Safari extension setup — FocusDragon Docs

What you're enabling

The Safari extension ships inside the FocusDragon app — there's nothing to download from the App Store. It just needs to be switched on once, and given permission to read and modify pages on every website. That permission scope is what lets it both block distracting URLs and feed a short page-text excerpt to the AI classifier.

Safari 17 and newer (macOS Sonoma+)

Apple moved most extension management out of Safari and into System Settings starting in Safari 17. The toggle for FocusDragon lives in both places — either works, but if you can't find it in one, try the other.

1. Open Safari at least once after installing FocusDragon. This is what registers the extension with macOS — if you skip this step, the extension won't appear in either Settings pane.
2. Open Safari → Settings (⌘,) → Extensions.
3. Look for "FocusDragon" in the left-hand list. Tick the checkbox next to it.
4. With FocusDragon selected, click the "Edit Websites…" button at the bottom.
5. At the bottom of the websites pane, find the "When visiting other websites" dropdown and change it from "Ask" to "Allow". This is the All Websites permission.
6. Close the Settings window. The extension is now live in every Safari tab you open from this point on.

If "When visiting other websites" stays on "Ask" or "Deny", the extension cannot block anything and cannot supply page text to the AI classifier. Safari will silently fall back to doing nothing — there is no error message. This is by far the most common reason Safari blocks appear broken.

Older Safari (macOS Ventura and earlier)

1. Open Safari → Preferences → Extensions.
2. Tick the FocusDragon checkbox in the sidebar.
3. With FocusDragon selected, the right pane shows a permissions section. Click "Always Allow on Every Website" — Safari will pop a confirmation; click "Always Allow on Every Website" again.
4. Close Preferences.

Private Browsing

Safari treats Private Browsing as a separate permission surface. Granting All Websites access in normal mode does not propagate to private windows.

1. Back in Safari → Settings → Extensions, with FocusDragon selected, find the checkbox labeled "Allow in Private Browsing".
2. Tick it. Safari will warn that the extension can see your private browsing activity — click Allow.

Even with the extension allowed in Private Browsing, FocusDragon's AI classifier intentionally pauses while any private window is open. See the Incognito & private browsing page for the reasoning.

What to do if the FocusDragon extension doesn't appear at all

1. Quit Safari completely (⌘Q — closing the window is not enough).
2. Open the FocusDragon app. On first launch it registers the extension with macOS; if the app has never been opened, Safari has nothing to show.
3. Re-open Safari and re-check Settings → Extensions.
4. Still missing? Open System Settings → General → Login Items & Extensions → scroll to "Extensions" → click the (i) next to Safari Extensions. FocusDragon should be listed; toggle it on here.
5. As a last resort, drag FocusDragon.app to /Applications (not ~/Downloads), then re-launch it. macOS will not register Safari extensions for apps running from the Downloads folder or a translocated quarantine path.

Verifying it's wired up

You should see a small FocusDragon icon in the Safari toolbar (next to the address bar). If it's not there, click the puzzle-piece icon and pin FocusDragon. Click the icon on any page — it should pop a small panel showing the extension is active and connected to the FocusDragon app.