Claude DJ

"If Claude didn't automatically open Spotify and blast The Prodigy before eradicating the hacker then I question Anthropic's training process."

u/tarix76 on "Claude Code discovered a hacker on my server"

So we built it.

Claude can play music now. Drop a beat after cracking something hard. Quote a specific chorus. String together lyrics from different songs to say a sentence. It's dumb and fun and actually works.

Features

• Snippets: Play just the chorus, just the bridge, just 10 seconds of the good part
• Lyrics: Fetch timestamped lyrics, play specific lines, talk in songs
• Library: Save tracks you like, find them instantly later
• Search: Find any track via web search when it's not in your library
• Controls: Play, pause, seek, skip. The basics.

Requirements

• Linux with D-Bus (works out of the box on most distros)
• Spotify desktop app (snap, deb, or flatpak)
• Python 3.8+ with mcp package

Installation

1. Install Spotify

# Via snap (easiest)
sudo apt install snapd
sudo snap install spotify

# Or via apt
curl -sS https://download.spotify.com/debian/pubkey_6224F9941A8AA6D1.gpg | sudo gpg --dearmor -o /etc/apt/keyrings/spotify.gpg
echo "deb [signed-by=/etc/apt/keyrings/spotify.gpg] http://repository.spotify.com stable non-free" | sudo tee /etc/apt/sources.list.d/spotify.list
sudo apt update && sudo apt install spotify-client

2. Install the MCP

# Clone the repo
git clone https://github.com/RED-BASE/claude-dj.git
cd claude-dj

# Install Python MCP dependency
pip install mcp

3. Configure Claude Code

Add to your ~/.claude.json under your project's mcpServers:

{
  "claude-dj": {
    "type": "stdio",
    "command": "python3",
    "args": ["/path/to/claude-dj/dj_mcp.py"],
    "env": {}
  }
}

Or add to a project-level .mcp.json:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "claude-dj": {
      "type": "stdio",
      "command": "python3",
      "args": ["./dj_mcp.py"]
    }
  }
}

4. Start Spotify

Make sure Spotify is running before using the tools:

spotify &
# Or if using snap:
/snap/bin/spotify &

Tools

Playback Control

Tool	Description
dj_play()	Start/resume playback
dj_pause()	Pause playback
dj_toggle()	Toggle play/pause
dj_next()	Skip to next track
dj_previous()	Go to previous track

Info

Tool	Description
dj_now_playing()	Get current track info + position
dj_position()	Get current playback position

Expressive Controls

Tool	Description
dj_open(uri)	Play a Spotify URI
dj_seek(seconds)	Jump to a position in the current track
dj_snippet(uri, start_sec, duration_sec)	Play a specific part of a song
dj_drop(uri, start_sec?, duration_sec?)	Quick musical punctuation (defaults to 8s)

Library Management

Tool	Description
dj_find(query)	Instant lookup from personal library
dj_search(query)	Web search for any track (returns URI)
dj_save(name, uri)	Save a track to your library
dj_library()	List all saved tracks

Lyrics & Musical Speech

Tool	Description
dj_lyrics(artist, track)	Get timestamped lyrics from LRCLIB
dj_speak(uri, artist, track, line_number, duration)	Play a specific lyric line
dj_say(word, variant?)	Say a word through music (uses pre-built index)
dj_word_info(word)	Show all song variants for a word

Word Index

The repo includes a pre-built index of 8,367 words from 531 iconic songs spanning hip-hop, country, latin, disco, indie, EDM, and more. Claude can literally speak through music:

dj_say("hello")     # "Hello, it's me" - Adele
dj_say("fire", 1)   # "You are my fire" - Backstreet Boys
dj_say("dreams", 9) # "Sweet dreams are made of this" - Eurythmics
dj_say("tonight")   # "Tonight I'm gonna have myself a real good time" - Queen

Use dj_word_info("love") to see all 175+ variants and pick the best one.

Usage Examples

Play a specific snippet

# Play the chorus of M83 - Outro (starts at 1:43, play for 30 seconds)
dj_snippet("spotify:track:2QVmiA93GVhWNTWQctyY1K", 103, 30)

Quick musical drop

# 8-second drop from the start
dj_drop("spotify:track:0VjIjW4GlUZAMYd2vXMi3b")

# Or from a specific point
dj_drop("spotify:track:xxx", start_sec=45, duration_sec=10)

Build your library

# Search for a track
dj_search("Daft Punk Digital Love")
# Returns: spotify:track:2VEZx7NWsZ1D0eJ4uv5Fym

# Save it for instant access later
dj_save("digital love", "spotify:track:2VEZx7NWsZ1D0eJ4uv5Fym")

# Now find it instantly
dj_find("digital")
# Returns: spotify:track:2VEZx7NWsZ1D0eJ4uv5Fym

Musical speech with lyrics

String together lines from different songs to say something:

# "Hello... World!"
dj_speak(uri_adele, "Adele", "Hello", 1, 1.5)         # "Hello"
dj_speak(uri_armstrong, "Louis Armstrong", "What A Wonderful World", 4, 2)  # "World"

# Get lyrics to find the right lines
dj_lyrics("M83", "Outro")
# [1:41.11] I was the king of my own land
# [2:17.03] Now and forever, I'm your king!

Getting Spotify URIs

Right-click any track in Spotify → Share → Copy Spotify URI

Format: spotify:track:XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

How It Works

D-Bus talks to Spotify. No API keys, no OAuth, no bullshit. Just needs Spotify running.

Rebuilding the Word Index

Want to add more songs? Edit build_words_v2.py and add songs to the SONGS list:

SONGS = [
    ("Artist Name", "Track Name"),
    # ... add more
]

Then rebuild:

python3 build_words_v2.py

The script auto-searches Spotify URIs and fetches lyrics from LRCLIB. Cached URIs are saved in uri_cache.json so rebuilds are fast.

Prompting Claude

Add this to your CLAUDE.md so Claude actually uses it:

# Claude DJ

You have access to `claude-dj` MCP tools. Use them to express yourself
through music. When a moment hits right, drop a track. Pick something
that fits your read of the moment. Don't overdo it, but when it calls
for it, drop that beat.

License

MIT