TLDR A developer used Claude Code to switch off 25 Xiaomi software packages on his parents’ TV and build a new home screen. His open-source project, cleanyourtv, lists tested setups for 107 T
Smart TV owners are using AI coding agents to remove sponsored ads, tracking software and slow home screens from their sets. The trend spread on X over the weekend, where users call it “vibe coding” their TVs.
Vibe coded my parents' TV this afternoon!
It was showing a sponsored ad before you could even get to Netflix.
Gave Claude Code the model number, it found the TV on wifi, removed 25 Xiaomi packages and wrote a new launcher.
Looks like an Apple TV now lol pic.twitter.com/E5Q4A1b0yI
— Gathin (Ø,G) (@gathint) October 17, 2026
Vibe coding means describing what you want in plain language and letting an AI write and run the code. OpenAI co-founder Andrej Karpathy gave the practice its name in 2025.
The most shared example came from a developer named Gathin T. He posted on Saturday that his parents’ Xiaomi TV showed a sponsored ad before anyone could reach Netflix.
He gave Claude Code, Anthropic’s coding agent, the TV’s model number. The agent found the set on his home Wi-Fi, switched off 25 Xiaomi software packages and wrote a new home screen.
The method relies on the Android Debug Bridge, or ADB, a maintenance tool built into Android TVs. Once developer mode is unlocked, a computer on the same network can control the set and list every installed app.
Gathin turned his prompt into cleanyourtv, an open-source project. It switches unwanted apps off instead of deleting them, so one restore script can undo every change. It does not require root access.
As of Tuesday, the project listed tested setups for 107 TV models from 37 brands. It had collected 10,700 stars on GitHub. Gathin wrote that a few thousand people cleaned their own TVs within two days.
Other users went further. Mihir Gupta replaced a 192 MB stock launcher with an 83 MB custom one. Ansub Khan said free memory on his parents’ old Android TV rose about 90%.
A rival project called dumbtv targets the Amazon Fire TV. It disables about 65 packages, including tracking software, and installs a 41 KB launcher with no internet permission.
Saw people vibe coding their TVs. Mine had gotten unbearably slow, so I tried it.
One afternoon with Claude Code: 25 bloat apps disabled, the 192 MB stock launcher replaced with a custom 83 MB one, plus rotating wallpapers.
With AI, all you have to do is imagine! pic.twitter.com/QR6V3Au2f5
— Mihir Gupta (@0900mihir) October 18, 2026
Many TVs run Automatic Content Recognition, or ACR. This software identifies what is on screen, including cable and HDMI devices, and reports it back so makers can sell targeted ads.
Texas sued Sony, Samsung, LG, Hisense and TCL in December 2025. The state alleged their TVs can capture a screenshot of the display every 500 milliseconds.
In 2017, Vizio paid $2.2 million to settle charges that it collected viewing data from 11 million TVs without consent. Walmart bought Vizio for about $2.3 billion in 2024, and its executives pointed to Vizio’s ad business as part of the appeal.
Cleanyourtv fully works only on Android TV and Google TV sets from brands such as Sony, TCL, Hisense, Philips and Xiaomi. Samsung and LG TVs use different operating systems, and Fire TV supports only the cleanup step.
Not every attempt worked. One user said he bricked his TV, and another got stuck partway through a Fire TV job.
The project’s readme warns that network ADB is unencrypted. On some firmware, any device on the same Wi-Fi can take control of the TV, so users should turn debugging off afterward.
Microsoft also found this year that hidden instructions could push Claude Code into exposing credentials. Anthropic patched that flaw in May.
As of Tuesday, the cleanyourtv repository had been forked 1,200 times. It had 85 open pull requests from volunteers.
The post Smart TV Owners Use Claude Code to Remove Ads and Tracking Software appeared first on Blockonomi.
