mbsintegrations/LG-TV-HA-Home-Launcher

A practical option if you already run Home Assistant and want the TV's default home screen to be replaced by a dashboard whose layout you control. Plan for the setup cost: this is a sideloaded app requiring Developer Mode on the TV.

The problem

After the TV boots, you want to see Home Assistant data rather than LG's home screen of apps and promotions. Today that usually means either launching a browser on the TV by hand or accepting the built-in home screen. LG-TV-HA-Home-Launcher changes that step: you configure a dashboard in a local browser wizard, build an IPK on your computer, and install it on the TV so the TV app connects directly to your existing HA instance. The result is a home panel combining tiles, controls, temperatures, and an energy card, driven by HA entities.

What's different

The distinctive mechanism is a local build step. A browser wizard runs on Windows, macOS or Linux, discovers HA entities, and produces a private IPK with your configuration baked in. There is no on-TV settings editor and no user-visible YAML editing for the launcher. Layout profiles can be exported and imported without credentials, and one profile belongs to one TV. Because configuration lives in the package rather than in browser storage, changes are applied by rebuilding and reinstalling. The trade-off is that updating a layout always requires the setup computer again. The computer is only needed for setup and updates; the TV app then talks to HA on its own.

The attention grabber is that the base app is ad-free, but the README is explicit that it does not change LG's underlying privacy or data-collection settings. The base app also does not take over LG's Home button. A separately documented no-root helper can return to the launcher from apps such as YouTube, but it is model-dependent and is a native program plus a JavaScript controller/service. The README's first setup step is to start the local configurator, and the developer-mode docs matter because the app is sideloaded, not a Content Store release.

Who should try it

This fits a Home Assistant user who wants the TV's default screen to become a household dashboard and is comfortable sideloading a TV app. The README reports installation on an OLED65B9PLA (SDK 4.10.0) and a 65NANO766QA (SDK 7.6.0), both with live HA data and Home-button return from YouTube; a 43UN73906LE is user-verified for all features including the helper, though its firmware and webOS version were not reported. If you want an installable app from the LG store, on-TV settings, or have no willingness to enable Developer Mode, this is a poor fit. The helper is optional, so you can try the base app without it.

Requirements and limitations

Developer Mode is mandatory, and the session must stay active. The README suggests an HA renewal package, an existing Camera Overlay renewal, or manual extension before expiry; that is continuing upkeep, not a one-time step. A computer with Node.js 22 or newer is needed to run the wizard and build the IPK, and the project should be extracted outside shared or cloud-synced folders. Compatibility evidence covers two developer-tested TVs and one user-verified model, so other models are not guaranteed, especially for the helper.

HotRepo's take

The project was created on 2026-10-23 and appeared on HotRepo's NEW-REPOSITORY board for JavaScript at #18 with 74 total stars on 2026-10-25, which is a dated new-repository snapshot, not a daily growth measurement. The record spans only one board date, so persistence cannot be judged. Before committing, check whether your exact webOS model appears in the compatibility notes, particularly for the Home-button helper.