Clamshell — Lid Desk Mode
Close the lid, stay awake
Only for Mac
Free · In‑App Purchases
Mac
Will your Mac stay awake when you close the lid? Clamshell answers before the click — and holds it awake only while the desk is safe. One-time unlock, no subscription.
Every MacBook owner hits it: you dock, close the lid to clear the desk — and the Mac goes dark mid-download, mid-call, mid-anything. Closed-lid "clamshell mode" only works while the charger AND an external display are connected; miss either and the lid click means sleep. Clamshell makes those two conditions visible — and, when it's safe, holds your Mac awake for you.
A STATUS CARD THAT ALWAYS ANSWERS
"Active desk — your Mac will stay awake." "Sleep risk — no external display." One card answers the only question that matters, and when the answer is sleep, it says exactly what's missing and how to fix it ("Connect an external display. Without one, closing the lid puts your Mac to sleep.").
DESK CONDITIONS AT A GLANCE
Charger, external display, and lid state as a live checklist — green pills when met, rose when missing. Everything is event-driven (power, display, and lid-change callbacks), so it updates the instant you dock. No polling, ever.
KEEP AWAKE — ONLY WHEN IT'S SAFE
With Keep Awake on, Clamshell holds a standard macOS no-sleep assertion — the same public mechanism as Apple's caffeinate command — but only while you're on a charger with an external display connected. On battery, or with no monitor, it stands down automatically: a MacBook in a bag never stays awake and overheats.
A MENU-BAR GLYPH THAT TELLS THE TRUTH
Solid laptop: active desk, staying awake. Rising z's: sleep risk. Outline: keep-awake off. The dropdown lists the live conditions and flips Keep Awake in one click.
A HEADS-UP BEFORE MYSTERY SLEEP
Optional: close the lid while a condition is missing and Clamshell warns you with a notification on your external display, instead of letting the Mac quietly doze. And "Keep the external display awake too" stops your monitor blanking — handy for a wall dashboard or a now-playing screen.
LIGHT BY DESIGN
About 13 MB of memory and roughly 0% CPU at idle in the menu bar. No timers, no background churn — Clamshell only wakes when your hardware state changes.
PRIVATE BY DEFAULT
No account. No analytics. No network access at all — settings stay on your Mac. The only permission it can ever ask for is Notifications, and only if you turn the sleep-risk warning on.
FREE AND PAID, PLAINLY
The live status card, the desk-conditions checklist, and the menu-bar indicator are free forever. Keep Awake, sleep-risk warnings, and display keep-alive come with Clamshell Lifetime — a single one-time purchase. No subscription, no recurring anything. Family Sharing is supported, and Restore Purchases brings it to your other Macs.
HONEST ABOUT THE RULES
Clamshell prevents idle sleep on a safe desk. It does not (and will not) force a Mac to run lid-closed on battery or without a display — that is macOS's own clamshell rule, and fighting it would be a thermal risk. Clamshell only promises what actually works.
Requires macOS 14 or later. Designed for MacBooks; on a desktop Mac the lid row simply doesn't appear. Launch at login is optional and off by default.
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The developer, Cricinshots Pvt. Ltd., indicated that the app’s privacy practices may include handling of data as described below. For more information, see the developer’s privacy policy .
Data Not Collected
The developer does not collect any data from this app.
Accessibility
The developer has not yet indicated which accessibility features this app supports. Learn More
Information
- Seller
- CRICINSHOTS GAMING PRIVATE LIMITED
- Size
- 3.8 MB
- Category
- Utilities
- Compatibility
Requires macOS 14.0 or later and a Mac with Apple M1 chip or later.
- Mac
Requires macOS 14.0 or later and a Mac with Apple M1 chip or later.
- Mac
- Age Rating
4+
- 4+
- In-App Purchases
Yes
- Lifetime $4.99
- Copyright
- © 2026 CRICINSHOTS GAMING PRIVATE LIMITED
