opencode-now-playing

An opencode TUI sidebar plugin that shows what's playing right now. Supports Apple Music, Spotify, and YouTube Music on macOS and Linux.

Now Playing
Daft Punk - Get Lucky
playing on Spotify

Paused:

Now Playing
Daft Punk - Get Lucky
paused on Spotify

Nothing playing:

Now Playing
♪ Not playing

Missing dependency:

Now Playing
⚠ brew install media-control

Install

Paste below into your OpenCode.

Install and configure opencode-now-playing by following the instructions here:
https://raw.githubusercontent.com/stevejkang/opencode-now-playing/refs/heads/main/docs/installation.md

Prerequisites

Install the platform dependency:

# macOS
brew install media-control

# Linux
sudo apt install playerctl
# or, if using Homebrew on Linux:
brew install playerctl

If the dependency isn't found, the plugin shows an install prompt instead of playback info.

Setup

One config file. Restart. Done.

~/.config/opencode/tui.json

{
  "$schema": "https://opencode.ai/tui.json",
  "plugin": ["opencode-now-playing"]
}

opencode resolves the npm package on startup automatically.

Options

{
  "plugin": [["opencode-now-playing", {
    "refreshInterval": 5000
  }]]
}

Option	Default	Description
refreshInterval	5000	Polling interval in milliseconds (fallback when streaming connection breaks)

How It Works

Streams playback state in real-time. Falls back to polling (up to 3 retries) if the connection drops.

• macOS: Calls media-control CLI, which taps into the macOS MediaRemote framework. Any app registered in the system Now Playing center works: Apple Music, Spotify, YouTube Music in a browser, etc.
• Linux: Uses playerctl with --follow mode for real-time MPRIS event streaming. YouTube Music is detected automatically when playing in Chrome, Firefox, or any Chromium-based browser.
• Windows: Coming soon.

Features

	What	Why it matters
🎧	Multi-source	Apple Music, Spotify, YouTube Music, anything in system Now Playing
⚡	Real-time streaming	No stale data, instant track changes via native event APIs
🔄	Polling fallback	Connection drops don't kill the widget, retries up to 3 times
🌐	Browser detection	YouTube Music in Chrome/Firefox just works, no extra setup
🖥	Cross-platform	macOS and Linux today, Windows next

Requirements

• opencode with plugin support (@opencode-ai/plugin >= 1.4.3)
• macOS: brew install media-control
• Linux: sudo apt install playerctl or brew install playerctl

Manual Install

Skip npm. Copy the source files directly:

mkdir -p ~/.config/opencode/plugins/opencode-now-playing/backends
cp src/tui.tsx src/types.ts src/format.ts src/backend.ts \
   src/detector.ts src/constants.ts \
   ~/.config/opencode/plugins/opencode-now-playing/
cp src/backends/macos.ts src/backends/linux.ts \
   ~/.config/opencode/plugins/opencode-now-playing/backends/

Register the local path:

{
  "plugin": ["./plugins/opencode-now-playing/tui.tsx"]
}

Development

git clone https://github.com/stevejkang/opencode-now-playing.git
cd opencode-now-playing
bun install

Run tests:

bun test

Edit, restart opencode, see changes live.

License

MIT