Digital Carrot – Block social media with programmable rules and goals
Hi Everyone, Digital Carrot is a programmable and pluggable app blocker. It lets you block websites and apps on iOS, Mac and Windows until a set of conditions or goal is met. For example you can block Reddit, Instagram and Steam until your Apple Watch reports that you have walked 5000 steps. The app works by collecting data via plugins that you can use to create goals for yourself. Goals are all represented by expressions that return true or false based on the data you provide. For example, if you want to create a goal to finish all of the tasks in your to-do list you could do something like…
In plain words
Digital Carrot is an app blocker for iOS, Mac, and Windows that prevents access to websites and apps until user-defined goals are met. It uses plugins to gather data from various sources—like Apple Watch step counts or to-do list completion—and evaluates custom conditions to determine when blocking should end. The system is extensible, allowing users to create their own plugins and integrate with services like Pi-hole for DNS-level blocking.
written from the facts on this page · September 2026
From the sources
In the maker’s words, at launch
Hi Everyone, Digital Carrot is a programmable and pluggable app blocker. It lets you block websites and apps on iOS, Mac and Windows until a set of conditions or goal is met. For example you can block Reddit, Instagram and Steam until your Apple Watch reports that you have walked 5000 steps. The app works by collecting data via plugins that you can use to create goals for yourself. Goals are all represented by expressions that return true or false based on the data you provide. For example, if you want to create a goal to finish all of the tasks in your to-do list you could do something like `data.apple_reminders.due == 0`. The blocking system is also pluggable. That means you can block items via DNS with services as Pi-hole[3]. It also means that the app is not just limited to website blocking! In fact you could write a plugin to control anything that is available via a REST, such as locking a smart lock on your snack cupboard or cranking up the AC in your office until you go outside. Keeping security and user privacy is a top priority for this app (given that it's literally designed to collect information about you). Because of that: - We do not collect or share any information that the app gathers. - Our sync feature is fully end to end encrypted using AES256 and the secure remote password protocol. - All plugins are sandboxed. They cannot access data provided by other plugins and have no external access unless granted by the user. - The app is transparent about the data it has. All of the data that is available to use for goals is browsable in app. Like many of you, I've been dismayed by big tech's lack of concern for our privacy, so keeping these guarantees is personally very important to me. One of the fun things about this project has been that I can kind of flip the script by taking all of the information that has been gathered about me and use it to help cut down on the distractions in my life :) Anyway, I had to walk 4km to unblock HN in order to post this, so I hope you find it helpful! [1] Technical overview: https://www.digitalcarrot.app/docs/overview/ [2] Plugin repository: https://github.com/digital-carrot-app/plugins [3] Pi-hole plugin: https://github.com/digital-carrot-app/plugins/tree/main/piho...
Does the same job
all alternatives →- IBI built an app to block Shorts and Reels2025 · scrollguard.app · ▲690
I wanted to find a way to use Instagram without ending up scrolling for two hours every time I open the app to see a friend's story. Most screen time apps I found focus on blocking the app itself instead of the addictive feed, so I created this app to allow me to keep using the "healthy" and "social" features and block the infinite scrolling (Reels) After implementing the block on Instagram Reels, I got addicted to YouTube Shorts and Reddit feed. So, I extended the app to cover these as well. To avoid replacing the scrolling for regular feeds, I also added a feature that shows a pop-up when…
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