mpv-mcp-server

mpv-mcp-server

MCP server for controlling mpv media player. Browse your music library, control playback, stream from YouTube, and download tracks — all from inside an MCP client like Claude Code.

Tools

Playback

Tool Description mpv_play Play a file by path or search term mpv_pause Pause playback mpv_resume Resume playback mpv_stop Stop playback mpv_status Get current playback status mpv_seek Seek to position ("90", "1:30", "+10", "-30") mpv_volume Get or set volume (0-150)

Library

Tool Description mpv_browse List and search available media files mpv_playlist Show current playlist mpv_add Add a track to the playlist mpv_load_playlist Load a playlist file (.m3u, .pls, .txt) mpv_next Skip to next track mpv_prev Go to previous track

YouTube

Tool Description mpv_youtube Search YouTube and stream through mpv (supports append mode) mpv_download Download from YouTube (audio or video)

YouTube tools require yt-dlp on your PATH. Audio downloads also require ffmpeg.

Metadata

Tool Description mpv_info Get metadata for the current track or any file by search term mpv_tag Write metadata tags (artist, title, album, genre, date, comment) to a file

Both tools infer artist/title from the "Artist - Title" filename pattern. Requires ffmpeg (includes ffprobe).

How It Works

The server communicates with mpv via its JSON IPC protocol. On Windows this uses a named pipe, on macOS/Linux a Unix domain socket. If mpv isn't running, the server spawns it automatically in idle mode. The mpv process is detached, so it keeps playing even if the MCP server exits.

Platform Support

Developed and tested on Windows. macOS/Linux support is implemented but untested — issues and PRs welcome!

Prerequisites

• mpv — media player (must be on your PATH, or set MPV_PATH)

• Node.js 22+

• yt-dlp (optional) — required for YouTube streaming and downloading

• ffmpeg (optional) — required for audio extraction, metadata reading (ffprobe), and tagging

Quick Start

Claude Code

Add to your project's .mcp.json:

{ "mcpServers": { "mpv": { "command": "npx", "args": ["-y", "mpv-mcp-server"] } } }

Or add at user scope (available in all projects):

claude mcp add mpv --scope user -- npx -y mpv-mcp-server

Claude Desktop

Add to your Claude Desktop config:

With environment overrides

{ "mcpServers": { "mpv": { "command": "npx", "args": ["-y", "mpv-mcp-server"], "env": { "MPV_PATH": "/usr/local/bin/mpv", "MPV_MEDIA_DIRS": "/home/user/Music,/home/user/Podcasts", "MPV_DOWNLOAD_DIR": "/home/user/Music" } } } }

Configuration

All configuration is via environment variables. Everything has sensible defaults.

Variable Default Description MPV_PATH mpv Path to mpv executable MPV_IPC_PATH \.\pipe\mpvpipe (Windows) or /tmp/mpv-ipc.sock (Unix) IPC socket path MPV_MEDIA_DIRS /Music,/Videos Comma-separated media directories to scan MPV_DOWNLOAD_DIR ~/Downloads Where downloaded files are saved

License

MIT