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  1. Pick up remote

  2. Open Netflix app

  3. Search for show

  4. Pick the season

  5. Pick the episode

  6. Press play

~30 seconds

stv play netflix "Dark" s1e1

~3 seconds

No TV? No problem. Without a TV configured, stv opens content directly in your browser. Netflix, YouTube, Spotify, Disney+ — just pip install stv and go.


🛋 Vibe-code and chill

Vibe-coding at 2am. Claude writes your code. You tell it to put on a show. It does.

you: play frieren on the living room tv
claude: Playing Frieren s2e8 on Living Room. (3s)

you: bit quieter
claude: Volume → 18.

you: good night
claude: All 3 TVs off.

Already installed stv? Just tell Claude:

# Option 1 — just talk (zero config)
"run stv play netflix Frieren s2e8"

# Option 2 — install the Skill for auto-trigger
clawhub install smartest-tv
# now "play Frieren", "good night", "next episode" just work mid-session

Also available as an MCP server (21 tools) for Claude Code, Codex, Antigravity, and other MCP clients.


🎯 Just type stv

No subcommand? You get a Now Playing card and three contextual next-actions based on your watch history — not a 30-command help dump.

$ stv "play dark on netflix"     # natural language works
$ stv play "Frieren"             # auto-detects platform
$ stv next                       # continue last show
$ stv stats                      # → insights

Unknown input? You get a friendly hint, not an error.


🎨 A CLI that looks like a product

Every command renders with Catppuccin Mocha colors, semantic icons, and real visual hierarchy. Prefer another palette? Set STV_THEME=nord or STV_THEME=gruvbox.

--format json is always available when you need to pipe to jq.


✨ What it does

🎬 Play by name

stv play netflix "Dark" s1e1
stv play disney "Percy Jackson" s1e1
stv play prime "The Boys" s1e1
stv play "Frieren" s2e8          # auto-detects platform

Say the name. stv finds the ID, opens the app, starts playback. Netflix and Apple TV+ resolve via HTML parsing. Disney+, Max, Prime, Hulu, Paramount+, Peacock, Crunchyroll, and every platform on JustWatch resolve via their API — no login, no API key. Skip the platform name and stv auto-detects where it's streaming in your region.

🔗 Cast any URL

stv cast https://youtu.be/dQw4w
stv cast https://netflix.com/watch/...
stv cast https://open.spotify.com/...

Friend sends a link. Paste it. TV plays it.

🎵 Queue & party

stv queue add youtube "Gangnam Style"
stv queue add spotify "Blinding Lights"
stv queue play

Everyone adds their pick. TV plays in order.

🎭 Scene presets

stv scene movie-night   # volume 20, cinema
stv scene kids          # volume 15, Cocomelon
stv scene sleep         # rain sounds, auto-off

One command sets the vibe.

🔊 Multi-room audio

stv audio play "lo-fi beats"
stv audio volume kitchen 30
stv audio stop

Screens off. Music everywhere.Free Sonos.

📺 TV as display

stv display message "Dinner!"
stv display clock
stv display dashboard "Temp:22°C"

Dashboards, clocks, signage.$0/month.

📊 Watch intelligence

stv insights
stv screen-time
stv sub-value netflix --cost 17.99

Is your Netflix worth $18/month?

🌐 Sync party

stv --all play youtube "lo-fi beats"
stv --group party play netflix "Wed..."
stv --all off   # good night

Every TV. At once. Even remote friends.

🤖 AI concierge

"Play something chill"
→ tv_recommend → tv_play
→ Playing The Queen's Gambit

21 MCP tools. One sentence is enough.


🤖 Tell your AI to control your TV

stv is an MCP server. Claude, GPT, Cursor, or any MCP client can control your TV with natural language.

Setup (one line):

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "tv": {
      "command": "uvx",
      "args": ["stv"]
    }
  }
}

Or via OpenClaw:

clawhub install smartest-tv

Then just talk:

You: "I just got home, set up movie night"

Claude: 🎬 Movie night activated.
  Volume → 20, cinema mode on.
  
  Based on your history:
  1. The Queen's Gambit (Netflix)
  2. Ozark (Netflix)
  3. Squid Game S2 (Netflix)

You: "Play 1, put a clock on kitchen TV"

Claude: ✓ Playing The Queen's Gambit
         ✓ Clock on kitchen TV

Category

Tool

What it does

Play

tv_play

Search + play by name

tv_cast

Cast any URL

tv_next

Continue watching

tv_launch

Launch app with ID

tv_resolve

Get content ID only

Discover

tv_whats_on

Trending content

tv_recommend

Personalized picks

Control

tv_power

On/off

tv_volume

Get/set/step/mute

tv_screen

Screen on/off

tv_notify

Toast notification

tv_status

Current state

Organize

tv_queue

Play queue

tv_scene

Scene presets

tv_history

Watch history

Intelligence

tv_insights

Viewing stats

tv_display

TV as display

tv_audio

Multi-room audio

Multi-TV

tv_sync

Play on all TVs

tv_list_tvs

List TVs

tv_groups

TV groups


📅 A day with stv

Time

What happens

7am

stv display dashboard "Weather:18°C" "Meeting:10am" on kitchen TV

8am

stv scene kids --tv kids-room -- Cocomelon, volume 15

12pm

Friend sends Netflix link → stv cast <url>

5pm

stv screen-time → kids watched 2h 15m today

6:30pm

stv scene movie-night -- volume 20, cinema mode

7pm

stv recommend --mood chill → suggests Ozark

9pm

stv audio play "friday vibes" -p spotify -- music everywhere

10pm

stv --group party play netflix "Wednesday" s1e1 -- sync

11:30pm

stv scene sleepstv --all off -- good night


🔥 Killer combos

🌙 Bedtime autopilot

stv audio play "rain" --rooms bedroom
stv scene sleep
stv --all off

Ambient sound, screen off, auto-timer, every other TV killed.

