Forward-fix from running the prior two commits in production. Backfill
on a real library exposed two further issues:
(1) gofmt -s flagged the column-aligned stubMeta methods in
mbids_test.go. Switched to the gofmt-canonical single-space form.
(2) Many albums failed to heal with SQLSTATE 23505 (unique constraint
albums_mbid_unique). Cause: the operator's library has duplicate
album rows in the DB — same MusicBrainz release, split into
multiple rows by the pre-MBID scanner because of subtle title or
artist disagreements between files. When backfill now correctly
extracts the MBID, two rows want to claim the same one and the
partial unique index rejects the second.
The conflict is correct DB behavior — we shouldn't have two rows
with the same MBID — but it's not a write failure to alarm the
operator about. Detect 23505 specifically:
- downgrade the log line from Warn to Info
- track these in a new BackfillMBIDsResult.Duplicates counter
(separate from Skipped, which retains its "no MBID in tag"
meaning)
- leave the duplicate row's mbid NULL; merging duplicates is a
separate (future) operator workflow
Same handling threaded through the scanner heal path so a regular
rescan doesn't generate the noise either.
JSON tally + admin UI gain a "Duplicates" line so the operator
can see how many duplicate rows their library carries.
Follow-up scope (separate task): a duplicate-album merge UX that
reparents the duplicate's tracks to the canonical row and deletes
the orphaned album row.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.7 (1M context) <noreply@anthropic.com>
Minstrel
A self-hosted music server that thinks for you. Smart shuffle, contextual likes, ListenBrainz-aware radio, and Lidarr automation — server-side, so every client (web, mobile, Subsonic third-party) gets the same intelligence.
State and intelligence belong on the server, not the client.
Highlights
- OpenSubsonic-compatible. Existing Subsonic clients (DSub, Symfonium, play:Sub, etc.) connect with no special configuration.
- Server-side smart shuffle. Track-similarity vectors, dual-like model (general + contextual), and session memory keep mixes coherent across devices.
- ListenBrainz radio. Session-aware "more like this" pulls from ListenBrainz similarity data, not a static genre tag.
- Lidarr integration. Triggered scans, request-driven album imports, and a quarantine flow when something doesn't fit.
- Built-in web SPA. Full-feature library, search, queue, playlists, and admin — no separate frontend container to deploy.
- Flutter mobile client in flight. Tracking issue #356.
Quickstart
# compose.yaml
services:
minstrel:
image: git.fabledsword.com/bvandeusen/minstrel:v1.0.0
ports: ['4533:4533']
volumes:
- ./music:/music:ro
- minstrel-data:/data
environment:
MINSTREL_DATABASE_URL: postgres://minstrel:minstrel@db:5432/minstrel?sslmode=disable
MINSTREL_LIBRARY_SCAN_PATHS: /music
depends_on: [db]
db:
image: postgres:17
environment:
POSTGRES_USER: minstrel
POSTGRES_PASSWORD: minstrel
POSTGRES_DB: minstrel
volumes: [pgdata:/var/lib/postgresql/data]
volumes:
minstrel-data:
pgdata:
docker compose up -d
Watch docker compose logs minstrel on first start — a one-time admin password is printed to stderr. Sign in at http://localhost:4533 with username admin and that password, then change it under Settings.
For the full configuration surface, see config.example.yaml.
Configuration
Most operators only need the env vars in the quickstart above. A few extras worth knowing:
MINSTREL_BRANDING_APP_NAME— rename the instance ("Family Jukebox", "Office Music"). Surfaces in the header, browser tab, and OG share previews.MINSTREL_STORAGE_DATA_DIR— defaults to./data. Holds playlist cover collages and other generated artefacts.MINSTREL_LIBRARY_SCAN_PATHS— colon-separated list of music library roots to scan. Supports multiple roots (/music:/podcasts).MINSTREL_AUTH_ADMIN_USERNAME/MINSTREL_AUTH_ADMIN_PASSWORD— bootstrap admin credentials. Username defaults toadmin; leave the password unset to have the server generate one and print it to stderr on first start.
ListenBrainz integration (per-user scrobble + similarity tokens) and Lidarr integration (URL + API key) are configured through the admin Settings UI rather than env vars or yaml — per Minstrel's "config in UI" rule, integration settings live where operators can edit them without restarting.
Most operational keys have a MINSTREL_<SECTION>_<FIELD> env override. Recommendation and events tuning are yaml-only. See config.example.yaml for the authoritative surface.
Updating
:main— rolling, follows the dev branch's tested tip. Recommended only for the operator who's running an upstream-watching deployment.:v1.0.x— pinned releases. Recommended default. Database migrations run automatically at startup; rollbacks require restoring a Postgres dump.
Specs
Authoritative scope lives under docs/:
- Server spec — current implementation focus.
- Client spec — Flutter companion app.
Development
Two concurrent dev processes:
- Backend:
docker compose up— Postgres + Minstrel on:4533. - Frontend:
cd web && npm install && npm run dev— Vite dev server on:5173with HMR. The Vite server proxies/api/*and/rest/*to:4533so session cookies work.
Production build
docker build -t minstrel . runs the SvelteKit build inside a node stage, copies the output into the golang stage, and //go:embeds it into the final binary. The container serves the SPA from / alongside the API surfaces; no separate static-file server is required.
Branches
- Day-to-day work happens on
dev(or feature branches merged intodev). mainis protected — changes land via PR fromdev.- Releases are cut by tagging
v*offmain; the release workflow builds and pushes the container image to the Forgejo registry.
Task and milestone tracking: Fable (Minstrel project, id 12).
License
See LICENSE.