How I built an open-source browser guardrail to save my eyes and focus (Manifest V3)

Nahid Mahmud — Thu, 09 Jul 2026 08:33:19 +0000

Hi everyone!

As developers, most of us spend 10+ hours a day glued to our monitors. We all know the drill: digital eye strain, blurry vision, and that inevitable afternoon burnout.

Like many of you, I tried using standard Pomodoro extensions and passive website blockers. But honestly? When digital fatigue kicks in, those tiny notifications are just way too easy to dismiss or ignore. Passive stats didn't work for my attention span.

That’s why I decided to scratch my own itch and build Focus Pilot Pro — an active, open-source browser guardrail designed specifically for people who live in front of screens.

🚀 The Approach: Active UI Interception

Instead of just tracking time or nudging you with a passive pop-up, Focus Pilot Pro implements what I call an Active Intervention Model natively in the browser.

It automates the scientifically proven 20-20-20 rule (every 20 minutes, look at something 20 feet away for at least 20 seconds). When it's break time, it actively steps in to force short cognitive and visual breaks right when fatigue hits.

💡 Key Features:

Micro-temporal Scaling: Includes a unique 5-second hyper-sprint mode for quick sub-minute resets.
Passive-by-Default: Complete user control. It only intercepts the specific URLs you choose; otherwise, it stays completely out of your way.
Privacy & Security First: Built on Manifest V3, entirely open-source, and all dynamic content is safely sanitized (XSS protection) so you know your data is secure.

🛠️ The Tech Stack & Architecture

The extension is built entirely using vanilla modern JavaScript, utilizing storage.sync to ensure your whitelists and preferences stay synced safely across your browsers without any bloated external databases. Keeping it lightweight and fast was my top priority.

🎯 We are Launching on Product Hunt this Monday!

This project is 100% free and open-source. Early feedback from fellow community developers has been amazing, and we are officially taking the next big step by launching on Product Hunt this coming Monday!

I would absolutely love to get your brutal feedback on the architecture, the approach, or any features you think are missing.

Nahid-mahmud555 / focus-pilot-pro-official

Focus Pilot is a browser-native productivity framework that reduces attention fragmentation through active focus interventions, dynamic task management, and reliable session persistence.

🧠 Focus Pilot

An Intelligent Browser Extension for Mitigating Attention Fragmentation in High-Cognitive Digital Workflows

Focus is no longer a matter of willpower. It is a matter of architecture.

Watch Focus Pilot actively guide your workflow through intelligent interventions, automatic task launches, countdown alerts, and focus checkpoints.

📖 Overview

Focus Pilot is a next-generation browser extension engineered to eliminate attention fragmentation during deep work, software development, intensive research, academic study, and other knowledge-intensive workflows.

Unlike traditional productivity tools that rely on passive timers and voluntary compliance (which users can easily ignore), Focus Pilot introduces an Active Intervention Model that intelligently injects contextual prompts, task checkpoints, and temporal enforcement mechanisms directly into the browser workflow.

Instead of simply reminding users to stay focused, Focus Pilot actively guides attention by transforming the browser itself into an intelligent productivity assistant.

The project explores a simple yet powerful hypothesis:

"Human focus is rarely lost…

View on GitHub

producthunt.com

Thank you for reading, and let's save our eyes together! 👁️✨

DEV Community: Nahid Mahmud