Podcasts

Subscribe to podcasts via RSS feed URLs or iTunes search, browse episodes, and play them headless via mpv. Bar widget shows the current episode, panel manages subscriptions and playback, launcher plays from anywhere.

Plugin

Field	Value
ID	fel/podcasts
Entries	Bar widget: bar; panel: browser; service: player; launcher: finder
Launcher Prefix	/podcast

Requirements

Install mpv and socat on PATH. mpv does headless playback, socat talks to its IPC socket for volume/stop. Without socat the plugin still works but applies volume by relaunching mpv. Install mpv-mpris (Arch: sudo pacman -S mpv-mpris) to also expose playback on MPRIS, so the Noctalia media widget, control-center media tab, and media keys control it.

Usage

Add the widget from Settings -> Bar with type fel/podcasts:bar. Click opens the browser, right-click toggles play/stop, vertical scroll changes volume.

Open the browser panel:

noctalia msg panel-toggle fel/podcasts:browser

Search iTunes or paste a feed URL to subscribe, pick a subscription to list its episodes, press play on an episode. Starred feeds persist in the plugin data dir; extra RSS URLs can also come from the podcast_feeds setting. Set podindex_key + podindex_secret (free at podcastindex.org) to search Podcast Index alongside iTunes; with both empty only iTunes is used.

Playback position is remembered per episode in positions.json: replaying resumes where you stopped ("Resumed from 12:34"), and the timeline slider in the browser seeks. Episodes played to the finish clear their position so replays start over.

Launcher: type /podcast 99 and press Enter on a podcast to browse its episodes without leaving the launcher, Enter on an episode plays it. Subscribing from launcher results is supported too.

Control playback over IPC:

noctalia msg plugin fel/podcasts:player all play '{"podcast":"99% Invisible","episode":"Doves Type","url":"https://...mp3"}'
noctalia msg plugin fel/podcasts:player all stop
noctalia msg plugin fel/podcasts:player all volume 60

Settings

Setting	Type	Default	Description
default_volume	int	70	mpv volume 0-100, used until changed from widget, panel or launcher.
search_limit	int	10	Episodes shown per podcast and directory results fetched, 3-30.
mpv_bin	string	mpv	mpv executable for headless playback.
podcast_feeds	string_list	[]	Extra RSS URLs, always subscribed alongside panel-added ones.
podindex_key	string	""	Podcast Index API key (podcastindex.org). Enables Podcast Index search next to iTunes. Empty disables it.
podindex_secret	string	""	Podcast Index API secret. Needed together with the key.
mpris	bool	true	Expose playback on MPRIS via mpv-mpris when its script is found.
mpris_path	string	""	Custom path to mpris.so. Empty means auto-detect.
show_name	bool	true	Widget: show the episode name next to the glyph.
max_length	int	24	Widget: max characters of the episode name, 5-60.

IPC

Player service (always available):

noctalia msg plugin fel/podcasts:player all play '{"podcast":"99% Invisible","episode":"Doves Type","url":"https://...mp3"}'
noctalia msg plugin fel/podcasts:player all stop
noctalia msg plugin fel/podcasts:player all toggle
noctalia msg plugin fel/podcasts:player all pause
noctalia msg plugin fel/podcasts:player all resume
noctalia msg plugin fel/podcasts:player all volume 60
noctalia msg plugin fel/podcasts:player all volume-up
noctalia msg plugin fel/podcasts:player all volume-down
noctalia msg plugin fel/podcasts:player all seek 600

Bar widget (needs a live widget instance - use focused or the bar name):

noctalia msg plugin fel/podcasts:bar focused toggle-browser
noctalia msg plugin fel/podcasts:bar focused toggle
noctalia msg plugin fel/podcasts:bar focused stop

Browser panel (must be open - toggle it first):

noctalia msg plugin fel/podcasts:browser all search "99 invisible"

Notes

Network: itunes.apple.com for discovery plus each feed host and MP3 CDN. Files: subscriptions at the plugin data dir subscriptions.json, artwork under art/, mpv IPC socket mpv.sock in the same dir. Processes: one headless mpv --no-video owned by the player service, killed on plugin disable/uninstall/exit.