Keep watch over what reaches your home.

Vigil builds filters that apply a household's values to everything it reads, watches, and buys online. Families start from a baseline written by an institution they trust, then adjust it to fit.

Read our mission
The problem

Content is growing faster than anyone can read it

Software can now produce a convincing post, video, or product listing in seconds and at almost no cost. Most of it is made to hold attention, and more of it every month is made by machines.

The controls people have were built for a smaller internet. Platforms rank what remains by what keeps you scrolling.

What platforms offer

  • Mute a word
  • Block an account
  • Mark a video "not interested"

What a household needs

  • Rules stated as values
  • The same rules on every platform
  • A reason shown for every hidden item
Our approach

A baseline from people you trust, adjusted at home

Writing a good filter takes weeks of thought about hard cases: a fair argument from the other side, satire, news that is painful and true. Most families do not have that time.

Institutions that already help form consciences can do that work once, for everyone they serve, and keep it current. Our first baseline draws on the Catholic Church's teaching about social media and artificial intelligence.

Institution baseline Teaching turned into rules, kept current Your household Adjusts the baseline to your family Parent Adjusts for themselves Child Stays within the household
Each layer works inside the one around it. Every hidden item shows which rule hid it.
Mission
A vigil is a watch kept through the night by people who stay awake so that others can rest.

Vigil's mission is to turn reasoned teaching into a filter a household can adopt in one step, then adjust for its own children and circumstances.

We want our software to keep that kind of watch over a family's feeds. It explains every choice it makes, and the people it serves always have the final word. Our aim is to leave each person better able to think for themselves.

Matt Monihan, Vigil

Products

What families can use today

Available

Prayer app

A prayer app for individuals and families.

keepvigil.net Available

Kids TV station

A TV station for children.

conshy.xyz/tv
Coming soon

Social media filter

Applies a household's baseline to its social media feeds.

Who it is for

Built with institutions, for families

Institutions

Publish a baseline for the people you serve.

  • Write rules in plain language, with sources
  • Update them as content and technology change
  • Sponsor access for your members

Families

Adopt a baseline in one step and adjust it at home.

  • Filtering on the sites you already use, starting with X, YouTube, and Amazon
  • A reason shown for every hidden item
  • One click to correct a decision
The lab

The problems we work on every day

Getting inside the platforms

The large platforms were not built to let an outside filter in. We research ways to apply a household's rules where people already read, watch, and shop.

Almost no setup

A filter only helps if a family keeps it turned on. We design for adoption in one step and an interface that stays out of the way.