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: — single track
• spotify:album: — full album
• spotify:playlist: — playlist
• spotify:artist: — 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