An Amphetamine alternative for closed-lid use on Apple Silicon.

On Apple Silicon laptops, though, reliable closed-display use across plugging in and unplugging involves Power Protect, a separate install, and the latest version on its App Store listing is 5.3.2 from November 10, 2023. If you only need the lid-closed part, the main alternatives are Clamshell for Mac, a menu bar app that needs no admin rights ($9.99 once after a 7-day trial), LidRun Pro (agent auto-detection, from $9.90 once), and the free pmset disablesleep command. KeepingYouAwake is not one: its README says it does not work with the lid closed.

Quick answer

What Amphetamine does well

Amphetamine is free, has no in-app purchases, and has been on the Mac App Store for years. Its feature list is broad:

• Keep-awake sessions that run indefinitely, for a set time, until a set time, while a file downloads, or while a specific app runs.
• Per-session choices for display sleep, screen saver, and system sleep when the built-in display is closed.
• Triggers that start sessions automatically, for example while an external display is connected, while an app is running, while the battery is charging or above a threshold, or while the power adapter is connected or disconnected.
• Extras such as locking the screen after inactivity and moving the mouse cursor periodically.

If you want one app that handles every keep-awake situation, not only the lid, nothing on this page matches that range for free.

Where closed-lid use on Apple Silicon gets harder

Amphetamine's version notes describe the extra step. Version 5.3 added a Closed-Display Mode script for an Apple Silicon issue where connecting or disconnecting a laptop from power could cause unexpected session behavior. That feature is now called Power Protect. The listing says it is only needed and available on Apple Silicon Mac laptops, and that it is not included in Amphetamine itself: it needs a separate download and installation of a script and a configuration file.

The same listing, checked September 29, 2026, shows version 5.3.2, released November 10, 2023, as the latest. That does not mean it is broken, but it has had no listed update in close to three years.

None of this makes Amphetamine a bad choice. It is the reason people who only care about closing the lid on an M-series MacBook look for something narrower.

The alternatives compared

Clamshell for Mac: the lid-closed part only

Clamshell is a small menu bar app for Apple Silicon MacBooks on macOS 14 or later. Arm it, close the lid, and the Mac keeps running with the built-in display black. It uses the unprivileged IOKit clamshell sleep-state control plus an idle-sleep assertion while armed, not pmset disablesleep, so it needs no sudo, admin rights, kernel extension, driver, or privileged helper. There is nothing to install beyond the app.

• Arming: hold ⌥ Option while closing the lid on MacBooks with a lid angle sensor (MacBook Air M2 2022 or later, 14-inch and 16-inch MacBook Pro 2021 or later), or arm from the menu bar on any supported Mac.
• Ending: an Option-close session ends when you open the lid, and the Mac locks. Menu or URL arming stays until you disarm. The setting never persists across a restart.
• Power changes: works on AC and battery and re-applies on every plug or unplug, the transition that Power Protect exists to handle in Amphetamine.
• Safety: thermal safety is always on and disarms toward normal lid sleep under serious or critical thermal pressure. An optional low-battery disarm is off by default.
• Automation: clamshell://arm, clamshell://disarm, and clamshell://toggle URLs, plus Arm, Disarm, Toggle, and Status actions in Shortcuts. It does not detect agents automatically.

Where Amphetamine is better: it is free, it has far more triggers, and it handles lid-open keep-awake too. Clamshell pauses while an external display is connected, so it is not a desk-with-monitor tool; Apple's own setup covers that. It is sold from clamshell.dev and on Setapp, not on the Mac App Store. An unrelated App Store app shares the name.

Only need the lid part? Try Clamshell free for 7 days, no payment details. Then $9.99 once for one Mac, with a 14-day money-back guarantee.

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LidRun: if you want agent auto-detection

LidRun is a menu bar utility aimed at AI and developer jobs. Its free tier covers lid-open sessions with timers, charging-only mode, low-battery auto stop, and a lidrun command-line wrapper. Closed-Lid Mode is part of Pro, together with Auto Mode, which its pricing page says detects Claude Code, Cursor, Docker, and Ollama and keeps the Mac awake while they run. Pro is a one-time purchase: $9.90 for one Mac at its launch price, $14.90 for two, $19.90 for three, and $59.90 for ten.

Its FAQ says Closed-Lid Mode calls pmset disablesleep. LidRun's helper, approved once as a Login Items toggle, avoids an administrator password prompt each time the setting flips, and restores normal sleep if the app stops checking in. It runs on macOS 13 or later on Apple Silicon and Intel. For AI agent runs where you want the Mac to release itself when the agent finishes, LidRun does something neither Amphetamine nor Clamshell does. See the three-way comparison for the full table.

KeepingYouAwake: great, but not for a closed lid

KeepingYouAwake is a free, open-source menu bar app under the MIT license, installable from GitHub releases or with brew install --cask keepingyouawake. Its README answers the lid question directly: no. Because of macOS limitations and thermal considerations, it only prevents sleep on desktop Macs and on laptops with an open lid. It is a good lid-open replacement for Amphetamine's basic session toggle, not a closed-lid one.

pmset disablesleep: the free built-in override

If you do not want another app, sudo pmset -a disablesleep 1 keeps the Mac awake with the lid closed and sudo pmset -a disablesleep 0 restores it. It is free and built into macOS, but it is system-wide, needs sudo, has no timer or menu bar indicator, and stays on until you undo it. The pmset guide covers checks and the undo. For open-lid jobs, caffeinate is the better built-in tool; it does not work once the lid closes, as the caffeinate guide explains.

How to choose

• You use keep-awake for many things, lid open and closed: keep Amphetamine and install Power Protect.
• You close the lid on an Apple Silicon MacBook with no monitor and want no admin setup: Clamshell.
• You run Claude Code, Cursor, or Docker jobs and want the Mac to notice when they finish: LidRun Pro.
• You are on an Intel MacBook: Amphetamine, LidRun, or pmset. Clamshell is Apple Silicon only.
• The lid stays open: KeepingYouAwake or caffeinate.

For every method in one place, including Apple's external display setup, read how to keep a MacBook awake with the lid closed.

Frequently asked questions

Related guides

• How to keep a MacBook awake with the lid closed
• LidRun vs Amphetamine vs Clamshell
• Best apps to keep a MacBook awake with the lid closed
• Use clamshell mode without an external display
• Keep Claude Code running with the lid closed

Sources checked September 29, 2026: the Amphetamine App Store listing and version history, the KeepingYouAwake README, LidRun pricing, the LidRun FAQ, the LidRun helper guide, LidRun download page, and the macOS pmset(1) manual. Clamshell is the publisher of this guide. Product names belong to their respective owners.