What Guard Mode Actually Protects You From
Every friction tool has the same weak point: whoever sets it up can also turn it off. If a five-second trip into Settings undoes the whole thing, the tool only really works on days you don't feel like undoing it, which is exactly the opposite of when you need it. Guard Mode is Not Yet's answer to that weak point, and it's worth being precise about what it actually does, because "PIN protection" undersells it slightly.
It locks the loosening actions, not the tightening ones
Guard Mode's rule is simple and consistent everywhere it applies: turning something off requires your PIN. Turning something on never does. Disabling a blocked category, removing a custom site from your list, switching your unlock method to something easier, or turning Guard Mode off itself, all ask for the PIN. Adding a new category, adding a site to block, or tightening anything further never does. The asymmetry is the point: it should always be easy to make the tool stricter and always be gated to make it looser.
A lapsed subscription can never turn it off
Guard Mode is a Premium feature, but only turning it on is gated behind Premium. Keeping it on is never gated behind anything, including billing status. If a subscription lapses while Guard Mode is active, Guard Mode stays fully in force. This matters more for this app than most: it also covers an opt-in gambling and betting category, and a subscription silently lapsing is exactly the kind of moment a protection tool can't afford to quietly stop protecting.
Your own PIN always opens it
Guard Mode is not a lockout. You set the PIN yourself, and it's yours to use whenever you actually need to change a setting. If you forget it, Settings includes a master reset: it generates a long code on the spot and asks you to retype it exactly to confirm, deliberately more effortful than the PIN itself, then wipes the extension's local settings and starts you over at setup. That's the one and only recovery path, by design. There's no support ticket that can unlock it faster, because there's no server on the other end that could.
Guard Mode protects your settings from you, on a bad day. It was never meant to protect anyone from you, and it never phones home to check whether your subscription is current before deciding whether to keep working.
That's the whole feature: a PIN on the way out, never on the way in, and no version of "your payment lapsed, so protection is now off." For a tool whose entire job is standing between you and an impulsive tap, that guarantee is the part that actually matters.