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ClamDown icon

ClamDown for Mac

Keeps coding agents running on a closed MacBook: drives the fans by CPU temperature, locks the screen, and lets the Mac sleep before the battery runs low or it gets too hot.

By delef. Free and open source, Apache-2.0 licence.

Get it with OpenDMG View source on GitHub

ClamDown at a glance

Version
0.1.2
Released
13 November 2026
Download size
5.6 MB
Works on
Apple silicon and Intel
Licence
Apache-2.0
Category
Menu Bar and Notch
Developer
delef
GitHub stars
10

About ClamDown

Keep coding agents working on a MacBook with the lid closed. Free menu bar app: no sleep, fan control by CPU temperature, screen lock, battery and heat cut-offs.

How to install ClamDown on a Mac

  1. Get OpenDMG. It is a free app store for open source Mac apps. Download OpenDMG.
  2. Search for ClamDown and press Get. OpenDMG downloads version 0.1.2 from delef's own GitHub release.
  3. Open it. The download is checked against its SHA-256 fingerprint and its signature is checked on your Mac before it lands in Applications.

Updates to ClamDown show up in OpenDMG and install with one button. No account is needed.

Prefer to do it by hand? The developer's file is on GitHub: ClamDown.dmg (5.6 MB).

What is new in ClamDown 0.1.2

ClamDown now sets itself up with you, cools earlier, and makes sure a hot or empty Mac in a bag really goes to sleep.

- **Setup assistant.** The first launch walks you through allowing the helper, notifications and Launch at Login, one step at a time. It notices when you have allowed the helper and comes back to the front. Settings > Helper opens it again.
- **Tells you when something is wrong, and what to do.** The menu bar icon carries a small exclamation mark, and the Dock icon a "!" badge, when ClamDown cannot work until you act, for example after macOS took the helper's approval back. Errors are plain sentences. After a failure the menu offers Try Again and Reinstall Helper.
- **Fans start earlier.** The default curve runs from 50 °C to 75 °C (was 60 °C to 85 °C), because a closed Mac in a bag has little airflow. If you never changed the curve, you get the new values; your own values stay.
- **Really sleeps after a protective switch-off.** When low battery or heat switches ClamDown off and nobody is at the Mac, it puts the Mac to sleep, so an app that keeps the Mac awake cannot leave it running in a bag. Nobody is at the Mac when the lid is closed, no external display is connected, and the keyboard and pointer have been still for a minute. If the Mac does not fall asleep, ClamDown asks again. You can switch this off in Settings > Protection.
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