Download MBXHub
MBXHub - The bridge to everything else.
v0.5.5.1 — Rock-Kandy.
- Other apps can plug into MBXHub. It is easy: a charm in the charms folder just works, and apps can register over the API. The contract is the charms section of
/docsandllms.txt. - Slice of Music — the Slicer charm is a visual pivot of your library by your favorite categories and fields.
- In the WEB app, installed via the browser from the dashboard, the header is the title bar — hub list, search and settings in it.
- A Sleep Timer in MusicBee settings → Startup. It works without AutoQ, with a choice to finish the current track or stop on time. While it runs, MusicBee's status bar shows the time left, and Re-arm timer after stop chooses whether it stays set for the next listen or clears itself.
- Client Management is now under Tools → MBXHub. See client IPs, activity and traffic, save names, and allow, ban or unblock clients from MusicBee.
- Choose Private LAN or Shared LAN in Settings → API Access. Shared LAN requires allowed clients and blocks remote administration and library writes; parties can use Free Join or whitelist-based Managed Join.
- Standby while MusicBee is closed. The hub page shows a Start button, asking for the hub starts MusicBee, and the tray says standby. To turn it on, check Start with Windows in the MBXHub system tray menu.
- The HUD's close box is always in the same corner.
- Click the artist or album in the HUD to browse the rest of it in your library.
- Browse opens the library full-window — the HUD's chrome gets out of the way. Esc or the close box brings it back.
latest: v0.5.5.1
Examples
OVERLAY - HUD (v0.5.5.0)
Press Ctrl+Shift+M and it appears over whatever you're doing — and rolls up to fit: the full HUD, a player bar, or just transport. It's a real page too: /pages/hud.html. Click any of the three to see it full size.
OVERLAY - HUD (v0.5.5.0)
Rolls up to a player or transport bar.
Mixer
A fader each for the player, the device and the speaker you picked — with the sound device, the output and the speaker’s own source underneath.
OVERLAY - HUD: Browse, Playing, Queue
Slices (v0.5.5.1)
Your library as rows of albums — New, Never Heard, Favorites, Random, Unrated, and one row per genre or mood. Pick and reorder the rows with Rows….
The Charm Bar (v0.5.5.0)
Docked to a screen edge — every charm one click from its own desktop window. MusicBee first, the HUD second, your saved overlay sets third. Click an icon and it grows into a window; click again and it closes. Ctrl+Alt+B or the tray. Click to see it full size.
Fosi S3 — StreamSDK charm (v0.5.5.0)
Drives a StreamUnlimited streamer from the dashboard — the first is the Fosi Audio S3. Scan finds it and remembers it, so there are no addresses to type. Transport, volume, mute and the four physical inputs sit at the top; below them the device's own tree: Qobuz Connect, Spotify, Roon Ready and Tidal, Google Cast, AirPlay and UPnP, output mode, and extras for tone, balance and power-on volume. The bar control's dot stays green only while the device is reachable. Click to see the full charm.
Matrix — HDMI matrix charm (v0.5.4.9)
Drives an OREI BK-808 from the dashboard: pick the input feeding the SPDIF leg, switch SPDIF mode, route any input to any output under your own names, recall and save scenes, power. Click the button to open it.
WiiM — device control charm (v0.5.4.7)
Controls the Ultra, Pro and Speaker from the dashboard: transport and volume, source and output, multiroom zones, a ten-band equalizer with the device's own presets, and device status. Scan the network to find them — no addresses to type. Click to see the full charm.
AutoQ Workbench (v0.5.4.2)
AutoQ lives in MusicBee as a first-class navigator tab — and it's theme-aware, following whatever skin MusicBee wears: dark (left) or light (right). A corner toggle pops it out as a floating window. Curate the queue with each track's mood read, dial in a station, flow, and filter, then Generate, Connect a journey, or go ON-AIR. Click to enlarge.
Setlist → CUE (v0.5.3.5)
Time-coded setlists in the Comment tag (left) parse into a Tracklist tab with per-entry seek (right). One click writes a real .cue sidecar; the album then expands into virtual tracks across browse, search, queue, and the wavescrubber. Click for a closer look.
Ctrl+K Search
Cmd+K palette (v0.5.3.0)
Ctrl+K opens a federated search across tracks, albums, artists, playlists, and saved searches — on the dashboard and play.html, same component on both.
XL charms & row breaks
Bigger charm buttons that flow onto multiple rows.
play.html evolved (v0.5.2.9)
In-popover playlist picker (Play / Next / Last / Add). ▾ overflow holds mixer, ARiA, shuffle/repeat, AutoDJ, size cycle. Middle-pane buttons wear charm icons; the cycle button previews the next mode. ⇅ toggles only the right column. ☰ collapses the artist drawer on desktop.
Right-click deep links (v0.5.3.5)
Right-click on the now-playing title, artist, or album for a context menu with Open artist in browse, Copy filename, Copy file path, Copy folder path, and Copy deep link — a shareable URL that lands on the same track in browse.
