Awake while it codes. Asleep when it’s done.

What it does

Click the menu-bar icon and pick a duration to lock the keyboard and trackpad, then clean the keys without triggering anything. A countdown shows the time left, and three quick presses of Escape unlock immediately if you need out. That part is free.

The Pro tier adds keep-awake: stop the Mac (and optionally the display) from sleeping, with real safety rails. It pauses when the Mac runs hot, steps aside when the battery gets low, can stay awake with the lid closed, and can follow a weekly schedule. The headline Pro feature is AI coding mode, which links keep-awake to your AI coding agent’s activity and can close the loop by running an action sequence when the agent is done.

Free vs Pro

AI coding mode (the flagship)

Run a long task in Claude Code or Codex and walk away. While the agent works, the Mac stays awake; when it stops, the Mac sleeps. CleanKey watches a small heartbeat file that your AI tool’s hooks touch on each unit of work. If the file was touched recently, the agent is active and keep-awake is on; once it goes stale past your idle timeout, keep-awake releases.

It is tool-agnostic on purpose: CleanKey watches a file, not a specific product, so anything that can touch a file drives it. It is also fail-safe: if the agent crashes, the terminal closes, or a hook never runs, the window simply lapses and the Mac sleeps. It never gets stuck awake.

Setup is one paste. The pane has a “Copy hook setup” button; drop the result into Claude Code’s ~/.claude/settings.json (or the Codex equivalent). After an app update the installed hook refreshes itself, so the commands it injects always match the current version with no manual remove and re-add:

{
  "hooks": {
    "PostToolUse":      [{ "matcher": ".*", "hooks": [{ "type": "command", "command": "mkdir -p ~/.cleankey && touch ~/.cleankey/heartbeat", "async": true, "timeout": 1 }] }],
    "UserPromptSubmit": [{ "hooks": [{ "type": "command", "command": "mkdir -p ~/.cleankey && touch ~/.cleankey/heartbeat", "async": true, "timeout": 1 }] }],
    "SessionEnd":       [{ "hooks": [{ "type": "command", "command": "rm -f ~/.cleankey/heartbeat", "async": true, "timeout": 1 }] }]
  }
}

Close the loop: end-of-session automations

AI coding mode keeps the Mac awake while your agent works. End-of-session automations decide what happens the moment it stops. Pick a trigger, pick the actions, and CleanKey runs them while you are away from the desk.

The flagship case: your agent goes idle for twenty minutes, CleanKey sends a notification, runs your cleanup Shortcut, and puts the Mac to sleep. You come back to finished work and a cool, sleeping machine.

Triggers

• Your AI agent goes idle. The heartbeat goes stale past the timeout, so CleanKey treats the run as finished.
• The keep-awake cap expires. The maximum-duration timer you set runs out.
• A schedule window closes. A weekly or one-shot keep-awake window ends on its own.

Actions, in order

Every sequence opens with a countdown you can cancel, from ten seconds to five minutes. Move the mouse, press a key, or click Cancel and nothing runs. If your agent picks the work back up, the countdown cancels itself. A failed step never blocks the others, only one sequence runs at a time, and the Alerts Center logs every run.

More Pro guards

CleanKey vs the alternatives

Facts checked 2026-07; competitors change, so re-verify before relying on this.

• Lock plus keep-awake, together. No single app does both; lock tools and keep-awake tools are always separate.
• AI coding mode in a polished menu-bar app, not a CLI. It triggers off a plain file heartbeat, so any tool that can touch a file works, with no dedicated binary to call.
• Thermal pause is rare. Among mainstream menu-bar keep-awake apps, none pause on heat; they defer to macOS. CleanKey pauses at a level you pick.
• Fail-safe by design. The lock auto-releases if Accessibility permission is lost, the clamshell helper clears its lease if the app stops, and the AI window lapses on a missed signal. The Mac is never left stuck.

Who it’s for

Trust and safety

• Notarized by Apple, Hardened Runtime on.
• Auto-updates are cryptographically signed (EdDSA) on top of Gatekeeper, via Sparkle.
• Fail-safe watchdog throughout; wall-clock timekeeping so the countdown survives sleep and wake.
• Transparent Alerts Center logs every automatic state change, so you always see why the Mac was released or the lock ended.
• Local only. Keep-awake follows a file on your own machine; nothing about your work leaves the Mac.

A look inside

FAQ