MindFirst is a suite of tools for people who want to use AI without becoming dependent on it. It tracks how much time you spend in AI apps, nudges you to think before you ask, and helps you measure whether your own reasoning skills are improving or atrophying.
This repository contains three components that work independently.
| Component | Folder | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Website | website/ |
Static landing page with an AI literacy quiz, AI usage logger, and roast feature |
| Chrome Extension | extension/ |
Intercepts prompts on ChatGPT, classifies them as thinking vs lookup tasks, and asks you to attempt an answer first |
| Desktop App | desktop-app/ |
macOS menu bar app that tracks time spent in AI applications and sends daily usage notifications |
- Node.js 18+ and npm (for the desktop app)
- A Chromium-based browser (Chrome, Brave, Arc) for the extension
- An Anthropic API key for the extension's prompt classifier, get one at console.anthropic.com
The website is a plain static site. No build step needed.
cd website
# Open index.html in your browser, or serve it:
npx serve .- Open Chrome and go to
chrome://extensions - Enable Developer mode (top right toggle)
- Click Load unpacked and select the
extension/folder - Click the extension icon → Settings → paste your Anthropic API key
The extension only activates on chat.openai.com and chatgpt.com. When you press send on a prompt, it classifies it as a thinking task or a lookup task. Thinking tasks show a small popup asking you to attempt the answer yourself first.
The extension uses the Anthropic API (claude-3-5-haiku-20241022) to classify prompts. You need to supply your own key:
- Go to console.anthropic.com/account/keys
- Create a key
- Open the extension popup → click the ⚙ settings icon → paste the key
The key is stored in chrome.storage.local on your device only.
cd desktop-app
npm install
npm start # run in development
npm run build # build a .dmg installerOn first launch, macOS will ask for Automation permission so the app can detect which app is in the foreground. Grant it.
The app tracks time in: ChatGPT, Claude, Copilot, Notion, Perplexity, and any app whose name contains "AI". Data is stored locally at ~/Library/Application Support/MindFirst/mindfirst-data.json.
MIT