Waveform scrubber (v0.5.3.4)
Peak + RMS overlay painted behind the played-portion fill, on both the play.html transport bar and the dashboard. New /nowplaying/sound-graph-ex endpoint backs a shared transport-wave.js component.
Custom sorts (v0.5.3.4)
Define your own sort orders over any MusicBee tag (Custom1–16, Virtual1–25, year / sort fields) in Settings. They appear in the Albums tab's sort dropdown next to the built-ins.
Theme settings
Dashboard color picker, per-channel controls.
Explore
Album view library browser.
Shell tray menu
Library Browser
Mixer Charm
Shell Integration
MusicBee RDPAPP
| What's Included | Description |
|---|---|
| mb_MBXHub.dll | REST API, WebSocket, Dashboard, Discovery, AutoQ, TrueShuffle, Charms, Mixer, Device Proxy, Audio Streaming, Radio |
| MBXHub.exe | Shell - SMTC media controls bridge, Windows app identity, system-tray dashboard / Machines submenu, and firewall configuration (requires .NET 8.0 Desktop Runtime) |
Installation
- Pages — stale pages on disk are detected and updated automatically on startup
- Legacy cleanup —
mb_MBXQ.dll,mb_smtc.dll, andfirebug.exeare removed from your Plugins folder if present (matched against previous HALRAD distributions, now merged into MBXHub)
pages\ folder at %APPDATA%\MusicBee\MBXHub\, or use MBXHub Settings → General → Export Pages to overwrite with the latest versions.
Step 1: Download & Extract
Download and extract all files.
Step 2: Copy to Plugins
Copy the DLL and EXE files to your MusicBee Plugins folder:
- Default:
C:\Program Files (x86)\MusicBee\Plugins\ - Portable:
[MusicBee folder]\Plugins\
The SBOM files are informational and don't need to be copied.
Step 3: Start MusicBee
Launch MusicBee. MBXHub loads automatically.
Step 4: Network Access (for other devices)
The dashboard on this PC (http://localhost:8080) needs nothing. To reach MBXHub from your phone or another computer, allow network access — the first-run setup screen does this in one click (with an admin prompt), or set it up by hand from the Tools menu:
First-run Setup
Tools Menu
Firewall Settings
- MBXHub Settings → Firewall → add the rules (needs administrator)
- Or export a script and run it in an elevated console
Step 5: Open Dashboard
Open a browser:
http://localhost:8080You should see the Now Playing dashboard. Use the theme toggle in the header to switch between light and dark modes:
http://localhost:8080/docshttp://localhost:8080/pagesDashboard
Dashboard Search
Compact
Player (Desktop)
Player (Mobile)
Dashboard (embedded)
- Album artwork and track info
- Artist/Genre influence buttons
- Progress bar with seek
- Ban, star rating, and love buttons
- Playback controls
- Volume control (routes to configurable default fader)
- Charm bar — Mixer, Browse, NowPlaying, Player, Phantom, SMTC Link
- Shuffle (Off/Shuffle/DJ) and repeat toggles
- ARiA presets
- Playlist selector
- Theme toggle (light/dark/midnight)
Player Page (/pages/player.html)
- 3-column layout (responsive for tablet/mobile)
- Browse: Albums, Artists, Genres, Playlists, Podcasts, Radio, Moods
- Search with instant results
- Queue panel with Up Next
- Now, Next, +Q buttons on tracks
- Lyrics display
- Fully customizable HTML/CSS/JS
- Edit in
%APPDATA%\MusicBee\MBXHub\pages\
Step 6: Set Up Mood Data (Optional)
AutoQ classifies tracks by mood using 14 audio features extracted by Truedat. Without mood data, AutoQ falls back to genre/BPM metadata estimates.
Mood data lives in a single mbxmoods.json file. MBXHub reads it directly — there's no database, no peer sync, no background scanner. Generate the file once with Truedat and drop it in the right place; AutoQ picks it up on the next startup.
- Enable iTunes XML export - In MusicBee, go to Edit → Preferences → Library and enable "iTunes Music Library.xml" export
- Download Truedat (source) - Extract the folder
- Run Truedat -
truedat.exe "iTunes Music Library.xml"
extract it into \Library\truedat \Library is where the XML is exported, then from the library folder run 'truedat\truedat.exe'
This scans your library and producesmbxmoods.json. Truedat's scan is incremental and resumable — large libraries take hours (or days) but you can stop and restart any time. - Drop
mbxmoods.jsonnext to your library — AutoQ reads it on the next startup. That alone gives mood-aware picks.
Show mood in a MusicBee field (optional)
- Name a
Customfield in MusicBee (Edit → Preferences → Tags (1)), e.g. AutoQ Mood. - MBXHub Settings → AutoQ → Write mood labels to: → pick that field.
- MBXHub Settings → API Access → uncheck Disable library mood tag write.
