spotifast/docs/_reference/how-it-connects.md

title, description, nav_order

title	description	nav_order
How It Connects	Independent Spotify grants, what is stored, and how API traffic is routed.	1

Independent grants, once each

Spotifast uses separate credentials for Web API access, a personal app, and local playback:

1. The shared Web API app keeps full catalogue and playlist coverage.
2. Your optional personal Web API app handles supported playback, library, catalog, catalogue search, playlist creation, and owned or collaborative playlist requests without using the shared app's quota. Complete playlist-library views and the playlist half of a search stay on the shared app so Spotify-owned results are not filtered out. Both Web API grants must verify as the same Spotify account.
3. Local playback uses librespot. It needs one more browser approval and keeps an independent reusable credential. Spotify Premium is required. While it is signed in, its session also reads the playlists the shared app would otherwise be asked for: other people's, and the account's own when there is no personal app. Radio pages come only from this session: the Web API has no stations. Opening one resolves the station and reads its songs' details in one batched request.

Local playback authorization stays separate from both Web API grants. Its browser approval requests only the streaming permission and always shows the consent dialog. The playback session uses the account ID verified by either Web API grant. A verified personal app can complete sign-in while the shared app's verification is still waiting.

Since 0.8.0, local playback retains the artist IDs already supplied by librespot. Artist links in the player bar work before the Web API's track metadata arrives, without an extra request.

Since 0.8.0, local seeks discard audio queued from the previous position once librespot confirms the seek. This also applies when another Spotify client controls playback on this computer. Natural track transitions retain their queue for gapless playback. The seek still waits for librespot to find and fetch the requested audio, and sound already handed to the device cannot be recalled. Seeking adds no Web API request or full-track download.

Since 0.8.0, requests that need a grant still being verified wait for it instead of showing "not signed in". Sign-out cancels pending requests, and their late results cannot undo a new sign-in. If Spotify rejects a saved refresh grant, Spotifast removes that grant and asks for a new browser approval. Upgrading to protected storage does not itself require signing in again.

By default, Spotifast uses the public app shared with spotify-player, ncspot, and Omarchy Spotify. Spotify divides its quota among all users. A personal app adds a separate Development Mode quota. See Use a Personal Spotify App.

Since 0.8.0, a search runs as two requests when a personal app is ready: songs, artists, albums, podcasts, and episodes on the personal app, and playlists on the shared app. This moves catalogue search off the quota Spotify divides among every user of the shared app. Each half is shown the moment it arrives, so a shared app waiting out a rate limit no longer holds up the songs, and playlists appear underneath when that wait ends. A half belonging to an earlier search is discarded rather than shown beside a newer one. A newer or cleared search cancels the previous requests, including waits for shared access. If either half fails, the successful results remain usable with an error for the failed part. A new query starts a fresh result set; old songs never appear under its name. The loading indicator remains until both parts finish. A personal app answers with ten results for each type where the shared app answers with twenty, because Development Mode rejects the larger page. Without a personal app, one request still asks for all six types and nothing about a search changes.

Since 0.8.0, verified Premium accounts using shared access see a one-time introduction to that option. Setup and dismissal are remembered in settings. The prompt uses the existing account profile and adds no request.

Since 0.8.0, explicitly sorting a Library section loads its remaining pages through the existing Web API grant, one at a time, while loaded entries stay visible. A failed page stops automatic loading. Spotify custom playlist order uses the existing account-scoped rootlist from local playback; sorting and dragging never write that order back to Spotify.

Since 0.9.0, a playlist-folder and invitation-permission read requested before local playback connects waits for that connection instead of being lost. Sign-out discards the waiting read and any result from the previous session.

Since 0.9.0, a dropped active playback session retains its resolved contexts and queue in memory. The replacement session restores them after Connect registration instead of loading only the interrupted song. Unresolved context pages continue through the new session. The snapshot contains no login credentials, is never written to disk, and cannot be restored by another account. Reconnecting can still briefly interrupt audio, and the replacement engine starts at the volume being heard. This recovery applies to unexpected disconnects; changing audio settings still restarts the engine with its current-track pickup.

What the client stores

• Since 0.8.0, shared and personal Web API grants and the reusable playback credential use the platform credential store: Secret Service on Linux, Keychain on macOS, and Credential Manager on Windows. Librespot retains its reusable credential in memory; Spotifast owns persistence. Flatpak can talk to org.freedesktop.secrets for this. Version 0.7.1 still uses the older unencrypted files. See migration, sign-out, and storage protection.

