spotify-mcp

Control Spotify by talking to your AI. An MCP server for Claude Desktop, Claude Code, Cursor, and any other MCP client.

You: play something like early Bill Evans AI: ▶ Now playing: "Peace Piece" — Bill Evans · Everybody Digs Bill Evans

You: perfect, queue the whole album and save this one AI: ➕ Queued Everybody Digs Bill Evans · ❤️ Saved "Peace Piece" to your library

Built against the current (post-February-2026) Spotify Web API — many older Spotify MCP servers predate those changes and are partially broken.

Requirements

• Spotify Premium — Spotify requires it for playback control and (since Feb 2026) for creating the developer app you'll use.
• Node.js ≥ 20

Quick start

npx -y @xavifabregat/spotify-mcp init

The wizard walks you through creating your own (free) Spotify developer app, asks for its Client ID, and opens a browser to connect your account — about 2 minutes total.

Why your own app? Spotify caps third-party apps at a handful of users, so every user brings their own; the wizard makes that painless. No client secret is involved (PKCE). Tokens stay in ~/.spotify-mcp/ on your machine and refresh silently.

The one detail that must be exact — your app's Redirect URI:

http://127.0.0.1:8888/callback

Add to your MCP client

Claude Code

claude mcp add -s user spotify -- npx -y @xavifabregat/spotify-mcp

Claude Desktop (~/Library/Application Support/Claude/claude_desktop_config.json) or Cursor (~/.cursor/mcp.json):

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "spotify": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": ["-y", "@xavifabregat/spotify-mcp"]
    }
  }
}

Restart the client and start talking.

Tools

Tool	What it does
play	Play by free-text query (search → best match → play) or Spotify URI
playback	pause / resume / next / previous / seek / volume / shuffle / repeat
now_playing	Current track, progress, device, mode
queue	Add a track to the queue; show up next
devices	List devices; transfer playback
search	Browse tracks/albums/artists/playlists (max 10 per type — API cap)
get_playlists	List your playlists
get_playlist_items	Show a playlist's tracks (own/collaborative only — API restriction)
modify_playlist	Create a playlist; add tracks
library	Save / remove / check items in your library
authenticate	Run the Spotify login from inside a conversation

Design

• Tools are intents, not endpoints. "Play some Radiohead" is one tool call — the server searches, picks the best match, starts playback, and reports what it chose so you can correct it. No search → choose → play round trips.
• Small surface. 11 tools instead of one per API endpoint keeps tool selection accurate across different AI clients and context lean.
• Responses are compact text with Spotify URIs, so follow-ups ("queue that") chain without re-searching. Raw API payloads never reach the model.
• Errors are instructions. No active device? The response lists your devices and says how to pick one. Not logged in? It points at the authenticate tool. The model relays the fix instead of a stack trace.

Troubleshooting

• "No active Spotify device" — Spotify's API can only steer a running app. Open Spotify anywhere; if it just woke up, tap play/pause once. With exactly one device online, the tools target it automatically.
• INVALID_CLIENT: Invalid redirect URI during login — the Redirect URI in your app settings isn't exactly http://127.0.0.1:8888/callback (localhost is rejected by Spotify).
• Port 8888 in use during login — set SPOTIFY_REDIRECT_PORT to a free port and register the matching redirect URI.
• "Token refresh failed" — run npx -y @xavifabregat/spotify-mcp auth to log in again (e.g. after changing the Client ID).
• Config precedence — the SPOTIFY_CLIENT_ID env var overrides ~/.spotify-mcp/config.json (written by init).

Development

git clone https://github.com/XavierFabregat/spotify-mcp.git
cd spotify-mcp
npm install
npm run build
npm run inspect   # MCP Inspector against the local build

Layout: src/auth.ts (OAuth PKCE + token store) · src/spotify.ts (typed API client) · src/tools/ (tool implementations) · src/format.ts (compact output).

License

MIT © Xavi Fabregat