Touchstone

Tracking since May 21, 2026.

Changelog

• May 27, 2026
  description

  # Touchstone — Chrome Web Store Description
  
  Your new tab, but make it yours.
  
  Touchstone replaces Chrome's blank new tab page with a calm, customizable dashboard you actually want to open. Start with a clean slate, then add the pieces of your day that matter — a quick note, a habit you're building, what you're reading, the day you're counting down to. Nothing more, nothing less.
  
  Every open tab becomes a small moment of intention instead of another search bar.
  
  ---
  
  ## Why people install Touchstone
  
  **It's a dashboard, not a distraction.** Default new tabs push you toward content you didn't ask for — top sites, sponsored thumbnails, news you'll regret clicking. Touchstone does the opposite: it gives you back that screen and lets you decide what belongs there. Open a tab, see your day. Close the loop, get back to work.
  
  **It's calm by design.** Soft palettes, generous spacing, and zero notifications. No badges, no streak shame, no algorithm. The interface gets out of the way so the content you put there can breathe.
  
  **It's actually yours.** Pick from 20+ modules — keep the three you need, ignore the rest. Drag panels into the layout that suits how your brain works. Swap themes, accent colors, and fonts until the whole thing feels like home. You're not being shown a template; you're building a workspace.
  
  **Your data never leaves your computer.** Everything you write — every note, intention, gratitude entry, todo, habit check-in, mood log, countdown, sleep record — is stored locally in your browser. No account. No sign-in. No cloud sync. No analytics. No telemetry. No tracking pixels. Touchstone has no servers because it doesn't need any.
  
  **It's free, with no upsells.** No "pro" tier nagging you, no premium-locked features hidden behind a paywall, no trial countdowns. The whole thing is yours to use, forever.
  
  ---
  
  ## What's inside
  
  Touchstone ships with a library of modules you can mix and match. Add the ones you'll use, leave the rest off. Every module is optional, drag-rearrangeable, resizable, and minimizable.
  
  ### For focus and flow
  
  **Pomodoro Timer** — A clean focus/break cycle that survives tab switches and browser restarts. Set your own focus and break lengths. Soft chime on completion. Works across multiple tabs without drifting.
  
  **Quick Notes** — A scratchpad that's always one tab away. Type a phone number, an idea, a half-finished sentence. It saves itself as you type and is there when you come back.
  
  **Daily Agenda** — Block out the hours of your day. Drop in meetings, deep work sessions, errands. See the shape of your day at a glance.
  
  **Movement Reminder** — Set a gentle nudge every 30, 45, or 60 minutes. Stand up, stretch, look out a window. Optional, never pushy.
  
  ### For intention and reflection
  
  **Daily Intentions** — Write the 1–3 things you actually want to do today. Not a 47-item todo list. Just what matters.
  
  **Gratitude** — Three small things, every day. Save them, scroll back through past entries on quiet mornings.
  
  **Daily Wins** — At the end of the day, log what you actually got done. The opposite of intentions — proof that the day mattered.
  
  **Mood Check-in** — Tap an emoji or slider, watch your mood trend over a week or month. No judgments, no scores, just a quiet record.
  
  **Rejection Therapy** — Inspired by the practice of asking for small things and being told no. Log each ask, who you asked, what they said. Watch your discomfort tolerance grow.
  
  **Decisions Journal** — Capture the calls you're making, why you made them, what you predicted would happen. Come back in three months and see how often you were right.
  
  ### For habits and growth
  
  **Habit Tracker** — Daily checkboxes with streak counters. Add as many habits as you want, mark them done, watch your streaks build. Resets each day. DST-safe.
  
  **Reading Tracker** — What you're currently reading, how many pages you've turned, where you're aiming to be. Track multiple books or just the one you're stuck on.
  
  **Sleep Log** — Bedtime and wake time, with a rolling history. See your sleep debt without an app charging you a subscription for the privilege.
  
  **Water Tracker** — Tap to add a glass. Reset each day. That's it.
  
  ### For perspective
  
  **Countdown** — Set a date and a label — vacation, deadline, birthday, anniversary. See the days melting away (or filling up) right on your dashboard.
  
  **Quote of the Day** — A small piece of wisdom waiting in your tab, picked from a curated library that lives inside the extension itself (no network call).
  
