beepboopd

april 1st, 2026

beepboopd (Beep Boop Daemon) is a tiny Rust program that plays a unique musical tune every hour

Dependencies

Build: Rust 1.85+ and ALSA dev headers

# arch
sudo pacman -S alsa-lib

# debian/ubuntu
sudo apt install libasound2-dev

Runtime: PipeWire, PulseAudio, or ALSA for audio output.

Install

cargo install beepboopd
beepboopd install

Or with a custom config baked in, like zelda all week, but clock on the weekend:

BEEPBOOPD_TUNE=zelda BEEPBOOPD_WEEK="s:clock;su:clock" beepboopd install

Or from source:

make install

That's it. Your computer now chimes every hour.

To check on it:

beepboopd status

To uninstall:

beepboopd uninstall

Styles

beepboopd speaks six musical languages:

beep

The original. A tribute to the bash script that started it all. Ascending tones for success, descending for failure. Even hours get success, odd hours get failure.

clock

Westminster chime -- the classic "ding dong ding dong... dong dong ding dong" melody in 3/4 time, followed by deep bongs counting the hour (12h style, so midnight and noon both get 12).

chords

Each hour gets its own chord -- major chords before noon, minor chords after. 24 unique chords walking the chromatic scale from C. Midnight is C major. High noon is C minor.

scale

A quick five-note ascending run for each hour. Major scales for hours 0-11, minor for 12-23. The last note is held longer.

zelda

12 Ocarina of Time songs, each mapped to two hours (H and H+12). Sun's Song plays at 07:00 and 19:00. Nocturne of Shadow at 01:00 and 13:00. All five ocarina notes (D4, F4, A4, B4, D5) with per-song timing.

Available songs: lullaby, epona, saria, sun, time, storms, minuet, bolero, serenade, nocturne, requiem, prelude.

jazz

The Lick. Jazz's most famous 7-note phrase (D E F G E C D) transposed to all 12 keys by hour.

Swung eighths for that feel.

"It don't mean a thing..."

Usage

beepboopd                    # default: beep success/failure by hour
beepboopd run                # daemon mode: chime every hour
beepboopd install            # install systemd user service
beepboopd uninstall          # remove systemd user service
beepboopd status             # show service status + recent logs
beepboopd clock              # Westminster chime at current hour
beepboopd chords 15          # 3 PM's chord (C# minor)
beepboopd scale 7            # 7 AM's scale run
beepboopd beep success       # the OG ascending beep
beepboopd zelda storms       # Song of Storms
beepboopd zelda              # picks song by current hour
beepboopd jazz               # the lick at current hour
beepboopd -v 0.5 clock       # quieter

Configuration

Env var	Default	Purpose
BEEPBOOPD_VOLUME	0.9	Amplitude multiplier (0.0-1.0 for clean signal)
BEEPBOOPD_TUNE	beep	Default style when no subcommand given
BEEPBOOPD_WEEK	--	Per-day style schedule (see below)
BEEPBOOPD_LOG	--	Set to false or 0 to suppress info logs

BEEPBOOPD_WEEK overrides BEEPBOOPD_TUNE for days that are specified. Unspecified days fall back to BEEPBOOPD_TUNE, then to beep.

Volume can also be set with -v <float> on the command line.

Weekly schedule

Set a different style for each day of the week:

export BEEPBOOPD_WEEK="m:zelda;t:chords;w:clock;th:beep;f:zelda;s:scale;su:clock"

Day keys: su m t w th f s

Testing

make beep     # OG success + failure
make clock    # Westminster chime at current hour
make chords   # chord at current hour
make scale    # scale run at current hour
make zelda    # zelda song for current hour
make jazz     # the lick at current hour
make all      # play all styles in sequence
make h00      # chords for specific hour (h00-h23)

The hour-chord map

Hour	Root	Quality	Hour	Root	Quality
0	C	major	12	C	minor
1	C#	major	13	C#	minor
2	D	major	14	D	minor
3	D#	major	15	D#	minor
4	E	major	16	E	minor
5	F	major	17	F	minor
6	F#	major	18	F#	minor
7	G	major	19	G	minor
8	G#	major	20	G#	minor
9	A	major	21	A	minor
10	A#	major	22	A#	minor
11	B	major	23	B	minor

The zelda hour map

Hour	Song	Hour	Song
0	Song of Time	12	Song of Time
1	Nocturne of Shadow	13	Nocturne of Shadow
2	Requiem of Spirit	14	Requiem of Spirit
3	Zelda's Lullaby	15	Zelda's Lullaby
4	Serenade of Water	16	Serenade of Water
5	Minuet of Forest	17	Minuet of Forest
6	Prelude of Light	18	Prelude of Light
7	Sun's Song	19	Sun's Song
8	Epona's Song	20	Epona's Song
9	Saria's Song	21	Saria's Song
10	Bolero of Fire	22	Bolero of Fire
11	Song of Storms	23	Song of Storms

Logging

Structured JSON to stderr via tracing. Every play emits:

{
  "timestamp": "...",
  "level": "INFO",
  "fields": {
    "message": "playing",
    "cmd": "zelda",
    "tune": "storms",
    "volume": 0.9
  }
}

Suppress with BEEPBOOPD_LOG=false. Errors always log.

When running under systemd, logs land in the journal: journalctl --user -u beepboopd.