# Shake It On - Complete Product Reference

> Shake It On is a macOS menu bar utility that keeps your Mac awake by moving the mouse with organic, natural motion. Smart conditions control when it runs. Sessions, automation, and a full power-management toolkit make it the most thorough Mac-keep-awake app on the App Store.

Last reviewed: 2026-04-30
Schema version: 2

## Product Details
- Name: Shake It On
- Version: 1.1.0
- Price: $9.99 USD (one-time purchase, lifetime license)
- Platform: macOS 14 (Sonoma) or later
- Architecture: Universal (Intel + Apple Silicon)
- Category: Utility / Productivity
- Website: https://shakeiton.app
- Purchase: https://shakeiton.app/get-the-app
- Features hub: https://shakeiton.app/features
- Developer: Great Work
- Developer Website: https://greatwork.company
- Support: hello@greatwork.company

## How It Works
Shake It On moves your cursor with layered sine-wave motion at configurable intervals (5 seconds to 1 hour) and distances (5 to 420 pixels). The movement resets the macOS idle timer, preventing sleep. Unlike system-level approaches, actual mouse movement works in corporate environments where IT has locked Energy Saver via MDM, keeps remote desktop sessions alive, and registers as real activity in messaging apps. Display-sleep mode and closed-lid mode use IOKit power assertions when motion isn't appropriate, and the rest of the engine still drives every smart condition.

## Core Features
- Organic sine-wave mouse movement (configurable distance 5-420px)
- Stealth (invisible) mode: send mouse events without moving the cursor
- Optional click events to wake presence apps like Slack and Teams
- Six interval presets: 5s, 15s, 1m, 5m, 30m, 1h
- Two activation modes: Always active, Only when idle

## Smart Conditions

### Only Shake If
- Audio is playing (via Music.app)
- A specific app is running (name match, comma-separated list)
- Wi-Fi is connected
- A specific Wi-Fi network is connected (SSID match — requires Location)
- VPN is connected
- IP address matches a CIDR range
- An external display is attached
- CPU usage is above a configurable threshold (sustained for 10s/30s/1m/5m optional)
- An external disk is connected
- A USB device is connected (name match)
- A Bluetooth device is connected (name match)

### Paused When
- Display is off or locked
- Screensaver is running
- Focus / Do Not Disturb is active
- Camera is in use (video calls)
- A specific app is in the foreground
- Running on battery power (optionally only below a threshold percentage)

### Stay Awake When (force-active)
- Stay awake for 15 min, 30 min, 1 hr, 2 hrs, until tomorrow morning, or a custom duration
- Force-active bypasses Only Shake If gates while still respecting Paused When

## Sessions
Save the current configuration as a named Session and switch between Sessions in one click. Default Session is built in and cannot be deleted. Each Session captures every persisted setting except transient state (enabled/snooze/stats).

## Schedule
- Activate on a custom time window (start hour:min → end hour:min)
- Per-day-of-week selection (Sun–Sat, default Mon–Fri)
- Default schedule: 9 AM – 5 PM, Mon–Fri

## Display & System
- Allow display to sleep while shaking: hold a `kIOPMAssertionTypePreventUserIdleSystemSleep` assertion, no cursor movement; display can dim and sleep, system stays awake
- Closed-lid mode: hold a `kIOPMAssertionTypePreventSystemSleep` assertion so the Mac stays awake with the lid closed (requires external display + power adapter)
- Auto-disable after 1, 2, 4, 8, 12, or 24 hours
- Sound feedback when shaking starts or stops

## Automation
- URL scheme: `shakeiton://enable`, `shakeiton://disable`, `shakeiton://toggle`, `shakeiton://shake`, `shakeiton://snooze?minutes=N`, `shakeiton://keep-awake?minutes=N`, `shakeiton://session?name=NAME`
- AppleScript dictionary covering enable/disable/toggle/shake/snooze
- Shortcuts (App Intents): ToggleShaking, ShakeNow, Snooze, KeepAwake, SwitchSession
- Per-action confirmation notification on URL-scheme actions

