Shorts Flow: Auto Scroll & Ad Skip

Experience YouTube Shorts hands-free. Shorts Flow automatically scrolls to the next shorts when the current one ends, instantly skips ads, and adds an intuitive on-screen toggle right into the YouTube player.

📑 Table of Contents

• Installation
• Features
• Usage
• Configuration
• Technical Architecture
• Development & Contributing
• License

🚀 Installation

From the Chrome Web Store

Manual Installation (Developer Mode)

1. Clone or download this repository.

   git clone https://github.com/CPT-Dawn/Shorts-Flow.git

2. Open Google Chrome and navigate to chrome://extensions/.
3. Enable Developer mode in the top right corner.
4. Click Load unpacked and select the repository directory.

✨ Features

• Seamless Auto-Scrolling: Continuously scrolls to the next Short precisely when the current video finishes.
• Zero-Delay Ad Skipping: Detects sponsored content and ads instantly, scrolling past them before they play.
• Native UI Integration: Injects a sleek, non-intrusive toggle button directly above the 'Like' button in the Shorts player.
• Smart Comment Handling: Optionally pauses auto-scrolling when you are reading or typing in the comments section.
• Robust Detection: Built with dual URL and DOM observation to handle YouTube's Single Page Application (SPA) navigation flawlessly.

💻 Usage

Once installed, Shorts Flow is designed to be unobtrusive. By default:

• Auto-Scroll is OFF when you launch your browser to prevent unexpected behavior.
• To enable it, simply click the extension icon in your browser toolbar and toggle Auto-Scroll, or use the Quick Toggle injected directly into the YouTube Shorts player.
• Navigate to YouTube Shorts and enjoy a hands-free experience.

⚙️ Configuration

Click the extension icon to access the settings panel:

• Auto-Scroll: The master switch for the extension's core functionality.
• Quick Toggle: Shows or hides the on-screen ON/OFF button injected into the YouTube player interface.
• Scroll with Comments: When enabled, the extension will continue to auto-scroll even if the comments panel is open. When disabled, opening comments acts as a temporary pause.

🏗 Technical Architecture

Shorts Flow is a Manifest V3 Chrome Extension engineered for performance and reliability against YouTube's highly dynamic DOM.

• manifest.json: Configures permissions (storage), host matching strictly to youtube.com/shorts/*, and registers the Service Worker and Content Scripts.
• script/content.js: The core engine.
  • Utilizes MutationObserver and custom event listeners (yt-navigate-finish, ended, timeupdate) to detect video lifecycle changes.
  • Implements element-based tracking (currentShortElement) and race-condition locks (isChecking) to maintain state stability without relying solely on DOM IDs.
  • Incorporates safety polling to catch edge cases where native <video> events are swallowed by the browser.
• script/background.js: The Service Worker. Manages default installation states and ensures auto-scroll is safely disabled upon browser startup (chrome.runtime.onStartup).
• script/script.js & UI: A lightweight, accessible, and responsive popup interface that syncs instantly with chrome.storage.local.

🛠 Development & Contributing

Contributions, issues, and feature requests are welcome!

1. Fork the project.
2. Create your feature branch (git checkout -b feature/AmazingFeature).
3. Commit your changes following Conventional Commits.
4. Push to the branch (git push origin feature/AmazingFeature).
5. Open a Pull Request.

Code Style

• Use modern ES6+ JavaScript.
• Avoid arbitrary setTimeout delays for DOM manipulation; prefer MutationObserver or specific event listeners.
• Handle potential NotFoundError exceptions during DOM injection using contains() validation.

📄 License

Distributed under the MIT License. See LICENSE for more information.