• Downloaded audio and artwork, in the cache directory, within the budget you set.

• The first time MilkDrop opens with an empty preset folder, the two projectM preset packs are downloaded from GitHub (about 26 MB) and stored in the config directory.

• On Windows and macOS, desktop media controls load the cover themselves and are given a file, so the full-size artwork is downloaded into that cache when a song starts, even when no view on screen is showing it. Linux MPRIS carries the Spotify artwork URL for the desktop to resolve and asks for nothing extra.

• Lyrics, in the cache directory, for a month.

• Liked Songs metadata, scoped to the verified account, in the cache directory. This behavior is available since 0.8.0. Cached pages less than 15 minutes old need no repeat request. Older cached prefixes refresh through the existing Web API grant, one page at a time, while the saved rows remain visible. Manual refresh starts immediately. Like and Unlike are kept over lagging reads until Spotify confirms them.

• Spotifast has no telemetry, analytics, or hosted service. When the lyrics panel is open and Spotify has no lyrics, it sends the track's artist, title, album, and length to lrclib.net. It also checks api.github.com once a day for updates. You can turn off automatic checks in Settings, or request one there at any time. On macOS, Check for Updates is also in the application menu.

  On Windows, macOS, and Linux, downloading an update fetches release metadata and checksums.txt from the project's GitHub release, then the matching binary archive, Windows installer, or universal macOS DMG. Spotifast checks the published SHA-256 digest and the portable executable's reported version before offering a restart. Automatic downloads are optional; installation always waits for your click. Checks and downloads do not open the update popup. The green update pill opens it on request; closing the popup does not cancel a download. No Spotify credential is sent. These are GitHub-hosted checksums, not a separate publisher signature.

  Updates stage their files in a private .spotifast-update-* directory beside the application so replacement stays on the same filesystem. The directory retains the previous executable or Mac app bundle and result.txt for recovery and diagnosis. Helper startup errors are retained in helper.log. On macOS the helper runs from a copy of the whole signed bundle in that directory, so replacing or restoring the installed app never moves the helper's own code. Settings, caches and credential stores are not replaced. Package-manager installs keep their package-manager update path. Mac updates verify the bundle identifier, version and code signature before replacing the whole app bundle. A Developer ID installation also requires the same signing team and a passing macOS security assessment. Apps running from a disk image or an App Translocation directory must be moved to a writable installation directory first.

Collection loading and artwork

Since 0.9.0, opening a playlist, album, artist, or podcast keeps any title, summary, and cover Spotifast already knows while the complete page is requested. Controls that need unfinished details stay disabled, and a loading indicator marks the unfinished content. If the request fails, the known header stays above Retry. A direct link with no known details shows only the normal loading or error state.

Visible library grid cards use the closest 300-pixel artwork URL already present in Spotify metadata. Larger collection cards and page headers use the closest 640-pixel URL. Compact rows, page tint extraction, and softened loading previews use 64-pixel thumbnails. These URLs remain unchanged and follow the configured proxy and normal artwork cache. Choosing an artwork size and reusing known details add no Web API request.

A ready sharp cover stays visible until its replacement is ready. A 300-pixel grid cover already loaded for the same item can preview a larger page cover without another download. When only a small known thumbnail is available, a softened preview may appear while the larger image loads. If the completed response has no cover, the page shows its placeholder instead of an old image.

Since 0.8.0, album and playlist scrollbars can request a distant track page through the existing session or Web API read path, without fetching all preceding tracks. These reads run one at a time per list and retain the existing rate-limit handling. Unloaded rows are placeholders until their page arrives; scrolling never starts playback.

When Spotify pushes back

Each Web API session has separate concurrency and rate limits. A Retry-After response pauses only that session. Spotifast routes each request once and does not retry it through the other app. A playlist read the librespot session refuses outright, because the playlist is gone or private, is shown as such. A dropped connection, a read that takes longer than 30 seconds, or a page whose song details Spotify did not supply in full, hands the read to the Web API instead of caching rows without songs. A song Spotify no longer has, or withholds for legal reasons, is an empty row, as the Web API shows it.

Spotify can also explicitly refuse the key needed to decrypt a track. When that happens, Spotifast stops local playback and leaves the rest of the queue alone instead of treating every following track as unavailable. This refusal comes from Spotify; trying again later may work.

