Stop Your Mac Sleeping While Cursor's AI Agent Runs

To keep your Mac awake while Cursor's agent runs: the free way is macOS's built-in caffeinate -i — run it in Terminal before you start, and stop it yourself when the run ends. The automatic way is AgentBarista, which detects Cursor's agent working and lets your Mac sleep when it finishes.

The fix

Why this happens, and the fastest way to stop it

macOS sleeps your Mac based on how long since you touched the keyboard or trackpad, plus the power assertions running processes hold — not on whether Cursor's agent is mid-task, and not on CPU load either. A Mac pinned at 100% sleeps on the same schedule as one doing nothing, so a long model wait at near-0% CPU isn't even the reason it happens. The immediate fix: open System Settings → Lock Screen (or Battery on older macOS) and turn off "Turn display off" / set it to Never while you're running long agent tasks, or run caffeinate from Terminal before you kick off the task. That stops the sleep — it just doesn't know when Cursor is actually done, so you have to remember to turn it back off.

Honest answer

Free tools can do this too

caffeinate (built into every Mac) and Amphetamine (free, Mac App Store) will both keep your Mac awake on a timer or while a process you pick is running. If you only run Cursor's agent occasionally, that's a perfectly fine choice — no need to install anything else. Where they fall short is the same place every plain keep-awake tool falls short: they don't know when Cursor's agent specifically starts and stops, so you either babysit them or they keep your Mac awake — and your battery draining — long after the agent finished.

Built for this

What AgentBarista does differently for Cursor

AgentBarista watches Cursor specifically — CPU usage and the on-screen text in its agent panel — and keeps your Mac awake only while there's a real, active task running.

Catches the "thinking" gaps

Cursor's agent can sit at near-0% CPU while waiting on a model. AgentBarista reads window text too, so it knows the agent is still working even when CPU alone looks idle.

Lets go when Cursor's done

Once the agent finishes or goes idle, normal sleep comes back within your grace window — 90 seconds by default. No babysitting a timer, no battery held hostage overnight.

Works alongside everything else

Already run Claude Code, Codex, or another agent in another window? AgentBarista watches all of them — not just Cursor — from one menu-bar app.

Private by design

It runs on your Mac. That's it.

No account, no sign-up. Download and go.
AgentBarista never opens your files. To tell a working agent from a finished one it looks at process command lines and CPU, at the names and modification times of your agents' session files, and — only if you grant macOS Accessibility permission — at the on-screen text of the agent apps you enable and of the terminals we support. Two of those can contain your own words: a command line includes any prompt you pass on it, and on-screen text includes whatever is visible in that window, your code included. Both are matched against status phrases on your Mac and discarded on the spot: never stored, never sent. Nothing about your work leaves your Mac — no file contents, no code, no prompts, no file names, no activity data. Your stats and settings stay on this Mac. The app contains no analytics or telemetry of any kind. Its network calls are two: license validation, sent to our payment provider, Lemon Squeezy — activating a license sends your license key and your Mac’s name, and the routine check after that sends your license key and an anonymous instance id, nothing else — and an update check that fetches the new-version list from agentbarista.com, sends no personal data, and can be turned off in Settings.

Getting it

$19/year, locked in for as long as you stay subscribed. Cancel any time.

AgentBarista Personal License — one Mac, $19/year

Runs as a menu-bar app — pick a mode, get back to work
Battery cutoff on by default (20%), plus a one-click emergency restore
Signed and notarized by Apple

Subscribe — $19/yr

$19/year if you subscribe before September 15 — locked in for as long as you stay subscribed. New subscribers after that pay $29/year. 30-day money-back guarantee — one email, full refund.

Download free 14-day trial

The download is the trial — the full app, free for 14 days, no card needed. Need more Macs? 5-Mac Pack — $129/year, flat.

More agents

Also running Gemini CLI, Copilot CLI, or another agent?

Same Mac-goes-to-sleep problem, different tool. Each of these guides covers the fix for that agent specifically:

Keep Gemini CLI awake Keep Copilot CLI awake Keep Windsurf awake Keep Zed awake Keep OpenCode awake