Forte

Forte is a Linux desktop music player built with Go, Wails, Svelte, mpv, and SQLite. It plays internet radio out of the box, and can optionally manage a local music library with Subsonic and Jellyfin servers in the same collection.

What It Does

• Radio first - browse Radio Browser and SomaFM stations, filter by country or codec, save favourites, pin stations, add custom streams, and keep playback history.
• Library mode when you want it - add music directories in Settings, scan local FLAC, MP3, Ogg, Opus, and WAV files, then browse albums, artists, tracks, playlists, and listening stats.
• Streaming libraries - connect Subsonic-compatible and Jellyfin servers, test credentials, sync catalogues, and play remote tracks alongside local files.
• Playback built on mpv - queue management, shuffle, repeat, seeking, volume control, ReplayGain support, and gapless-style queue preloading.
• Desktop integration - MPRIS controls, desktop notifications, a COSMIC-friendly themed tray icon, launcher icons, and configurable dark/light colour themes.
• Scrobbling - Last.fm and ListenBrainz support with now-playing updates and a retry queue for missed scrobbles.
• Metadata extras - full-text search, CUE sheet parsing, play history, top artists/albums/tracks, and cached artist information from Last.fm and MusicBrainz.

Installation

Linux Installer

Install Forte on Ubuntu, Debian, or Arch:

curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/willfish/forte/master/scripts/install.sh | sh

Nix

Build and run the current release from GitHub:

nix run github:willfish/forte

Or build the package:

nix build github:willfish/forte

In a NixOS or Home Manager flake, add the package from the Forte flake:

inputs.forte.url = "github:willfish/forte";

environment.systemPackages = [
  inputs.forte.packages.${pkgs.system}.default
];

From Source

Forte supports Linux and macOS (via Nix). The Nix flake provides a first-class Forte.app on darwin (proper Dock icon, menubar status item with menu on click, playback state, self-contained libmpv).

The flake pins nixos-25.11 for mpv, GTK, and WebKit (cache.nixos.org). Go 1.26 comes from a second nixpkgs-go input (nixos-unstable) until 25.11 carries that toolchain.

# Fast dev shell: Go, Node, mpv, linters (no GTK/WebKit download)
nix develop

# Full shell when linking Wails or running Playwright in Nix
nix develop .#full

task build
./bin/forte

Home Manager still builds the forte app from source on input changes; that is separate from downloading Go itself.

# After a Nix package build
./result/bin/forte --version

Without Nix, install:

• Go 1.26+
• Node.js 22+
• GTK4
• WebKitGTK 6.0
• mpv
• pkg-config
• go-task

The build tasks install the pinned Wails 3 CLI into the repo-local .go/bin directory when needed.

Then build:

cd frontend
npm ci
cd ..
task build

Packaging

A nixpkgs-shaped derivation lives in nix/package.nix. The flake calls it with this tree as src. A later nixpkgs init can copy that file to pkgs/by-name/fo/forte/package.nix, switch src to fetchFromGitHub of a v* tag, and set maintainers = with lib.maintainers; [ willfish ];.

Do not open a GitHub PR just to iterate on hashes — nix build locally. Tagging v* on GitHub runs the Release workflow.

Development

# Hot reload with Wails and Vite
task dev

# Build the Linux desktop app
task build

# Local pre-PR verification
make check

# Seed demo data for screenshots and UI testing
task demo

# Go tests
go test -tags nocgo ./...

# Frontend type checking
cd frontend && npm run check

# Lint and vulnerability checks
golangci-lint run --build-tags nocgo
govulncheck -tags nocgo ./...

The demo task creates a fixture library with albums, tracks, playlists, play history, and radio data. It is safe to run more than once.

Architecture

frontend/          Svelte 5 UI, Vite build, Wails bindings
internal/library/  SQLite schema, scans, search, playlists, stats, servers
internal/player/   mpv engine and queue logic
internal/radio/    Radio Browser and SomaFM clients
internal/system/   MPRIS and desktop notifications
internal/metadata/ Audio tag reading
internal/scrobbling/
                   Last.fm and ListenBrainz clients
internal/streaming/
                   Subsonic and Jellyfin clients
libraryservice.go  Library, radio, settings, and integration RPC methods
playerservice.go   Playback, queue, tray, MPRIS, radio, and scrobbling runtime
main.go            Wails application setup

The backend owns I/O, playback, database access, desktop integration, and external services. The frontend is a Svelte app that talks to the backend through generated Wails bindings. User data is stored in SQLite under the app configuration directory.

Project Status

Forte is a personal Linux desktop app and is evolving quickly. Issues and feature requests are welcome at github.com/willfish/forte/issues.

License

GNU General Public License v3.0