Squeezy

Minimal Squeezebox-compatible player for Lyrion Music Server (formerly Logitech Media Server). Advertises as a player on your network, receives streaming audio, and plays it back through your default audio output. Supports synchronized playback with other players.

Before you use this

If you can run a binary, use LocalPlayer instead. It's a Lyrion Music Server plugin that bundles squeezelite — a proper, mature, battle-tested C implementation. It installs in two clicks from the LMS plugin browser, handles every edge case, and just works. Nearly every protocol detail and edge case in squeezy was reverse-engineered from squeezelite's source. It is the gold standard and the direct inspiration for this project.

Squeezy exists for one narrow situation: you're on a machine where you can't run an unverified or unpackaged binary — a locked-down work laptop, a corporate machine with strict security policy, a CI environment — but you can run Python packages. That's how this project started: wanting to listen to music on a work laptop through Lyrion without having to file an IT ticket to run a compiled binary from the internet. pip install squeezy and it just works.

If that's not your situation, seriously — go use LocalPlayer. It's better in every way.

Note: This project was largely vibe-coded with Claude. It passes ~100 tests and works reliably day-to-day, but treat it accordingly.

Requirements

• macOS, Linux, or Windows
• Python 3.9+
• ffmpeg

Install

Pick whichever method suits you. All three result in a squeezy command on your PATH.

Option 1: pipx (recommended)

# macOS
brew install ffmpeg pipx
pipx install squeezy

# Debian/Ubuntu
sudo apt install ffmpeg pipx
pipx install squeezy

Option 2: Homebrew tap (macOS only)

brew tap catcatcatcatcatcatcatcatcatcat/tap
brew trust catcatcatcatcatcatcatcatcatcat/tap
brew install squeezy

This installs ffmpeg automatically as a dependency.

Option 3: From source

git clone https://github.com/catcatcatcatcatcatcatcatcatcat/squeezy.git
cd squeezy
python3 -m venv .venv
source .venv/bin/activate
pip install .

For development (run directly without installing):

./run.sh -n "My Speaker" -vv

Squeezy checks for updates on startup and will notify you when a new version is available.

Usage

# Auto-discover server on local network
squeezy

# Specify server and player name
squeezy -s 192.168.1.100 -n "Kitchen Speaker"

# Custom MAC address (for persistent player identity)
squeezy -m aa:bb:cc:dd:ee:ff

# List available audio output devices
squeezy -l

# Use a specific audio output (substring match, case-insensitive)
squeezy -d "HDMI" -n "Living Room"

# Verbose logging (connection, playback events, volume changes)
squeezy -v

# Debug logging (protocol-level detail: strm commands, STAT packets)
squeezy -vv

# Check installed version
squeezy --version

Your player will appear in the Lyrion Music Server web UI. Select it from the player dropdown to start streaming.

macOS: Connection failed: [Errno 65] No route to host

If squeezy can't reach LMS (or discovery finds nothing) while the server is plainly up, macOS is refusing Local Network access for Python. The permission is judged per process, terminals such as iTerm2 don't pass their own grant on to the programs they run, and macOS never shows a prompt for that case — it just denies. Trigger the prompt directly:

squeezy --request-local-network -s 192.168.1.100   # click Allow when macOS asks

The grant is tied to the exact Python binary, so repeat this after upgrading Python (e.g. brew upgrade). You can also toggle Python on under System Settings → Privacy & Security → Local Network.

Project Structure

src/squeezy/
├── squeezy.py              # Main player orchestrator & audio pipeline
├── audio/
│   └── stream_decoder.py   # Thread-safe PCMBuffer
├── protocol/
│   ├── handler.py          # SlimProto message handlers (strm, audg, setd, etc.)
│   ├── slimproto.py        # Protocol constants & packet builders
│   └── lms_client.py       # LMS message operations
├── network/
│   ├── server_connection.py # TCP/UDP socket management & discovery
│   ├── local_network.py    # macOS Local Network permission hint & prompt trigger
│   ├── lms_metadata.py     # LMS JSON-RPC track metadata queries
│   └── status_server.py    # Unix socket status server
└── config/
    ├── config.py           # XDG-compliant config persistence
    └── metadata.py         # ICY metadata & LAME gapless parsing

Contributing

See DEVELOPER.md for a full walkthrough of the repo structure, how to set up a dev environment, and how to cut a release.

How it works

Squeezy implements the SlimProto protocol to communicate with Lyrion Music Server:

1. Discovers the server via UDP broadcast on port 3483
2. Registers as a player via TCP (HELO packet)
3. Receives stream commands from the server
4. Fetches audio via HTTP, decodes with ffmpeg, outputs via miniaudio
5. Reports playback status back to the server for sync coordination

Uninstall

# If installed via pipx
pipx uninstall squeezy

# If installed via Homebrew
brew uninstall squeezy
brew untap catcatcatcatcatcatcatcatcatcat/tap

Releasing (for maintainers)

See DEVELOPER.md for the full release process. The short version: bump version in pyproject.toml, tag, build, upload to PyPI, update the Homebrew tap.

License

MIT