Before adding songs to an existing playlist, Spotifast checks the rows it already holds. A known duplicate produces an immediate confirmation naming the song. Only a playlist that has not been fully loaded needs a background scan to rule out duplicates. Once confirmed, the new rows appear locally at once. Since 0.8.0, a drop into an open editable playlist sends its chosen insertion position through the same Web API grant. Duplicate checks and confirmation retain that position; partial loaded pages keep the correct continuation offset. A successful write advances the cached playlist to Spotify's returned snapshot instead of downloading the playlist again. If Spotify cannot answer the scan, Spotifast preserves the requested edit and lets the write report its result.

Since 0.8.0, manually reloading an edited playlist waits for all pending writes and confirmation of the returned Spotify revision before requesting replacement rows. Current rows, filtering, sorting, and selection stay visible while it loads. Automatic paging also waits for those edits. If metadata still reports an older revision after three immediate rechecks, or the request fails, the page keeps the edits and offers a retry. Refreshing again retries confirmation without losing the local changes. This uses the existing playlist requests and adds no periodic polling.

Podcasts on Home

Since 0.10.0, Home's Your podcasts shelf reads the first page of saved shows, the same request the library's Podcasts shelf makes, if it has not been read yet. It then asks for the five newest episodes of each of the eight most recently saved shows, one show at a time, through the normal personal/shared app routing. Spotify includes each episode's resume point in those answers. Play uses that position so an in-progress episode continues rather than starting over. Shows known to be audiobooks are not asked for. These requests run when Home refreshes: on opening Home, at most once every ten minutes, and on a manual refresh. A rate limit, exhausted quota or expired sign-in stops the remaining shows for that refresh; the shelf keeps what it showed before.

Album queueing

Since 0.9.0, adding an album, single, or EP to the queue resolves its songs before sending playback commands. A complete album already loaded in the app needs no catalogue request. Otherwise, the existing album-track endpoint is read in pages of 50, with the normal personal/shared app routing and rate limits. The album URI itself is never sent to Spotify's song queue. Local playback queues the resolved songs through librespot. On another device, Web API queue writes run one at a time in album order. A later song waits for the album's writes, and partial queue reads cannot remove the shown album while those writes are pending. A rate-limited queue write waits for the full Retry-After delay and retries automatically, keeping its place ahead of later additions. This applies to individual songs too. Sign-out cancels the wait. A permanent rejection stops the remaining album writes, reports the error, and removes only the unaccepted additions. Songs already accepted stay queued. Network failures and server errors are not retried automatically because an append might already have succeeded.

Playlist cover uploads

Since 0.9.0, Edit details → Change cover opens the native file picker. Spotifast reads only the selected JPEG or PNG, preserves its aspect ratio, flattens transparent pixels onto white, and encodes a JPEG preview. Files must be smaller than 20 MB and no larger than 8192 pixels per side, within a 128 MB decoding budget. Encoding reduces the image to fit Spotify's 256 KB Base64 request limit. Upload cover sends that preview to Spotify; Save separately saves the name, description, and visibility.

Uploads use the same shared or personal app routing as playlist edits. Requests are not retried through another app. The uploaded image stays visible while Spotify propagates its artwork. A changed URL can still contain an earlier upload, so Spotifast checks the largest returned image through its normal artwork cache, off the UI thread. Only matching image bytes or decoded pixels replace the temporary preview. It makes at most three immediate metadata rechecks; if Spotify is still catching up or the check fails, the preview stays and a later page refresh can check again. Once confirmed, later cover changes from other clients can appear. The selected source file is not copied to the cache or settings.

Image uploads require renewed Web API consent. If Spotifast asks you to sign in again after updating, approve the image upload permission. Reconnect your personal app in Settings too, if you use one. Local playback authorization is unchanged. Spotify can refuse changes to playlists you do not own.

On Linux the file picker uses a desktop portal, with Zenity as a fallback. Install your desktop's file chooser portal or Zenity if no picker opens.

Receivers on the local network

Spotify's device list only shows signed-in receivers. A new librespot or spotifyd receiver is therefore invisible to the Web API.

Receivers announce themselves over mDNS as _spotify-connect._tcp and answer a small HTTP interface. Opening or refreshing the picker first reads getInfo to find each receiver's name and device ID. These probes run off the UI thread, four at a time, with a two-second limit per receiver and six seconds overall after discovery. Only responding receivers with a name and ID are offered. Matching IDs are combined; separate devices can have the same name. These reads send no account credential.

