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AI · alternatives · 2026

24 alternatives to LockIn MCP

I was tired of how bad distraction blockers are so I built my own. LockIn lets AI assistants (Claude, ChatGPT, Cursor, etc.) block websites by editing the system hosts file directly via MCP tools (via a secure cloudflare bridge). Why? Because chrome extensions don't work. Blocking it natively makes it unbypassable, and having your agent gatekeep your focus is the ultimate cheat code. Since everyone is using AI agents nowadays, but most people start scrolling or Reddit while waiting for Claude Code to finish, giving them control over your focus solves that. The MCP server exposes four tools:…

Below are 24 products that do a similar job, ranked by how close each is in meaning and then by launch-day votes.

  1. 1

    Free AI website blocker for Chrome that stops distractions in real-time. 100% private on-device processing. Block the right sites at the right time.

    Nov 2025 · tasksentry.app · its alternatives →

  2. 2

    Browser MCP connects AI applications to your browser so you can automate tasks using AI. Supported by Claude, Cursor, VS Code, Windsurf, and more.

    2025 · browsermcp.io · its alternatives →

  3. 3

    Hey HN! I built Browser AI after getting frustrated with the official Playwright MCP server in Claude Code. If you've used it, you know the pain: - 20+ separate tools that Claude has to juggle (click, fill, navigate, wait_for_selector, etc.) - Context window explosions from verbose screenshot data and DOM snapshots - Constant tool selection errors where Claude picks the wrong tool or forgets parameters Browser AI wraps Playwright MCP with a single natural language interface. Instead of Claude managing dozens of tools, you get one: browser_ai.execute. Just tell it what you want in plain…

    Nov 2025 · aibrowser.surf · its alternatives →

  4. 4
    Preloop▲121

    Hey HN, I’m Yannis, co-founder of Preloop. We’ve built a proxy for the Model Context Protocol (MCP) that lets you add human approval gates to your AI agents without changing your agent code. We’re building agents that use tools (Claude Desktop, Cursor, etc.), but we were terrified to give them write-access to sensitive systems (Stripe, Prod DBs, AWS). We didn't want to rewrite our agents to wrap every tool call in complex "ask_user" logic, especially since we use different agent runtimes. We built Preloop as a middleware layer. It acts as a standard MCP server proxy.You point your agent to…

    Jan 2026 · preloop.ai · its alternatives →

  5. 5

    I got tired of playwright-mcp eating through Claude's 200K token limit, so I built this using the new Claude Skills system. Built it with Claude Code itself. Instead of sending accessibility tree snapshots on every action, Claude just writes Playwright code and runs it. You get back screenshots and console output. That's it. 314 lines of instructions vs a persistent MCP server. Full API docs only load if Claude needs them. Same browser automation, way less overhead. Works as a Claude Code plugin or manual install. Token limit issue:…

    2025 · github.com · its alternatives →

  6. 6AH

    While building my startup i kept running into the issue where ai agents in cursor create endpoints or code that shouldn't exist, hallucinates strings, or just don't understand the code. ask-human-mcp pauses your agent whenever it’s stuck, logs a question into ask_human.md in your root directory with answer: PENDING, and then resumes as soon as you fill in the correct answer. the pain: your agent screams out an endpoint that never existed it makes confident assumptions and you spend hours debugging false leads the fix: ask-human-mcp gives your agent an escape hatch. when it’s unsure, it calls…

    2025 · masonyarbrough.com · its alternatives →

  7. 7

    Hi HN, MCP Defender is an open source desktop app that automatically proxies your MCP traffic in AI apps like Cursor, Claude, Windsurf and VSCode. It then scans all requests and responses between the apps and the MCP tools they call. If it detects anything malicious, it alerts you and lets you allow or block the tool call. While the threat landscape of MCP is still being actively researched, there are dangerous things that MCP Defender can block today. For example, a developer asks Cursor to fix a Github issue with an attached crash log. However, the Github issue was created by an attacker…

    2025 · mcpdefender.com · its alternatives →

  8. 8

    Block every distraction online.

