spotify-mcp

A Model Context Protocol (MCP) server that connects Claude with Spotify. Control your Spotify playback, search music, manage playlists, and more -- all through natural conversation with Claude.

Fork Notice: This project is forked from varunneal/spotify-mcp and updated for the Spotify Web API February 2026 changes. Built and maintained with Claude Code.

What's Changed (v0.3.0)

Spotify API Feb 2026 Adaptation

• Search limit: Default reduced to 5, max capped at 10 (Spotify Dev Mode restriction)
• Playlist endpoints: Migrated from /tracks to /items (new API requirement)
• Response field compatibility: Handles both old (tracks/track) and new (items/item) field names
• Batch endpoints removed: Artist genre lookups now use parallel individual fetches via ThreadPoolExecutor
• Playlist creation: Uses POST /me/playlists instead of deprecated POST /users/{id}/playlists

Bug Fixes & Improvements

• New: Playlist delete action (unfollow/delete playlists)
• Fixed: Lazy client initialization -- no longer crashes at import time without credentials
• Fixed: assert crash replaced with proper error handling for unknown tool names
• Fixed: change_playlist_details() now returns the API response
• Fixed: get_liked_songs() limit edge case -- stops fetching as soon as limit is reached
• Fixed: Null track handling in liked songs pagination
• Improved: Search default limit aligned with Spotify's new default (5)
• Improved: .gitignore expanded to cover more edge cases (.cache-*, .env.*, build artifacts)
• Security: OAuth token cache (.cache) excluded from repository

Original Features (from upstream)

• Start, pause, and skip playback
• Search for tracks, albums, artists, and playlists
• Get detailed info about any Spotify item
• Manage the playback queue
• Full playlist CRUD (create, read, update, delete tracks)
• Retrieve liked/saved songs with optional genre enrichment

How It Works

Claude <--MCP (stdio)--> spotify-mcp server <--REST API--> Spotify Web API

1. Claude sends tool calls (e.g., SpotifySearch, SpotifyPlayback) via the MCP protocol
2. The MCP server receives these calls and translates them into Spotify Web API requests
3. Authentication is handled via OAuth 2.0 (Authorization Code Flow) with automatic token refresh
4. Results are parsed into clean, concise JSON and returned to Claude

Available Tools

Architecture

src/spotify_mcp/
  __init__.py       # Package entry point
  server.py         # MCP server - tool definitions & request routing
  spotify_api.py    # Spotify API client wrapper (auth, playback, search, playlists)
  utils.py          # Response parsers & decorators (validate, ensure_username)

Prerequisites

• Python 3.12+
• Spotify Premium account (required for Dev Mode API access since Feb 2026)
• Spotify Developer App credentials

Configuration

1. Create Spotify Developer App

1. Go to developer.spotify.com/dashboard
2. Create a new app
3. Set redirect URI to http://127.0.0.1:8080/callback
4. Note your Client ID and Client Secret

Important (Feb 2026): Dev Mode apps are limited to 5 authorized users and require the app owner to have Spotify Premium.

2. Set Up Environment

Copy the example environment file and fill in your credentials:

cp .env.example .env
# Edit .env with your SPOTIFY_CLIENT_ID, SPOTIFY_CLIENT_SECRET, SPOTIFY_REDIRECT_URI

3. Add to MCP Client

Run locally (recommended)

git clone https://github.com/verIdyia/spotify-mcp.git

Add to your MCP config (Claude Desktop, Cursor, etc.):

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "spotify": {
      "command": "uv",
      "args": [
        "--directory",
        "/path/to/spotify-mcp",
        "run",
        "spotify-mcp"
      ],
      "env": {
        "SPOTIFY_CLIENT_ID": "your_client_id",
        "SPOTIFY_CLIENT_SECRET": "your_client_secret",
        "SPOTIFY_REDIRECT_URI": "http://127.0.0.1:8080/callback"
      }
    }
  }
}

Run with uvx

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "spotify": {
      "command": "uvx",
      "args": [
        "--python", "3.12",
        "--from", "git+https://github.com/verIdyia/spotify-mcp",
        "spotify-mcp"
      ],
      "env": {
        "SPOTIFY_CLIENT_ID": "your_client_id",
        "SPOTIFY_CLIENT_SECRET": "your_client_secret",
        "SPOTIFY_REDIRECT_URI": "http://127.0.0.1:8080/callback"
      }
    }
  }
}

Config File Locations

• Claude Desktop (macOS): ~/Library/Application Support/Claude/claude_desktop_config.json
• Claude Desktop (Windows): %APPDATA%/Claude/claude_desktop_config.json

Troubleshooting

1. Make sure uv is updated -- version >=0.54 recommended
2. First run OAuth: On the first tool call, a browser window will open for Spotify login. After authorizing, the token is cached locally in .cache
3. No active device error: Make sure Spotify is open and playing on at least one device
4. Permission errors on Linux/Mac: chmod -R 755 /path/to/spotify-mcp

Debugging

Launch the MCP Inspector:

npx @modelcontextprotocol/inspector uv --directory /path/to/spotify-mcp run spotify-mcp

Logs are emitted to stderr. On Mac, Claude Desktop logs are at ~/Library/Logs/Claude.

Spotify API Feb 2026 Changes Summary

Key changes that affected this MCP:

For full details, see Spotify's migration guide.

Credits

• Original project: varunneal/spotify-mcp by Varun Srivastava (MIT License)
• Original contributors: @jamiew, @davidpadbury, @manncodes, @hyuma7, @aanurraj, @JJGO and others
• Built with: Spotipy 2.24.0, MCP SDK 1.3.0
• Maintained with: Claude Code (Anthropic)

License

MIT License -- see LICENSE for details.