ClawShorts

Block YouTube Shorts on Fire TV. Use when asked to check, manage, or configure YouTube Shorts limiting on Buck's Fire TV devices. Triggers on requests like "check shorts quota", "reset shorts", "shorts status", "how much shorts watched today", "stop shorts limiter", "start shorts limiter".

YouTube Shorts limiter for Fire TV. Monitors watch time per device and auto-blocks when daily limit is reached.

Invocation

Primary entry point:

~/.openclaw/workspace/skills/clawshorts/scripts/clawshorts.sh <command>

Commands

Command	When to use
status	Check today's usage, remaining quota, daemon health
reset [IP]	Reset today's counter (all devices or specific IP)
start	Start the daemon if not running
stop	Stop the daemon
history [days]	Show watch history (default 30 days)
logs [N]	Show last N daemon log lines (default 50)
list	List all configured devices with per-device config
setup <IP> [NAME]	First-time setup for a new device
add <IP> [NAME]	Add another Fire TV
connect <IP>	Connect ADB to device + auto-detect screen
enable <IP> / disable <IP>	Enable/disable a device
config [show|get|set|reset]	View/set global or per-device config
detect <IP>	Re-detect screen resolution via ADB, update DB

Detection Logic

Detection requires both conditions to be true simultaneously:

1. Player width < 30% of screen width (configurable per-device)
2. Aspect ratio < 1.3 (portrait — distinguishes Shorts from 16:9 landscape previews)

• Poll interval: 3 seconds via ADB
• Shorts: ~32% screen width, 9:16 portrait (ar ~0.56)
• Regular video: ~100% screen width, 16:9 landscape (ar ~1.78)
• Home/browse: no video active
• Only actual Shorts playback counts toward limit

Configuration

All detection parameters are stored in SQLite with global defaults and per-device overrides.

Global defaults (shorts config):

key	default	description
shorts_width_threshold	0.30	player width must be < this ratio of screen width
shorts_max_aspect_ratio	1.3	portrait if ar < this value
shorts_fallback_height_ratio	0.4	fallback: player height must exceed this ratio of screen height
shorts_delta_cap	300	max seconds accumulated per poll
default_screen_width	1920	fallback assumed screen width
default_screen_height	1080	fallback assumed screen height

Per-device overrides — any of the above can be set per-device in the devices table. NULL = use global default.

Config commands:

shorts config                    # show all global defaults
shorts config get <key>         # get a specific value
shorts config set <key> <value> # set global default
shorts config set <IP> <col> <value>  # set per-device override
shorts config reset <IP>        # clear per-device overrides
shorts detect <IP>              # re-detect screen via ADB

Data Locations

• Database: ~/.clawshorts/clawshorts.db (SQLite)
  • config — global detection defaults
  • devices — per-device settings (IP, name, limit, screen size, thresholds)
  • daily_usage — daily watch time per device
• Daemon log: ~/.clawshorts/daemon.log
• LaunchAgent: ~/Library/LaunchAgents/com.fink.clawshorts.plist

Requirements

• adb (Android platform tools)
• Python 3
• Fire TV with ADB debugging enabled
• shorts symlink at /opt/homebrew/bin/shorts (optional)

⚠️ Security Notes

ADB has no built-in authentication. Only enable ADB Debugging on a trusted, password-protected home network. Never on public WiFi. Anyone on the same network with ADB enabled can connect to your Fire TV.

This tool only accepts private IP addresses (10.x.x.x, 172.16–31.x.x, 192.168.x.x). Public IPs are rejected to prevent accidental targeting of unrelated hosts.