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.

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:

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

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.

Tools

Playback

Library

YouTube

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

Metadata

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!

License

MIT