Can Agent Desktop automatically detect and click YouTube's "Skip Ad" button on Windows 11?

[viejojoven]

Hi Lahfir!

First of all, congratulations on Agent Desktop! I recently discovered your project through a YouTube video, and it looks really promising.

I have a small but very specific automation problem, and I'd love to know whether Agent Desktop could help solve it.

My use case:

I often listen to YouTube videos while lying in bed, with Google Chrome maximized on my Windows 11 PC.

When a skippable advertisement appears, I have to get out of bed just to click the "Skip Ad" button. I'd like to automate that single action.

What I've tried so far:

Tampermonkey: I successfully identified the YouTube "Skip Ad" button using JavaScript and its DOM selector (button.ytp-skip-ad-button). However, calling button.click() did not skip the advertisement, even though clicking the same button manually worked perfectly.

AutoHotkey v2: I tried detecting the button through image matching and generating an actual Windows mouse click. Unfortunately, image recognition was unreliable because the button's appearance changes depending on the video background.

My question:

Could Agent Desktop provide a more reliable solution using the Windows accessibility tree?

Specifically:

Can Agent Desktop identify the "Skip Ad" button inside Chrome's YouTube player?

Can it click that button successfully, even when JavaScript's button.click() doesn't work?

Could I create a lightweight background process that checks for the button periodically and clicks it automatically?

Would this require an AI model running continuously, or could it work as a simple local automation?

I already have Windows 11, Chrome, Tampermonkey, and AutoHotkey installed, and I'd be happy to test any approach you suggest.

I realize this is a rather unusual use case, but I think it could be an interesting practical test of Agent Desktop's capabilities!

Thanks very much for your time and for making this project open source!

Best regards,
A curious Windows user

[g4lb]

Yes, with a local loop and no AI model. Run this every few seconds, then click the ref:

agent-desktop find --app chrome --role button --name Skip --first

If click fails like button.click(), use mouse-click.

[kinqsradio]

One thing to add to the loop idea above: every mouse command needs the global --headed flag, otherwise it returns POLICY_DENIED and nothing gets clicked. So it'd be agent-desktop --headed mouse-click <ref> (or try a plain click on the ref first, which doesn't move the real cursor).

Also careful with find --first --name Skip, it takes the first match, so make sure it's actually the Skip Ad button and not something else on the page before clicking in a loop.