    2019 · deepmode.app · its alternatives →

  9. 9
    Click▲133

    Live research context for ChatGPT and Claude

    Aug 2026 · useclick.ai · its alternatives →

  10. 10

    I'm a solo dev. A few years ago, I got addicted to Reddit. Spent months in that loop. Being a programmer, I thought I'd be clever. Redirected Reddit's domain to nowhere in my DNS file. Worked great until I'd just... open the file and undo it 20 minutes later. So I made it irreversible. Locked the DNS file so it can't be edited unless I boot my Mac in safe mode. And if I do that, there's a script that instantly locks it again. Haven't used Reddit since last year. Problem solved, right? Wrong. I just replaced Reddit with Twitch and YouTube. Started keeping streams running in the background…

    Nov 2025 · chromewebstore.google.com · its alternatives →

  11. 11
    Yavy▲110

    Turn any website into an MCP server for AI

    Feb 2026 · yavy.dev · its alternatives →

  12. 12

    Block unwanted content in Safari

    2019 · 1blocker.com · its alternatives →

  13. 13

    Hi HN, We are the devs behind VibeShift. We have been building this MCP server to put AI coding assistants in an automatic feedback loop. They code, test, debug, fix everything until we have a fully working, secure code. It tests like a real user, copies network/console and logical errors to give them back to cursor. (1 min demo - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bN_RgQGa8B0) We felt this was the natural next step for AI coding assistants. And with new asynchronous assistants like codex, having a plug & play tester makes sure you don't have to spend time debugging and…

    2025 · github.com · its alternatives →

  14. 14

    Give Claude & ChatGPT the keys to your LinkedIn. Free.

    Sep 2026 · gtm-api.com · its alternatives →

  15. 15

    Block distractions & stay focused | Chrome/Firefox extension

    2025 · blockodile.app · its alternatives →

  16. 16

    I’m the solo developer of Focusmo, a macOS focus app. I just shipped v7.12, which adds a local MCP server for Claude. The goal is simple: instead of generic productivity advice, Claude can connect to real focus data and help with weekly reviews, planning, and pattern spotting. Right now Claude can access: - today’s stats - weekly trends - task list - app usage with an hourly heatmap - personal records - live session state It can also create tasks and mark tasks complete. Everything runs locally on Mac through MCP, so the data stays on-device. I wrote more about it here:…

    2025 · focusmo.app · its alternatives →

  17. 17

    Persistent AI memory across Claude Desktop & Cursor IDE

    Oct 2025 · github.com · its alternatives →

  18. 18

    ContextBolt provides MCP-native servers that feed your AI agents data they can’t reach. It offers ContextBolt SEO for live keyword, SERP, and competitor metrics directly inside Claude and Cursor, and ContextBolt Bookmarks, a cross-network bookmark library your agent can search by

    May 2026 · contextbolt.com · its alternatives →

  19. 19FL

    Hi HN! We just launched Codacy Guardrails, an IDE extension with a CLI for code analysis and MCP server that enforces security & quality rules on AI-generated code in real-time. It hooks into AI coding assistants (like VS Code Agent Mode, Cursor, Windsurf), silently scanning and fixing AI-suggested code that has vulnerabilities or violates your coding standards, while the code it’s being generated. We built this because coding agents can be a double-edged sword. They do boost productivity, but can easily introduce insecure or non-compliant code. One recent research team at NYU found that 40%…

    2025 · its alternatives →

  20. 20

    Hey HN, Claude Code is pretty agentic now. It writes scripts, calls APIs, uses CLIs. But when something requires actually clicking through a website, it stops and asks me to do it. Problem is, I'm often unfamiliar with these platforms myself. "Go to App Store Connect and generate a P8 key" okay but where? I end up spending 10 minutes navigating menus I've never seen before. I started delegating these tasks to Perplexity's Comet browser. It handles the clicking, returns what I need. But copy-pasting between Claude and Comet got old fast. So I built this MCP server to connect them directly.…

    Jan 2026 · github.com · its alternatives →

  21. 21

    Block distracting sites with a focus mode you can't quit

    Jun 2026 · siteblocker.app · its alternatives →

  22. 22

    Mission control for AI coding agents. One ranked queue Claude Code, Cursor or any MCP agent works top to bottom — you watch live. Free while in beta — every feature, no limits, no card.

    Jul 2026 · taskpeace.com · its alternatives →

  23. 23

    Block distracting websites and stay focused with smart tools

    Feb 2026 · chromewebstore.google.com · its alternatives →

  24. 24

    Open-source malware scanner and runtime guard for AI agents

    Jul 2026 · panguard.ai · its alternatives →

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