Claude Code kills smart TV ads: CleanYourTV goes viral with 37,000 GitHub stars

What it's about

A developer named Gathin T. was fed up with ads on his parents' Xiaomi TV: before you could get to Netflix, a sponsored ad popped up. He gave Anthropic's coding agent Claude Code the device's model number. The agent found the TV on the Wi-Fi network, disabled 25 Xiaomi software packages and wrote a new home screen modeled on Apple TV. According to Wccftech, he shared the experiment on X on October 17, 2026, and it grew into the open-source project CleanYourTV. It spread fast. Users call it "vibe coding" for your TV: you describe in plain language what you want, and an AI writes and runs the code.

How it works

The tool uses the Android Debug Bridge (ADB), a maintenance tool built into Android TVs. Once you unlock developer mode and enable USB/network debugging, a computer on the same Wi-Fi network can control the device and list all installed apps.

CleanYourTV first backs up the existing configuration, disables unwanted packages with the Android command pm disable-user, and installs a slim replacement launcher (home screen). No root access is needed. Because apps are only switched off and not deleted, tools/restore.sh can reset everything. According to note.com, the process takes about 15 minutes with the agent.

Examples from the community: Mihir Gupta replaced a 192 MB stock launcher with his own 83 MB one. Ansub Khan said free storage on his parents' old Android TV rose by around 90%. Ryan Doyle had Claude walk him through the process and even changed the screensaver (all per a TechCrunch report, as relayed by note.com and Blockonomi).

Numbers and version 3.0

Figures on the project's scope vary by source and date, because it is growing quickly:

According to Blockonomi, Gathin wrote that a few thousand people had cleaned their TVs within two days. According to the release notes, version 3.0 brings 28 languages and 20 optional add-ons, including:

• Home Assistant lights, climate and lock status shown right on the TV,
• control of Pi-hole or AdGuard Home (DNS filters against ads) from your couch,
• freely assignable remote buttons,
• new layouts, themes and wallpapers,
• a community-built Android app that lets you clean compatible TVs without a PC.

Rival project: dumbtv

A similar project called dumbtv, by Muzzammil Yasin Sabuwala, targets Amazon Fire TV. It disables around 65 packages, including ACR, advertising IDs, ads in recommendation rows, usage analytics, and Alexa and microphone apps, and installs a 41 KB launcher with no internet permission. According to note.com, it was built with DeepSeek V4.1 Flash as well as Claude Opus 5.5 and Sonnet 5.5, takes about 10 minutes and reboots the TV twice. Both projects are MIT-licensed.

Background: why TVs collect data

Many smart TVs use Automatic Content Recognition (ACR): the software detects what's on screen, including from a cable box or HDMI devices, and reports it back so manufacturers can sell targeted advertising. According to Blockonomi, Texas sued Sony, Samsung, LG, Hisense and TCL in December 2025, alleging the TVs could capture a screenshot of the picture every 500 milliseconds. In 2017, Vizio paid a $2.2 million settlement because viewing data from 11 million devices was collected without consent. Walmart bought Vizio in 2024 for about $2.3 billion, citing its advertising business.

Risks and limits

• Compatibility: The main path works fully on Android TV and Google TV (Sony, TCL, Hisense, Philips, Xiaomi, NVIDIA Shield). Fire TV doesn't allow third-party launchers, so only the disabling step works there. Samsung and LG are not supported.
• Broken devices: One user reported that his TV wouldn't boot after the procedure ("bricked"), and on another, a Fire TV process hung. Claude also didn't respond to the simple request "hack the TV"; it needed detailed instructions.
• Updates: Many of the disabled packages are part of the firmware update mechanism. If you want updates, you'll need to re-enable them. The README recommends applying the list step by step.
• Security: ADB over the network is unencrypted. On some firmware, any device on the same Wi-Fi network can take over the TV, so you should turn debugging off afterward.
• Some ads stay: According to Wccftech, ads inside streaming apps don't go away.

If you don't trust the agent, TechCrunch suggests using existing launcher apps such as ATV Launcher, Projectivy Launcher or FLauncher.

What you need to try it

You don't need powerful hardware: a computer (or, per Wccftech, the community app on your smartphone) on the same Wi-Fi network as the TV, an Android TV, Google TV or Fire TV, ADB debugging enabled, and access to Claude Code (an Anthropic account). Storage space hardly matters. Check "About" in the settings to see which operating system is running.

Our take

The project shows how coding agents turn everyday annoyances into shareable tools, and it hits a nerve: manufacturers subsidize devices through ads and data. The undo function is handy. The risk of bricking, missing updates and open ADB remain concerns. Figures such as model counts and stars come from reports that partly rely on social media; little has been independently verified. If you're unsure, read the model-specific lists and backup notes, and practice on a spare device first. The note.com article itself says it is AI-generated.