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Family and comfort
Frame Control's Home tab has a Family and comfort card, on desktop and on iPhone. No third-party notification or parental-control app is needed. This is Frame Control code using Python, Steam and SteamVR already on the Frame.
Sessions
Set a limit of 1–240 minutes, optional break and check-in intervals, then Start session. Break and check-in intervals of 0 turn those reminders off. Cancel session cancels the timer and monitoring without changing the game. Cancel before starting a session with different settings.
The Frame shows a one-minute warning, then opens Steam Home in its dashboard. Games stay running: save and pause before the limit. Some games pause when the dashboard opens; others do not. There is no kill, power-off, Steam restart, account restriction or parental lock. The wearer can return to the game.
Documented implementation: the timer is a single, opt-in Python worker in the Frame user's account. Desktop and iPhone share its state. It keeps going when the companion disconnects, closes or is suspended. It exits after completion or cancellation (normally within five seconds). Cancellation waits for any in-flight SteamVR action to finish within its timeout; it is not a boot service. A Frame reboot invalidates the session. Suspend counts toward the limit, using Linux's boot-time clock. If a warning was delayed by suspend or a SteamVR failure, Home waits until at least a full minute after a successful warning. A failed Home transition remains active and retries, with an error shown in the companion. A stale worker is reported as unverified enforcement.
Alerts and breaks
During a session, battery, overheating and check-in alerts go to connected companions. Break reminders and session warnings also appear on the headset.
- Low battery: 15% or below while discharging. One alert until charging or recovery to 20%, so values around 15% do not produce repeated notifications.
- Overheating: a thermal zone reaches its own kernel-reported hot/critical
trip, or the battery reports
Overheat. Missing sensors mean unknown, not safe. These are status alerts, not medical advice or an extra thermal governor. - Check in: an alert after the chosen number of active minutes.
- Breaks: a SteamVR reminder and companion notification at the chosen interval.
Inferred: SteamVR activity levels 1 and 2 are a useful proxy for use, not proof someone is wearing the headset. Inactive readings reset continuous use; missing readings add no time. Long gaps count at most 30 seconds. Breaks and check-ins are distinct from the elapsed-time session limit.
Click Enable / test notifications on each companion. iOS asks for permission; macOS, Windows and Linux follow their notification settings. The page also shows recent events and errors. Keep Frame Control open and connected for companion alerts. Phone alerts are local, not push notifications: iOS suspension, force-quit or a lost SSH connection prevents live delivery. Old alerts are not replayed as a notification burst on reconnect. Headset warnings and the session limit continue without the phone. A physical iPhone's background delivery has not been verified and is not guaranteed.
Casting
Cast headset view starts the existing headset Live view and requests full screen where supported. Show that screen to people in the room, or use the computer/phone's own screen mirroring. It creates no new stream transport, public URL or LAN server. iPhone uses the inline viewer if full screen is not available. The image includes private content visible to the wearer.
What is installed
The shared authenticated /api/comfort endpoint copies three bundled Python
files to ~/.cache/frame-control/comfort/<content-hash>/. Session state and
locks live in ~/.local/state/frame-control/comfort/, with a private directory
and 0600 state file. There is no network listener or system service. Cancel a
session before removing these directories. The iPhone's normal server still
exits on disconnect; the explicitly started comfort worker is the exception.
Verification
Verified 2026-09-28, SteamOS 0.4.1, build 20260925.6191901: shipped
/opt/steamvr/bin/linuxarm64/vrcmd --notify TEXT reported success for a custom
reminder. Steam's CDP SteamUIStore.Navigate('/library/home') and
SteamClient.OpenVR.VROverlay.ShowDashboard('valve.steam.gamepadui.main')
opened Home while the running app ID stayed unchanged. Prior page and dashboard
visibility were restored. Kernel hot/critical trips and SteamVR activity were
read from the real device. No temperature or battery fault was induced.
Verified locally: deterministic fake-Frame tests cover late warnings,
failed warnings/Home actions, cancellation, activity gaps, thresholds, duplicate
suppression, reboot invalidation, shared session state and the exact Home
JavaScript. python3 -m unittest discover -s tests runs them. The iOS Simulator
build tests notification content and bounds. Physical iPhone delivery and
wearer-perceived headset notification visibility remain unverified.
Verified end to end on the same Frame: a two-minute session with no companion connection for 135 seconds emitted its warning, break and check-in, then opened Home. The running app ID was unchanged; the test restored the previous page and dashboard visibility and confirmed the worker exited. Casting through the Home shortcut decoded the existing headset stream at 30 fps.
Verified on the iOS 26.5 Simulator: connected to the real Frame, approved the notification prompt, and saw the native Frame Control test banner. Seven iOS tests passed.
Desktop and 390-pixel phone layouts had no horizontal overflow.
On macOS the development Electron app's real notification attempt was denied
(UNErrorDomain 1); the bridge now returns that failure instead of reporting
success. Successful macOS/Windows/Linux notification display remains unverified.
Verified on the real Frame: its naturally discharging 15% battery produced one low-battery event during a short session; the test then cancelled the session. Overheating alerts use fake sensor samples in tests: the shared headset was not deliberately overheated.
Verified 2026-09-29 on the same Frame: a fresh one-minute session opened Home more than 60 seconds after the successful warning. The test restored the previous page and dashboard visibility. Local regression coverage now includes slow notification delivery, a total Home-action timeout, failed worker startup, unreadable saved state, malformed activity samples and notification UX: 173 Python tests passed. Desktop and 390-pixel layouts were checked again; system notification-denial guidance stayed visible across polls. Initial event history did not replay notifications, and only the latest new event was announced.