When a receiver is selected, Spotifast encrypts the stored librespot credential with a receiver-specific key and a key from a Diffie-Hellman exchange. The encrypted value only works for that receiver and exchange. Spotifast does not save another copy of the credential.

The receiver then signs in and appears in Spotify's device list. Spotifast uses the Web API for subsequent control requests.

The engine

Playback runs on a separate runtime. Librespot maintains the Spotify Connect session, exposes this computer as a device, receives transfers, and reports playback state. If the session drops, it reconnects with the stored credential.

Since 0.9.0, selecting this computer in the device picker asks librespot to transfer playback from the active Connect device. Spotify supplies the current song, position, playing or paused state, context, and queue together. This uses the existing playback session's Connect transfer request and needs no additional authorization. An old or unavailable Web API playback snapshot does not cause the previous local song to restart or replace the remote queue.

When the PulseAudio backend is selected on Linux, its PulseAudio or PipeWire stream is named Spotifast, with Spotify playback as its description, so system mixers and audio processors can identify and route it. Explicit PULSE_PROP_application.name and PULSE_PROP_stream.description environment values take precedence. The same session checks releases that the Web API calls single, so confirmed EPs can carry their precise label. Spotifast deduplicates these checks while the app session is active. If the engine reconnects, an interrupted check may be tried again; if metadata is unavailable, its label stays Single.

The engine discovers access points through apresolve.spotify.com and connects over TCP in the resolver's preference order: port 4070 first, falling back to 443 and 80. Only outbound connections are needed; no inbound ports have to be open.

Each socket setup and handshake shares a five-second deadline. The pinned librespot version can try up to six access points and retry each connection once. Spotifast allows 75 seconds for the whole engine connection, giving stalled endpoints more time to fall back. Resolving access points, authentication, and other setup also use that outer deadline, so reaching every fallback endpoint is not guaranteed.

Since 0.8.0, the access-point and Dealer TCP connectors resolve names off the playback runtime thread and try all returned addresses. If the preferred IPv4 or IPv6 route stalls, the other family starts after 300 ms. DNS, TCP setup and any HTTP proxy tunnel share a five-second limit. The access-point handshake still shares its existing five-second budget; the Dealer's WebSocket TLS verification is unchanged.

When a proxy is configured, only its name is resolved locally. The target name is sent through CONNECT, and a proxy failure never falls back to a direct connection. Proxy URLs and credentials are not logged by this connector. The change adds no destination or background polling.

Proxy

Since 0.9.0, Settings → Proxy has four modes:

• Off: a direct connection. Environment proxy variables are ignored.
• System: HTTP_PROXY / HTTPS_PROXY / ALL_PROXY, and on macOS and Windows the OS proxy. This is the default.
• HTTP: a configured HTTP proxy: host, port, and optional login.
• SOCKS5: a configured SOCKS5 proxy: host, port, and optional login. Spotify hostnames are resolved by that proxy.

The mode selects the protocol. Host and port are separate fields. These settings apply to Spotifast's requests. The external browser used for Spotify approval keeps its own network and proxy settings.

The Web API, artwork, lyrics, update checks and downloads, and MilkDrop preset downloads follow that mode. Update downloads retain their release-host redirect restrictions and checksum verification. Local receivers on the LAN are never sent through a proxy.

Local playback can only use an unauthenticated, plaintext HTTP proxy: that is what librespot's CONNECT client supports. Proxy login still covers catalogue and control, but the engine then connects to Spotify directly. SOCKS5 behaves the same way for local playback. System uses the same proxy reqwest would (environment variables, and the OS proxy on macOS and Windows) only when it is an unauthenticated http:// endpoint; authenticated, https://, and SOCKS system proxies are ignored by the engine. Applying a proxy choice restarts local playback when it changes the endpoint used by the current connection, including when the system proxy has changed since that connection started.

Off and System apply immediately. HTTP and SOCKS5 apply when you press Apply settings. The same choice is on the sign-in screen, so it can be set before the first grant. The expanded sign-in form scrolls in short windows. Manual edits remain drafts until the backend accepts Apply or Sign in. Saving another preference does not save those drafts. A configuration that cannot be built produces an error without silently switching to a direct connection. Applying a valid configuration repairs it.

On startup, network work waits for the protected proxy password to be restored. That lookup runs on the credential worker and does not block the interface or shutdown. The password belongs to its host, port, and username; editing any of these fields clears it. See password storage and migration.