Getting Started

This page picks up after Installation - the server is running and you have an owner account. The steps below get you from an empty instance to playing music.

Ephemeral sources: no scanning required

If you install a plugin that provides an users/Ephemeral-Sources (e.g., a YouTube or Spotify integration), you can search and play from that external catalog immediately - no library scan needed. Install the plugin, configure it if required, and use the search page.

Ephemeral sources and local libraries are complementary. Many setups use both: a local library for owned music and an ephemeral source for discovering or playing music not in the local collection.

Setting up a local library

If you want to index and manage your own music files, follow these steps.

1. Install a library plugin

Pipe Bomb ships with no built-in music sources. You need a plugin that provides a development/Library-Handler before you can index any tracks.

Go to Settings → System → Plugin Marketplace and add a marketplace if one isn't already configured. Browse available plugins and install one that matches your setup (e.g., a local filesystem library plugin).

If you have a direct git URL for a plugin, you can also install it from Settings → System → Installed Plugins → Install plugin.

2. Configure the plugin

After installing, open the plugin's settings page from Settings → System → Plugin and configure it. If the plugin doesn't show up under plugin settings, it doesn't need configuring.

3. Add a library

With the plugin installed and configured, go to Settings → System → Libraries. The plugin should have registered one or more libraries. If configuration is needed before it appears, revisit the plugin settings.

4. Scan the library

From Settings → System → Libraries, trigger a scan. The server will call the library plugin's scanner, which walks your music source and registers tracks in the database. Depending on library size, this may take a while.

You can watch progress from Settings → System → Tasks.

5. Install a search plugin

Pipe Bomb's built-in search returns results in an arbitrary order. For a usable search experience, install a search plugin (e.g., a MiniSearch-based plugin) and activate it from Settings → System → Search.

6. Install an attribute source

Without an development/Attribute-Source plugin, tracks will have no metadata beyond what the library plugin reports. An attribute source plugin (e.g., one backed by MusicBrainz or local file tags) will populate track titles, album art, genres, and other fields.

After installing, trigger an attribute run from Settings → System → Tasks.

Automating with workflows

Once everything is working manually, set up a users/Workflows to automate recurring tasks - for example, a cron trigger that scans all libraries and then attributes new tracks on a nightly schedule.