glocker

Distraction blocker and behaviour tracker for Linux

A distraction blocker for Linux

Glocker is a simple application that blocks distracting websites and applications according to a fixed schedule and logs your usage so that you can mine it for insights to improve your online behaviour.

I built this specifically for myself, since I couldn’t find anything else that suited my needs — and because I wanted an actual project to try AI-assisted coding on.

Time is a sword; if you do not cut it, it cuts you.
— Imam al-Shafi’i

glocker in under a minute

Features

There are several features, all of which I’ve found useful in over a year of using this:

  • Blocks websites by domain (routed to localhost via /etc/hosts) or by keyword (using a browser plugin on Firefox or Chrome).
  • Blocks applications by process name.
  • Withdraws root access on a schedule, so you can’t just uninstall or unblock.
  • Repeated violations force you off the computer.
  • Accountability emails can be sent to a buddy.
  • Your behaviour is tracked and stored for later analysis (e.g. I game too much after my bedtime).
  • Mindful uninstalls, so you can’t remove it on a whim.
  • A watchdog that records uninstalls, for later analysis.

And a couple of things I added out of practical need:

  • Timed unblock of a domain for work, with a stated reason.
  • Limited extension of an app’s runtime.

To analyse the data and get insight into your habits (so you can make adjustments), there’s a companion program, glockpeek, that reads your behaviour back. You can tag your applications to see how to adjust glocker and improve your productivity.

How it compares

Everything here runs on Linux. Tracking and blocking rarely come together, though — and neither alone changes a habit. Glocker does both, and uses the first to decide the second.

glocker DigitalZen Plucky Accountable2You
Blocks websites Yes Yes Yes No
Blocks applications Yes Yes No No
Shows time spent per app Yes Yes No No
Suggests blocking rules from your own data Yes No No No
Alerts an accountability partner Yes No Yes Yes
End-to-end encrypted sync Yes No No No
Open source Yes No No No
Self-hostable Yes No No No
Resists being switched off Yes Partial Yes No

A longer write-up of the options I tried: Blocking websites on Linux.

Getting it

On amd64, the quickest way is the installer. It downloads the latest signed release, verifies it, and installs (asking for sudo):

$ curl -fsSL https://glockerapp.com/glocker-installer.sh | sh

Prefer to read it first? Download glocker-installer.sh and run it yourself, or take the tarball from the releases page and run the install.sh inside it.

To build from source instead (any architecture), you’ll need the Go toolchain (1.26+). Clone it, run the setup wizard, then install:

$ git clone https://github.com/glocker-app/glocker
$ cd glocker
$ make init          # wizard: writes conf/conf.yaml, fills in your login
$ make full-install  # build, fetch blocklists, install (asks for sudo)

make init keeps the sample’s comments and won’t overwrite an existing config. Review conf/conf.yaml and add your own sites to conf/conf.d/personal-domains.yaml before make full-install.

It relies on a bunch of system tools and so might not work without some fiddling on all Linux variants. I use Debian myself. I’ve tested it on Ubuntu, Fedora, Omarchy and Arch. It works fine there. If you want to add support for your own distribution, I’m happy to help.

Works on X11 and Wayland (GNOME, Hyprland). On KDE and Sway, usage tracking isn’t available yet.

Release binaries are on the releases page, signed with minisign. Download the binaries, SHA256SUMS and SHA256SUMS.minisig into one directory, then check them:

$ minisign -Vm SHA256SUMS -P RWT2ioF8xC/sE5SAAyubQQGPAJWWZxougVjndvUzoRH1D1/C8mOoFK5i
$ sha256sum -c SHA256SUMS

The guide walks through configuring and setting it up. It also has some of my own thinking from when I designed it, which might be useful.

Hosted glockpeek

The analytics viewer (glockpeek) works fine if you run it yourself. However, it requires some fiddling to get set up.

I run a hosted version of it at my.glockerapp.com. It also watches from outside your machine: if glocker goes quiet, your accountability partner gets an email. A watchdog on your own machine can be switched off by the person it’s watching.

It’s $10 a month, or $99 a year (save ~2 months), for as many machines as you like, with a 14-day free trial.

The hosted version is private by design — your data is encrypted before it leaves your machine and the server only stores ciphertext. It hasn’t been independently audited.

The guide has the details.

Planned features

  • Adding support for Flatpak/Snap installs
  • More sophisticated domain blocking (rather than just hosts file)
  • Accountability partners can securely see your violations
  • Enable recovery code