# shy1132/VacuumTube

YouTube Leanback on the desktop, with enhancements

Repository: https://github.com/shy1132/VacuumTube
Canonical: https://ross.abutalabs.com/products/vacuumtube
Language: JavaScript
License: MIT
License Family: permissive
Last push: 2026-08-23T05:39:22+00:00

## Health v2 (maintenance only)
Score: 86/100 (v2, computed 2026-09-03T02:39:23.370411+00:00)
- activity 99, release rhythm 83, longevity 63
- inputs: {"age_days": 893, "days_push": 10, "days_rel": 34, "gap_med": 4, "n_releases_24m": 62}
- flags: none
- formula: round(0.45*activity + 0.35*rhythm + 0.20*longevity); archived -> min(score, 10)

## Adoption (not part of the score)
Stars 1005, forks 59 (observed 2026-08-28T04:03:11.779156+00:00)

## What it is
VacuumTube is an unofficial Electron-based desktop wrapper of YouTube Leanback, the official YouTube interface for consoles and Smart TVs. It adds a built-in adblocker, DeArrow, userstyles, and controller/touch support to make the TV experience usable on desktop.

## Use cases
- watch youtube tv interface on desktop
- use youtube leanback without a smart tv
- block ads in youtube tv mode
- control youtube with a gamepad on pc
- run youtube leanback as a standalone app
- get dearrow and userstyles on youtube tv ui

## When to choose
- you prefer the 10-foot/TV YouTube interface on a desktop or laptop
- you want ad-free Leanback with controller support out of the box
- you want a simple installer or Flatpak with no user-agent spoofing hacks

## When to avoid
- you need the standard desktop YouTube layout or fine-grained mouse interaction
- you rely on signed, auto-updating macOS builds
- you need features of custom clients like SponsorBlock beyond what's bundled

## Facets
- artifact type: application
- maturity: active
- function: gui, browser-extension, web-scraping
- domain: media, entertainment, desktop-applications, cross-platform
- platform: windows, cross-platform
- tags: youtube, youtube-leanback, adblock, electron-wrapper, smart-tv-interface, dearrow, controller-support, flathub, macos, linux, desktop, electron

## Member repositories
- shy1132/VacuumTube (main) score 86

## Provenance
- Observed fields: from GitHub, fetched 2026-08-28T04:03:11.779156+00:00.
- Health v2: computed from the inputs above; adoption is never an input.
- Inferred fields (summary, facets, guidance): AI-extracted, prompt v1, taxonomy v1, on 2026-08-30T07:13:40.224215+00:00, confidence not recorded.
  - readme: https://github.com/shy1132/VacuumTube (fetched 2026-08-28T04:03:11.779156+00:00, sha e9c048b0526b)
- Data as of 2026-08-30T08:39:29.467469+00:00.