Dashboard Features

• Live WebSocket updates (progress bar, track info, play state)
• Playback controls (play/pause, next, previous, stop)
• Volume control with mute toggle (shift-click for fine adjustment)
• 5-star rating, love/unlove, and ban buttons
• Shuffle mode toggle (Off / Shuffle / AutoDJ)
• Repeat mode toggle (Off / All / One)
• Album artwork display
• Playlist picker with split button (Play Now / Queue Next / Queue Last / Add Track)
• Mood channel selector with real-time reactions (fire, heart, dislike, ban)
• ARiA preset dropdown for quick automation
• Influence controls (thumbs up/down for artist/genre shuffle preferences)
• QR code connection dialog for quick mobile access
• Dark, Light, and Midnight themes
• Keyboard shortcuts (Space, arrows, M for mute)

Customizable Layout

The Dashboard's panel order and visibility are fully configurable from MBXHub Settings.

• 7 panels - Playback Controls, Mood/Reactions, Rating, Playlists, Shuffle/Repeat, ARiA, Volume
• Reorder - Drag panels up/down to arrange the layout to your preference
• Show/Hide - Check or uncheck panels to control which ones appear
• Collapsible sections - Set how many panels are always visible; the rest fold behind an expand toggle
• Server-rendered - No JavaScript required. Layout is baked into the HTML, works on any browser
• Configuration stored in dashboardLayout in mbxhub.json (order, hidden, collapseAfter)

Dashboard Settings

Click to close

Mood Classification

AutoQ maps every track onto a 2D emotion space (valence x arousal) based on Russell's circumplex model. Audio features are extracted by Essentia and combined into valence (happy↔sad) and arousal (energetic↔calm) scores.

• 10 default mood channels - Euphoric, Energetic, Intense, Melancholic, Chill, Dreamy, Uplifting, Angry, Peaceful, Neutral
• 14 audio features extracted per track via Essentia (BPM, key, mode, MFCCs, dissonance, onset rate, and more)
• Valence formula (6 active inputs) - Mode, danceability, dissonance, pitch salience, chord changes, MFCCs
• Arousal formula (8 inputs) - BPM, loudness, spectral flux, centroid, danceability, onset rate, zero-crossing rate, RMS energy
• Genre-aware weight adjustment - Per-genre multipliers adapt feature weights to each genre's acoustic norms. 8 built-in profiles (Electronic, Metal, Jazz, Classical, Hip-Hop, Folk, R&B, Pop/Rock). Custom profiles via autoQ.genreProfiles
• Confidence scoring - Every mood estimate carries a confidence score (0–1). Essentia tracks score ~0.9, fallback tracks ~0.2–0.45. Color-coded badges on Dashboard, Player, and Tuning Console
• Mood combo labels - Tracks near channel boundaries get composite labels (e.g. "Upbeat + Energetic")
• All weights configurable - Tune every formula coefficient via autoQ.estimation settings or the Tuning Console
• Custom mood channels - Define your own mood regions via autoQ.moodChannels

Reactions

Guests and listeners react to tracks in real-time. Reactions feed directly into AutoQ's scoring engine to influence what plays next.

• Fire - This track is hot, play more like it
• Heart - Love it, strong positive signal
• Like / Dislike - Standard thumbs up/down
• Ban - Remove from rotation entirely

Reaction scores are configurable in autoQ.reactionScores. Each reaction type has a tunable weight that feeds into the track scoring formula.

TrueShuffle

MBXHub unifies the former MBXQ shuffle engine directly into the hub. TrueShuffle ensures every track in your library plays before any track repeats, with mood-aware ordering.

• Full-cycle guarantee - Tracks entire shuffle state across sessions
• Mood-weighted selection - Prefers tracks matching the current vibe
• Influence system - Artist/genre thumbs up/down to steer shuffle
• Ban list - Permanently exclude tracks from rotation

Setup: Mood Tagging

Mood data comes from Truedat, which runs Essentia audio analysis on your library and produces mbxmoods.json. Without it, AutoQ falls back to genre/BPM metadata estimates. See The Audio Features for details on the 14 features that drive mood estimation.

1. Enable iTunes XML export in MusicBee (Edit → Preferences → Library)
2. Run truedat.exe "iTunes Music Library.xml" to generate mbxmoods.json
3. Place mbxmoods.json in your MusicBee Library folder or %APPDATA%\MusicBee\MBXHub\
4. In MusicBee, go to Edit → Preferences → Tags (1) → Custom Tags and set one tag (e.g. Custom1) to "AutoQ Mood"

Custom Tags Setup

Click to close

MBXHub writes the mood channel name (e.g. "Euphoric", "Chill") into the custom tag so you can see it in MusicBee's column browser, use it in auto-playlists, and sort by mood.

Library Browser

Standalone album browser at /pages/browse.html. Designed for phones and tablets - browse your library without the full player UI.

