Keybindings

Press Ctrl+K in any mode, or ? in the player, to view keybindings. The keymap first shows commands for the active screen. It then shows player and library commands.

Playback

Key Action
Space Play / Pause
s Stop
> . Next track
< , Previous track
Left Right Seek -/+5s
Shift+Left Shift+Right Seek -/+30s (configurable)
N then j Seek to N * 10% of the track (for example, 7j jumps to 70%, 0j to the start)
+ - Volume up/down
] [ Change speed by 0.25x
m Toggle mono
Ctrl+J Jump to time
Key Action
Tab Cycle visible controls (Playlist / EQ / Source / Speed on full and compact layouts)
j k / Up Down Playlist scroll / EQ band adjust (wraps around)
PageUp PageDown / Ctrl+U Ctrl+D Scroll playlist/file browser by page (outside text input)
Home End / g G Go to top/end of playlist/file browser
Shift+Up Shift+Down Move track up/down in playlist/queue
h l EQ cursor left/right
Enter Play selected track
/ Search playlist (navigate results with ↑ ↓ / Ctrl+N Ctrl+P; Ctrl+U clears the query)
Ctrl+X Expand/collapse playlist
Ctrl+Z Undo the last playlist removal or queue clear
o Open file browser
b Esc Back to provider

In the 40x10 and simplified layouts, Tab keeps playback focus on the playlist. This prevents accidental changes to EQ, source, and speed settings. Esc still opens the separate provider-list view.

Text Input

Playlist search, native-provider search, URL, playlist-name, keymap, and jump fields support these editor keys:

Key Action
Left Right / Home End Move cursor
Backspace Delete Delete before/at cursor
Ctrl+W Delete previous word
Ctrl+U Clear text before cursor

EQ and Appearance

Key Action
e Cycle EQ preset, including the saved Custom curve
t Choose theme
v Cycle visualizer
Ctrl+V Pick visualizer from a list (live preview)
V Full screen visualizer
Ctrl+H Toggle album headers

Theme and visualizer pickers support / filtering. While you browse, arrow keys preview the selected option. Enter keeps it. Esc restores the option active when the picker opened. While you type a filter, Enter completes it and Esc clears it.

Features

Key Action
f Toggle bookmark ★ on the selected track. In the radio browser, favorite the selected station.
n Toggle favorite ♥ on the selected track. Favorited tracks appear in the cross-playlist "Favorites" virtual playlist.
Ctrl+F Search with the active provider (Spotify, Qobuz, Tidal, Navidrome, Lyrion, Jellyfin, Emby, Plex, Audiobookshelf, Mixcloud, NetEase, Local), or search YouTube. Available in playlist and provider-browser views.
u Load URL (stream/playlist)
y Show or close lyrics
r Retry lyrics lookup while lyrics are open
i Show track metadata (↑/↓ scrolls)
Ctrl+S Save track to ~/Music/cliamp
w Write the highlighted track to a local playlist
N Open the active provider browser. On a selected Mixcloud show, open that creator's Uploads/Favorites.
L Browse local playlists (with cliamp radio)
R Open radio provider
S Open Spotify provider
P Open Plex provider
J Open Jellyfin provider
E Open Emby provider
Y Open YouTube provider
C Open SoundCloud provider
X Open Mixcloud provider
M Open NetEase provider
Q Open Qobuz provider
T Open Tidal provider
B Open Audiobookshelf provider

Playlist and Queue

Key Action
a Toggle the queue (play next)
A Queue manager
x Remove the highlighted track from the current playlist
p Playlist manager
r Cycle repeat mode (Off / All / One)
z Toggle shuffle

Inside the playlist manager

Key Action
↑ ↓ / j k Move cursor
/ Filter (incremental); Esc clears
Enter / → List screen: open the selected playlist. Tracks screen: play the selected track.
p Tracks screen: play all from the top
w List: save the current queue with the playlist picker. Tracks: copy marked or selected tracks to another playlist.
Space Tracks: mark/unmark highlighted track and advance
[ ] Tracks: move highlighted track and save the playlist
s Tracks: sort and save, cycling track, title, artist, album, artist+album, path
o Tracks: open file browser to add files to this playlist
D List: open the file browser to add [[dir]] sources to the selected playlist. Tracks: open the directory-sources screen.
a List: create a playlist. After naming it, the file browser opens at ~. Use Enter to enter a directory, Space to select folders or files, Enter to confirm, or Esc to finish. Tracks: mark or unmark all visible tracks.
r List: rename the playlist (Recently Played cannot be renamed)
d List: delete playlist (confirms; Recently Played cannot be deleted). Tracks: remove marked tracks, or highlighted track when none are marked
u Undo the last manager edit
← Backspace h Tracks screen: go back to the list
Esc Close the playlist manager or go back

Shift-letter keys switch providers. Playlist-manager track actions use lowercase or punctuation keys. D is the exception. It opens the directory-sources screen.