🎧 Free Sonos

stv audio play "lo-fi beats"
stv audio volume kitchen 40
stv audio volume bedroom 15

Every TV is a speaker. Per-room volume. Screens off.

💰 Subscription audit

stv sub-value netflix --cost 17.99
# → $8.50/hr — consider canceling

stv sub-value youtube --cost 13.99
# → $1.20/hr — good value

10 more recipes →



⚙️ How it works

  "Play Dark S1E1"
        │
        ▼
  ┌─── Resolution ───┐
  │ Cache → API → Web │  content_id
  │  0.1s   1s    3s  │──────────────▶ 📺 TV plays it
  └───────────────────┘       │
                         Deep link via
                    LG / Samsung / Roku / Android

Say a name. stv resolves it to a content ID, deep-links into the app on your TV. No browser automation, no API keys, no cloud dependency. Results are cached so repeat plays are instant.


📦 Install

pip install stv                    # LG webOS (default)
pip install "stv[samsung]"         # Samsung Tizen
pip install "stv[android]"         # Android TV / Fire TV
pip install "stv[all]"             # Everything
stv setup                          # auto-discover + pair your TV

Supports LG webOS · Samsung Tizen · Android TV / Fire TV · Roku

Home Assistant (HACS)

hacs_badge

Add as a custom repository (default listing in review: hacs/default#6907):

HACS → ⋮ (top right) → Custom repositories
  URL: https://github.com/Hybirdss/smartest-tv
  Category: Integration → Add
Then: Install → Restart HA
Settings → Integrations → Add → "Smartest TV" → auto-discovers your TVs

Then use in automations:

service: media_player.play_media
target:
  entity_id: media_player.living_room
data:
  media_content_type: stv
  media_content_id: "netflix:Frieren:s2e8"

This does what HA's built-in media_player.play_media can't: resolve a show by name and deep-link into the streaming app. Power, volume, and playback controls also work as standard HA media player entities.


🔌 Works with

Integration

How

Home Assistant

HACS custom integration → media_player.play_media with content resolution

Claude Code / Cursor

Add MCP config → "play Dark s1e1"

OpenClaw

clawhub install smartest-tv → Telegram bot

cron

0 7 * * * stv display dashboard ...

Shell scripts

sleep-mode, party-mode one-liners

Any MCP client

21 tools, stdio or HTTP (stv serve)


📚 Docs

Getting Started

Setup for any TV brand

Playing Content

play, cast, queue, resolve

Scenes

movie-night, kids, sleep, custom

Sync & Party

Multi-TV, remote watch party

Recipes

10 powerful feature combos

AI Agents

MCP for Claude, Cursor, OpenClaw

CLI Reference

Every command and option

MCP Tools

All 21 tools with parameters


🔓 Open source

Every line of stv is on GitHub — the CLI, resolvers (Netflix, Apple TV+, YouTube, Spotify, Disney+, Max, Prime Video, Paramount+, Hulu, Peacock, Crunchyroll, and more via JustWatch), all 4 TV drivers (LG, Samsung, Roku, Android), cache, sync engine, scenes, and all 253 tests. Streaming availability data powered by JustWatch.


🔒 Privacy

stv runs on your local network. No telemetry, no analytics, no cloud sync, no phoning home about what you watch. There is no posthog, no amplitude, no sentry, no mixpanel — grep the source.

One exception — community cache contribution. When you play content that isn't in the local cache, stv resolves it (via web parsing) and submits the resolved ID to a shared community cache so the next user gets an instant lookup. This is the same pattern as Wikipedia or a package mirror — many small contributions, anonymous.

What's sent (background HTTPS, fire-and-forget, never blocks playback):

  • Platform name (netflix / youtube / spotify)

  • Content slug (e.g. frieren)

  • Resolved content ID (Netflix title ID, YouTube video ID, Spotify URI)

What's not sent:

  • Your name, email, or any user identifier

  • Your IP address (the CDN sees a connection IP per standard HTTP, but the client never reads or transmits it)

  • Your watch history or play timestamps

  • Your TV's IP address or hardware info

  • Anything about how often or when you use stv

To disable cache contribution entirely:

export STV_NO_CONTRIBUTE=1

Source: src/smartest_tv/cache.py — search for _contribute.


🤝 Contributing

211 tests. No TV needed to run them.

pip install -e ".[dev]"
python -m pytest tests/ -v

Samsung, Roku, and Android TV drivers need real-world testing. If you have one, your feedback matters.

Cache Contributions · Driver Development


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