If Cat Gatekeeper is not working for you, you are not doing anything wrong. The extension has fundamental limitations that cannot be fixed with any settings change. Here is the full breakdown.
Cat Gatekeeper is hardcoded to work on a small list of websites - YouTube, Instagram, TikTok, Reddit, X (Twitter), and Facebook. If you try to use it on any other website, nothing happens. The cat simply does not appear.
There is no fix for this within the extension. You need a desktop app that works at the OS level and does not rely on a whitelist of supported sites.
This is the most well-known bypass. When Cat Gatekeeper blocks you on YouTube, you just open a new tab and your break is effectively cancelled. The extension cannot follow you to a new tab or window.
A desktop screen blocker does not care what browser tab you are on. It takes over your entire screen at the OS level. You cannot open a new tab because the blocker covers your entire monitor.
Cat Gatekeeper lives inside Chrome. It has zero visibility into anything outside the browser. When you switch to a Steam game, Discord, your IDE, or any other desktop application - the extension cannot do anything.
Use a native desktop app. It runs as a background process on your operating system and can overlay itself on top of any application - games, chat apps, code editors, everything.
Cat Gatekeeper is a Chrome-exclusive extension. It does not exist on any other browser. If you use Brave, Firefox, Safari, or any Chromium fork that does not support the same extension store, it simply will not work.
Pawzy is what Cat Gatekeeper would be if it was rebuilt as a desktop app. It overlays a cute animal on your entire screen - no browser needed. No new-tab bypass. No 6-site limit. Free and open source.
🐧 Download for Linux 🪟 Download for WindowsThe extension only activates on its supported sites (YouTube, TikTok, etc.) and only within Chrome. If you are on a different site or browser, the cat will not appear. There is also a known bug where the timer sometimes resets without triggering.
No. This is an architectural limitation of the extension. It cannot be configured to work on arbitrary websites. The only way to get this functionality is to use a desktop application.
Not in extension form. Pawzy is the closest thing - a free desktop app that overlays a cute animal on top of your game (or any other fullscreen app) when your break timer fires.