Focus that grows. A desktop focus companion that helps you lock into the work you actually planned to do — and rewards every session with a living digital garden.
Aesthetic: cozy-cyberpunk dark theme · bio-luminescent leaf green + plasma cyan · aurora glow · glass panels · the floating Lockie companion.
LOCK//IN AI is a small Electron desktop app in a focused 400×680 window. It's meant to feel less like a strict productivity tool and more like a calm focus world you step into when you're ready to work. Instead of relying on timers or blocklists alone, it combines focus sessions, allowed apps and websites, browser protection, the Lockie companion, voice cues, achievements, and a growing garden into one experience.
The goal is simple: help you lock into the task you actually planned to do.
- Overview
- The Problem
- The Solution
- Core Concept
- Main Features
- Setup Ritual
- Focus Sessions
- App Enforcement
- Browser Enforcement
- The Garden System
- Custom Presets
- Achievements and XP
- Lockie
- Voice Cues
- Settings
- Interface Details
- Platform Support
- Tech Stack
- How It Works
- Who This App Is For
- Project Purpose
- Future Ideas
- Repository Layout
LOCK//IN AI is made for people who sit down with good intentions but quickly get pulled into distractions.
You open your laptop to write an essay, study for an exam, or ship a project. Then you open Chrome to check "one small thing" — and that turns into a chain of tabs, unrelated videos, and social media. By the time you notice, half your session is gone.
LOCK//IN AI prevents that by asking you to define your session before it starts: what you're working on, how long you want to focus, which apps are allowed, which websites are allowed, and what kind of session you're entering. Once the session begins, it protects your attention by monitoring your active app or browser tab and reacting when you leave the allowed focus environment.
The core problem LOCK//IN AI solves is distraction during computer-based work.
Most people don't struggle because they lack goals — they struggle because their work environment is full of easy exits. A student starts an assignment and ends up on YouTube. A developer opens Stack Overflow and ends up with ten unrelated tabs. The problem isn't motivation; it's that intention without structure disappears quickly.
Common issues LOCK//IN AI is designed to solve:
- Getting distracted by websites during study sessions
- Opening apps unrelated to the current task
- Starting work without clearly defining the goal
- Losing track of time while browsing and falling into tab spirals
- Harsh blockers that feel annoying or punishing
- Having no visible record of completed focus sessions
- Struggling to build consistent focus habits over time
Many productivity tools answer this by being strict, cold, or frustrating. LOCK//IN AI takes a warmer approach. It still enforces boundaries — but it does so with a friendly interface, the Lockie companion, and a garden that grows as you succeed.
LOCK//IN AI builds a structured focus environment before the session begins.
Instead of vaguely deciding "I'm going to work," you make specific commitments: the subject or task you're locking into, how long the session lasts, which apps and websites are allowed, and whether to load a saved preset. This setup creates a small commitment before the timer starts.
Once the session is running, LOCK//IN AI acts as a gentle guardrail. If you leave your allowed apps or sites, it notices and guides you back. Break focus too many times and the session fails. The result is a balance between freedom and accountability — the app isn't here to shame you, it's here to make the right path easier than the wrong one.
LOCK//IN AI is built around the idea that focus should feel like something you grow.
Instead of treating each session as just a timer, the app turns every completed session into a plant in a digital garden. A successful session adds life to the garden; a failed session adds a dead plant. Over time, the garden becomes a visual record of your focus history — proof that you've shown up before and can do it again.
This makes focus less invisible. You can actually see your progress.
LOCK//IN AI is a set of connected systems, all serving the same goal — staying focused without making productivity feel miserable:
- Focus setup flow and timed focus sessions
- Allowed app and allowed website selection
- Desktop active-window monitoring
- Browser tab enforcement via a companion extension
- Custom blocked page and search result filtering
- A digital garden with procedurally generated plants
- Failed-session tracking (dead plants)
- Custom focus presets
- XP and an achievement system
- The Lockie companion character (with cosmetic rewards)
- Voice cues for key moments
- Customizable settings
- Cross-platform desktop support (Windows, macOS, Linux)
Before a session starts, LOCK//IN AI walks you through a five-step setup ritual that makes you define what focus means for this session.
Pick a subject or focus type (Math, Coding, Reading, Writing, Exam Prep) or load a saved preset (Thesis, Movie Night, Language Lab, Film Studies, Essay Writing, Programming Sprint). Each preset carries its own default apps and websites. You can also name the plant you're growing — leave it blank and the app generates one for you.
Set how long you want to focus, from 5 to 120 minutes, with the slider snapping to five-minute increments. The plant preview reacts to the length: longer sessions preview a more developed plant, visually connecting time with growth.
