mprisence

Discord Rich Presence for Linux media players

Overview • Supported players • Quick start • Configuration • Web players • Development • Troubleshooting

Reads MPRIS metadata over D-Bus → renders Discord Rich Presence → syncs with current media.

Works with VLC, MPV, Rhythmbox, Strawberry, CMUS, MPD, and more. Has a browser bridge for web players (YouTube Music, SoundCloud, etc.) when browser MPRIS is not enough.

Local player → Discord status, no config needed

Overview

How it works

local player or browser tab
  → MPRIS metadata on D-Bus
  → mprisence
  → Discord Rich Presence

Browser bridge path (optional - see Web players):

supported website
  → browser extension
  → MPRIS bridge (native host)
  → mprisence
  → Discord Rich Presence

Highlights

• No config required for common local-player setups
• Handlebars templates for title, artist, album, player name, status, duration, IDs, and more
• Per-player and per-site overrides for app ID, icon, activity type, streaming policy, and status text
• Cover art from metadata, local files, Catbox/Litterbox, MusicBrainz, or ImgBB
• Hot reload for most config changes
• Browser bridge for better metadata, cover art, URLs, and controls on web players

Supported players

Bundled presets in config/config.default.toml. No setup needed - start mprisence and these appear in Discord automatically.

Local players (MPRIS): Audacious, Amberol, Clementine, CMUS, Elisa, Euphonica, Feishin, Fooyin, Gapless, Gelly, Haruna, Harmony Music, Kew, Lollypop, Media Player Classic Qute Theater, MPV, MPD, Musikcube, MusicBee, QMMP, Quod Libet, Quester, Rhythmbox, AmpCast, SMPlayer, Spotify (legacy), Strawberry, Supersonic, VLC.

Web players (browser bridge): YouTube Music, YouTube, SoundCloud, Bandcamp, Tidal, Apple Music, Qobuz, Amazon Music, Deezer, Yandex Music. Add your own under [web_player.*] with match_patterns.

Quick start

Note

This covers local media players (VLC, MPV, Strawberry, etc.). For web players (YouTube Music, SoundCloud, etc.), see Web players.

1. Install

Arch Linux

yay -S mprisence
# or: yay -S mprisence-bin

Nix / NixOS

# without flakes
nix-env -iA nixpkgs.mprisence

# with flakes
nix profile install nixpkgs#mprisence

Debian / Ubuntu

Download .deb from GitHub Releases, then:

sudo dpkg -i /path/to/mprisence_*.deb

crates.io

cargo install mprisence

From source

git clone https://github.com/lazykern/mprisence.git
cd mprisence
cargo install --path .

2. Start it

mprisence

Run in foreground first to verify it picks up your player. Stop with Ctrl+C.

3. Verify

Start media playback, then in another terminal:

mprisence players list
mprisence players list --detailed

If you see your player listed, Discord shows your activity within seconds.

Example:

$ mprisence players list --detailed
Name       Identity               Bus Name                                    Source
────       ────────               ────────                                    ──────
VLC        vlc_media_player       org.mpris.MediaPlayer2.vlc                  D-Bus
Strawberry strawberry           org.mpris.MediaPlayer2.strawberry          D-Bus

4. Enable as a service (autostart)

systemctl --user enable --now mprisence.service

If the command above does not work:

mkdir -p ~/.config/systemd/user
curl -o ~/.config/systemd/user/mprisence.service \
  https://raw.githubusercontent.com/lazykern/mprisence/main/mprisence.service
systemctl --user daemon-reload
systemctl --user enable --now mprisence.service

Check service status:

systemctl --user status mprisence
journalctl --user -u mprisence -f

Configuration

Tip

No config file needed for first run. Create one for overrides.

Config path: ~/.config/mprisence/config.toml

Start from example config:

mkdir -p ~/.config/mprisence
curl -o ~/.config/mprisence/config.toml \
  https://raw.githubusercontent.com/lazykern/mprisence/main/config/config.example.toml

Reference files:

• config/config.example.toml - documented example
• config/config.default.toml - bundled player and web-player presets
• src/metadata.rs - template variable reference

Common knobs

• template.details, template.state, template.large_text, template.small_text
• [player.*] - overrides for specific local players
• [activity_type] and [time] - Discord display behavior
• [cover.provider] - cover-art sources

Player preset keys are stable names. match_patterns selects the MPRIS sources they apply to. Unscoped patterns match either normalized identity or canonical bus name; identity: and bus: restrict the target:

[player.vlc]
match_patterns = ["vlc_media_player", "bus:vlc"]
show_icon = true

Bundled presets keep separate Discord application IDs and define an explicit name for the displayed activity and {{{player}}} template value.

Use the name registered for a custom Discord application instead of bundled player names:

[player.default]
app_id = "YOUR_DISCORD_APP_ID"
use_app_name = true

use_app_name defaults to false.

