Clamless

macOS Apple Silicon

Open the lid. Keep only the external display.

Clamless disconnects the built-in MacBook display from the macOS screen layout while keeping Touch ID, camera, keyboard, and microphone available.

Download DMG See how it works
Layout
built-in removed
Panel
powered off
Control
menu bar

The desk setup macOS does not expose

Not dimming. Not a black overlay. Not clamshell mode.

Clamless is for MacBook users who want the machine open on the desk but do not want windows, the cursor, or display arrangement state leaking onto the built-in panel.

01

Disconnect the layout

The built-in display is removed from the active WindowServer arrangement, so the cursor cannot enter it.

02

Turn off the panel

The Apple Silicon built-in panel framebuffer is asked to enter a low-power off state after layout removal.

03

Restore safely

When the external display disappears, Clamless prioritizes restoring the built-in display over trusting stale plug state.

Install

Install once, use from the menu bar.

Download the latest DMG, drag Clamless into Applications, then launch it. Current public builds are ad-hoc signed, so macOS may require right-clicking the app and choosing Open on first launch.

  1. Download Latest release
  2. Install

    Drag Clamless.app into Applications.

  3. Configure

    Choose trusted external displays for automatic switching.

How it works

Two display layers, one menu bar switch.

SkyLight layout control

Clamless uses private SkyLight display topology calls to disable or enable the built-in display in the active desktop arrangement.

IOMobileFramebuffer panel power

After layout removal, it requests panel power changes through Apple Silicon framebuffer APIs so the internal panel goes dark.

Unplug-first recovery

Automatic restore combines 1-second polling, display callbacks, IORegistry events, and a layout-level safety check to recover when an external display is unplugged.

clamless-display status
clamless-display off --commit session
clamless-display on --commit session

CLI included

Script it when the menu is not enough.

The bundled helper exposes the same display control path used by the app. It is useful for debugging, automation, and verifying the current display state.

Reality check

Pragmatic, not official.

Clamless relies on private macOS APIs. That is how it gets the behavior macOS does not expose in System Settings, but Apple can change those interfaces in future releases.

No telemetry.

No black overlay window.

No brightness-only trick.

No claim that the built-in panel disappears from IORegistry.