3. Getting Started

Installation Guide

Explo can be installed using:

• Docker (recommended)
• standalone binary

Prerequisites

• A self-hosted music system like Emby, Jellyfin, MPD, Plex, or any Subsonic-API compatible system (e.g., Navidrome, Airsonic).
• ListenBrainz scrobbling set up
• Optionally a YouTube Data API key.

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Docker Installation

1. Download docker-compose.yaml file to your system and configure volume mappings (described below)

Note: A development image is also available by replacing :latest with :dev

2. Create a .env file in the same directory as docker-compose.yaml
3. Launch the container with docker compose up -d
4. Access the UI at http://{SERVER-IP}:7288

Required Volume Mappings

Host Path	Container Path	Description
/path/to/.env	/opt/explo/.env	Environment file with configuration parameters
/path/to/explo/config	/opt/explo/config/	Stores playlist cache, cover art, and application state
/path/to/musiclibrary/explo	/data/	Download directory for music imports

PS! It's highly recommended to point Explo to a subfolder in your music directory

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Optional Volume Mappings

Host Path	Container Path	Description
/path/to/slskd/downloads	/slskd/	Required when using slskd with migration
/path/to/mpd/playlists	/path/to/mpd/playlists	MPD playlist directory mapping
/path/to/cookies.txt	/opt/explo/cookies.txt	Optional YouTube cookies file

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Updating Explo

To update the container version of Explo, simply go into the directory where you downloaded docker-compose.yaml and run these commands:

docker compose down
docker compose pull
docker compose up -d

Binary Installation

Binary Prerequisities

• ffmpeg and yt_dlp must be installed and available in your $PATH
  (you can also define their paths in the .env file)
• Either:
  • YouTube Data API set in .env, or
  • Python ≥3.10 with ytmusicapi installed

Steps

1. Download the latest release and ensure it's executable
2. Make a .env file in the same directory as the binary and configure it (refer to sample.env for options or check out Configuration Reference)
3. Add a Cron job to run Explo weekly:

crontab -e

Insert this to the last line to execute Explo every tuesday at 00:15 (ListenBrainz updates its discovery database on Mondays)

15 0 * * 2 cd /path/to/explo && ./explo-linux-amd64

Additionally you can import other ListenBrainz genrated playlists using flags, like the "Weekly Jams":

30 0 * * 1 cd /path/to/explo && ./explo-linux-amd64 -p=weekly-jams