Musictl

Music control CLI for MPD + beets. Manage your library, playlists, and playback from the terminal.

Prerequisites

• Python ≥ 3.13
• MPD — running and configured
• beets — with library database and custom fields (folder, playlists, comments)
• YAD — for interactive dialogs (update, delete-current)
• FFmpeg — for cue-split

Beets Setup

Musictl expects these beets flexible attributes:

• folder — organizes tracks into directories (also synced to genre)
• playlists — comma-separated playlist names
• comments — synced to playlists:$playlists for external readers

Beets path config should include:

paths:
  "folder::.+": $folder/$artist - $album - $track - $title
  default: inbox/$genre/$artist - $album - $track - $title

Installation

# From PyPI
uv tool install musictl

# Or from source
git clone https://github.com/A/musictl
cd musictl
uv tool install -e .

Commands

Command	Description
musictl search <query>	Search beets library, print relative paths
musictl play <playlist>	Load and play a playlist
musictl play --random [--count N]	Play N random tracks
musictl update	Set folder/playlists on current track via YAD dialog, remove from queue
musictl delete-current	Delete current track from library and disk, remove from queue
musictl clean-current	Remove current track from MPD queue
musictl import [args]	Import tracks via beet import
musictl cue-split <file> --cue <cue>	Split audio file by CUE sheet
musictl generate-playlists	Regenerate all .m3u playlist files
musictl rename-playlist <old> <new>	Rename a playlist across all tracks
musictl rename-folder <old> <new>	Rename a folder, move files, update tags
musictl waybar	JSON output for waybar custom module

Piping

# Search and play results
musictl search 'artist:Beatles' | musictl play

# Search and play from a specific folder
musictl search 'folder:rock' | musictl play

Waybar Integration

Add to your waybar config:

"custom/music": {
    "exec": "musictl waybar",
    "interval": 5,
    "return-type": "json"
}

Hyprland Keybindings

bind = $mainMod, M, exec, musictl play --random --count 20
bind = $mainMod SHIFT, M, exec, musictl update
bind = $mainMod CTRL, M, exec, musictl delete-current

Development

just check      # ruff check + basedpyright
just fmt         # ruff fix + ruff format
just test        # run tests
just sync        # uv sync dependencies