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Cleaning up a smart TV with AI: what CleanYourTV actually does

A developer used Claude Code to remove unwanted clutter from his parents' TV and build a simpler home screen. That became CleanYourTV. The example shows new possibilities – and why asking an AI to change a television is not a harmless chat.

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Published 22 October 2026

Keep the apps, lose the clutter

Before his parents could open Netflix, their television showed an advertisement. That was developer Gathin T.'s account of the experiment he shared on October 17, 2026: he used Claude Code to help clean up a Xiaomi TV over the home network and build a new home screen. TechCrunch covered it on October 19. [1]

The resulting open-source project, CleanYourTV, primarily targets Android TV and Google TV. It aims to disable unwanted preinstalled packages and replace the interface with a simpler app launcher. Streaming apps remain the device's purpose. So the TV does not literally become dumb; the intention is to make its software get out of the way. [2]

What the AI contributes

Claude Code is an AI tool that can work with code and tools. In this case, it helped with a specific technical modification to a device. The project supplies instructions, scripts and model-specific package lists. The published account describes work on one owner's television, not a universal service that can safely transform any device at the press of a button. [1, 2]

According to the project, packages are disabled in the user profile rather than deleting system software or replacing firmware. A custom launcher – the program responsible for the home screen – displays installed apps. The project also includes tools to restore changes. But whether the necessary access and recovery methods work on a particular model depends on its hardware and software. [2, 3]

Less clutter does not mean ad-free streaming

The central change concerns the television's own interface: bundled programs, recommendations and home-screen advertisements. It does not follow that ads inside Netflix, YouTube or other streaming services disappear. The project discusses additional network filtering but explicitly says it does not remove YouTube advertisements. [2]

A cleaner home screen is also not proof that a device has stopped transmitting data. CleanYourTV is an independent community project, not a television manufacturer's guarantee or a privacy test we performed ourselves. [2]

A reported failure shows the limits

On October 22, a user reported in GitHub issue #884 that a Xiaomi Mi TV Stick was stuck at the Android TV boot screen after modifications. In a follow-up, the user explained that commands had been run manually and no package list from the project had been used. Core Android components had been disabled. The developer said those components were not included in the project's lists. [4]

The project then added checks to reject such entries in its tools. The user's latest report still described a device that would not boot; the thread we read did not establish a successful recovery. That does not prove irreversible damage, nor does it show that the project's curated list caused the failure. It does show how an AI-assisted change can have consequences that are difficult to reverse on the actual device. [4]

Who might find this useful

Our view: CleanYourTV illustrates how AI can make individual customisation easier where considerable specialist knowledge was previously needed. It is still not a casual recommendation for a family television that needs to work reliably. The exact model, software version, essential functions and a workable recovery route would need checking first.

The project documents potential problems with Wi-Fi, casting, updates and developer access. It also says to close the debugging access opened for the work when finished. Anyone unable to assess these consequences should not delegate such changes to an unsupervised AI. This account reflects information checked on October 22, 2026; we have not modified a television ourselves. [2, 3]

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Sources

Created with AI assistance and editorially approved before publication.