Agent skill · operations · sickn33
anti-sleep
Keep a Mac awake with caffeinate during long builds, downloads, or supervised automation runs.
Why this skill is useful
Codifies the use of the caffeinate command to prevent sleep during long tasks, which the AI could infer but now has a clear standard procedure.
What it needs
About 2k tokens when loaded. Last updated 2026-08-07. 44,571 stars on the source repository.
What this skill does
Anti-Sleep (macOS caffeinate) When to Use Use when the user wants the Mac to stay awake during a long supervised task. Use when a build, download, or automation run should not be interrupted by sleep. Keep the Mac awake using the built-in caffeinate command. No install needed. Quick start — the standard command Duration is -t <seconds>: 2h = 7200, 7h = 25200, overnight (9h) = 32400. Aggressiveness levels Flags Effect --- --- -i prevents idle system sleep only (screen may still dim/lock) -d prevents display sleep (screen stays on) -d -i default choice — screen on + system awake -d -i -s adds -s: prevents sleep even on AC power semantics; -s only works when plugged in -u -t 1 simulates user activity — wakes the display right now Default to -d -i -t <seconds> unless the user says otherwise. Tie to a process instead of a timer Run it in a visible terminal (cmux pane) Prefer running it in the user's own terminal pane so it's visible and easy to Ctrl+C. In cmux (read the cmux skill first if interacting with panes): Otherwise run it as a background Bash task. Never block your own foreground shell with it. Verify and monitor Gotcha: caffeinate prints nothing and holds the prompt — it looks "stuck" or like Enter wasn't pressed. It isn't stuck. Verify with pgrep, not by looking at the terminal. Expiry: with -t it exits silently when time runs out — no notification. If the user asks "is it still on?" after hours, check pgrep first; it may simply have expired. Keyboard backlight caffeinate cannot keep the keyboard backlight on — it has its own inactivity timer with no CLI/API on Apple Silicon (researched 2026-07). Fix is manual, one-time: System Settings > Keyboard > "Turn keyboard backlight off after inactivity" > Never. Stop early Record the PID of the process started for this task; verify its command before stopping it. Do not stop unrelated caffeinate sessions by a broad pattern. …
How to use it
Reference it in AdaL, Claude Code, Cursor or any coding agent — nothing to install:
@skills sickn33/anti-sleep