• Album grid - Artwork cards with artist and album name
• 7 tabs - Albums, Artists, Genres, Playlists, Podcasts, Radio, Moods
• Search - Filter across your entire library
• Queue controls - Play Now, Queue Next, or Queue Last from any result
• Playlist picker - Add tracks to existing playlists

Album Grid

Click to close

Track List

Click to close

Built-in Player Page

A full-featured 3-column desktop layout at /pages/player.html:

• Browse panel - Albums, Artists, Genres, Playlists, Podcasts, Radio, Moods with search
• Player panel - Now Playing with artwork, controls, ratings, lyrics
• Queue panel - Up Next with track management
• Queue buttons on every track: Now, Next, +Q
• Listen Here — stream audio directly to the browser via HTML5 audio
• Radio Stations tab — browse and play radio from MusicBee
• Influencer thumbs (when MBXQ enabled)
• ARiA preset buttons
• WebSocket live updates

Customizable

• Default pages extracted to %APPDATA%\MusicBee\MBXHub\pages\
• Edit the HTML/CSS/JS to customize
• Add your own pages - anything in the folder is served
• Pages call REST API via fetch() - works across the network
• Delete the folder to reset to defaults on next restart

Build with AI

MBXHub serves /llms.txt - an AI-friendly API reference. Use it with Claude or any AI to generate custom pages:

1. Tell Claude: "Read https://mbxhub.com/llms.txt and build me a Party-On-Mode page - big artwork, guest queue requests, vibe controls"
2. Claude fetches the API cheat sheet (public URL works from any AI)
3. Claude generates code using relative URLs (/nowplaying, /player/play) that work on any MBXHub instance
4. Save to %APPDATA%\MusicBee\MBXHub\pages\
5. Open http://my-pc:8080/pages/partyon.html

The generated code uses relative URLs, so it works on your local MBXHub without modification.

How It Works

• Tap the headphone icon on any track in search results or browse views
• Audio streams over HTTP with Range support for instant seeking
• Client-side queue with auto-advance, next/prev, and volume control
• Progress bar, time display, and play/pause all work locally
• Supports MP3, FLAC, M4A, OGG, WAV, OPUS, AAC, AIFF
• Can be disabled via Settings (kill switch)

CUE tracks: Supported. The player seeks to the correct offset, shows track-relative progress, and auto-advances at track boundaries.

Radio Features

• Browse all radio stations configured in MusicBee
• Play via MusicBee or stream locally with Listen Here
• Search/filter stations by name
• REST API: GET /radio/stations

Guest Page

Guests scan a QR code, enter a PIN and nickname, then browse your library and request songs.

• Browse by Album, Artist, Genre, or Playlist
• Search your library
• Queue songs with one tap - requests attributed to nickname
• See Up Next queue (5 tracks)
• Vibes voting (thumbs up/down) on now playing and queued tracks

Browse Genres

Click to close

Queue & Vibes

Click to close

DJ Page

Full control for the party host. Manage the queue, see who requested what, control playback.

• Full playback controls (play/pause, prev/next, volume, seek)
• Drag-and-drop queue reordering
• See guest requests with attribution ("Mike requested...")
• Guest Vibes panel showing current influences
• Browse and add tracks directly

Desktop

Click to close

Mobile

Click to close

Display Page

TV-friendly display for the living room. Big artwork, lyrics, and a live feed of what guests are requesting.

• Large artwork with glow effect
• Live scrolling lyrics
• Request feed showing joins and song requests
• QR code overlay for easy guest access
• Current Vibes panel
• Floating emoji reactions - Teams-style animations float up when guests react (respects prefers-reduced-motion)

TV Display Mode

Click to close

Floating Reactions

When guests react to tracks, Teams-style emoji animations float up across the Display page in real-time via WebSocket. Reactions are broadcast instantly to all connected display screens.

• Fire, Heart, Like, Dislike, Ban emojis
• Smooth float-up animation with randomized positions
• Respects prefers-reduced-motion for accessibility
• Also available on the Now Playing page (/pages/nowplaying.html)

How It Works

1. DJ visits /pages/partymode/ and starts a party with a PIN
2. Display page shows QR code with embedded PIN
3. Guests scan QR, enter nickname, browse and request songs
4. Requests appear on DJ page and display feed
5. Guests can vote on vibes (thumbs up/down) to influence shuffle
6. Reactions trigger floating emoji animations on Display and Now Playing pages

Discovery Features

• SSDP broadcast on local network
• Appears in Windows Explorer Network view
• Click to open the Dashboard in your browser
• Unique device name includes machine identifier

Player Control

• Play, pause, stop, next, previous
• Volume and mute control
• Seek to position
• Shuffle and repeat modes
• Album navigation (next/previous album)

Now Playing

• Current track metadata (title, artist, album, duration)
• Album artwork (binary image)
• Lyrics
• Playback position

