"Remove from library" deletes the audio_files row and records the path as excluded, so the next scan does not import it again. Without the exclusion the operation undoes itself on the next scan, which is worse than not having it at all; the file on disk is never touched, which is the promise the confirmation copy will make. The soft scan compares the number of audio files on disk against the number of rows, so both walks now skip excluded paths — otherwise the two counts disagree forever and every launch queues a full scan of the whole library. A full rescan clears the exclusions, which is the only way back for a path removed by mistake until there is a UI for it.
YellowJacket
Music how it was meant to bee.
YellowJacket is a fast, cross-platform desktop music player for your local collection. It plays your files, keeps your library tidy, and helps you discover and organize your music — all in a clean, responsive interface. No accounts, no streaming, no telemetry: just your music on your machine.
Runs on Linux, macOS, and Windows.
Features
Play your music
- Plays MP3, FLAC, OGG Vorbis, and WAV
- Play, pause, seek, and volume control with a mute toggle
- Gapless, glitch-free seeking backed by a read-ahead buffer
- A queue you can add to, reorder, and shuffle, with play-next support
- Shuffle and repeat (off / all / one)
- Picks up right where you left off — remembers your track, position, and volume between sessions
- Media-key and MPRIS support on Linux, so your desktop's playback controls just work
Keep your library organized
- Point it at your music folders and it scans them automatically
- Reads tags and embedded cover art, and de-duplicates artwork so it isn't stored twice
- Incremental sync — only new or changed files get reprocessed, and deleted files are cleaned up
- Browse by album, artist, or genre, or search across everything
- Mark favorites and see what you've been listening to with play history
- Edit track tags directly when something's off
Playlists
- Create playlists, drag tracks in, and reorder them
- Smart playlists that build themselves from rules (by genre, rating, play count, and more)
- Pin a default playlist and spot duplicate tracks at a glance
Discover and clean up (powered by MusicBrainz)
- Explore — browse artists, releases, and genres from the MusicBrainz catalog, not just what's already in your library
- Auto-tag — match your files against MusicBrainz to fill in correct artist, album, and track metadata, with a review step before anything is written
- Lyrics search — find a track by a line you remember
Install
Download the latest build for your platform from the releases page.
| Platform | Download |
|---|---|
| Linux | yellowjacket-linux-amd64 |
| macOS | yellowjacket-darwin-universal.app.zip (Apple Silicon + Intel) |
| Windows | yellowjacket-windows-amd64.exe |
Prefer to build it yourself? See Building from source.
Getting started
- Launch YellowJacket.
- Open Settings and add the folder(s) where your music lives.
- Let the initial scan finish — you'll see progress as it works.
- Browse by album, artist, or genre, queue something up, and press play.
Your library and settings are stored locally:
| Linux / macOS | Windows | |
|---|---|---|
| Config | ~/.config/yellowjacket/ |
%LOCALAPPDATA%\yellowjacket\config |
| Library data | ~/.local/share/yellowjacket/ |
%LOCALAPPDATA%\yellowjacket\data |
Building from source
YellowJacket is built with Go and a Lit/TypeScript frontend, bridged by the Wails framework.
Prerequisites
| Tool | Version |
|---|---|
| Go | 1.25+ |
| Node.js | 22+ |
| pnpm | 10+ |
| Wails CLI | v2 (go install github.com/wailsapp/wails/v2/cmd/wails@latest) |
On Linux, install the system libraries Wails needs:
sudo apt-get install libasound2-dev libgtk-3-dev libwebkit2gtk-4.1-dev
macOS and Windows need no extra system packages. Run wails doctor to check your
environment.
Build
make setup # install tooling and git hooks
make dev # run with hot-reload
make build-prod # produce a release binary
More detail for contributors lives in
docs/dev/overview.md and CLAUDE.md.