Skip to main content
spot lets you control Spotify without leaving the terminal. Search for tracks, albums, artists, and playlists — then play them instantly. Playback controls like pause, skip, and volume work with pure AppleScript, so they never require internet access or steal window focus.

Installation

Install spot from source in under a minute with Cargo

Authentication

Connect your Spotify developer credentials to enable search

Play & Search

Search and play tracks, albums, artists, and playlists

Playback Controls

Pause, skip, set volume, shuffle, and repeat from the terminal

​
How it works

spot combines two distinct mechanisms:
  • Search uses the Spotify Web API with the Client Credentials flow. This requires a client ID and secret, but no user login and no Premium subscription.
  • Playback uses AppleScript to send commands directly to the Spotify desktop app. Controls like pause, next, and vol need no API credentials at all.

​
Quick example

# Play the top track for a search query
spot "bohemian rhapsody"

# Play an album
spot -a "abbey road"

# Check what's playing
spot now

# Skip and adjust volume
spot next
spot vol 60

​
Requirements

  • macOS — AppleScript is macOS-only
  • Rust 1.83+ — to build from source
  • Spotify desktop app — must be installed and running for playback
  • Spotify developer credentials — required for search (free to create)

Build docs developers (and LLMs) love

Get started for freeTalk to us