Social Block

One switch for focus. Social Block writes a marked block into /etc/hosts for streaming, social, forum, dating and shopping services, quits blocked desktop apps, and keeps the block active until you turn it off. Every service also has its own toggle, so you can keep Discord or Slack allowed at work while everything else stays blocked.

Why

Social Block is a productivity tool for people who work from home. The goal is to keep a work session from drifting into "just one quick look", while keeping the tools the team actually uses, such as Slack and Discord, one toggle away. It is deliberately not a parental-control or network-security tool.

Plugin

Field	Value
ID	treeonlinux/social-block
Entries	Bar widget: widget; panel: panel; service: service; shortcut: shortcut; launcher provider: launcher
Launcher Prefix	/block

Requirements

• Noctalia v5.4 or newer (plugin API 43).
• bash: the root helper and its installer are bash scripts. Alpine and other minimal systems do not ship bash by default (apk add bash).
• sudo or doas for the one-time helper installation and for each toggle.
• flatpak and pkill to quit blocked desktop apps (Discord, Slack, Vesktop, WebCord, ArmCord).
• hyprctl for Close matching windows (Hyprland only).
• A writable /etc/hosts. NixOS and Guix System generate or manage /etc/hosts; runtime toggling is not supported there (see Notes).

1. Install Noctalia

Noctalia is in the plugin store, but the shell itself has to be installed first. Use the command for your distribution:

Distribution	Install
Arch Linux	sudo pacman -S noctalia
Fedora 44+	sudo dnf install noctalia
openSUSE Tumbleweed / Slowroll	sudo zypper refresh && sudo zypper install noctalia
Debian trixie / Ubuntu 26.04+	See the APT steps below
Gentoo	Enable the GURU overlay, unmask gui-apps/noctalia, then sudo emerge --ask gui-apps/noctalia
Void Linux	sudo xbps-install -S noctalia after adding the UniversalRepository (see the Noctalia docs)
Alpine Edge	doas apk add noctalia bash procps after enabling the UniversalRepository (see the Noctalia docs)
Chimera Linux	doas apk add chimera-repo-user && doas apk update && doas apk add noctalia bash
Solus	sudo eopkg install noctalia
GNU Guix	Add noctalia-shell from (gnu packages window-management) to your system or home packages (host blocking is not supported)
NixOS	nix-shell -p noctalia or add noctalia to environment.systemPackages (the hosts helper is not supported)
Anything else	Build manually with meson and just

Debian and Ubuntu use Noctalia's APT repository:

wget https://pkg.noctalia.dev/deb/nickh-archive-keyring.deb
sudo dpkg -i nickh-archive-keyring.deb

# Debian trixie (replace "trixie" with "sid", "ubuntu2604" or "ubuntu2610" as needed)
sudo wget -O /etc/apt/sources.list.d/noctalia-trixie.sources \
  https://pkg.noctalia.dev/deb/noctalia-trixie.sources

sudo apt update && sudo apt install noctalia

Start Noctalia from your compositor (noctalia or the autostart entry), then continue below.

2. Install the plugin

Open Settings → Plugins → Plugin Store, find Social Block and enable it. From a terminal:

noctalia msg plugins enable treeonlinux/social-block

3. Install the privileged helper

A Noctalia plugin runs as your user and cannot write /etc/hosts or install a sudoers rule. This one command does that part. It is distribution-independent and needs sudo or doas.

After enabling the plugin, find its directory and run the installer:

# Works from fish, zsh, bash and sh: the wrapper runs the lookup in bash.
bash -c 'priv="$(command -v sudo || command -v doas)"; installer="$(find -L "${XDG_STATE_HOME:-$HOME/.local/state}/noctalia/plugins" "$HOME/.local/share/noctalia/plugins" -maxdepth 5 -name install-helper.sh -path "*social-block*" 2>/dev/null | head -n1)"; if [ -z "$installer" ]; then echo "Enable Social Block first, then re-run this command."; else cd "$(dirname "$installer")" && "$priv" bash install-helper.sh; fi'

If you use doas, the installer detects it. You can force it with bash install-helper.sh --doas (or --sudo).

