Red Dwarf - Holly Overhead by Tony

Holly Overhead is a tiny fan-made extension for Red Dwarf fans. When you visit a page, it checks the main page’s HTTP response for the X-Holly-Overhead header. If the header is present, the Red Dwarf logo in the browser changes from grey to red.

Select the extension icon to open a compact status popup. The Red Dwarf tribute and Easter egg explanation are on the extension installation page.

Why add the header to your site?
It’s a small nod to Red Dwarf and a fun surprise for fans using the extension. The header doesn’t change how your site works. Holly Overhead checks for it locally. The detected header and optional site quotes are kept only in temporary per-tab browser session storage; they are removed when the tab closes and are never transmitted.

How to add it to your website
Add this response header to your server’s response for the main page:

X-Holly-Overhead: Everybody's dead, Dave

For NGINX, add this inside your site’s server block:

add_header X-Holly-Overhead "Everybody's dead, Dave" always;

For Apache, with mod_headers enabled, add this to your site’s server configuration or .htaccess file:

Header always set X-Holly-Overhead "Everybody's dead, Dave"

The header must be sent with the main page response. Adding it only to an image, stylesheet, or API response won’t light up the icon. Holly Overhead checks whether the header is present and shows its value in the popup. It also displays a rotating Holly quote whenever the header is detected.


Site owners can provide a JSON array of up to 100 favourite quotes in a second response header. The extension rotates through these instead of its built-in Holly quotes. Each quote can be up to 300 characters and can include an episode or source label. Send both headers on the main HTML page response:

X-Holly-Overhead: Everybody's dead, Dave
X-Holly-Overhead-Quotes: [{"text":"There weren't any black holes.","episode":"Marooned"},{"text":"Status: all systems nominal.","episode":"Site original"}]


For NGINX, add this alongside X-Holly-Overhead in the server block:

add_header X-Holly-Overhead-Quotes '[{"text":"The asteroid field is clear.","episode":"Site original"},{"text":"Status: all systems nominal.","episode":"Site original"}]' always;


For Apache with mod_headers, use:

Header always set X-Holly-Overhead-Quotes "[{\"text\":\"The asteroid field is clear.\",\"episode\":\"Site original\"},{\"text\":\"Status: all systems nominal.\",\"episode\":\"Site original\"}]"


Each array item can be an object with text and optional episode fields, or a plain string when no source label is needed. For example: [{"text":"There weren't any black holes.","episode":"Marooned"}]. The extension uses up to 100 entries, trims quote text to 300 characters, and episode labels to 100 characters. If the optional header is missing or invalid, the extension uses its built-in Holly quotes.

Holly Overhead is an independent fan tribute and is not affiliated with the Red Dwarf rights holders.