freetar 0.19.0

an alternative frontend to ultimate-guitar.com

freetar - an open source alternative front-end to ultimate-guitar.com

This is like Invidious but only for Ultimate Guitar.

Instances

• https://freetar.de
• https://freetar.habedieeh.re
• https://tabs.adast.dk

Features

• no ads, popups, AI, blockchain. Just a simple design
• search for tabs and view them
• save your favorite chords as favs (everything is stored in session storage (not send to the server), no account needed)
• dark mode
• auto scroll
• useful for printing chords
• show chords

How to use it

After successful installation, there is an executable called freetar in the PATH. Execute it without parameters and it listens on 0.0.0.0:22000. You can specify a custom listen host or port by using environment variables.

Environment variables

• FREETAR_HOST
• FREETAR_PORT
• FREETAR_CACHE_TIMEOUT (how log should tabs be cached in memory, reduces the requests to Ultimate Guitar, defaults to 0 (inifnity))

PyPi
Package: https://pypi.org/project/freetar/

pip install freetar

Docker
Image: https://hub.docker.com/r/kmille2/freetar
Port: 22000

sudo docker pull kmille2/freetar
sudo docker run -p 127.0.0.1:22000:22000 kmille2/freetar

Or use Docker compose:

sudo docker compose up -d

Set a custom bind port with the environment variable FREETAR_PORT

You can also build and run the local repository instead of pulling from Docker Hub:

docker compose build
docker compose up -d

Dev environment

You need uv. Then:

FREETAR_CACHE_TIMEOUT=1 uv run freetar/backend.py
vim freetar/*.py
Visit localhost:22000 in browser

# static files: freetar/static/*
# html templates: freetar/templates/*
FREETAR_CACHE_TIMEOUT=1 uv run freetar

Future work

• show chords
• improve UX on mobile devices
• on smartphones: prevent lock screen
• package it as PGA (Progressive Web App)
• share chords (qr code)? (done by #12 with export/import functionality)
• save favs encrypted server side?
• Browser Extension like Invidious Redirection (done)
• show qr code to quickly share a tab?

Contributions

Feel free to contribute, but please create an issue before with a proposal of the feature. I don't want freetar to be bloated (neither UI nor functionality).