Getting Started

Installation

Pre-built binary (recommended)

Download the latest binary for your platform from the Releases page. Then make it executable and move it to your PATH:

chmod +x spotify-darwin-arm64
sudo mv spotify-darwin-arm64 /usr/local/bin/spotify

On macOS, you'll need to remove the quarantine flag since the binary isn't signed:

xattr -d com.apple.quarantine /usr/local/bin/spotify

Verify the installation:

spotify --help

From source

Requires Bun runtime.

git clone https://github.com/zcaceres/spotify-cli.git
cd spotify-cli
bun install

When running from source, use bun run src/cli.ts instead of spotify in the examples below.

Create a Spotify App

1. Go to developer.spotify.com/dashboard
2. Click Create App
3. Set the Redirect URI to http://127.0.0.1:8888/callback
4. Copy the Client ID

A Spotify Premium account is required for playback controls (play, pause, skip, etc.). Read-only commands like search and library browsing work with any account.

Authentication

The CLI uses Spotify's OAuth 2.0 PKCE flow — no client secret needed. Log in before using any commands:

spotify login --client-id <your-client-id>

This opens your browser for authorization. After approving, tokens are saved to ~/.spotify-cli/tokens.json and refresh automatically.

First commands

Check what's currently playing:

spotify now

Search for a track and play it:

spotify search "bohemian rhapsody" --type track
spotify play --uri spotify:track:6rqhFgbbKwnb9MLmUQDhG6

Save or queue tracks by name — no need to look up IDs:

spotify track save "bohemian rhapsody"
spotify queue add "never gonna give you up"

Browse your saved library:

spotify track saved --limit 5
spotify playlist list

Control playback:

spotify pause
spotify next
spotify volume 80

Output formats

By default, all output is JSON to stdout, making it easy to pipe into other tools:

spotify now | jq '.item.name'
spotify track saved --limit 50 | jq '[.items[].track.name]'

Add --text to any command for human-readable plaintext instead:

spotify now --text
# Now playing: Thunderstruck - AC/DC

spotify volume 80 --text
# Volume set to 80

Errors are written to stderr as JSON (or plaintext with --text) with structured error codes.

Troubleshooting

"No active device" — Open Spotify on any device (phone, desktop, or web player) before running playback commands. Use spotify devices to list available devices.

"Token expired" — Tokens refresh automatically. If you hit auth errors, run spotify login --client-id <id> again.

"Command not found: spotify" — Ensure the binary is in your PATH, or use the full path to the binary.