Keep the Machine Awake

  • Desktop app
  • All plans
View as Markdown

What it does

While an agent is thinking, a dev command is running or a database export or import is in flight, AgentsRoom asks the operating system not to suspend the machine. Without it, locking the screen or leaving the machine idle puts it to sleep a minute or so after the display turns off, which freezes builds, dev servers, database transfers and agents mid-run until you come back. The screen is still free to turn off; only system sleep is held, and it is released as soon as nothing is working anymore.

Where to find it

Settings > Terminal > Keep the machine awake, with two states: Stay awake while something is running (default) and Disabled.

How to use it

Nothing to do: start a build or send a task to an agent, lock the machine or walk away, and the work continues with the screen off. When the agent finishes and no command is running, the machine returns to its normal sleep behaviour.

A dev terminal that is merely open does not hold the machine awake: only one whose foreground job is still running does (npm run dev holds, a finished build releases). Database transfers hold it for their whole duration, even after the modal that started them is closed.

Settings

  • keepAwakeWhileWorking (global, Settings > Terminal): hold a system power assertion while an agent is thinking, a dev command is running or a database transfer is in flight. On by default.
  • wakeForTriggers (global, Settings > Terminal): the complementary setting that wakes a sleeping machine for a scheduled trigger, then keeps it awake while the run works. Off by default.

Agent tools (MCP)

None. Agents can read and change the setting through settings_get / settings_set.

Providers

All providers, no difference: the signal is the agent's working status, whatever CLI runs it.

Mobile

Not applicable. The phone runs no agent; the desktop holds its own assertion.

Limits

  • A closed laptop lid still sleeps, on macOS, Windows and Linux: no application can prevent that. Leave the lid open with the screen off, or use the machine plugged in with an external display.
  • Linux without a session inhibitor (no desktop session power manager) cannot honour the request; AgentsRoom logs it once and does nothing further.
  • On Windows, whether a dev terminal is still running is only known for terminals with the finish-alert bell watched; otherwise an open command tab is treated as running and holds the machine, which costs battery. Disable the setting if that matters more than an interrupted build.
  • The assertion expires by itself if the app window stops reporting, so a crashed or reloaded window cannot pin the machine awake for good.

Common questions

  • My Mac went to sleep in the middle of a 13-minute build; why? Apple Silicon defaults put the system to sleep one minute after the display turns off, and nothing was asking it to stay up. This setting is that request.
  • Will my screen stay on? No. Only system sleep is held; the display sleeps and the lock screen works as usual.
  • Does it wake the machine for a scheduled task? No, that is Wake the machine for scheduled triggers, a separate setting on the same page.

Related