Restrict discovery with the same selectors, or by resolved preset/site key:

allowed_players = ["player:vlc", "web_player:youtube_music", "bus:*mpdris2*"]

Example: show track title in Discord status instead of player name:

[player.default]
status_display_type = "details"

Status display types

status_display_type controls which text Discord shows in your status:

Mode	Preview
name - player/app name
state - template.state render (default: artists)
details - template.details render (default: title)

Inspect resolved config

mprisence config

Web-player config options ([web_player.*]) are documented in the Web players section.

Web players

To run with local players only, turn website detection off:

web_player_enabled = false

With this off, xesam:url and title suffixes are not inspected. Browsers resolve through [player.*] like any other player and [web_player.*] rules are inert. Because [player.default] has allow_streaming = false, a native browser needs an explicit player entry to remain visible:

[player.firefox]
match_patterns = ["firefox"]
ignore = false
allow_streaming = true

To hide one site instead of all websites, set ignore = true on that site's entry. A website without a matching [web_player.*] entry is always hidden. Matched web players always allow streaming.

mprisence supports two paths for browser media. Try Browser MPRIS first; switch to the bridge if metadata or controls are lacking.

	Browser MPRIS	Bridge + extension
Setup	None	Native host + extension
Metadata	Title, maybe artist, URL	Title, artist, album, cover, canonical URL
Controls	Play/pause	Full (prev, next, seek)
Works with	Any browser with MPRIS support	Bundled sites + presets

Bridge + extension

Use this path for richer title, cover art, canonical URL, duration, and controls.

Bundled site support includes:

• YouTube Music, YouTube, SoundCloud, Bandcamp, TIDAL, Apple Music
• Plus presets for Deezer, Qobuz, Amazon Music, Yandex Music, and more

Install extension

• Firefox: mprisence bridge on AMO
• Chrome / Chromium: mprisence bridge on Chrome Web Store

Install native host

mprisence web install
mprisence web doctor

Open a supported site (e.g. music.youtube.com) and play a track. Check with playerctl -l | grep mprisence_web.

Development: build and load unpacked

cd extension
npm install
npm run build:firefox   # or: npm run build:chromium

• Firefox: about:debugging#/runtime/this-firefox → Load Temporary Add-on → extension/dist/firefox/manifest.json
• Chromium: chrome://extensions → Developer mode → Load unpacked → extension/dist/chromium/

Reloading the extension kills content scripts on existing tabs. Refresh media tabs after reload.

Debugging

playerctl -l | grep mprisence_web
tail -f /tmp/bridge-stderr.log

For full detail: extension/README.md

Browser MPRIS

Some browsers expose media tabs as MPRIS players with page URL metadata. When quality is adequate, mprisence matches these against [web_player.*] presets.

Check what your browser exposes:

playerctl -l
mprisence players list --detailed

Enable specific sites via config.

Bundled site (patterns inherited from bundled entry - un-ignore to activate):

[web_player.youtube]
ignore = false

Custom site (not in bundle - provide match_pattern and app_id):

[web_player.my_site]
match_pattern = "mysite.com"
name = "My Site"
app_id = "YOUR_DISCORD_APP_ID"
icon = "https://mysite.com/icon.png"
ignore = false

Development

Build workspace

cargo build --release -p mprisence
./target/release/mprisence web install
cd extension && npm install && npm run build:firefox

Repository layout

Path	Purpose
src/	core daemon: MPRIS discovery, metadata, cover art, config, Discord presence
src/web_bridge/	native host mode for browser sources
extension/	browser extension for supported web players
config/	bundled defaults and example config
tests/	integration and metadata tests
packaging/	packaging scripts and distro assets

Useful commands

# verbose logging
RUST_LOG=debug mprisence
RUST_LOG=trace mprisence

# validate version string logic
mprisence version validate 1.7.0-beta.3

Troubleshooting

Discord activity not showing

Check:

1. Discord desktop client running
2. Activity-sharing setting enabled
3. mprisence process or service running
4. Player visible in mprisence players list
5. Logs show no errors

systemctl --user status mprisence
mprisence players list --detailed
journalctl --user -u mprisence -f

Player detected, but presence still hidden

Player may be ignored by config or blocked as streaming source.

mprisence config
mprisence players list --detailed

Add matching [player.*] override or adjust [web_player.*] entry.

Browser tab missing or wrong

• Browser MPRIS path: browser may not expose enough metadata
• Bridge path: extension may not be loaded, native host may not be installed, or tab may need refresh after extension reload

Useful checks:

playerctl -l
playerctl -l | grep mprisence_web
./target/release/mprisence web doctor
tail -f /tmp/bridge-stderr.log

Cover art missing

RUST_LOG=debug mprisence
rm -rf ~/.cache/mprisence/cover_art

Then verify provider config and metadata quality.

Flatpak Discord clients

If you use Vesktop Flatpak, native IPC may need extra setup. See Vesktop guide for native applications: https://github.com/flathub/dev.vencord.Vesktop?tab=readme-ov-file#native-applications

If problem persists, open an issue with:

• player name and mprisence players list --detailed output
• relevant config snippet
• logs from journalctl --user -u mprisence -f
• bridge logs if browser path involved