Hearth

Keep your Mac or display awake, and configure idle-lock prevention—from the menu bar, Terminal, or a local browser.

Installation · Releases · Source · Usage

1.2.0 · Release notes and platform limits.

Actual primary menu with isolated sample data.

Three controls, clear scope

Control	What it does	Default and scope
System	Prevents idle system sleep	Default for hearth on; battery and adapter selected
Display	Prevents idle display sleep	Explicit opt-in; does not by itself prevent locking
Lock	Configures idle-lock prevention	Current user, all available power profiles; requires System and Display awake

Each control has its own Restore action. Lock borrows settings already awake; Restore Lock releases only its changes. Choose power sources and timeouts under Advanced.

Install

Requires macOS 13+. Source builds need Xcode 26+ / Swift 6.2+. Hearth is source-first: local packages are unsigned, their code is ad-hoc signed, and they are not notarized. Use only source and artifacts you trust.

From a clean, reviewed 1.2.0 checkout, build into a new directory:

out="$PWD/dist/hearth-1.2.0-reviewed-local"
scripts/prepare-release.sh --output-dir "$out"
package="$out/hearth-1.2.0-macos-$(uname -m)-local-setup.pkg"

Choose one installation route for that exact package:

scripts/install.sh --gui --package "$package"    # Native Installer
# Or, in an interactive Terminal:
# scripts/install.sh --cli --package "$package"

Setup asks for administrator approval; everyday controls do not. No Automation setup is needed. Building installs nothing. See source/archive installation and migration before updating an existing installation.

Open /Applications/Hearth.app, then click the flame icon in the menu bar. Hearth has no Dock icon. The Terminal command is installed at /usr/local/bin/hearth.

Use it

hearth status                           # Current settings and restore state
hearth on                               # System only, battery and adapter
hearth on --setting display             # Display only
hearth lock on                          # Current-user Lock + System/Display
hearth lock restore                     # Release only Lock-owned changes
hearth restore                          # Restore remaining System changes
hearth restore --setting display        # Restore remaining Display changes
hearth web                              # Open local browser controls

Use --power battery or --power adapter for System/Display actions. Lock always covers all available profiles. Full command reference.

Actual web controls with isolated sample data.

The web server runs only when requested. Keep its private launch link to yourself; Ctrl+C stops the server without restoring settings.

Restore and limits

• Restore changes only settings owned by Hearth, preserving pre-existing awake settings and detected external changes. Quitting does not automatically restore them.
• Configured means settings were saved and read back. macOS may adopt or restore the timer later; it is not an immediate runtime guarantee.
• Manual Lock Screen, password requirements and grace delay, managed policy, lid-close sleep and system safety remain unchanged. There is no unlocked-screen-off mode.
• Unconfirmed writes retain their recovery records and block unsafe retries. Do not clear state to reset them; see recovery guidance.

Documentation

Guide	Find
Installation · Migration	Source builds, GUI/Terminal setup, updates and removal
Usage · Troubleshooting	Controls, commands, saved settings and recovery
Design · Privacy · Security	How Hearth works and what it stores
Development · Contributing · Releasing	Build, test and release workflows
Changelog · 1.2.0 notes	Features, acceptance evidence and platform limits

License

MIT, copyright 2026 Girish Konda. Third-party notices.