Get Started with LidRun in 60 Seconds
The fastest way to understand LidRun is to just turn it on. Click the menu bar icon, select Keep Awake, and your Mac stays awake until you turn it off again. That's the whole idea — everything else in LidRun is a variation on when to start and when to stop.
Turn on Keep Awake
Click the LidRun icon in your menu bar. The dropdown shows a Keep Awake option — select it, and your Mac will stay awake even if it would otherwise go idle.
The menu bar icon changes to show LidRun is active, so you always have a visible signal for whether it's currently holding your Mac awake or not.
Turn it off again
Click the menu bar icon again and select Keep Awake a second time to turn it off. There's no separate 'stop' button to hunt for — the same menu item toggles it on and off.
Once it's off, your Mac goes back to its normal sleep behavior — nothing about your system settings changed, LidRun just isn't holding it awake anymore.
The other three modes
Keep Awake is the simplest mode, but the same menu has three more: Only When Charging (keeps the Mac awake only while it's plugged in), Timer (keeps it awake for a set number of minutes or hours, then stops on its own), and Auto Mode (watches for tools like Claude Code, Cursor, Docker, or Ollama and arms itself automatically).
You don't need to figure out which one is right on day one. Keep Awake is the one to try first — the others are there once you know what pattern of work you're actually protecting.
Download LidRun and follow this guide from your own menu bar.
Frequently asked
Click the LidRun icon in your menu bar and select Keep Awake. Your Mac stays awake until you select it again to turn it off.
The menu bar icon changes to reflect whether LidRun is holding the Mac awake or not — check it any time you're not sure.
Keep Awake stays on until you manually turn it off. Auto Mode watches for specific tools running, like Claude Code or Docker, and arms and disarms itself automatically, so you don't have to remember to start or stop it.
No — Keep Awake on its own doesn't survive a closed lid; macOS puts the Mac to sleep the moment you close it regardless. For that, you need Closed-Lid mode specifically, covered in Enable the LidRun Helper and Running Safely with the Lid Closed.