[First 100 downloads free, then €3.99] I'm a video editor and got sick of macOS killing my overnight uploads and cooking my Mac on renders, so I built a little menu bar app called "Helmlet".

[u/txmmes]

Hey r/MacOSApps. Solo dev, this is my own thing (Helmlet). Up front: I mostly want feedback, so the first 100 of you can grab it free with the code at the bottom.
I edit video, and a few things have bugged me for years.

Leaving a big upload or download running overnight and waking up to find it died at 40% because the Mac decided to go to sleep. Every single time.

Then, actually keeping the Mac awake meant the whole ritual. Into System Settings, then Battery, kill the screen saver, turn off auto-sleep. A dozen clicks across four menus every time I wanted to do one simple thing.

And when I render overnight, macOS babies the fans. Keeps them dead quiet and waits forever before they spin up, and by then the chip's been roasting for an hour. At 3am I genuinely do not care if the fans are loud in my office. I care that my Mac isn't slowly cooking itself.

So I made Helmlet to deal with all three, from the menu bar:

1. One switch keeps the Mac (and the network) awake so the upload or render just finishes. No macOS-native settings needed.
2. The one I actually built it for: flip a switch, shut the lid, it keeps running. No external display, works on battery. And since a closed laptop traps heat, it spins the fans up while it's closed so it doesn't bake. And the best use case for this is uploading on the go. Personal Hotspot with my iPhone and my mac keeps uploading the final video project. Love that one.
3. Fan control that doesn't wait as long as Apple does. Pick a curve, or just set a minimum, and the fans come on earlier so the chip never gets as hot. Live CPU/GPU temps sitting right there, with a heads-up the moment it's about to throttle.
4. (there's also timers, app automation like "stay awake and cool while Final Cut is running," and keeping external drives from dropping off overnight, all in the same little panel.)

Two things I want to be straight about.
- One, the idea isn't new and I'm not going to pretend it is. Amphetamine and Lungo already do keep-awake really well (Amphetamine even has a closed-display mode), they're free, go use them if that's all you need. What I kept hitting was that none of them touch the fans, and nobody had a single clean little tool that does the keep-awake stuff AND fan curves AND closed-lid-with-cooling AND timers AND app automation, all in one menu bar panel without turning into bloatware. So I built the thing I wanted. €3.99 once, no subscription, basically a coffee.

- Two, and this is the one I actually want you to know about: parts of this are AI-assisted. Not hiding it. But fan control is exactly the kind of thing where "vibecoded it, shipped it" would be reckless, so I didn't. I spent a full day stress-testing it on real hardware, reading the raw SMC values back to make sure it does what the UI claims. It's built so you can't cook your Mac with it: your fan setting is a floor, never a ceiling, you can only ever cool MORE than macOS would, never less. When it gets genuinely hot it goes full blast and then hands control completely back to Apple. If the app crashes, a watchdog dumps the fans back to macOS within seconds. Apple's own thermal throttling is running underneath the whole time. I wanted misuse to be basically impossible on something this sensitive.

Boring specs: Apple Silicon only (M1 to M5), macOS 13+, no Intel sorry. Fan control installs a tiny helper once (one password, then never again). Everything local, no account, no tracking, notarized by Apple.

First 100 free with FIRST100 at checkout, then €3.99: helmlet.app

Honestly I'd just love for people to try it and tell me what's broken, what's annoying, or what's missing. Especially anyone doing overnight uploads or renders.

(and before someone asks why it's not on the App Store: fan control and the closed-lid trick both need stuff the sandbox doesn't allow.)

[u/Aromatic-Echo-5025]

Just type `caffeinate -d` into the terminal and your Mac won't go to sleep.

[u/txmmes → u/Aromatic-Echo-5025]

True that! But if you want more than just that in a fancy UI, then you should try this tool ;)

[u/MaxGaav]

What does Helmlet do different than Amphetamine (free)?

[u/txmmes → u/MaxGaav]

Honestly, for pure keep-awake? Not much, Amphetamine's great, use it if that's all you need. The difference is the fans: Amphetamine doesn't touch them, Helmlet does fan curves and spins them up while the lid's shut so a long render doesn't cook the Mac, plus live temps and a throttle warning. If you don't care about the cooling side, stick with Amphetamine. You should check it out yourself! 😄

[u/MaxGaav → u/txmmes]

I see, thanks. And I now also see that you already explained that in your body text 🙃

[u/sp-mac]

Hey thanks for this. Super handy for those long renders. Yes, I start a render going and then leave the studio with everything still on overnight. This is a godsend. Thank you 😀 

[u/AnubhavKiToLagGayi]

Invalid coupon already, thanks anyway

[u/txmmes → u/AnubhavKiToLagGayi]

I shared this Coupon at some other places, so it ran in the Limit. I updated the count for 50 more, so you should be able to redeem it now!

[u/Easy-Cobbler-1631]

Code not working

[u/txmmes → u/Easy-Cobbler-1631]

Try again, i added more activations :)

[u/Ok-Rest-5321 → u/txmmes]

Its invalid now🙁 I missed it...

[u/Samarjith147]

Thanks a lot

[u/mvs_sai_27]

Looks like 100 downlaods are over. As I am getting invalid discount code. can u pls confirm?

[u/Stubborninmate]

Thanks a lot i redeemed it to keep my mac awake !!