Hold My Lid vs Lidnight
Both keep a lid-closed Mac awake only while agents work, and let it sleep when they go idle. The difference: display and sound controls, versus answering from your phone and a recap.
In one line
Hold My Lid watches Claude Code, Codex, OpenCode and others through hooks, and Cursor, Cline and others by process, and blocks sleep only while they work. It has a battery cut-off, a plugged-in-only mode, Low Power Mode respect, display-off options and chimes, and it runs on Intel Macs too.
Lidnight does the same and adds answering Claude Code and Codex permission prompts (and Claude's questions) from your phone (end-to-end encrypted), plus a recap when you open the lid: each task's result, what's waiting for your reply, errors and tokens.
Compared
| Hold My Lid | Lidnight | |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free trial, $9.99 once early-bird (then $14.99), 3 Macs | Free (lid open) · Pro one-time, free trial |
| Detection | Hooks for 7 (Claude Code, Codex, OpenCode, Gemini…) + process detection | Hooks (Claude Code, Codex) + ~40 more by process |
| Lid closed | A power assertion (no helper mentioned on its page) | Helper (admin password once) |
| Protection | Battery cut-off, plugged-in only, Low Power Mode respect | Battery floor and heat protection; sleeps when done |
| Notifications | When it engages, finishes or hits the battery limit; 10 chimes | Finished, waiting for you, looks stuck — on your phone too |
| Phone | Not mentioned on its page | Approvals, answering questions, status page (encrypted) |
| When you're back | Not mentioned on its page | Recap: results, what's waiting for you, errors, tokens |
| macOS | 14 or later, Apple Silicon and Intel | 13 or later, Apple Silicon |
Checked 2026-10-26 against Hold My Lid's own page (holdmylid.app). Things change; check each site.
Which one
If you're on an Intel Mac, want no admin helper, and like fine-grained display and sound settings, Hold My Lid is clean. If you want to answer Claude Code's questions from your phone while you're away, and see what finished and what's waiting for you when you're back, Lidnight fits.
Try Lidnight free
Apple Silicon Macs · macOS 13 or later. Every download includes a free trial of everything in Pro (5 lid-closed runs or 14 days), no payment details needed. Pro is a one-time payment (1 Mac $9.99 · 3 Macs $14.99) with a 14-day refund.