew (right-click the lantern, then Quit Nightcrew), then run .\nightcrew.exe --uninstall in its folder. That puts your settings back, takes any app out of Efficiency mode, and removes the startup entry and the watchdog task. Then delete the exe, and %LOCALAPPDATA%\Nightcrew if you want the settings and log gone too. Don't only delete the exe: the watchdog task would stay behind.

Credits

• The cream ink, serif headline and lavender come from Wispr Flow's design language.
• Type is EB Garamond and Figtree, both under the SIL Open Font License. See THIRD-PARTY-NOTICES.md.

License

MIT