Note: This project was built during a hackathon! 🚀

SillyPult is a local macOS MVP where the catapult is the notification channel: any detected macOS notification can trigger it. Focus mode is an optional toggle that switches the helper into work-only notification filtering, and Chrome distraction handling is layered on top of that focused state.

• control-panel/: Next.js dashboard, settings editor, helper lifecycle UI, test tools
• helper/: Swift helper that captures notifications, stores state in SQLite, evaluates rules, and drives the host-side activation flow
• chrome-extension/: Chrome MV3 extension that posts active-domain updates to the helper
• firmware/: ESP32 catapult controller with WiFi HTTP control

Run the control panel:

npm run dev:panel

Run the helper directly:

npm run dev:helper

If the ESP32 is reachable over WiFi, the helper defaults to the firmware mDNS hostname. Override it only if your network cannot resolve sillypult.local:

export SILLYPULT_FIRMWARE_HOST=sillypult.local
export SILLYPULT_FIRMWARE_PORT=80
export SILLYPULT_FIRMWARE_TIMEOUT_SECONDS=30

Set the station-mode WiFi credentials directly in firmware/src/main.cpp before flashing the ESP32.

Helper tests:

npm run test:helper

Control panel lint/build:

npm run lint:panel
npm run build:panel

Load chrome-extension/ as an unpacked extension in Chrome. It reports active tab domains to http://127.0.0.1:42424/api/browser-activity, which the helper uses for focus-mode distraction events.

• Live macOS notification capture is best effort and currently keyed off usernotificationsd create events in the system log.
• Default behavior is any notification triggers.
• Focus mode is a manual toggle in the control panel.
• Test notifications emit a macOS toast and then mirror into the same helper rules engine, including the focus filter when active.
• Firmware launches are sent over WiFi as POST /launch.
• Completion is tracked by polling GET /status until ready: true.
• Firmware advertises itself on the local network as http://sillypult.local/.
• Helper stdout now emits [FIRMWARE] logs when commands are sent to the ESP32, when HTTP responses arrive, and while readiness is being polled.
• Local helper data is stored in ~/Library/Application Support/SillyPult/.

• Firmware and 3D Modeling: I wrote the C++ firmware for the ESP32 and designed the 3D models for the physical catapult.