  **On This Day** — A historical event from today's date, pulled from Wikipedia. Gives a tab a little flavor.
  
  **Wikipedia Article of the Day** — Today's featured article in a glance. Click through if it catches you.
  
  ### For utility
  
  **Quick Links** — Your most-used sites, one click away. Drag to reorder. Each one shows its favicon so you can find it without reading.
  
  **Clock & Date** — A clean read of the time and date, in your local timezone, without ever asking you for it.
  
  ---
  
  ## How customization works
  
  Open the side drawer (or the settings gear) and you'll find the module library. Toggle any module on or off. Newly enabled modules appear on your dashboard immediately, ready to use.
  
  Once a module is on:
  
  - **Drag** the panel header to move it anywhere on the grid
  - **Resize** with the corner handle to make it bigger or smaller
  - **Minimize** to collapse it down to just its title bar
  - **Remove** to wipe its data and hide it again
  
  The dashboard remembers your layout per browser, so it looks the same every time you open a new tab.
  
  ### Themes
  
  - **Light or dark mode** — toggle freely, or auto-match your system
  - **Accent color** — pick the highlight that runs through buttons, headers, and links
  - **Background** — soft solid colors, gentle gradients, or your own palette
  - **Font family** — choose what feels right to read all day
  
  ---
  
  ## How it works (the boring privacy part, but actually important)
  
  Touchstone is built as a Manifest V3 Chrome extension that overrides your new tab page. The entire dashboard runs locally in your browser. There is no backend server. There is no developer dashboard collecting usage data. There is no third-party analytics SDK bundled inside the extension.
  
  **What's stored locally** (in your browser's localStorage, scoped to this extension):
  - Every entry you make in every module
  - Your layout, theme, accent color, and font preferences
  - Your enabled module list
  - That's it.
  
  **What touches the internet** (anonymous, read-only, public content only):
  - **Wikipedia article of the day** — a request to en.wikipedia.org for today's featured article
  - **On This Day** — a request to en.wikipedia.org for historical events on today's date
  
  That's the entire network surface. If you remove those two modules from your dashboard, Touchstone makes zero network requests, ever. No personal data is ever sent in any request — only the date.
  
  **What's never sent anywhere:**
  - Your notes, intentions, gratitude entries, todos, habits, mood, wins, decisions, countdowns, sleep, water, movement records, reading log, rejection therapy log, quick links — none of it
  - Your IP address (we don't have a server to log it)
  - Your browsing history (we don't see it, we just give you a new tab page)
  - Your identity (there isn't one — no account exists)
  
  You can read the full privacy policy from the settings menu inside the extension at any time.
  
  ---
  
  ## Who Touchstone is for
  
  **You, if** you've ever opened a new tab, stared at the search bar for three seconds, and then forgotten what you were going to do.
  
  **You, if** you've tried Notion or Sunsama or Todoist and ended up spending more time configuring them than actually using them. Touchstone is meant to be set up once in five minutes and then quietly used for years.
  
  **You, if** you keep a paper journal but wish you also had something digital that didn't feel like work.
  
  **You, if** you've been burned by productivity apps that ship a free tier, get acquired, raise prices, and turn into something you no longer recognize. Touchstone is local — it can't pivot away from you.
  
  **You, if** you'd rather see your three intentions for the day than a CNN headline about something happening across the world.
  
  **You, if** you just want a quieter internet, one tab at a time.
  
  ---
  
  ## What Touchstone is not
  
  - Not a calendar replacement — it doesn't connect to Google Calendar or Outlook
  - Not a full project management tool — there's no Kanban board, no sub-tasks, no nested projects
  - Not a habit-tracking SaaS — there's no social layer, no friends-list, no leaderboard
  - Not a sync service — your data stays on the device you're using
  - Not collecting anything about you — we genuinely mean it
  
  If those things are deal-breakers, there are great tools for each of them. Touchstone is meant to be the calm middle layer between your browser and the rest of your day — not a replacement for everything else.
  
  ---
  
  ## A note on cross-device sync
  
  Touchstone v1 is local-only. Your data lives on the device you're using. If you use Touchstone on your laptop and your desktop, you'll have two separate dashboards.
  