Select which desktop apps are allowed (Chrome, VS Code, Notion, YouTube, Netflix, PDF viewers, Figma, Spotify, and more). For anything not listed, custom app detection makes it easy:
- Click Add
- Switch to the app you want to allow
- Return to LOCK//IN AI
- Let it detect the app
- Save it as a custom allowed app
No manually typing process names or digging through settings.
Select which websites are allowed (ChatGPT, Claude, GitHub, Stack Overflow, MDN, YouTube). You can add a site manually or detect it from your current browser tab. Google, Wikipedia, and new-tab pages stay available so you're never blocked from basic navigation — the browser stays useful without becoming a distraction trap.
A summary screen shows your subject, plant name, duration, allowed apps, and allowed websites. Press Lock in and the focus environment goes active.
During a session, LOCK//IN AI becomes a calm command center. The focus screen shows:
- A circular countdown timer with a glowing progress ring
- Current subject and plant name
- Streak and XP
- Lockie in focused mode
- Allowed apps displayed as chips
The app doesn't just run a timer — it actively checks whether you're staying inside your allowed focus environment. Stay focused until the timer ends and the session completes successfully, adding a plant to your garden. Break focus too many times and it ends as an emergency exit, adding a dead plant instead.
LOCK//IN AI monitors the active desktop window during a session, checking roughly every 800 milliseconds on Windows, macOS, and Linux.
If you switch to an app outside your allowed list, the app reacts — it can:
- Snap you back to the last allowed app
- Show a breach overlay
- Change Lockie's expression
- Dim the plant
- Play a voice cue
- Count the breach against you
You get three breaches before the session fails — enough to allow small mistakes but not repeated drifting. Whatever app or tab you were already in when you locked in won't immediately count as a violation, which keeps the experience fair rather than frustrating.
The browser is the biggest source of distraction, so LOCK//IN AI includes deeper browser protection through a companion extension that connects to the desktop app over a local WebSocket. While a session is active, the extension helps enforce your allowed website list.
If you open a site that isn't allowed, the extension redirects the tab to a local blocked page. It isn't a plain warning screen — it's styled like a small sanctuary that matches the app, with a clock, a greeting, a search bar, shortcuts to allowed sites, and the LOCK//IN AI aesthetic. The goal is to guide you back, not to feel hostile.
On search pages like Google or Bing, links to blocked websites can be hidden or replaced with a LOCK//IN AI badge — so you don't accidentally click into a distraction while searching for something useful.
Google search pages can be re-skinned to match the dark aurora aesthetic, keeping the browser visually connected to the focus session. The app can also optionally hide Gemini AI Overviews so search pages stay cleaner.
On Windows, even without the extension, fallback mechanisms can steer tabs back through UI automation — an extra layer of protection when browser-level enforcement isn't available.
The garden is one of the most important parts of LOCK//IN AI. Every completed session adds a plant, generated from the session itself and visually varied by length or quality:
- A shorter session might grow a common plant.
- A longer session might grow a rarer one.
- A very long session could grow something legendary or celestial, with glow and sparkles.
This makes each completed session feel like it leaves a lasting result.
Fail a session by breaching too many times and a dead plant is added. It isn't there to shame you — it's an honest record that the session didn't hold. Failure is part of the focus journey, and the garden shows both success and struggle: where you stayed consistent, where you struggled, how many sessions you completed or lost, and how your habits changed over time.
The garden is a horizontal scrolling forest. Lockie walks along a winding path through the plants, and his mood shifts with his surroundings — happier near living plants, more somber near dead ones. Garden stats show alive plants, lost plants, and total plants. Over time the garden becomes a visual autobiography of your attention — proof that you showed up.
Not every focus session needs the same tools, so LOCK//IN AI supports custom presets. For example:
- Coding — VS Code, Chrome, GitHub, Stack Overflow, MDN, ChatGPT
- Essay — Chrome, Notion, Google Docs, Wikipedia, library databases
- Film studies — YouTube, Netflix, Notes app, course website
- Language learning — Duolingo, YouTube, Google Translate, dictionary sites
Each preset stores a name, default allowed apps, and default allowed websites — so you don't rebuild your environment every time you start.
LOCK//IN AI uses achievements and XP to make focus progress visible. Tracked achievements can include First Bloom, Deep Diver, Gardener, Power Surge, long-streak milestones, and the 100 Day Sanctuary.
Focus work is usually invisible — nobody applauds you for not opening TikTok. Achievements and XP give that invisible discipline a visible form, and a reason to keep returning.
