Fullstop / Guides / A porn blocker developers can't code their way around
A porn blocker developers can't code their way around
Last updated November 2, 2026
Knowing Terminal won't get you around Fullstop, and neither will asking an AI. Fullstop makes your account a standard user and locks the admin password behind a 3-day wait. Every tool you'd use to get around it needs admin: sudo, launchctl, editing /etc/hosts, removing a profile, killing a root process, changing the clock. AI coding agents run as you, so they hit the same wall. The only way out takes 3 days, and nobody waits 3 days to goon.
The developer problem: you know exactly how blockers work
If you can code, every blocker is a puzzle, and at 1 a.m. the urge turns you into a very motivated hacker.
Hosts file? sudo nano /etc/hosts. DNS filter? networksetup. Browser extension? Open another browser. Timer app? Kill its daemon, or roll the clock forward. Screen Time? You set the passcode, so you know it.
These days you don't even need to know any of that. Paste the error into ChatGPT, or tell Claude Code or Cursor to "get rid of this blocker," and it'll walk you through it in under a minute. Every blocker that leaves you as the admin is one prompt away from gone.
I know, because I'm one of you. I built Fullstop myself, I know every part of it, and I still can't get around it. That isn't a boast about clever code. It's how macOS permissions work.
Why being good at Terminal doesn't help
Most blockers rely on obscurity: hide the uninstaller, relaunch when closed, bury the config. That only slows down someone who doesn't know where to look. You know where to look.
Fullstop relies on permissions instead. Every part of it is owned by root: the background guard, the blocklist, the Chrome policies, the 3-day clock and the admin password. Your account is a standard user. A standard user can't read, change, stop or delete root's files and processes, however well they know the system. It's the same rule that stops any app you install from wrecking your Mac.
That's why this page can tell you exactly how Fullstop works. Knowing how it works doesn't help, because the password isn't in the code. It's generated at random on your Mac during setup, stored where only root can read it, and never sent to a server. Nobody has it, including me.
What you'd try, and what happens
| What you'd try | What happens |
|---|---|
sudo anything | It's refused. Your account isn't an admin, and the admin password is 3 days away. |
Edit /etc/hosts | It's owned by root and locked against changes. If it changes anyway, the guard puts it back within 60 seconds. |
launchctl bootout the guard | It's a system service. Only root can stop services in the system domain. |
kill -9 the guard | You can only send signals to your own processes, and the guard runs as root. |
| Remove the SafeSearch or Chrome policy | It's a configuration profile, and only an admin can remove those. |
| Change DNS, or switch networks | Nothing happens. The blocklist lives on the Mac, not in your DNS, so it works on every network. |
| Roll the clock forward 3 days | Standard users can't change the date or time on a Mac. |
Make yourself an admin (dscl, dseditgroup) | Changing the admin group needs an admin. |
| Recovery Mode | It needs an admin password or the FileVault recovery key. Fullstop replaces the recovery key at setup and holds both behind the same 3 days. |
| Install Firefox, build Chromium, run a portable browser | Closed within 2 seconds and deleted. Fullstop spots browsers by their engine and by whether they open web links, not by their name. |
| A VPN: WireGuard, OpenVPN, Tailscale, a VPN app | Making a tunnel needs root or a system extension, VPN apps are deleted, and any VPN connection that starts is cut. School VPNs are the exception. |
| A proxy flag or a proxy extension in Chrome | Chrome is locked by policy to refuse proxies, and new extensions take 3 days. |
| A VM: Docker, UTM, Parallels, Lima, qemu, Wine | Closed, including command-line ones. A second computer inside your Mac would have its own unblocked internet. |
| Ask Claude, ChatGPT, Codex or Cursor to do it | The agent runs as you. Same standard-user permissions, same wall. |
Can AI get you around it?
No, and it's worth saying why, because this is how most blockers get beaten now.
An AI coding agent is just a process running under your account. Everything it runs, you're running. It can write a perfect uninstall script, but the script still runs as a standard user, and a standard user can't delete root's files. It can't sudo without the admin password, and it can't read the password, because only root can.
There's nobody to talk round, either. The code isn't on a server, so there's no support team to email at 2 a.m. and no API to trick. The only thing holding the password is a clock, and you can't prompt-inject a clock.
