AwakeScreen is a lightweight VS Code Desktop extension that temporarily prevents display sleep and idle sleep while you explicitly keep it enabled.
Quick start
Open VS Code Desktop.
Enable Keep Awake from the status bar or run Keep Awake: Toggle from the Command Palette.
Wait until the status bar indicates that Keep Awake is active.
Disable it from the status bar or run Keep Awake: Disable when you no longer need sleep prevention.
Features
One-click sleep prevention from the VS Code status bar
Three commands for toggle, explicit enable, and explicit disable flows
OS-specific sleep prevention on Windows, macOS, and Linux without permanently changing power settings
Warning state with retry when sleep prevention could not start
Commands
Keep Awake: Toggle
Keep Awake: Enable
Keep Awake: Disable
Status bar states
The status bar always shows the Keep Awake status in one of four ways:
Off, when sleep prevention is disabled
Starting, while activation is in progress
Active, while sleep prevention is running
Warning, when startup failed and a retry is available
Supported environments
Windows: uses a hidden PowerShell helper that periodically calls SetThreadExecutionState
macOS: uses caffeinate -d -i
Linux: uses systemd-inhibit --what=idle:sleep
VS Code for Web, github.dev, and vscode.dev are out of scope
Remote SSH, WSL, and Dev Containers are supported only through the local VS Code UI side
Limitations
This extension does not prevent manual sleep, screen lock, lid close, power button actions, or organization-enforced power policies. It does not change OS power settings permanently, requires no administrator privileges, and does not rely on a separate Node.js installation on the user machine.
If the required OS command or API path is unavailable, Keep Awake moves to the warning state and shows an error notification. On Linux, environments without systemd-inhibit are not supported.
