Like most of you, I've lost count of how many times I've gone through this loop: try my usual password → "must contain a special character" → try again → "cannot be the same as your last 3 passwords" → give up and reset.
The irony is that every website already has these composition rules — they just don't show them until you fail. So I built a Chrome extension that surfaces the password requirements directly below the input field before you start typing.
How it works:
* Detects password fields automatically on any website
* Looks up the site's password rules from a community-maintained database
* Displays min/max length, required character types, special character restrictions, etc. as a small card below the input
The extension never reads, stores, or transmits your actual passwords. It only displays publicly available composition rules. No account required, no tracking — just an anonymous ID to prevent spam contributions.
The rule database currently covers 30+ major sites (Chase, Google, Microsoft, etc.) and is fully community-driven — anyone can contribute missing rules. The whole thing is open source.
I'd love feedback from the HN community, especially:
Sites you'd want covered that aren't in the database yet
Ideas for detecting password rules automatically (scraping help text, etc.)
1 comment
[ 4.8 ms ] story [ 13.1 ms ] threadThe irony is that every website already has these composition rules — they just don't show them until you fail. So I built a Chrome extension that surfaces the password requirements directly below the input field before you start typing.
How it works:
* Detects password fields automatically on any website
* Looks up the site's password rules from a community-maintained database
* Displays min/max length, required character types, special character restrictions, etc. as a small card below the input
The extension never reads, stores, or transmits your actual passwords. It only displays publicly available composition rules. No account required, no tracking — just an anonymous ID to prevent spam contributions.
The rule database currently covers 30+ major sites (Chase, Google, Microsoft, etc.) and is fully community-driven — anyone can contribute missing rules. The whole thing is open source.
I'd love feedback from the HN community, especially:
Sites you'd want covered that aren't in the database yet
Ideas for detecting password rules automatically (scraping help text, etc.)
Whether this is something you'd actually install
GitHub: https://github.com/kingname/dont-reset-password
Landing page: https://drp.kingname.info