The installer creates:

Path	Purpose
/usr/local/bin/social-block-net	Root-owned helper with on, off, status, list, allow <id>, block <id>
/etc/social-block/domains	Root-owned service/domain list (preserved on re-run)
/etc/social-block/allowed	Root-owned allowlist; services you toggle off are written here
/etc/social-block/tool	Records the selected sudo/doas so the service uses the same tool
/etc/hosts.social-block.bak	Last clean /etc/hosts before a block
/etc/sudoers.d/social-block	NOPASSWD for only the helper's commands, one rule per service, or an equivalent marked block in /etc/doas.conf

The installer records its choice in /etc/social-block/tool. Re-running it keeps that tool unless you pass --doas or --sudo, so the privilege rules and the service stay in sync.

The commands below run from the plugin directory found above (the bash -c wrapper does not change your shell's working directory).

Inspect it without changing anything:

bash install-helper.sh --check

If you already have the old flat domain list, migrate it to per-service headers and regenerate the privilege rules:

bash install-helper.sh --update-domains

The installer preserves an existing domain list by default, so the --update-domains flag is the explicit opt-in to replacing it. Press Re-check in the panel afterwards; the service also refreshes its list every 60 seconds.

The helper is deliberately narrow: the plugin cannot feed arbitrary lines into /etc/hosts, and every privilege rule is scoped to a fixed command and service ID.

Usage

After the helper is installed, the plugin works immediately. If the panel shows Finish setup or Helper problem, copy the command from the card, run it in a terminal, then press Re-check.

Bar widget

Add Social Block in Settings → Bar → Add widget. The widget shows OFF, ON, or a countdown (24m) while a timer is running.

• Left-click: open the panel
• Right-click: toggle blocking

Panel

Open it from the bar widget or with:

noctalia msg panel-toggle treeonlinux/social-block:panel

The panel contains the master switch, session timers (15m, 30m, 1h, ∞), today's blocked time, the streak graph, and the service list.

Every service has its own toggle. A service is blocked when its toggle is on. Toggle it off to allow it, for example:

• turn Slack off to keep work chat available;
• turn Discord off if your team uses it;
• leave YouTube, Netflix, Reddit and the rest on.

Changing a service while the block is active immediately rewrites /etc/hosts; changing it while the block is off stores the choice for the next time you turn the block on. Choices survive restarts and plugin updates.

Use the blocked / allowed label beside each row to confirm the state.

Control-center tile

Add Social Block under Control Center → Shortcuts. A left-click toggles the whole block.

Launcher

Type /block in the Noctalia launcher:

Query	Action
/block on	Block every enabled service until turned off
/block 30	Block for 30 minutes
/block 15, /block 60	Block for 15 or 60 minutes
/block forever	Clear the timer and keep blocking
/block off	Turn the block off
/block status	Show the current state
/block slack	Show Allow Slack / Block Slack; works for any service name or ID

Keybind

Hyprland, Lua config:

hl.bind("SUPER + SHIFT + B",
  hl.dsp.exec_cmd("noctalia msg plugin treeonlinux/social-block:service all toggle"))

Hyprland, hyprland.conf:

bind = SUPER SHIFT, B, exec, noctalia msg plugin treeonlinux/social-block:service all toggle

Timers and schedule

The timer buttons start a session or extend a running one. ∞ clears the timer so the block stays on until you turn it off.

Enable Daily schedule in the plugin settings to block automatically every day between the start and end time (24-hour HH:MM). A window whose end is earlier than its start runs overnight. Turning the block off manually during a window keeps it off for the rest of that window. A session timer started during a window pauses the schedule only until the timer ends, then the schedule resumes. Disabling the schedule ends an active scheduled block.

Day-to-day blocked minutes are stored in the plugin state directory and shown as today's total and a streak. Time while the machine is suspended is not counted.

Settings

Setting	Type	Default	Description
close_apps	bool	true	Quit blocked desktop apps (Discord, Slack, Vesktop, WebCord, ArmCord) when blocking starts and whenever they are relaunched. Allowed services are not killed.
close_windows	bool	false	Close windows whose class or title matches a blocked service. Hyprland only; can close a whole browser window. Allowed services are skipped.
schedule_enabled	bool	false	Block automatically during the daily window.
schedule_start	string	09:00	Window start in 24-hour HH:MM.
schedule_end	string	17:00	Window end in 24-hour HH:MM; an earlier end means the window crosses midnight. Invalid times are reported in a notification and the schedule stays inactive.

