Pylips MCP Server

pylips-mcp

MCP server for controlling Philips Android TV via the JointSpace API and ADB.

Exposes 14 tools covering power, volume, ambilight, app launching, and YouTube playback. Handles the TP Vision SHA1 certificate chain transparently.

Demo

Recorded against the real TV with docs/demo/record.sh: a minimal MCP client (docs/demo/mcp_demo.py) starts the server over stdio with TV_HOST/TV_USER/TV_PASS in the environment, lists the tools and calls get_state (read-only). Credentials never appear on screen.

Tools

YouTube ID extraction

extract_video_id is deliberately duplicated in catt-mcp (cast_youtube, Chromecast with start position and dual-screen sync). Both servers stay installable on their own; each one tests its copy with the same table of cases (tests/test_youtube_id.py). Decision recorded on 2026-09-20.

Requirements

• Python 3.10+
• JointSpace credentials (user + password) from a one-time pairing with the TV (see Setup); the server itself talks to the TV API directly and does not need pylips at runtime
• Philips Android TV with JointSpace API enabled (2016+ models)
• ADB enabled on the TV (for YouTube deep linking)
• wakeonlan Python package (optional, for Wake-on-LAN)

Installation en une ligne

uvx pylips-mcp                 # depuis PyPI ; avant publication : uvx --from git+https://github.com/amineutron/pylips-mcp pylips-mcp

Configuration Claude Desktop / Claude Code (mcpServers) :

{ "pylips": { "command": "uvx", "args": ["pylips-mcp"], "env": { "TV_HOST": "192.0.2.10", "TV_USER": "...", "TV_PASS": "..." } } }

Setup

1. Pair with your TV

Pairing is done once, to get a JointSpace user and password. Use the pairing tool of eslavnov/pylips from a clone of that repository (the pylips package on PyPI is an unrelated project: do not pip install pylips), and follow its README with your TV's IP. pylips-mcp does not need pylips afterwards.

Keep the user and password the pairing gives you: they go into config.yaml (step 3) or TV_USER / TV_PASS.

2. Install dependencies

pip install pylips-mcp        # or: uvx pylips-mcp

3. Configure

Copy config.example.yaml to config.yaml and fill in your TV credentials:

tv:
  host: "192.168.0.XX"
  user: "your_user"
  pass: "your_password"

4. Run

pylips-mcp                    # installed (pip, uvx) ; `pylips-mcp --help` lists the settings
python -m pylips_mcp          # same thing, from any environment where the package is installed
python server.py              # from a clone, without installing (thin launcher, code in pylips_mcp/)

Or set via environment variables:

TV_HOST=192.168.0.XX TV_USER=xxx TV_PASS=xxx pylips-mcp

The code lives in the pylips_mcp package (with the TP Vision certificate), so it can be installed next to other MCP servers without module name clashes.

Claude Desktop Configuration

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "philips-tv": {
      "command": "python3",
      "args": ["/path/to/pylips-mcp/server.py"],
      "env": {
        "TV_HOST": "192.168.0.XX",
        "TV_USER": "your_user",
        "TV_PASS": "your_password"
      }
    }
  }
}

SSL Note

Philips TVs present a TP Vision certificate chain from 2015 signed with SHA1. Modern OpenSSL and the Fedora/RHEL crypto policy reject SHA1 signatures, so a classic CA verification is impossible, even with the bundled chain and SECLEVEL=0.

What this server does instead, honestly:

• CA verification is disabled (it cannot succeed);
• the SHA-256 fingerprint of the certificate presented by the TV must match the leaf certificate shipped in tpvision_ca.pem (checked by urllib3 after the TLS handshake, so a man-in-the-middle cannot impersonate the TV without the private key). Verified against a real 55OLED705 (JointSpace 6, port 1926);
• PYLIPS_TLS_FINGERPRINT=<sha256 hex> pins another TV, PYLIPS_TLS_PIN=0 disables pinning and logs a warning.

tpvision_ca.pem is the public TP Vision chain (leaf restfultv.tpvision.com, intermediate ca.tpvision.com, root www.tpvision.com, valid until 2042), extracted from a TV with openssl s_client -showcerts. It contains no secret.

License

MIT

Volume en HDMI ARC

Quand la TV est reliee a un ampli en HDMI ARC, le son ne sort pas de la TV : agir sur son volume n'a aucun effet audible. Si denon.host est renseigne dans la configuration, volume_up, volume_down, volume_set et mute sont donc rediriges vers l'ampli Denon ; sinon ils passent par l'API de la TV.

Pour piloter l'ampli directement (entrees, extinction, statut), utiliser denon-mcp.

Part of the Lyra ecosystem