CursorMov

One click keeps your Mac awake, so your VPN and long-running jobs survive while you're away.

Download for Mac How to install View on GitHub
Clicking the CursorMov cup: it fills up and starts steaming
One click: the cup fills up, and your Mac stays awake
Menu bar with an empty coffee cup: CursorMov is off
Off: an empty cup
Menu bar with a full, steaming coffee cup: CursorMov is on
On: a full, steaming cup

Walk away. Come back to the same session.

You start a build, a migration, or a big download, and go grab a coffee. Twenty minutes later the Mac has locked itself, the VPN has dropped, and the job is gone. CursorMov stops that from happening.

One click

Left-click the cup to turn it on, click again to turn it off.

No sleep, no lock

While it's on, your Mac won't idle sleep, dim the screen, or lock itself.

Mouse nudge

When you're away, it moves the pointer one pixel and back once a minute. Invisible, but macOS sees you as present.

Never in your way

The nudge only runs while you're idle. No Dock icon, no window, no notifications.

Timed sessions

Keep awake for 15 minutes up to 4 hours, and it switches itself off when time is up.

Battery safety

On battery, it switches off at 20% (or 10%, 30%, never) so it can't drain your MacBook flat.

Get started

Download it and you're running in under a minute. Requires macOS 26 or later, on Apple silicon or Intel.

  1. Download the DMG

    Get CursorMov-1.1.0.dmg from the latest GitHub release.

    Download CursorMov

  2. Drag it into Applications

    Open the DMG and drag the CursorMov cup onto the Applications folder next to it.

  3. Open it the first time

    CursorMov is free and open source, so it isn't signed with a paid Apple Developer ID, and macOS blocks it the first time.

    Open it once and close the warning. Then go to System Settings → Privacy & Security, scroll down, click Open Anyway next to CursorMov, and confirm with Open. You only do this once.

    Prefer Terminal? xattr -dr com.apple.quarantine /Applications/CursorMov.app

  4. Allow the mouse nudge

    The first time you turn CursorMov on, macOS asks whether it may control the pointer. Click Open System Settings, then switch CursorMov on under Privacy & Security → Accessibility.

    Rather not? Keeping the Mac awake still works without it. Only the nudge is skipped.

  5. Click the cup

    An empty coffee cup sits in your menu bar. Click it: it fills up and starts steaming, and your Mac stays awake until you click it again.

Or build it from source

You'll need Xcode 26 (or its command line tools with Swift 6.2).

git clone https://github.com/metayoub/CursorMov.git
cd CursorMov
scripts/build-app.sh
mv build/CursorMov.app /Applications/
open /Applications/CursorMov.app
Updating? Quit CursorMov and run rm -rf /Applications/CursorMov.app before moving the new copy in.

Using it

Left-click the cup
Turns keep-awake on or off.
Right-click (or Control-click) the cup
Opens the menu with the status and settings.
Keep awake for
A timed session: 15 or 30 minutes, 1, 2 or 4 hours. The status line shows time left and when it ends.
⚠︎ Allow mouse nudge in Accessibility…
Appears when the nudge needs permission. Click it to open the right Settings page.
Nudge mouse
Turns the mouse nudge on or off. Your choice is remembered.
Turn off below battery
On battery, switch off at 10%, 20% (default) or 30%, or never.
Start when I log in
Adds CursorMov to your login items.
Quit
Stops CursorMov and lets your Mac sleep normally again.
CursorMov menu: status, Keep awake for, Nudge mouse checked, Turn off below battery, Start when I log in, Quit

Good to know

  • Keep the lid open. macOS always sleeps a MacBook when the lid closes, and no regular app can prevent that.
  • VPN-side timeouts. If your VPN server disconnects sessions with no traffic, keeping the Mac awake won't help with that.
  • Rebuilt the app? macOS may treat it as new. If the nudge stops working, remove CursorMov from the Accessibility list and add it again.
  • See it working: while it's on, pmset -g assertions lists “CursorMov is keeping the Mac awake”.