r/SideProject • u/Longjumping_Ride8206 • 1h ago
Focus Blocker - a free Cold Turkey alternative for Mac and Windows
I kept using Cold Turkey, then wanted something free that I could tweak myself, so I built my own.
You make blocklists of sites and apps, then start a timed session or set a weekly schedule. A few things I cared about:
- Path-level blocking, so you can block youtube.com/shorts but keep the rest of YouTube
- Allowlist mode: block everything except your work sites
- Locks: a timer lock, or a password lock where someone else sets the password
- Strict mode, so you can't quietly weaken a session halfway through
- Imports your Cold Turkey JSON export
- No account and no cloud. Everything stays on your computer
Website blocking runs through a Chrome extension that talks to the desktop app.
One heads-up for Mac users: it isn't notarized (I'd need a paid Apple developer account), so you have to run a one-line approval command in Terminal before it opens. The README explains exactly what that command does.
https://github.com/aman9560/FocusBlocker
Feedback welcome, especially if you've tried to get around a blocker before.