  This is intentional for the first release: no servers means no privacy risk, no subscription, no breach surface, no possibility of someone else seeing what you wrote. For most people who use one main computer, this is a feature, not a limitation.
  
  If cross-device sync is important to you and you'd be willing to pay a few dollars a month to cover server costs, let us know via the feedback link inside settings — there's a future version where this exists, behind a clear opt-in, with end-to-end encryption.
  
  ---
  
  ## Getting started
  
  After installing:
  
  1. Open a new tab. Touchstone replaces the default new tab page.
  2. A short onboarding screen will ask which modules you want to start with. Pick a few. (You can always add or remove modules later.)
  3. Your dashboard appears. Start filling it in.
  4. Open settings (the gear icon) to change themes, add more modules, or rearrange your layout.
  
  Five minutes of setup, years of use.
  
  ---
  
  ## Disabling or uninstalling
  
  You can disable Touchstone's new tab override at any time from `chrome://extensions` — your default new tab page will return immediately.
  
  You can remove the extension entirely from the same page. To wipe Touchstone's stored data without uninstalling, go to `chrome://settings/cookies`, search for the extension, and clear its storage.
  
  ---
  
  ## Feedback
  
  Touchstone is built by one person who uses it every day. If you find a bug, want a feature, or just have an opinion, there's a feedback link in the settings menu. Real humans read it.
  
  ---
  
  ## Touchstone, in one line
  
  A calm, customizable new tab dashboard that grows with you, stays out of your way, and keeps every word you write on your own computer.
  
  Install it. Open a tab. See what your day could feel like.

  Your new tab, but make it yours.
  
  Touchstone replaces Chrome's blank new tab page with a calm, customizable dashboard you actually want to open. Start with a clean slate, then add the pieces of your day that matter — a quick note, a habit you're building, what you're reading, the day you're counting down to. Nothing more, nothing less.
  
  Every open tab becomes a small moment of intention instead of another search bar.
  
  
  ━━━ WHY PEOPLE INSTALL TOUCHSTONE ━━━
  
  It's a dashboard, not a distraction. Default new tabs push you toward content you didn't ask for — top sites, sponsored thumbnails, news you'll regret clicking. Touchstone does the opposite: it gives you back that screen and lets you decide what belongs there.
  
  It's calm by design. Soft palettes, generous spacing, and zero notifications. No badges, no streak shame, no algorithm.
  
  It's actually yours. Pick from 20+ modules — keep the three you need, ignore the rest. Drag panels into the layout that suits how your brain works. Swap themes, accent colors, and fonts.
  
  Your data never leaves your computer. Everything you write is stored locally in your browser. No account. No sign-in. No cloud sync. No analytics. No telemetry. No tracking pixels. Touchstone has no servers because it doesn't need any.
  
  
  ━━━ WHAT'S INSIDE ━━━
  
  FOR FOCUS AND FLOW
  • Pomodoro Timer — clean focus/break cycle that survives tab switches and browser restarts
  • Quick Notes — a scratchpad that's always one tab away, autosaves as you type
  • Daily Agenda — block out the hours of your day, see its shape at a glance. Standalone for now; Google Calendar and Outlook sync aren't built yet
  • Movement Reminder — a gentle nudge every 30, 45, or 60 minutes
  
  FOR INTENTION AND REFLECTION
  • Daily Intentions — the 1–3 things you actually want to do today
  • Gratitude — three small things, every day, with a scrollable history
  • Daily Wins — log what you actually got done at end of day
  • Mood Check-in — tap an emoji or slider, watch your mood trend over a week or month
  • Rejection Therapy — log each ask, who you asked, what they said
  • Decisions Journal — capture the calls you're making and what you predicted
  
  FOR HABITS AND GROWTH
  • Habit Tracker — daily checkboxes with streak counters, DST-safe
  • Reading Tracker — current book, pages turned, goal
  • Sleep Log — bedtime and wake time, with a rolling history
  • Water Tracker — tap to add a glass, resets each day
  
  FOR PERSPECTIVE
  • Countdown — set a date and label, watch the days melt away
  • Quote of the Day — picked from a curated library inside the extension (no network call)
  • On This Day — a historical event from today's date, via Wikipedia
  • Wikipedia Article of the Day — today's featured article at a glance
  
  FOR UTILITY
  • Quick Links — your most-used sites, one click away
  • Clock & Date — a clean read of the time and date
  
  
  ━━━ HOW CUSTOMIZATION WORKS ━━━
  
  Open the side drawer or settings gear to find the module library. Toggle any module on or off.
  