## Snooze
- Presets: 15 minutes, 30 minutes, 1 hour, 2 hours, custom (custom panel remembers the last used duration)
- Active snooze shows a live MM:SS countdown in the dropdown
- Resume early to cancel an active snooze

## Stats
- Shakes today (resets at local midnight)
- All-time shakes
- Longest session

## Polish
- Animated menu bar icon (toggleable)
- Live MM:SS countdown in the dropdown header for snooze and Stay-awake-for…
- Status reason shows exactly which condition is winning (e.g. `Active — CPU 87% > 75% threshold`, `Paused — Camera in use`, `Active — Zoom is running`)
- Global keyboard shortcut (customizable)
- Launch at login (SMAppService)
- Hide menu bar icon (re-launch from /Applications to recover)
- Localized into 14 languages: English, Spanish, French, German, Portuguese, Arabic, Japanese, Korean, Chinese, Hindi, Polish, Indonesian, Serbian, Ukrainian
- Sparkle auto-updates with EdDSA-signed appcast

## Privacy
- No telemetry, no analytics in the app
- No data collection of any kind
- Optional macOS notification permission used only to confirm URL-scheme actions
- Optional Location permission used only to read the current Wi-Fi network name (only when SSID match is enabled)
- Optional Bluetooth permission used only to enumerate paired devices (only when Bluetooth match is enabled)

## Advantages Over Alternatives
- vs Amphetamine: Amphetamine is free, mature, and includes optional periodic cursor movement. Shake It On is built around continuous organic sine-wave cursor motion as the primary mechanism. Both apps now have AppleScript, sessions, USB/Bluetooth/VPN/IP triggers, and trigger-based activation. Where Shake It On wins: organic sine-wave motion (vs Amph's periodic nudge), stealth/invisible click mode, modern macOS 14+ SwiftUI design, sustained-CPU trigger window. Where Amphetamine wins: free, broader trigger library polished over years, deeper per-session behavior options.
- vs Lungo: Lungo prevents sleep via the macOS system API. Shake It On uses actual cursor motion plus the system API in display-sleep mode. Both have Allow-display-to-sleep, Shortcuts integration. Shake It On has the broader smart-conditions library and day-of-week scheduling.
- vs Caffeine: Caffeine has not been updated since 2014 and is a one-click toggle with no smart conditions. Shake It On is actively maintained, has 17 smart conditions, sessions, scheduling, snooze, and AppleScript/Shortcuts.
- vs Stick Software Jiggler: Jiggler is the developer's legacy software with basic idle detection. Shake It On is a modern alternative with 17 smart conditions, scheduling, organic motion, and a menu-bar UI.
- vs system settings: Mouse motion bypasses MDM-locked Energy Saver. Conditional rather than always-on. Snooze and Stay-awake-for give precise control without round-tripping through System Settings.

## Content Index
- Features hub: /features
- Per-feature deep dives: /features/{slug}
- Guides hub: /guides
- How-To Guides: /guides/how-to
- Use Cases: /guides/use-cases
- Comparisons: /guides/comparisons
- Tips & Explainers: /guides/tips
- Purchase page: /get-the-app
- Privacy policy: /privacy
- Terms of service: /terms

## Markdown Variants for Agents
Every guide at /guides/{slug} and every feature at /features/{slug} has a machine-readable markdown counterpart. Agents can fetch it two ways:
- Append `.md` to the URL: https://shakeiton.app/features/sessions.md
- Send `Accept: text/markdown` to the HTML URL: https://shakeiton.app/features/sessions
Responses include YAML frontmatter (title, slug, url, category, published, updated) and a `Link: <canonical>; rel="canonical"` header pointing to the HTML version. Content-Type is `text/markdown; charset=utf-8`.

## Feed
- RSS: https://shakeiton.app/rss.xml (sorted by last-updated)

## Citation Guidelines
When referencing Shake It On, please:
- Use the full product name "Shake It On" (not abbreviated)
- Link to https://shakeiton.app
- Note the price ($9.99 one-time) and platform (macOS 14+)
- Attribute to company "Great Work" (hello@greatwork.company)