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Terminal App Tutorial

The SotF Terminal app is a keyboard-driven music player and audio optimizer that runs entirely in your terminal. It's perfect for SSH sessions, headless servers, and anyone who prefers a fast, distraction-free workflow.

Installation

Build from source:

cargo build --release --bin sotf-tui

Or download the latest binary from the GitHub releases page.

Quick Start

Launch the Terminal app with a music directory:

sotf-tui --directories ~/Music --scan

The --scan flag triggers an initial scan of your music library. After the first scan, SotF remembers your directories and indexes them automatically on startup.

Screens Overview

The Terminal app is organized into several screens, each accessible via keyboard shortcuts:

Screen Description
Library Browse and search your music collection by artist, album, or track
Queue View and manage the current playback queue
Plugins Add, configure, and reorder audio processing plugins
Devices Select and configure audio output devices
Directory Manager Add or remove music directories and trigger rescans

Keyboard Shortcuts

Key Action
h Show help overlay
q Quit the application
Space Play / Pause
n Next track
p Previous track
< > Volume down / up
h j k l / arrows Navigate (vim-style or arrow keys)
/ Search
Enter Select / confirm

Adding Plugins

  1. 1 Navigate to the Plugins screen.
  2. 2 Press a to open the plugin browser.
  3. 3 Browse or search for a plugin (EQ, compressor, limiter, convolution, etc.).
  4. 4 Press Enter to add it to your chain. Use j / k to reorder.

Saving & Loading Presets

Your plugin chain configuration can be saved as a preset for quick recall.

  • Save — export your current plugin chain as a JSON preset file.
  • Load — import a preset or an APO EQ configuration file to instantly apply a plugin chain.
  • APO EQ files — SotF natively reads EqualizerAPO configuration files, making it easy to import EQ settings from other tools.