Keep awake
The cup in the bar holds your Mac awake so a long run is not cut short by the display going to sleep.
The three states
Section titled “The three states”| The cup | What it means | What clicking does |
|---|---|---|
| Outline, normal | Nothing is holding the display awake. | Starts Nightdesk’s hold. |
| Filled, tinted with your accent color | Nightdesk is holding it awake. | Releases Nightdesk’s hold. |
| Outline, dimmed | Something else is holding the display awake. | Starts Nightdesk’s own hold alongside it. |
Lit means Nightdesk owns it. The button answers one question — am I holding this Mac awake? — so only Nightdesk’s own live hold lights it. If that hold goes away because Nightdesk quit or crashed, the cup goes dark, which is how you find out it is gone.
Someone else’s hold
Section titled “Someone else’s hold”Nightdesk checks every few seconds whether another process is holding the display awake, and dims the cup when one is. The tooltip names that process, and if its hold is set to expire, says when.
Clicking a dimmed cup starts Nightdesk’s own hold beside the other one. It does not take the other process’s hold away: Nightdesk only ever releases its own, and the tooltip says so.
If Nightdesk cannot tell what is holding the display, it keeps showing the last answer it got rather than claiming nothing is held. A button that falsely reads “nothing is holding this Mac awake” is the more expensive mistake.
How long it lasts
Section titled “How long it lasts”Nightdesk’s hold has no timer. It runs until you release it or you quit Nightdesk.
An agent can turn the same hold on and off through Concierge, so the cup may light without you having clicked it — it is one hold either way, and clicking releases it as usual.