Directory sources screen (D from the tracks screen)

Key Action
↑ ↓ / j k Navigate directory sources
a Open the file browser to add a directory as a [[dir]] source
d then y Remove the selected source. y confirms; any other key cancels.
r Toggle recursive on the highlighted source
← Backspace h Esc Back to the tracks screen

File browser

Key Action
↑ ↓ / j k Move cursor
← → / h l / Enter Go back; open a directory or file
/ Filter files
Space Select or unselect file/directory
a Select/unselect all visible audio files
R Replace the current queue with selected files (confirm when it is non-empty)
w Write selected files to a local playlist
D Add selected folders as live [[dir]] sources to the target playlist. If none are selected, add the selected folder or the open directory. The browser stays open.
~ . Jump to home / current working directory
Esc o Close file browser

When the browser adds to a playlist, selected folders become [[dir]] sources. Selected audio files become explicit tracks. This mode starts when you open the browser with D from the manager list, with o from the tracks screen, or after you create a playlist with a. In this mode, Esc means "done". cliamp commits pending selections before it closes the browser.

Provider browser (N key)

Press N to open a provider. These providers use the same album, artist, and track screen keys: Navidrome, Lyrion, Plex, Jellyfin, Emby, Audiobookshelf, Spotify, Qobuz, Tidal, Mixcloud, and YouTube Music.

Key Action
↑ ↓ / j k Move cursor (wraps from top to bottom)
← → / h l Go back; open the selected item
/ Filter the visible list. In the Mixcloud Genres list, Enter searches the complete server-side genre/tag catalog.
f In the Mixcloud Genres list, favorite or unfavorite the selected genre locally. Update [mixcloud].styles.
Enter Open the selected artist or album. Play the selected track and queue the rest of the visible list.
R Replace the queue with all visible tracks (start from the top, confirm when non-empty)
a Append all visible tracks to the queue
q Queue the highlighted track to play next
s Cycle album sort (album list only)
S N P J E Y C X M Q T L Switch to that provider without opening the main pane. R replaces the queue on the track screen.
Esc b Go back one level; close the browser

The Mixcloud browser menu has By Show, By Creator, By Creator / Show, and Genres. Genre favorites add Latest/Popular rows to the provider pane and show-sort menu. They do not change the Mixcloud website account. The header shows a source path such as Navidrome / Miles Davis / Kind of Blue / Tracks. This keeps the current provider and open location visible. Track rows show right-aligned durations when the provider provides them.

For Mixcloud, selecting a Show, a creator Uploads/Favorites collection, or a genre Latest/Popular view replaces the main playlist and closes the browser. An empty result leaves the current playlist and browser unchanged.

Provider playlist list

The playlists pane appears when the focus is on a provider, such as Spotify, Navidrome, or Local Playlists:

Key Action
↑ ↓ / j k Move cursor (wraps)
Ctrl+U Ctrl+D Scroll by page
Enter Load the selected playlist tracks into the queue
/ Filter the playlist list
Ctrl+F Run the provider online or server search (Spotify, Navidrome, NetEase, and others).
Ctrl+R Refresh the playlist list from the provider. For Mixcloud, also clear the cached /me/ identity.
p Open the playlist manager (Local pane only; create, rename, delete, add dirs/tracks)
S N P J E Y C X M Q L R Switch to that provider
Tab Switch focus to EQ
Esc b Back to the playlist pane

Playlist rows show Name · N tracks · 1h 23m when the provider returns track counts and total duration. The header shows Provider / Playlists. The loaded playlist has a ▶ prefix. Spotify groups playlists under section headers (── library ──, ── your playlists ──, ── followed playlists ──). For configured accounts, Mixcloud shows Your Mixcloud first: Stream, then Favorites. It then shows Browse shortcuts, public collections, Discover charts, and a Latest/Popular pair for each locally favorited genre under Music Styles. Leaving a provider-pane Browse shortcut returns to the provider pane.

Search results overlays

Use these keys when Ctrl+F opens provider search or YouTube/SoundCloud network search and the results list is open:

Key Action
↑ ↓ / j k / Ctrl+N Ctrl+P Move cursor (single item)
Ctrl+U Ctrl+D Scroll results by page
Enter Play the selected track now
a Append the selected track to the playlist
q Queue the selected track to play next
p (Spotify only) Save the selected track to a Spotify playlist
Esc Backspace Back to the search input

Local search boxes use fuzzy matching. Query characters must appear in order but do not need to be next to each other. Results are ranked by relevance, with the best match first. For example, skr and saku both find a track named "Sakura".

This applies to:

Other Ctrl+F providers, including Spotify, Qobuz, Tidal, Navidrome, Lyrion, Jellyfin, Emby, Plex, Audiobookshelf, Mixcloud, NetEase, and YouTube, send the query to their search API. Their services control matching rules.

General

Key Action
? / Ctrl+K Show keymap
q Quit