  Once a module is on:
  • Drag the panel header to move it anywhere on the grid
  • Resize with the corner handle to make it bigger or smaller
  • Minimize to collapse it down to just its title bar
  • Remove to wipe its data and hide it again
  
  Themes: light or dark mode (or auto-match system), pick an accent color, choose a background (solids, gradients, or your own palette), and a font family that feels right to read all day.
  
  
  ━━━ PRIVACY (THE BORING PART, BUT IT MATTERS) ━━━
  
  Touchstone is a Manifest V3 extension that overrides your new tab page. The entire dashboard runs locally. There is no backend server. No developer dashboard collects usage data. No third-party analytics SDK is bundled.
  
  WHAT'S STORED LOCALLY (in your browser, scoped to this extension):
  • Every entry you make in every module
  • Your layout, theme, accent color, and font preferences
  • Your enabled module list
  
  WHAT TOUCHES THE INTERNET (anonymous, read-only, public content only):
  • Wikipedia Article of the Day — a request to en.wikipedia.org
  • On This Day — a request to en.wikipedia.org for events on today's date
  
  If you remove those two modules, Touchstone makes zero network requests, ever. Only the date is ever sent.
  
  WHAT'S NEVER SENT ANYWHERE:
  • Your notes, intentions, gratitude, todos, habits, mood, wins, decisions, countdowns, sleep, water, movement, reading, rejection therapy, quick links
  • Your IP address (we have no server to log it)
  • Your browsing history (we don't see it)
  • Your identity (there isn't one — no account exists)
  
  
  ━━━ WHO TOUCHSTONE IS FOR ━━━
  
  You, if you've ever opened a new tab, stared at the search bar for three seconds, and forgotten what you were going to do.
  
  You, if you've tried Notion or Sunsama or Todoist and spent more time configuring them than using them. Touchstone is meant to be set up once in five minutes and quietly used for years.
  
  You, if you keep a paper journal but wish you also had something digital that didn't feel like work.
  
  You, if you've been burned by productivity apps that ship free, get acquired, raise prices, and turn into something you don't recognize.
  
  You, if you'd rather see your three intentions than a CNN headline.
  
  You, if you just want a quieter internet, one tab at a time.
  
  
  ━━━ A NOTE ON CROSS-DEVICE SYNC ━━━
  
  Touchstone v1 is local-only. If you use it on a laptop and a desktop, you'll have two separate dashboards. This is intentional: no servers means no privacy risk, no subscription, no breach surface.
  
  If cross-device sync matters to you, let us know via the feedback link in settings — a future version may add this behind a clear opt-in, end-to-end encrypted.
  
  
  ━━━ GETTING STARTED ━━━
  
  1. Open a new tab. Touchstone replaces the default new tab page.
  2. A short onboarding asks which modules you want to start with.
  3. Your dashboard appears. Start filling it in.
  4. Open settings to change themes, add modules, or rearrange your layout.
  
  Five minutes of setup, years of use.
  
  
  ━━━ FEEDBACK, IDEAS, AND REVIEWS ━━━
  
  Touchstone is built by one person who uses it every day. Your feedback is seen, and every note, idea, and complaint is taken into consideration.
  
  If you find a bug, hit something confusing, or have an opinion about how a module should work — tell us. The feedback link lives in the settings menu.
  
  Have an idea for a new module? Send it. The 20+ modules in here today started as someone's "wouldn't it be cool if…" — and the next one might be yours. Tell us what's missing from your dashboard and we'll build the ones that resonate.
  
  And if Touchstone has earned a spot in your day — please leave a review on the Chrome Web Store. Honest reviews are what help other people find this extension instead of the noisy default new tab page. Even one sentence makes a difference.
  
  
  Touchstone, in one line: A calm, customizable new tab dashboard that grows with you, stays out of your way, and keeps every word you write on your own computer.
  
  Install it. Open a tab. See what your day could feel like.

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