beets-fillmissing

A Beets plugin that interactively prompts you to fill in missing or incomplete metadata fields for your music tracks.

Features

• 🎯 Query-based workflow: Target specific tracks using Beets' powerful query syntax
• 📝 Interactive prompts: Fill in metadata fields one by one with clear visual feedback
• 🔄 Smart defaults: Existing field values are shown as defaults - just press Enter to keep them
• 🎵 Built-in playback: Type p or play to listen to a track before filling in metadata
• ✅ Immediate writes: Changes are saved immediately after each field update
• ⚡ Fast workflow: Skip fields with Enter, exit anytime with Ctrl+C or Ctrl+D

Installation

From Git (Recommended)

Install directly from GitHub:

# Using pip
pip install git+https://github.com/amiv1/beets-fillmissing.git

# Using pipx
pipx inject beets git+https://github.com/amiv1/beets-fillmissing.git

Configuration

Add fillmissing to your plugins in Beets config file (usually ~/.config/beets/config.yaml):

plugins:
  - fillmissing
  # ... other plugins

Usage

beet fillmissing [QUERY] -f 'field1 field2 field3'

Arguments

• QUERY: Standard Beets query to filter tracks (e.g., artist:Unknown, genre:Hip-Hop, album:'My Album')
• -f, --fields: Space-separated list of fields to populate

Examples

Add genre and mood tags to tracks in a specific album:

beet fillmissing 'album:Chill Vibes' -f 'genre mood'

Add mood tags for tracks that don't have it:

beet fillmissing '^mood::.+' -f 'mood'

Interactive Commands

While filling in metadata, you can:

• Enter a value: Type the new value and press Enter to update the field
• Skip a field: Press Enter without typing to skip (keeps existing value or leaves blank)
• Play track: Type p to open the track in your system's default audio player
• Go back: Type b to go back to editing the previous field
• Skip track: Type s to skip the current track metadata editing and go to the next one
• Exit: Press Ctrl+C or Ctrl+D to stop the process anytime

Example Session

$ beet fillmissing 'mood:' -f 'mood context language'
Found 3 track(s) matching query.
Commands: 'p' = play | 's' = skip track | 'b' = back | Ctrl+C = quit

--- Track 1 of 3 ---
Jazz Ensemble - Smooth Jazz Collection - Summer Breeze

  mood: chill
    → Updated mood
  context [driving]: workout
    → Updated context
  language: eng
    → Updated language

--- Track 2 of 3 ---
Synthwave Artists - Neon Nights - Midnight Drive

  mood: p
    ♪ Playing...
  mood: energy
    → Updated mood
  context: driving
    → Updated context
  language: 

--- Track 3 of 3 ---
...

Done!

Field Behavior

• Existing values: If a field already has a value, it's shown in brackets [current_value]

  • Press Enter to keep it unchanged
  • Type a new value to replace it

• Empty fields: If a field is blank or doesn't exist, no default is shown

  • Press Enter to skip without setting anything
  • Type a value to set the field

Contributing

Issues and pull requests are welcome!