/dev/null, the browser extension: it brings /dev/null to the sites developers work on. On GitHub, it makes /dev/null feel like a GitHub feature: read what developers ship about an organization, and commit about what you're looking at, without leaving GitHub. Anywhere else, share the article you're reading, with what you think of it.
It looks like GitHub, in its light, dark and high-contrast themes, and speaks like /dev/null.
Next to Repositories and People, the /dev/null tab shows the organization's log: every commit that mentions it, as on dev-null.sh, with its images, polls, quotes, link previews, replies and stars. Write a commit right above the log, with Write and Preview tabs, as you would comment on an issue.
On a repository, an issue, a pull request, a discussion or a release, a Commit button opens /dev/null's composer, ready to share the page:
- insert the page's link, the author's mention or the organization's mention from the toolbar, or type
@to pick one; nothing is added unless you choose to; - attach up to 3 images, each with a description for people who can't see it, or ask a question with a poll;
- preview the commit exactly as /dev/null will publish it.
An organization's discussions show the latest commits mentioning it, in an On /dev/null section next to GitHub's own.
Wherever GitHub lists people with a Follow button (an organization's People, a profile's followers and following, a repository's stargazers and watchers), a /dev/null Follow button sits next to it, and under it on a user's profile; it says Unfollow once you follow them. An organization can be followed the same way, from its page, when it is on /dev/null. Someone who isn't on /dev/null yet says so once you try.
The extension's popup shows your /dev/null profile, and lets you turn off anything the extension adds.
From the popup, Commit this page opens a composer on the page in your tab:
- its link is already there, without its tracking parameters (
utm_*,fbclid…), and the card /dev/null will show is above the text: its image, title and description; - text you selected on the page comes in as a quote;
- /dev/null is not a bookmark feed: Commit turns on once you've written 50 characters of your own, the link and the quote left out;
- a page that looks private (
localhost, your network, a link with a token) gets a warning before you share it.
Once committed, the popup says so and closes.
On any page, Alt+Shift+D opens the same composer over the page, without reaching for the mouse. On GitHub, it opens the page's own composer, or the organization log's. Change the shortcut in your browser's settings, or turn it off in the extension's.
Close a composer, or reload the page, and what you wrote comes back when you return, images included, as on
dev-null.sh: stash@{0}, with a way to drop it. A reply or a quote waiting this way shows stash@{0} on its
action.
- Chrome 137+ (and other Chromium browsers): install it from the Chrome Web Store.
- Firefox 129+: the extension isn't on Firefox Add-ons yet, and the archive isn't signed, so Firefox only loads it
until it restarts. Download
dev-null-ext-<version>-firefox.zipfrom the latest release, openabout:debugging#/runtime/this-firefox, then Load Temporary Add-on and pick the archive.
To try a release before it reaches the Chrome Web Store, unzip its dev-null-ext-<version>-chrome.zip, open
chrome://extensions, turn on Developer mode, then Load unpacked and pick the unzipped folder.
You can also build it from source, as described in CONTRIBUTING.md.
Then open the popup and Join with GitHub: already on /dev/null, you approve the extension as one of your devices on dev-null.sh, as you would a phone. Disconnecting revokes it.
- Besides github.com, the extension talks to dev-null.sh, to read logs and publish your commits, and to api.github.com, to look up the owners of the pages you share. Nothing else, and no telemetry.
- Outside GitHub, it reads a page only when you ask, from the popup or with Alt+Shift+D, and only that page: its address, title, link card and the text you selected. The card's image loads from the site itself. Nothing leaves your browser until you commit.
- What you write stays in your browser until you commit or drop it, and is forgotten when you disconnect.
- Your key is generated in the browser and can't be read back, not even by the extension: it only signs.
- It only uses /dev/null's public API and its existing sign-in.
The details are in the privacy policy.
Bug reports and ideas are welcome in the issues. To work on the code, see CONTRIBUTING.md; what's next is in TODO.md.