- Open the AutoQ Workbench → Mood tab → click Retag to write the mood into your library. New plays are tagged automatically.
Custom Tags Setup
The custom tag can be configured in mbxhub.json via autoQ.moodTagField and autoQ.moodTagFieldName. This lets you see mood data in MusicBee's column browser, use it in auto-playlists, and sort by mood.
The AutoQ Workbench — click to enlarge
Tuning Console (earlier UI)
System Requirements
| Component | Requirement |
|---|---|
| Operating System | Windows 10 or later |
| MusicBee | MusicBee 3.x or later |
| Framework (Plugin) | .NET Framework 4.8 (included with Windows 10+) |
| Framework (Shell) | .NET 8.0 Desktop Runtime (for MBXHub.exe SMTC bridge — choose the Desktop Runtime column for your architecture) |
Configuration
Open MusicBee → Edit → Preferences → Plugins → Configure
Tools Menu
Configuration Tab
Dashboard Tab
Features Tab
API Access Tab
Settings and logs are stored in:
%AppData%\MusicBee\MBXHub\Files:
mbxhub.json- Configuration (ports, enabled modules)mbxhub.log- Debug log (when debug mode enabled)
Default Ports
| Service | Port |
|---|---|
| REST API + Dashboard | 8080 |
| WebSocket | 8080 |
| Shell SMTC | 8081 (REST port + 1) |
Troubleshooting
| Issue | Solution |
|---|---|
| Port already in use | Open MusicBee → Edit → Preferences → Plugins → MBXHub → Configure to change port |
| Connection refused | Use the Firewall section in MBXHub Settings to add firewall rules, or manually allow inbound TCP on port 8080 |
| The PC can open it, but a phone or other device can’t | If http://localhost:8080 works on the PC but another device on the same Wi-Fi can’t connect — and MBXHub shows no incoming connection — the block is usually on your router, not the PC. Many ISP-supplied routers enable client isolation (also called AP isolation or “guest” mode) or a built-in firewall that blocks device-to-device traffic on your own network. Open your router’s admin page, turn off client/AP isolation, and try lowering or disabling its firewall. This is separate from Windows Firewall — and from UPnP: MBXHub does not use router UPnP/port-forwarding, so leaving that disabled is fine. |
| Plugin not loading | Verify DLL is in correct Plugins folder |
| Pages not updating after upgrade | Page serving: (1) disk file if exists, (2) embedded resource fallback, (3) 404. Disk takes priority for customization, embedded for updates. Delete specific files from %APPDATA%\MusicBee\MBXHub\pages\ and refresh - embedded version served automatically, no restart needed. |
Build with the API
MBXHub has a full REST API. Build your own pages, automate your library, or let an AI do it for you.
# Grab the API cheat sheet
curl http://localhost:8080/llms.txtFeed that to Claude or any AI and ask for what you want:
$ claude "Read http://localhost:8080/llms.txt and build me a vinyl-crate album browser with cover art"Save the output to %APPDATA%\MusicBee\MBXHub\pages\ and open it at http://localhost:8080/pages/yourpage.html. The API uses relative URLs, so pages work on any MBXHub instance without changes.
Worked examples
| Playlist Creator Charm | A playlist viewer / editor charm for the dashboard — create, rename, reorder, add / remove tracks. | playlist-charm-prompt.md |
| MusicBee MCP server for AI agents | A seven-tool MCP server so Claude Desktop and other agents can drive MusicBee through MBXHub. | mcp.md • musicbee-mbxhub-mcp.zip |
| MusicBee Lyrion (LMS - Squeezebox) plugin | Browse and stream the MusicBee library on Squeezebox players, with AutoQ picking what plays next. | lms-dstm-prompt.md • musicbee-mbxhub-lms-dstm.zip |
| IKANDY charm manifest | A charm manifest for a desktop app: one button that starts IKANDY, in the Tools menu and on the charm bar. | app.ikandy.md • app.ikandy.json |
For more information, see the MBXHub repository on GitHub.
★ halrad-com/mbxhub on GitHub Browse the samples →
Full API documentation: API Reference • llms.txt
Repositories & Other HALRAD Projects
MBXHub ships as a release from this site. Its repository carries the samples and supplemental material that go with it — the worked examples above, the companion projects, and the hardware field notes the device charms were built from.
| Project | What it is | Repository |
|---|---|---|
| MBXHub | Samples and supplemental material — the worked examples above (dynaport, lms-dstm, mcp, playlist-charm, library-tree) plus device field notes for the WiiM, Devialet Phantom and Fosi hardware. The hub itself is downloaded from this site. |
halrad-com/mbxhub |
| Truedat | The mood and fingerprint extractor CLI that writes the mbxmoods.json AutoQ reads — Step 6 of the install guide above. |
halrad-com/Truedat |
| Firebug | The Windows firewall and URL-ACL helper behind MBXHub's one-click network setup. | halrad-com/firebug |
| Clouseau | MusicBee inspector / debugger. | halrad.com/mbclouseau |