bvandeusen c7549bbe48 perf(api): collapse N+1 in /api/artists/{id} + 1 round-trip in /api/albums/{id}
Two new sqlc queries replace three sequential per-album round trips
that were dominating detail-screen latency.

GetAlbumWithArtist: handleGetAlbum was doing GetAlbumByID then
GetArtistByID — separate round trips for one logical lookup. The new
query joins albums + artists with sqlc.embed and returns both in one
SELECT. Detail-page DB cost: 3 trips → 2.

ListAlbumsByArtistWithTrackCount: handleGetArtist was loading the
artist's album list, then issuing one CountTracksByAlbum per album to
populate track_count. On a 30-album artist that's 32 sequential
queries — each ~5ms over a local DB, ~30ms over a remote one. The
new query embeds the album row + a correlated count(*) subquery, so
every album's track count comes back in one SELECT regardless of
album count. Detail-page DB cost: 1 + N → 1 + 1.

Together these account for the bulk of cold-cache navigation latency
on the Flutter client. Combined with the existing SWR + nav
hydration on the client side, detail screens should render their
header instantly and the body within one round trip instead of
N+constant.
2026-05-11 18:13:27 -04:00
2026-04-19 15:14:56 +00:00
2026-04-18 17:33:35 +00:00

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:latest
    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

After the stack is up, visit http://localhost:4533/register and create your admin account. The first user to register on a fresh instance is automatically marked as the administrator; subsequent users can register through the same form (or via invite tokens generated from the admin Users panel, depending on how you configure registration).

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).

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/:

Development

Two concurrent dev processes:

  1. Backend: docker compose up — Postgres + Minstrel on :4533.
  2. Frontend: cd web && npm install && npm run dev — Vite dev server on :5173 with HMR. The Vite server proxies /api/* and /rest/* to :4533 so 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 into dev).
  • main is protected — changes land via PR from dev.
  • Releases are cut by tagging v* off main; 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.

S
Description
Self-hosted music server with OpenSubsonic compatibility, server-side smart shuffle, dual-like model, session-aware radio, and Lidarr integration. Go + Postgres.
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