GOBLIN GUARD ALPHA

A lightweight Chrome extension that accidently unalives sponsored ads on YouTube videos and YT shorts.

To do: Browser compatibility [brave+others], fix bug where an ad being dismissed somehow reroutes the video back 10 seconds [likely a YT side issue but an easy one to curb].

Works on: Videos, shorts, livestreams, music, and playlists.

What It Does

• Detects when YouTube is playing a video ad
• Mutes audio and blacks out the player during that time
• Restores sound and video automatically when normal content resumes
• Automatically scrolls past ads in shorts after allowing them to load to keep YT from throwing a tantrum
• If mute and blind ad is served regardless of Goblin Guard, Goblin Guard now refreshes the page leaving you right back where you were, no wait necescarry

This isn’t about blocking ads — it’s about letting the ad run while you step away or tune out.

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How It Works

This extension watches for the subtle “Sponsored” badge YouTube uses to mark ad segments.
When it appears, we mute the video and cover it visually — just like you'd do manually if you saw an ad start.

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What It Was Meant To Do

Originally, this was built to quiet sudden volume spikes during mid-roll ads SO I COULD FUCKING SLEEP WITHOUT WAKING UP TO AN AUDIO JUMPSCARE.
That’s it — not block, not skip, not hack.

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Why It Doesn’t Just Mute Anymore

Turns out, YouTube doesn’t like when ads are muted — it will instead refuses to serve the ad entirely if audio can’t be auto-played.

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Stability & Privacy

• We’ve built in fail-safes and countermeasures to keep it working even as YouTube evolves, but this is just prolonging the eventual catches installed for this.
• No analytics, no tracking, no data collected or transmitted.
• When YouTube changes again, we’re already a couple versions ahead. So if you have issues, reach out to me on Discord so we can get the latest version uploaded!

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How To Install

1. Download or clone this repo into a folder (3 files total):
   • manifest.json
   • content.js
   • icon.png (optional)
2. Open Chrome and go to chrome://extensions/
3. Enable Developer Mode (toggle in top right)
4. Click “Load unpacked”
5. Select the folder where you saved the files

That’s it — it runs silently in the background on any YouTube video.

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Tip

Want to see what it’s doing?
Open DevTools → Console and turn on logging by setting DEBUG = true in content.js. You'll be able to see when ads are silenced.

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License

MIT — free to use, fork, adapt, or forget about.