Install and usage are in the README. This is the checklist for confirming both power modes actually do what they claim, which is worth doing once because the whole point of the app is behaviour you only notice by not seeing it happen.
./verify.shConfirms the app bundle exists, its vendored virtualenv is intact, rumps is
importable, and keepmeup_menu.py compiles.
Look at the top right of your screen, near the clock. You should see a jagged star in one of three states:
| Icon | Meaning |
|---|---|
| Outline star | Both modes off |
| Glowing filled star | Awake - screen on |
| Plain filled star | Awake - screen off |
Click the icon. You should get "Awake - screen on", "Awake - screen off", and "Quit".
- Click "Awake - screen on" — the icon becomes a glowing filled star
- Step away and wait past your normal display-sleep timeout
- The screen should still be on
Click it again to turn it off; the icon returns to the outline star.
- Click "Awake - screen off" — the icon becomes a plain filled star
- Don't touch the mouse or keyboard for about a minute — the display should turn itself off
- Move the mouse — the display wakes
- Stay idle again — after another minute it turns off again
Throughout, the Mac itself stays awake, so anything running keeps running.
Nothing happens when you click the icon
pkill -f keepmeup_menu.py
open ~/Applications/KeepMeUp.appThe icon never appears
The app may be running with its icon hidden behind other menu bar items —
check with pgrep -f keepmeup_menu.py. If it is running, try removing some
menu bar icons or using a menu bar manager.
It crashes on launch
The launcher logs startup failures and shows a dialog. Check the log, then rebuild:
cat ~/.keepmeup.log
./install.sh