Queue Management

• View entire queue with pagination
• Add tracks (queue next or last)
• Remove tracks by index
• Move/reorder tracks
• Clear queue
• Play track immediately

Library Browsing

• Query files with MusicBee filter syntax
• Filter by artist, album, genre
• Full-text search
• Get/update file tags
• Browse distinct artists, albums, genres
• Pagination support (offset/limit)

Playlist Management

• List all playlists
• Create/delete playlists
• Get playlist tracks
• Add/remove tracks from playlists
• Play entire playlist

Audio Processing

• Equalizer on/off
• DSP effects on/off
• Crossfade on/off
• ReplayGain modes (off, track, album, smart)
• Scrobbling on/off

Event Types

• TrackChanged - Track change with full metadata
• PlayStateChanged - Play, pause, stop state changes
• VolumeChanged - Volume and mute changes
• PositionChanged - Playback position updates
• QueueChanged - Queue modifications
• ShuffleChanged - Shuffle mode changes
• RepeatChanged - Repeat mode changes
• MetadataChanged - Rating, love, or tag changes on a track
• Reaction - Real-time emoji reactions (fire, heart, like, dislike, ban) with nickname and track info

Clients subscribe to specific events via { subscribe: ['TrackChanged', 'Reaction'] }. Empty subscription receives all events.

ARiA Features

• Send keyboard input (SendKeys or DuckyScript format)
• Mouse control (move, click at coordinates)
• Wake sleeping/locked PC remotely
• Volume control (up, down, mute)
• Launch programs
• Send HTTP webhooks
• Show Windows notifications (toast)
• Restart MusicBee or system

Presets & Automation

• Pre-configured presets for MusicBee tab navigation (Ctrl+Alt+A through L)
• Custom presets via JSON configuration
• Command chaining with delays
• Macro support with recursion protection

Smart Shuffle Tracking

• View shuffle cycle progress (% complete)
• Reset shuffle cycle
• View played tracks in current cycle
• View remaining unplayed tracks

Influence System

Influence Controls

Click to close

Pandora-style thumbs up/down for smart shuffle preferences.

• Target by Genre or Artist metadata
• Positive influences boost matching tracks in shuffle
• Negative influences (--) hard exclude matching tracks
• Dashboard thumbs up/down buttons
• REST API for programmatic control

Expanded Panel

Click to close

Ban List Management

• View all banned tracks
• Ban tracks with optional reason
• Unban tracks

Why a Shell?

MusicBee (especially portable installs) has no registered Application User Model ID. Windows doesn't know who owns the SMTC session, so the media flyout shows a generic or wrong app name. The Shell solves this by being a registered Windows application that communicates with MusicBee over REST.

Same architecture used by Discord, Spotify, and other apps that offload SMTC to helper processes.

SMTC Bridge Features

• Registered AUMID - Windows sees "MBXHub" in the media flyout
• Full metadata sync - Title, artist, album, album artist, artwork, track number
• Playback controls - Play, pause, stop, next, previous, seek
• Timeline - Position and duration with real-time updates
• Shuffle and repeat - Bidirectional sync with MusicBee
• Auto-reconnect - Survives MusicBee restarts, reconnects automatically
• Event-driven - WebSocket events, no polling

Setup

• MBXHub.exe --install - Register AUMID and create Start Menu shortcut
• MBXHub.exe - Start SMTC bridge (auto-installs on first run)
• Configure via mbxhub-shell.json (host, port, retry settings)
• Requires .NET 8.0 Desktop Runtime

MusicBee Detection

MBXHub.exe --detect finds MusicBee across all install types:

• Microsoft Store - Package lookup in AppData
• Installed - Registry (HKLM/HKCU Uninstall keys)
• Portable - Common locations (D:\MusicBee, C:\MusicBee, Program Files)

Sync Features (Coming Soon)

• Discover MBXHub instances on network
• Push/pull files between nodes
• Mirror or selective sync modes
• Track sync operation progress

Method Categories

• Player_* - 30+ playback control methods
• NowPlaying_* - 20+ current track methods
• NowPlayingList_* - 15+ queue methods
• Library_* - 25+ library methods
• Playlist_* - 15+ playlist methods
• Setting_* - 10+ settings methods
• MB_* - 15+ application methods
• Podcasts_* - Podcast subscription methods
• Sync_* - Device sync methods

Local Network Only

• CORS restricted to localhost and local network IPs
• Supports 192.168.x.x, 10.x.x.x, 172.16-31.x.x ranges
• No internet exposure by default
• Request body size limits (1MB max)

API Access Control

Restrict write operations via granular read-only settings.

• Master read-only mode - Disable all write operations API-wide
• Granular controls - Restrict Player, Queue, Library, or Playlists independently
• PartyMode exempt - PartyMode endpoints always functional (voting, requests)
• Returns 403 Forbidden with READ_ONLY error code when blocked
• Configurable in MBXHub Settings panel