Spotify-Linux

Control the Spotify Linux desktop client via MPRIS DBus for playback, searching, launching, volume, and track info without browser automation.

Spotify Linux Control

Control Spotify desktop client on Linux through MPRIS DBus — no browser automation, no simulated clicks.

Prerequisites

• Spotify desktop client installed (/opt/spotify/spotify, wrapped by /usr/bin/spotify)
• An active X11/Wayland session with $XAUTHORITY available
• dbus-send (bundled with DBus, always present)

Quick Start

# Pause/Play toggle
dbus-send --print-reply --dest=org.mpris.MediaPlayer2.spotify \
  /org/mpris/MediaPlayer2 org.mpris.MediaPlayer2.Player.PlayPause

# Next/Previous
dbus-send --print-reply --dest=org.mpris.MediaPlayer2.spotify \
  /org/mpris/MediaPlayer2 org.mpris.MediaPlayer2.Player.Next
dbus-send --print-reply --dest=org.mpris.MediaPlayer2.spotify \
  /org/mpris/MediaPlayer2 org.mpris.MediaPlayer2.Player.Previous

1. Launch Spotify (Detached)

Spotify must be launched with proper X11 auth and fully detached from the agent process tree, so OpenClaw restarts don't kill it.

Step-by-step

# 1. Discover Xauthority path
XAUTHORITY=$(ps aux | grep -E 'Xwayland|Xorg' | grep -oP '\-auth \S+' | head -1 | cut -d' ' -f2)

# 2. Launch with setsid (fully detached, survives agent restarts)
DISPLAY=:0 XAUTHORITY="$XAUTHORITY" setsid -f spotify >/dev/null 2>&1

# 3. Wait for DBus registration (Spotify needs ~5-8 seconds)
for i in $(seq 1 10); do
  sleep 1
  if dbus-send --session --dest=org.freedesktop.DBus --type=method_call --print-reply \
    /org/freedesktop/DBus org.freedesktop.DBus.ListNames 2>/dev/null | grep -q spotify; then
    break
  fi
done

Key: setsid -f puts Spotify in its own session, independent of the launching process tree. Without it, nohup & still binds the process to the same session and it dies when the parent session terminates.

2. Search and Play a Track

MPRIS has no search method. The workflow: web-search → extract Spotify track ID → OpenUri.

# Step 1: Search the web for the track to get its Spotify URL
# Example search: "李白 李荣浩 spotify"
# Extract the track ID from URL like: https://open.spotify.com/track/0aLtafjN146xAdZeqYN8Ho

# Step 2: Call OpenUri with the spotify:track:<ID> URI
TRACK_ID="0aLtafjN146xAdZeqYN8Ho"
dbus-send --print-reply --dest=org.mpris.MediaPlayer2.spotify \
  /org/mpris/MediaPlayer2 \
  org.mpris.MediaPlayer2.Player.OpenUri \
  string:"spotify:track:$TRACK_ID"

Urgent: the Spotify client loads the track and starts playing immediately — no additional Play call needed after OpenUri.

URL types supported:

• spotify:track:<id> — single track
• spotify:album:<id> — full album
• spotify:playlist:<id> — playlist
• spotify:artist:<id> — artist page

3. Read Playback State

# Current play/pause status
dbus-send --print-reply --dest=org.mpris.MediaPlayer2.spotify \
  /org/mpris/MediaPlayer2 \
  org.freedesktop.DBus.Properties.Get \
  string:org.mpris.MediaPlayer2.Player string:PlaybackStatus

# Current track metadata (title, artist, album, URL, art, etc.)
dbus-send --print-reply --dest=org.mpris.MediaPlayer2.spotify \
  /org/mpris/MediaPlayer2 \
  org.freedesktop.DBus.Properties.Get \
  string:org.mpris.MediaPlayer2.Player string:Metadata

Key metadata fields in returned dict:

• xesam:title — track title
• xesam:artist — artist (array)
• xesam:album — album name
• xesam:url — Spotify web URL
• mpris:trackid — internal track ID path
• mpris:artUrl — album art URL

4. Volume Control

# Set volume (0.0 to 1.0)
dbus-send --print-reply --dest=org.mpris.MediaPlayer2.spotify \
  /org/mpris/MediaPlayer2 \
  org.freedesktop.DBus.Properties.Set \
  string:org.mpris.MediaPlayer2.Player string:Volume \
  variant:double:0.5

# Read current volume
dbus-send --print-reply --dest=org.mpris.MediaPlayer2.spotify \
  /org/mpris/MediaPlayer2 \
  org.freedesktop.DBus.Properties.Get \
  string:org.mpris.MediaPlayer2.Player string:Volume

5. Check If Spotify Is Running

# Quick: process check
pgrep -a spotify

# Reliable: DBus check (confirms fully initialized)
dbus-send --session --dest=org.freedesktop.DBus --type=method_call --print-reply \
  /org/freedesktop/DBus org.freedesktop.DBus.ListNames 2>/dev/null | grep spotify

DBus check is preferred because it confirms the client is fully initialized and ready for commands; process check alone can give false positives when Spotify is still starting up.

6. Play Daily Recommendation Playlists

"今日推荐" / "每日推荐" maps to Spotify's Daily Mix series — personalized playlists updated daily. Other recommendation playlists include Discover Weekly and Release Radar.

# Daily Mix 1-6 (personalized, content varies per user/region)
dbus-send --print-reply --dest=org.mpris.MediaPlayer2.spotify \
  /org/mpris/MediaPlayer2 \
  org.mpris.MediaPlayer2.Player.OpenUri \
  string:"spotify:playlist:37i9dQZF1E37SmkLuYDrmF"  # Daily Mix 1 (Chinese music)

# Discover Weekly (每周新发现)
dbus-send --print-reply --dest=org.mpris.MediaPlayer2.spotify \
  /org/mpris/MediaPlayer2 \
  org.mpris.MediaPlayer2.Player.OpenUri \
  string:"spotify:playlist:37i9dQZEVXcJZyENOWUFo7"

# Release Radar (新歌雷达)
dbus-send --print-reply --dest=org.mpris.MediaPlayer2.spotify \
  /org/mpris/MediaPlayer2 \
  org.mpris.MediaPlayer2.Player.OpenUri \
  string:"spotify:playlist:37i9dQZEVXbhM8yqJpzH4B"

Note: Daily Mix URIs with 37i9dQZF1E37 prefix are personalized — the same URI shows different content for each user. Content displayed in search results may differ from what the user hears.

Common DBus Destinations

Action	Method
Play	org.mpris.MediaPlayer2.Player.Play
Pause	org.mpris.MediaPlayer2.Player.Pause
PlayPause	org.mpris.MediaPlayer2.Player.PlayPause
Next	org.mpris.MediaPlayer2.Player.Next
Previous	org.mpris.MediaPlayer2.Player.Previous
Stop	org.mpris.MediaPlayer2.Player.Stop
Seek	org.mpris.MediaPlayer2.Player.Seek (int64:offset-us)
OpenUri	org.mpris.MediaPlayer2.Player.OpenUri (string:uri)
SetPosition	org.mpris.MediaPlayer2.Player.SetPosition (trackId,position)