The honest part: time is the real lock
Could a determined developer find a trick somewhere that doesn't need admin? Maybe. If you find one, report it: it gets closed and written up on the build log, like every loophole before it.
But think about what that means at 1 a.m. All the easy paths need admin, so you're looking at hours of research and building, against a system designed to close what you find. Here's the thing I learned the hard way: time is what cures this. The urge is strong, but it doesn't last. If you wait it out, it goes away. The trouble is none of us has the patience to wait, so we reach for the fastest way around.
Fullstop takes the fast ways away. What's left is a 3-day wait, or an evening of reverse engineering. You're not going to wait 3 days to goon, and an evening of hacking is plenty of time for the urge to pass. Your brain knows it isn't getting anything tonight, so it stops pushing, and you don't even attempt it. Fullstop doesn't have to be impossible to beat. It has to take longer than the urge lasts.
Will it break my dev setup?
Most of it keeps working. Some of it won't, and you should know which before you install.
Keeps working
- Terminal, git, SSH and your editor
- Node, Python, Go, Rust and other tools in your home folder
- Homebrew formulae, if Homebrew was already installed
- Local servers on localhost
- Playwright and Puppeteer's test Chromium (Chrome's rules apply)
- The Claude and Codex desktop apps
- macOS updates, and installers from approved companies
Won't work
- Docker Desktop and any VM (Docker is a VM on a Mac)
- Testing in Safari or Firefox
- Anything that needs
sudo - Editing
/etc/hostsfor local domains - Homebrew casks that run a .pkg installer
- Installers from companies not on the approved list (3 days)
Two tips. For local domains, use *.localhost (like myapp.localhost): Chrome sends those to your own machine without touching /etc/hosts. And when you need admin for something, plan it: request the code on Monday and install on Thursday. It's the same delay that protects you at 1 a.m.
If you need Docker or Safari testing on this Mac every day, Fullstop isn't right for this machine yet. Tell us; if enough developers ask, we'll work on it.
Setting it up as a developer
- Clear out your stash first. Fullstop blocks sites, not files. Check the places a developer would hide things: Downloads, a folder with a boring name, external drives, and Google Drive, iCloud and Dropbox. Delete it all, then empty the Trash.
- Install your toolchain now. While you still have admin, install Homebrew, anything that needs
sudo, and any .pkg you'll need for work. - Install Fullstop on a good day. Your account becomes a standard user and a hidden admin account is created with a random password nobody sees.
- Go back to work. Code as normal. Every way off is 3 days away, and that's the point.
Questions developers ask
Is the admin password anywhere I could find it?
No. It's generated at random on your Mac during setup and stored where only root can read it. It isn't in Fullstop's code, it isn't in your keychain, and it's never sent to a server. It's different on every Mac, so knowing one Mac's code never unlocks another.
Can I use sudo for work?
Not without the code. The Admin tasks button covers the common jobs without it: macOS updates, and installers from approved companies like Adobe, Microsoft, Zoom, MathWorks and Cisco. For anything else, request the code and it arrives in 3 days.
Does Homebrew still work?
If you installed Homebrew before setup, formulae that install into your Homebrew folder usually keep working, because you own that folder. Casks that run a .pkg installer need admin. Installing Homebrew for the first time needs admin, so do it before you set Fullstop up.
Can I use Docker?
No. On a Mac, Docker runs a Linux virtual machine, and any VM is a second computer with its own internet that Fullstop's blocks can't reach. Docker Desktop, Colima, Lima, UTM and the rest are closed.
Can I test my site in Safari or Firefox?
No. Chrome is the only browser that runs, because it's the one Fullstop can lock down. Playwright and Puppeteer's test Chromium works, and Chrome's rules apply to it too.
I could write something that gets around it. What then?
Then please report it. Every loophole that gets reported is closed for everyone and written up in public. And notice how long it took you: that's time the urge didn't survive.
Does it watch my screen or read my code?
No. Fullstop blocks whole sites and apps by name. It never looks at your screen, takes screenshots or sends anything off your Mac.
Time is what cures an urge. The trouble is, in the moment, none of us has the patience to wait one out. So Fullstop makes the wait for you: every way off takes 3 days, and nobody waits 3 days to goon. No accountability partner, no reports, no account, no card. Mac, Apple silicon.