spotify-tui — Spotify Client for Your Terminal in Rust

Introduction

spotify-tui (spt) brings a full Spotify experience to the terminal. Built in Rust with the tui-rs library, it provides a keyboard-driven interface for browsing your library, searching tracks, and controlling playback without leaving the command line.

What spotify-tui Does

• Browse saved albums, playlists, podcasts, and recently played tracks
• Search for artists, albums, tracks, and playlists within the terminal
• Control playback: play, pause, skip, seek, shuffle, and repeat
• Manage your library by saving or removing tracks and albums
• Display current playback with track progress and device info

Architecture Overview

spotify-tui communicates with the Spotify Web API using OAuth 2.0 PKCE authorization. It renders the interface using tui-rs (now ratatui) with a crossterm backend. Audio playback is handled by an active Spotify client on any device; spt acts as a remote controller rather than a local audio player.

Self-Hosting & Configuration

• Requires a Spotify Premium account for playback control
• Create a Spotify Developer app at developer.spotify.com for API credentials
• Set client ID via the interactive first-run setup or config file
• Config lives at ~/.config/spotify-tui/client.yml
• Customize keybindings and theme in the config file

Key Features

• Vim-style keybindings for fast navigation
• Device switching to transfer playback between speakers and devices
• Lyrics display integration via the Genius API
• Album art rendering in terminals that support images (e.g. kitty, iTerm2)
• Low resource usage compared to the official Electron-based desktop app

Comparison with Similar Tools

• ncspot — Another Rust Spotify TUI; plays audio natively without needing another client
• Spotify Desktop — Full GUI app built on Electron; heavier on resources
• cmus — General-purpose terminal music player; no Spotify integration
• playerctl — CLI playback controller; no browsing or search UI

FAQ

Q: Does spotify-tui play audio directly? A: No. It controls playback on an active Spotify client. You need Spotify running on a device.

Q: Do I need Spotify Premium? A: Yes. The Spotify Web API requires Premium for playback control features.

Q: Can I use it with a tiling window manager? A: Yes. It is a terminal app, so it integrates naturally with i3, sway, and similar setups.

Q: Is the project still maintained? A: Development has slowed, but the app remains functional with the current Spotify API.

Sources

• https://github.com/Rigellute/spotify-tui
• https://docs.rs/spotify-tui