Lockie is the companion character at the heart of LOCK//IN AI, and the face of the brand. Lockie makes the app feel human rather than punishing. During a session, Lockie can:
- Watch over you
- React when you stay focused
- Look worried when you drift
- Become disappointed when a session fails
- Celebrate completed sessions
- Walk through the garden
Lockie earns cosmetic rewards as you progress — a glow aura after a 7-day streak, a bloom crown after 14 days, a sanctuary halo after 30 days. They're not the point of the app, but they make progress feel rewarding and give you another reason to keep your streak alive.
LOCK//IN AI includes voice cues for key moments — when you lock in, break focus, complete a session, or fail one. Break focus, for example, and the app can say:
Focus interrupted.
Cues are calm and helpful, not aggressive. Toggle them on or off from the header, and preview and choose from available system voices in settings.
LOCK//IN AI lets you customize your experience:
- Toggle voice cues and choose the system voice
- Hide Google AI Overviews during sessions
- Clear the garden
- Remove custom apps, websites, or presets
- Reset progress
Clear Garden wipes plants, custom presets, custom apps, and custom sites. It uses an in-app confirmation modal styled like the rest of the app rather than a jarring system dialog.
LOCK//IN AI is designed to feel polished and focused:
- Frameless app window with a draggable title bar
- Hidden scrollbars that still allow scrolling
- Pinned Continue buttons on setup screens
- Calm visual style in the dark aurora aesthetic
- Compact 400×680, single-window layout
The footer can show the current app and URL, giving you transparency about what the app sees — important, since it monitors focus activity.
LOCK//IN AI is a cross-platform Electron desktop app.
| Platform | Notes |
|---|---|
| Windows | Uses native window handles and UI automation to detect and redirect focus. |
| macOS | May request Accessibility and Screen Recording permissions to detect the active window and guide you back. |
| Linux | Support depends on desktop-environment compatibility and active-window detection options. |
LOCK//IN AI is built with modern desktop and web technologies:
- Electron — desktop shell
- Next.js + TypeScript + React — UI
- Tailwind CSS — styling
- Browser extension APIs — browser-level enforcement
- Local WebSocket — app ↔ extension communication
- SVG plant generation — the garden
- Desktop active-window monitoring + UI automation — enforcement
- Local storage — persistence
The app pairs desktop monitoring with browser-level protection so it can enforce focus in both the operating system and the web browser.
LOCK//IN AI works in layers:
- You define the session — subject, time, allowed apps, allowed websites.
- The app starts a timer — displaying the timer, subject, plant, XP, streak, and allowed tools.
- The app monitors focus — checking the active app or website against your allowed environment.
- The app reacts to distractions — snapping you back, showing feedback, and counting a breach.
- The session succeeds or fails — finish the timer to grow a plant; breach too often and a dead plant is added.
- Progress is saved — garden, XP, achievements, streaks, presets, and custom apps/sites persist locally.
LOCK//IN AI is for anyone who wants to focus but struggles with digital distractions — especially:
- Students, developers, writers, designers, and creatives
- Online learners
- People under deadline pressure
- People who get pulled into random browsing
- People who dislike harsh productivity blockers
It's made for users who don't need another lecture about discipline. They need a system that makes focus easier.
The purpose of LOCK//IN AI is a focus tool that feels structured, useful, and warm. It's not just a timer, a website blocker, or a gamified productivity app — it combines all of these into one experience:
- A timer for structure
- Enforcement for accountability
- A garden for visual progress
- Lockie for companionship
- Presets for convenience
- Browser protection for real-world distractions
- Achievements for motivation
The app treats attention like something that can be cultivated — one session, one plant, one locked-in moment at a time.
- More plant types, Lockie cosmetics, and focus presets
- Detailed focus analytics and weekly reports
- A focus streak calendar
- Broader browser support and improved Linux support
- Cloud backup and optional account sync
- More blocked-page themes and achievement categories
- Soundscape or ambient music options
- Pomodoro-style break sessions
- Friend gardens or shared focus rooms
- Exportable focus history
- A mobile companion app
.
├── electron/ Electron main process (windowing, monitoring, extension bridge)
├── src/ Next.js + React app UI
├── extension/ Companion browser extension — see extension/README.md
├── website/ Marketing / download landing site — see website/README.md
├── build/ App icons and build assets
└── package.json Scripts and electron-builder config
npm install
npm run electron:dev # Next.js dev server + Electron, hot-reloadedBuild a distributable:
npm run electron:build # next build && electron-builder → ./releaseLOCK//IN AI is a warm but firm focus companion. It helps you define what to work on, protects you from distractions, and rewards successful sessions with a growing garden.
It exists because modern computers are full of distractions, and willpower alone often isn't enough. LOCK//IN AI gives you structure, enforcement, warmth, and proof of progress.
Your focus becomes visible. Your effort becomes a garden.