IPC

The service is a singleton; target it with all:

noctalia msg plugin treeonlinux/social-block:service all toggle
noctalia msg plugin treeonlinux/social-block:service all on
noctalia msg plugin treeonlinux/social-block:service all off
noctalia msg plugin treeonlinux/social-block:service all timer 30
noctalia msg plugin treeonlinux/social-block:service all forever
noctalia msg plugin treeonlinux/social-block:service all allow slack
noctalia msg plugin treeonlinux/social-block:service all block slack
noctalia msg plugin treeonlinux/social-block:service all services
noctalia msg plugin treeonlinux/social-block:service all refresh

allow <id> and block <id> change one service without touching the others. services refreshes the list; refresh re-reads the state file and /etc/hosts. The helper also exposes list and the same allow/block commands directly:

sudo social-block-net list
sudo social-block-net allow slack
sudo social-block-net block slack

list is read-only and can be run without sudo; it prints id|category|name|domain-count|blocked|allowed.

Notes

What it writes. While blocking is on, social-block-net rewrites /etc/hosts with a block delimited by # >>> social-block >>> and # <<< social-block <<<. Turning it off removes exactly that block and leaves the rest of the file untouched. Before the first write it copies the current file to /etc/hosts.social-block.bak. If the block markers are incomplete (for example after an interrupted write), the helper refuses to touch the file and reports the backup path instead of deleting unrelated entries.

Per-service allowlist. /etc/social-block/allowed contains one service ID per line for services you have allowed. It is root-owned; the helper updates it when you use a panel toggle. on skips those services entirely, including their CDN/gateway entries. The file survives plugin updates; --uninstall removes it.

Services and domains. /etc/social-block/domains is the source of truth. Each service starts with a machine-readable header:

## slack | Social | Slack
slack.com
app.slack.com
...

The panel builds its rows and toggles from these headers. After adding a service, re-run bash install-helper.sh --update-domains from the plugin directory so the sudoers/doas rules include the new allow/block IDs. A legacy flat list with no headers is treated as one service called all.

Commands spawned. sudo/doas runs social-block-net on|off|status|allow|block. When close_apps is enabled the service runs flatpak kill and pkill for Discord/Slack-family apps. When close_windows is enabled it reads hyprctl clients -j and closes matching windows. Entries talk to each other with noctalia msg.

Enforcement is best-effort. /etc/hosts controls name resolution, not network access. The shipped list includes common CDN/gateway hosts (for example googlevideo.com, nflxvideo.net and gateway.discord.gg) and common DNS-over-HTTPS endpoints so secure DNS is less likely to bypass the block. A browser using DNS-over-TLS, a hard-coded resolver IP, or its own proxy can still reach a site; cached pages and already-open tabs may keep working until reloaded. An application that ignores /etc/hosts is outside the block's reach. On some systems a local service listening on 0.0.0.0 can also answer a blocked name; don't run a catch-all local server if you rely on hosts blocking.

NixOS and Guix. /etc/hosts is generated from the system configuration on both, and is replaced on every rebuild/reconfigure. Runtime toggling is not supported there. Use networking.extraHosts (NixOS) or hosts-service-type (Guix) for a static block, and do not run the helper. The panel still renders, but toggling reports an error.

Immutable distributions. Fedora Silverblue/Kinoite, openSUSE Aeon and similar systems keep /etc and /usr/local writable, so the helper works. If your system makes them read-only, install the helper at build time or use an overlay.

Uninstall. From the plugin directory, turn the block off and remove the system files:

bash install-helper.sh --uninstall
noctalia msg plugins disable treeonlinux/social-block

Disabling or uninstalling the plugin also turns the block off. If Noctalia crashes while blocking, run sudo social-block-net off. If /etc/hosts is damaged, restore the backup:

sudo cp /etc/hosts.social-block.bak /etc/hosts

Editing services. From the plugin directory, edit the root-owned list:

sudoedit /etc/social-block/domains
# doas-only systems:
doas vi /etc/social-block/domains

One domain per line; # starts a comment. Hosts entries are exact, so add the subdomains and CDNs you actually use (www, m, web, music, …); there are no wildcards. Run bash install-helper.sh --update-domains afterwards.

License. MIT.