Spores

Spores is a Rust CLI tool for Spotify playlist management and library saving. All output is structured JSON.

Prerequisites

Before running any command, the user must have:

1. A Spotify developer app registered at https://developer.spotify.com/dashboard with a redirect URI of http://127.0.0.1:8888/callback
2. A config file at the platform config directory (~/Library/Application Support/spores/config.toml on macOS, ~/.config/spores/config.toml on Linux) containing:

client_id = "<SPOTIFY_CLIENT_ID>"
client_secret = "<SPOTIFY_CLIENT_SECRET>"
# redirect_uri = "http://127.0.0.1:8888/callback"  # optional, this is the default

On first run, spores opens a browser for OAuth authorization and caches the token at config_dir/token_cache.json. Subsequent runs reuse the cached token.

If the config file does not exist, spores creates a template and exits with instructions. If credentials are empty, it exits with an error.

CLI Command Reference

All commands are run via cargo run -- <subcommand> during development or spores <subcommand> if installed.

Search

spores search <QUERY> [-t track|album|artist|playlist] [-l LIMIT]

• QUERY (required): search string
• -t, --type: item type to search for (default: track)
• -l, --limit: max results (default: 20)

Output shape varies by type. Track example:

{
  "query": "bohemian rhapsody",
  "type": "track",
  "total": 857,
  "items": [
    {
      "id": "7tFiyTwD0nx5a1eklYtX2J",
      "name": "Bohemian Rhapsody",
      "artists": ["Queen"],
      "album": "A Night At The Opera",
      "duration_ms": 354947
    }
  ]
}

Album items have: id, name, artists, release_date. Artist items have: id, name, genres, followers, popularity. Playlist items have: id, name, tracks, owner, url.

Playlist List

spores playlist list

Lists all playlists for the authenticated user (paginates automatically).

{
  "total": 12,
  "playlists": [
    {
      "id": "37i9dQZF1DXcBWIGoYBM5M",
      "name": "Today's Top Hits",
      "tracks": 50,
      "public": true,
      "owner": "spotify",
      "url": "https://open.spotify.com/playlist/37i9dQZF1DXcBWIGoYBM5M"
    }
  ]
}

Playlist Create

spores playlist create <NAME> [--public] [-d DESCRIPTION]

• NAME (required): playlist name
• --public: make playlist public (default: private)
• -d, --description: optional description

{
  "id": "3cEYpjA9oz9GiPac4AsH4n",
  "name": "Road Trip",
  "public": false,
  "description": "Songs for the drive",
  "url": "https://open.spotify.com/playlist/3cEYpjA9oz9GiPac4AsH4n"
}

Playlist Info

spores playlist info <PLAYLIST>

• PLAYLIST (required): playlist ID or Spotify URI

Returns full playlist details including all tracks:

{
  "id": "3cEYpjA9oz9GiPac4AsH4n",
  "name": "Road Trip",
  "owner": "tirth",
  "public": false,
  "collaborative": false,
  "followers": 0,
  "description": "Songs for the drive",
  "url": "https://open.spotify.com/playlist/3cEYpjA9oz9GiPac4AsH4n",
  "total_tracks": 2,
  "tracks": [
    {
      "type": "track",
      "id": "7tFiyTwD0nx5a1eklYtX2J",
      "name": "Bohemian Rhapsody",
      "artists": ["Queen"],
      "album": "A Night At The Opera",
      "duration_ms": 354947
    }
  ]
}

Tracks may also have "type": "episode" (with show and duration_ms) or "type": "unknown".

Playlist Add

spores playlist add <PLAYLIST> <TRACKS>...

• PLAYLIST (required): playlist ID or Spotify URI
• TRACKS (required): one or more track IDs or Spotify URIs

{
  "playlist": "3cEYpjA9oz9GiPac4AsH4n",
  "added": 2,
  "snapshot_id": "MTYsNjM..."
}

Save to Library

spores save [-t track|album|playlist] <IDS>...

• -t, --type: type of item to save (default: track)
• IDS (required): one or more IDs or Spotify URIs

Saves tracks or albums to the user’s “Your Music” library. For playlists, this follows (saves) the playlist.

Track example:

{
  "type": "track",
  "saved": 2,
  "ids": ["7tFiyTwD0nx5a1eklYtX2J", "4u7EnebtmKWzUH433cf5Qv"]
}

Album example:

{
  "type": "album",
  "saved": 1,
  "ids": ["6i6folBtxKV28WX3msQ4FE"]
}

Playlist example:

{
  "type": "playlist",
  "saved": 1,
  "ids": ["37i9dQZF1DXcBWIGoYBM5M"]
}

Workflow: Creating a Playlist and Adding Tracks

1. Search for tracks to find their IDs:

   cargo run -- search "bohemian rhapsody" -t track -l 5
   

2. Extract the id values from the JSON output.
3. Create a new playlist:

   cargo run -- playlist create "My Playlist" -d "A great playlist"
   

4. Extract the playlist id from the output.
5. Add tracks to the playlist:

   cargo run -- playlist add <PLAYLIST_ID> <TRACK_ID_1> <TRACK_ID_2>
   

6. Verify with:

   cargo run -- playlist info <PLAYLIST_ID>
   

Workflow: Inspecting Existing Playlists

1. List all playlists: cargo run -- playlist list
2. Pick a playlist ID from the output.
3. Get full details: cargo run -- playlist info <PLAYLIST_ID>

Workflow: Saving Items to Your Library

1. Search for the item to find its ID:

   cargo run -- search "A Night at the Opera" -t album -l 5
   

2. Extract the id from the JSON output.
3. Save it:

   cargo run -- save -t album <ALBUM_ID>
   

   For tracks (the default type), the -t flag can be omitted:

   cargo run -- save <TRACK_ID_1> <TRACK_ID_2>
   

   For playlists:

   cargo run -- save -t playlist <PLAYLIST_ID>
   

Key Implementation Details

• IDs and URIs: All commands accept both raw IDs (e.g., 7tFiyTwD0nx5a1eklYtX2J) and full Spotify URIs (e.g., spotify:track:7tFiyTwD0nx5a1eklYtX2J).
• JSON output: Every command outputs pretty-printed JSON. Errors are also JSON: {"error": "message"}.
• Pagination: playlist list automatically pages through all results.