Installation

Installation

Quick Install

Cargo (Recommended)

If you have Rust installed:

cargo install spotatui

Windows

winget install spotatui

macOS

brew tap LargeModGames/spotatui
brew install spotatui

spotatui uses the portaudio backend for better stability and bluetooth device support (AirPods, etc.):

brew install portaudio

Pre-built Binaries

Download from GitHub Releases:

Platform	File
Windows 10/11 (64-bit)	spotatui-windows-x86_64.zip
Linux (Ubuntu, Arch, Fedora, etc.)	spotatui-linux-x86_64.tar.gz
macOS (Intel)	spotatui-macos-x86_64.tar.gz
macOS (Apple Silicon M1/M2/M3)	spotatui-macos-aarch64.tar.gz

Checksums (.sha256) are provided if you want to verify the download.

Arch Linux (AUR)

yay -S spotatui
# or
paru -S spotatui

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Platform-Specific Requirements

Linux

For audio visualization, you need PipeWire installed:

# Debian/Ubuntu
sudo apt-get install libpipewire-0.3-0

# Arch Linux (already included with pipewire)
sudo pacman -S pipewire

# Fedora (already included with pipewire)
sudo dnf install pipewire

Note: Most modern Linux distributions already have PipeWire installed by default.

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Building from Source

Ensure you have Rust installed.

Prerequisites

macOS:

brew install portaudio

Linux (Debian/Ubuntu):

sudo apt-get install libssl-dev libasound2-dev pkg-config

Linux (Arch):

sudo pacman -S openssl alsa-lib pkg-config

Linux (Fedora):

sudo dnf install openssl-devel alsa-lib-devel pkg-config

Build

git clone https://github.com/LargeModGames/spotatui.git
cd spotatui

macOS:

cargo install --path . --no-default-features --features telemetry,streaming,portaudio-backend,audio-viz-cpal

Linux/Windows:

cargo install --path .

Nix:

nix-build

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Updating

When a new version is available, you'll see a popup notification on startup. To update:

1. Close spotatui
2. Run:

   spotatui update --install

If you installed via a package manager (AUR, cargo, etc.), update through there instead.

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Command-Line Usage

Beyond the TUI, spotatui has a full command-line interface for scripting playback, searching, and managing plugins — see CLI Usage for the complete reference.

Useful top-level flags:

Flag	Purpose
-c, --config <PATH>	Use a custom config file
--completions <SHELL>	Print shell completions (bash/zsh/fish/power-shell/elvish)
--reconfigure-auth	Forget the cached Spotify login and log in again
-U, --no-update	Skip the auto-update check on this launch
-t, --tick-rate <MS>	Override the UI tick rate

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Connecting to Spotify

spotatui talks to Spotify the way the official app does. It needs no Spotify developer app and no client ID, and Spotify in spotatui needs a Premium account.

To log in, pick Spotify on the first run, or press d and pick Spotify later. spotatui shows a short code and opens Spotify's pairing page in your browser. Confirm the code there; the login is cached, so this happens once. Run spotatui --reconfigure-auth to forget the login and log in again, for example with another account.

A client.yml from an older version stays on disk and is no longer used for the login. spotatui copies its native-streaming settings and saved device into config.yml and state.yml once.