rockboxd

Headless Rockbox audio engine daemon with gRPC, GraphQL, HTTP, and MPD APIs

TLDR

Start the daemon in the foreground

$ rockboxd

Start with info-level logging to see discovered network renderers

$ RUST_LOG=info rockboxd

Install as a systemd user service

$ rockbox service install

Check the service status

$ rockbox service status

Talk to it as an MPD server from any MPD client

$ mpc -p 6600 [play]

SYNOPSIS

rockboxdrockbox service {install | uninstall | status}

rockboxd is a single-binary daemon that embeds the open-source Rockbox audio engine and exposes it over multiple protocols simultaneously. Out of the box it listens for gRPC on port 6061, GraphQL plus a web UI on 6062, an HTTP REST API on 6063, and an MPD-compatible server on 6600, so the same library and playback state can be controlled from web, mobile, scripts, or any existing MPD client.Playback inherits Rockbox's capabilities: gapless transitions, replay-gain, software DSP, and decoders for 20+ codecs. Audio can be rendered locally through CPAL or streamed to remote sinks including Snapcast, AirPlay, Squeezelite, Chromecast, and UPnP/DLNA renderers, which makes it convenient as the backbone of a multi-room audio system.The companion rockbox command installs and manages the daemon as a systemd user service. rockboxd is distinct from the original Rockbox firmware (which targets portable music players) and from the rockboxdev.sh toolchain helper.

CONFIGURATION

Configuration is read from ~/.config/rockbox.org/settings.toml. The file controls the music library path, enabled output sinks, and listening ports.

$ [library]
music_dir = "~/Music"

[outputs.local]
enabled = true

[outputs.snapcast]
enabled = true
host = "snapserver.lan"
port = 1704

[server]
mpd_port = 6600
grpc_port = 6061
graphql_port = 6062
http_port = 6063

Verbosity is controlled via the RUST_LOG environment variable (`error`, `warn`, `info`, `debug`, `trace`).

CAVEATS

For Chromecast output the local port 7881 must be reachable from the renderer on the LAN. rockboxd is unrelated to the Rockbox firmware; do not flash it to a DAP. Configuration is TOML-only — there is no traditional flag-based CLI.

HISTORY

rockboxd is part of the rockbox-zig project created by Tsiry Sandratraina. It is written in Rust and Zig around the upstream Rockbox audio engine and is actively maintained, with packages available for Ubuntu, Fedora, Arch, Homebrew, and Docker.