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Skills software-mansion argent Argent

argent-tv-interact

Use it when:
The agent needs to use or test an app on an Apple TV simulator, an Android TV emulator or Amazon Fire TV (Vega).
It does:
Reads which element has focus, moves focus with one remote-button path ending in select, then checks focus again.
You get:
An agent that navigates by focus as a remote does, never by tapping coordinates.
E2E tests:
Only on Fire TV (Vega); on Apple TV and Android TV it reports that limitation.
Needs:
The Argent MCP server; for Fire TV, the vega CLI, which the agent runs to stop the virtual device and set up Fast Refresh.
Unlike argent-device-interact:
That one drives touch screens with taps and gestures; this one drives focus-based TV interfaces.

Skill 3 of 12 in the Argent bundle, after argent-ios-device-interact and before argent-settings-permissions.

TL;DR

Part of Software Mansion's Argent toolkit, which lets the agent control simulators, emulators and devices. A TV is driven by focus, not touch, so this skill swaps taps and gestures for a loop: describe the screen to find the focused element and the target, send one remote-button path ending in select, such as down, right, select, counting rows and columns from the element frames, then describe again to confirm. On Fire TV's Vega the highlighted item is often marked selected rather than focused, and the skill treats that as the cursor. The same tools drive all three platforms, picked from the device id. It covers launching apps by bundle id, booting an Apple TV simulator or Android TV emulator, opening an Expo development build by deep link, and Fast Refresh, which needs a debug build and Metro started by the agent. For Fire TV it sends the agent to a separate reference file first, which uses the vega CLI to stop the Vega virtual device and set up Fast Refresh, and lists the JavaScript debugger tools that work there: logs, evaluation and network traffic, but not the component tree or the profilers.

Summarizes the skill at b965c94.

npx skills add https://github.com/software-mansion/argent --skill argent-tv-interact

skills.sh pageSource on GitHubAll skills from software-mansion/argent

Total Downloads
24,300 on skills.sh, Nov 9, 2026
Repo stars
3,175 software-mansion/argent
First seen
Jul 1, 2026 on skills.sh
Weekly Downloads
1.7K
+27% over the 8 weeks to Nov 9
Weekly values
Week toInstalls
Sep 211,366
Sep 281,500
Oct 51,525
Oct 121,570
Oct 191,628
Oct 261,681
Nov 21,608
Nov 91,730
Category
category:debuggingcategory:computer-usecategory:software-engineering

Find root causes, review code and test what you built.

Drive desktop apps, phones and simulators: tap, type, read the screen and test native apps.

Everything for building software: planning, coding, debugging, design, frameworks, cloud, agents and skills.
Type
type:tool

Operates a CLI, API, app or bundled script to get something done.
Effect
effect:local

Its own steps create or change files, git state or local tools.
Needs
needs:mcpneeds:cli

Needs an MCP server connected.

A specific command-line tool or desktop app must be installed, such as gh, agent-browser, LibreOffice, Obsidian or a vendor CLI.
Publisher
by:official

A verified publisher on skills.sh, or the company or maintainer behind the product the skill operates.
Topics
testingcomputer-usedebugging
Stack
stack:argent

SKILL.md

From software-mansion/argent at b965c94. Checked daily, last changed Nov 6, 2026.

Frontmatter
name: argent-tv-interact
description: Control and inspect TV apps via argent, Apple TV (tvOS), Android TV (leanback), and Amazon Fire TV (Vega). Boot the target, read focus, navigate with the D-pad remote, type, screenshot, and on Vega debug the JS runtime (evaluate, console logs, network inspector). Use when a task targets a TV (runtimeKind "tv", or platform "vega"), or mentions Apple TV / tvOS / Android TV / leanback / Vega / Fire TV / VVD.

Argent TV (Apple TV + Android TV + Fire TV)

Critical

  • A TV is focus-driven, not touch-driven. Drive every interaction with describe + tv-remote + keyboard; never use gesture-* / coordinate taps; they don't apply on any TV platform.
  • Always describe before navigating to find the live cursor and your target; never guess focus from a screenshot. The cursor is the focused element; on Vega the toolkit often leaves focused false and marks the highlighted item [selected], so treat [selected] as the cursor when nothing reports [focused].
  • Pass the udid from list-devices: an Apple TV simulator UDID or an Android TV / Vega serial. Dispatch is automatic from the id; the same tools drive all three.
  • E2E tests: Vega only. Apple TV and Android TV have no e2e support (a tap: can pass without doing anything): report that limitation.
  • Fire TV (Vega) (platform: "vega" in list-devices): read references/vega.md before driving it. It covers booting and stopping the VVD, Fast Refresh, and debugging the JS runtime.

The navigation loop

  1. describe: find the cursor and your target (returns the focused element + all focusable ones, not a tap tree).
  2. tv-remote: move focus toward the target. Prefer one call with a path ending in select, e.g. {button:["down","right","select"]}; count rows/columns from the frames to build the path.
  3. describe again to confirm. On a miss, repeat.

Tools

describe, tv-remote and keyboard descriptions cover the TV behaviour (focus view, remote keys and paths, text-only typing). Beyond them:

  • launch-app / restart-app / reinstall-app take the bundleId from the app manifest.

Per-platform

Apple TV (tvOS simulator)
  • Boot like any iOS sim (boot-device); the AX + HID daemons auto-start on the first describe / tv-remote (first call may take a few seconds).
  • Dev build: open-url {udid, url:"<scheme>://expo-development-client/?url=http%3A%2F%2F<HOST_IP>%3A8081"} (<HOST_IP> = your Mac's LAN IP, shown on the launcher).
Android TV (leanback emulator)
  • Boot the leanback AVD like any emulator; see argent-android-emulator-setup.
  • Dev build: open-url <scheme>://expo-development-client/?url=http%3A%2F%2F10.0.2.2%3A8081 (<scheme>: the app's URL scheme, or its package name if it sets none), then dismiss the first dev menu with tv-remote select (not back: it exits the app).

Fast Refresh (dev builds)

Needs a Debug build + Metro running. argent only connects to Metro: start Metro yourself, and forward the port where the app needs it (Android: argent-metro-debugger §1; Vega: references/vega.md).

  • Apple TV / Android TV: use the dev-build deep-links above; npm start for Metro.
  • Vega: see references/vega.md.