VIGIL

Don't open the wrong app without a VPN.

A tiny desktop guard that watches your machine and warns you the moment a sensitive app launches while your VPN is off.

Install · How it works · Privacy · Contributing

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Why

We all forget. You re-enable the VPN, restart, get a call, switch networks — and suddenly Cursor is sending your prompts plaintext, your work Telegram is beaconing, or you're logging into Binance from your real IP.

VIGIL sits in the background and yells the moment that happens, with a desktop notification you can't miss.

Features

• Instant launch detection. Watches processes across the whole OS at 250 ms intervals and fires a warning within milliseconds of any protected app starting.
• Warn or kill, per app. Each protected service has a behavior toggle: Warn shows a modal you can dismiss; Kill terminates the process immediately and sends a notification — for apps you can't afford to even ping without a VPN (Cursor, ChatGPT, Claude, …).
• 18-app catalog. ChatGPT, Claude, Cursor, Perplexity, LM Studio, Ollama, Warp Terminal, VS Code, IntelliJ, Zed, Telegram, WhatsApp, Signal, Discord, Slack, Dropbox, Google Drive, OneDrive — one click to protect. Custom apps supported too.
• Native OS notifications. Stays loud even when VIGIL is in the background. If you "Open anyway", VIGIL reminds you 2 minutes later if the VPN is still off.
• VPN auto-detection. Recognises tun, utun, wg, ppp, ipsec, Mullvad, NordLynx, Proton, WireGuard. Add custom interfaces in Settings.
• Strict mode. Hides the "Open anyway" escape hatch when you want zero excuses.
• Cross-platform. macOS, Windows, Linux (macOS tested; Win/Linux work via the same sysinfo crate — feedback welcome).

Screenshots

Dashboard	Protected services

Warning modal

Install

VIGIL is not yet on a download page — build from source.

Requirements

• Node 18+ and npm
• Rust 1.77+ (rustup)
• Tauri prerequisites for your OS — see tauri.app/start/prerequisites

Build

git clone https://github.com/deborahfam/VIGIL.git
cd VIGIL
npm install
npm run tauri build

The compiled bundle ends up in src-tauri/target/release/bundle/.

For local development:

npm run tauri dev

How it works

┌────────────────────────┐       ┌─────────────────────────┐
│  launch_observer (Rust)│ 250ms │  React UI               │
│  diffs sysinfo snapshot│──────▶│  matches against catalog│
│  emits app-launched    │       │  fires warning + notif  │
└────────────────────────┘       └─────────────────────────┘
        │                                  │
        │ also polls every 5 s             │
        ▼                                  ▼
  if_addrs::get_if_addrs()          Native OS notification
  (interface list for VPN)          (after 2 min if VPN off)

• Process detection uses sysinfo with a 250 ms diff loop. New PIDs are emitted as Tauri events; the UI checks them against your catalog instantly.
• VPN detection reads network interfaces via if-addrs and matches prefixes (tun, utun, wg, …) plus any custom names you add in Settings.
• Reminders are scheduled in the React layer; the Tauri notification plugin shows them as native OS notifications.

Privacy

Short version: everything is local. VIGIL does not phone home.

Long version:

• Process names and interface names never leave your machine. VIGIL has no telemetry, no analytics, no crash reporting.
• The only outbound HTTP request is to api.ipify.org to fetch your own public IP (so it can be shown on the dashboard). This is optional — turn off "Public IP check" in Settings to disable.
• VIGIL needs the OS permission to list processes (granted automatically on macOS/Windows; no special install step). It does not need root, network capture, or accessibility access.
• Native notifications require a one-time permission prompt the first time a reminder fires.

If you're paranoid, the entire backend is ~200 lines of Rust in src-tauri/src/. Read it.

Known limitations

• Web URL / domain protection is in development. VIGIL currently watches apps only. Domain blocking (e.g. detecting when you open chat.openai.com or binance.com in the browser) will ship as a separate Chrome/Firefox extension that talks to VIGIL. You can still add a domain via "Add custom" to prepare your list — VIGIL just won't act on it yet.
• VIGIL doesn't connect the VPN for you. It tells you to. Connecting is on you (use your VPN app's CLI/auto-connect features).
• No system tray yet. If you close the window, VIGIL stops watching.
• Substring matching can false-positive. A process literally named "Code" matches "VS Code" but would also match anything containing "code". Exact match is on the roadmap.

Contributing

PRs, issues and ideas all welcome — see CONTRIBUTING.md.

License

MIT © Deborah Famadas Rodriguez

Support

VIGIL is free and built solo. If it saved you from a leak, you can buy me a coffee.