Support — OnCrest

Getting started

Install from the Chrome Web Store

Find OnCrest in the Chrome Web Store and click "Add to Chrome." Accept the permissions prompt. OnCrest requires access to tab events and scroll events in your browser to detect behavioral patterns. It does not require access to page content.

Pin the extension

Click the puzzle-piece icon in the Chrome toolbar, find OnCrest in the list, and click the pin icon to keep it visible in the toolbar. The OnCrest icon in the toolbar is how you access the popup for setting intent, activating Lockdown, and adjusting settings.

Configure your sites

Open the extension popup by clicking the OnCrest icon. Go to Settings and add the sites you want OnCrest to monitor. You can specify full domains (youtube.com, reddit.com, twitter.com) or use the site categories provided as a starting point. Any site not on your list is ignored by the behavioral detection system.

Write your intent for the session

When you are ready to start a work session, click the OnCrest icon and write your intent in the text field: one or two sentences describing what you are trying to accomplish. Specific is better than vague. "Finish the first draft of the project proposal and review the budget sheet" is more useful than "be productive." Click "Start session." OnCrest is now active.

Review your dashboard

After a session, open the popup and go to Dashboard. You will see a log of which behavioral patterns fired, how you responded to each intervention, and a daily view of your session history. The dashboard is local and does not sync to any external service.

Common issues

Extension not loading after install

If the OnCrest icon doesn't appear in the toolbar after installing, try refreshing the Chrome extensions page at chrome://extensions. Ensure OnCrest is enabled (the toggle should be blue). If the issue persists, removing and reinstalling the extension usually resolves it. If that doesn't work, email with your Chrome version and OS.

Intent gate not triggering on configured sites

Confirm the site is in your configured list (open the popup and check Settings). If it is listed, check whether OnCrest is paused: the popup shows a pause indicator when interventions are suspended. Also confirm that the extension has permissions for the site. If you added a site after install and interventions aren't firing there, try removing and re-adding it in Settings, then refresh the tab.

Dashboard not updating after sessions

The dashboard updates when you close a session from the popup. If you close the browser without formally ending the session, the session data may not be written correctly. In the current alpha, if you notice missing entries, try ending sessions via the popup rather than just closing tabs. This is a known issue in the alpha build and will be addressed in a future release.

Syncing between devices

There is no sync in the current alpha. All data is local to the browser where OnCrest is installed. If you use Chrome on multiple devices and want your intent history and dashboard data available on both, there is currently no way to achieve that. Sync support is planned but not yet implemented. Each device maintains its own independent record.

How to uninstall and what happens to your data

To uninstall: right-click the OnCrest icon in the toolbar and select "Remove from Chrome," or go to chrome://extensions, find OnCrest, and click "Remove." When you uninstall, all locally stored data (intent history, session records, behavioral pattern counts) is deleted with the extension. There is no account to delete because there is no account. The data only ever existed on your device.

How to recover from an accidental Lockdown

Lockdown mode does not have an early-exit option by design. If you activated Lockdown and need to end it before the timer expires, the only option in the current alpha is to remove and reinstall the extension. This resets all state. Your dashboard history will be lost. The session record of the Lockdown break is also lost. An emergency exit code option (that requires multiple confirmations and records the override prominently in the dashboard) is planned for a future build.

Reporting a bug

Email bugs@oncrest.app with the following:

What you expected to happen
What actually happened
Your Chrome version (find it at chrome://settings/help)
Your operating system (Windows, macOS, Linux, and version)
The site where the issue occurred, if relevant
A screenshot or screen recording if it helps explain what happened

I'm a solo developer and I respond within a few days, usually faster. If a bug is severe (data loss, extension crash, unrecoverable Lockdown), I treat it as high priority and try to respond the same day.

Suggesting a feature

Email contact@oncrest.app with the subject line "Feature suggestion." The most useful suggestions describe the problem you are trying to solve rather than the specific feature. "I need OnCrest to do X" is less useful than "I keep running into this situation and it's not handled well: here's what happens." Context about your use case helps determine whether a feature is the right solution or whether an existing capability covers it in a way that isn't obvious.

Not all suggestions will be implemented. OnCrest is designed to do specific things well rather than to accumulate features. But every suggestion is read, and patterns in what users ask for do influence the roadmap.

Alpha notes

OnCrest is in alpha. That means the core architecture is built and functional, but the product is not finished. Specific things that are stable: the intent contract onboarding, the three-layer intervention system, the regret dialog, the dashboard, Lockdown mode, and Focus mode for YouTube. These work and are usable daily.

Things that are likely to change: the behavioral detection thresholds (the specific numbers that trigger each state), the anti-desensitization rotation pool (which is small in this build), and the settings interface (which is functional but not polished). If a setting changes or a threshold is adjusted in a future build, the changelog will note it.

Things that are not yet implemented: built-in session timers, expansion of Focus mode beyond YouTube, device sync, and export of dashboard data. These are on the roadmap and will ship in later builds.

Alpha software sometimes loses data. It sometimes behaves in unexpected ways on specific configurations. Clearing your browser's local storage will also clear OnCrest's data. If you are relying on the dashboard record for something important, treat the current alpha data as potentially impermanent until a stable build ships.

One note for when OnCrest Bouncer ships: Bouncer is a desktop application that requires elevated system permissions to enforce network-level rules. The open-source code is available for review under BUSL 1.1. I'd encourage checking the code before installing any desktop app that requests elevated permissions, including this one. Install Bouncer only if you are comfortable with what it needs access to.