"ABS" (Audiobookshelf) + "TUI" (terminal user interface) — read it like "absolutely."
A fast, keyboard-driven terminal client for your self-hosted Audiobookshelf server. Browse by library, series, or collection, and navigate chapters.
Features • Installation • Roadmap • More info
Absotui is a minimalist TUI built in Rust, for both audiobooks and podcasts. It opens fast, barely touches your CPU while it's just sitting there, and stays quick even with a huge library.
- Podcast home: one "New & Unfinished" list across all your shows, instant mark-as-finished (F), and auto-play straight into the next unfinished episode
- Manage podcast subscriptions: add a show by name or a direct RSS URL (A), with cover art and a description shown as you browse the results, or remove one (C) and choose whether to keep or delete its downloaded files. It's all done from Library, with no separate screen
- Browse libraries: flip through your Library, or jump to Collections and series (grouped, in sequence order) with Tab/S
- Listening stats: a Stats page with streaks, a day-of-week chart, a year-long activity heat-map, recent sessions, and top lists for what and who you listen to most
- Stream or listen offline: download (d) any book or episode for offline listening. A downloaded copy is used automatically when you have one, and Auto Download can keep your current listens downloaded for you
- Cover art in your terminal: book and episode artwork shown inline (Kitty/Ghostty/Sixel/iTerm2 terminals)
- Chapter navigation: browse a book's chapter list inline in Continue Listening, with progress for each chapter
- Desktop integration: a custom app icon, a taskbar/dock icon on supported terminals, and a window title showing what's playing
- Uses your terminal's colors: follows your terminal color scheme/theme
- In-app updates: Settings > Update / Uninstall runs the install flow without leaving the app
- Pick your player: VLC or mpv, whichever you like better. The installer asks, and you can switch any time in Settings > Player
- Per-item playback speed: optionally (Settings > Per-Item Speed) save a separate speed for each book or podcast instead of sharing one across everything
- Progress sync: keeps audiobook and podcast episode progress in sync with your server
- SSO sign-in: log in with a username and password, or through your server's identity provider (OpenID Connect). See Signing in with SSO
Actively developed, single-maintainer project. Absotui reads your library and syncs playback progress, and the only other thing it changes on your server is podcast subscriptions: A adds a show (and downloads the episodes you pick) and C removes one. A "hard" remove also deletes that show's downloaded files, and it always asks first. Both need an Audiobookshelf account with permission to do that. Check known bugs or open an issue if something looks off.
Run the following in your terminal, then follow the on-screen instructions:
bash -c 'tmpfile=$(mktemp) && curl -LsSf https://github.com/pdwaldrop/absotui/raw/stable/hello_absotui.sh -o "$tmpfile" && bash "$tmpfile" install && rm -f "$tmpfile"'The installer asks which player to use, VLC (the default) or mpv, and installs that one. You can switch later in Settings > Player (the other player has to be installed). To skip the question, set ABSOTUI_PLAYER=vlc or ABSOTUI_PLAYER=mpv before running it.
Run absotui --update, or quit the app and run the following in your terminal:
bash -c 'tmpfile=$(mktemp) && curl -LsSf https://github.com/pdwaldrop/absotui/raw/stable/hello_absotui.sh -o "$tmpfile" && bash "$tmpfile" update && rm -f "$tmpfile"'Run absotui --uninstall, or quit the app and run the following in your terminal:
bash -c 'tmpfile=$(mktemp) && curl -LsSf https://github.com/pdwaldrop/absotui/raw/stable/hello_absotui.sh -o "$tmpfile" && bash "$tmpfile" uninstall && rm -f "$tmpfile"'In /usr/local/bin (option 1, from install script) or ~/.cargo/bin (option 2, from install script):
absotui— the binary file
In ~/.config/absotui (Linux) or ~/Library/Preferences/absotui (macOS) — the default path when XDG_CONFIG_HOME is empty:
.env— contains the secret keyconfig.toml— configuration fileabsotui.log— log file (it starts over at 5 MB, and the last one is kept asabsotui.log.old)db.sqlite3— SQLite database filecovers/— on-disk cache of cover art (populated automatically as covers load)downloads/— books and podcast episodes downloaded for offline playback (only appears once you download something)
In ~/.local/share/applications (Linux):
absotui.desktop— lets you launch Absotui from a launcher app
Download it, make it executable, and run it:
curl -LO https://github.com/pdwaldrop/absotui/releases/latest/download/absotui-x86_64.AppImage
chmod +x absotui-x86_64.AppImage
./absotui-x86_64.AppImagePlayback needs VLC (cvlc) or mpv installed on your system. The AppImage doesn't bundle either (the install script above installs the one you pick).
VLC is used by default. To use mpv instead, switch it in Settings > Player (or set backend = "mpv" under [player] in config.toml).
On aarch64, use absotui-aarch64.AppImage instead. The AppImage includes update information, so AppImageUpdate and AppImageLauncher can find new releases on their own. It's separate from the install script above, so use whichever you prefer.
Requirements: Rust, VLC (default) or mpv (switch in Settings > Player, or set backend = "mpv" under [player] in config.toml)
Optional (VLC only): the cvlc_term config setting (off by default) opens a terminal to control cvlc directly, which additionally needs the kitty terminal installed.
Note: main might be unstable — prefer git clone --branch stable --single-branch https://github.com/pdwaldrop/absotui if you want the last stable release.
git clone https://github.com/pdwaldrop/absotui
cd absotui/
mkdir -p ~/.config/absotui
cp config.example.toml ~/.config/absotui/config.tomlToken encryption in the database (NOTE: replace secret):
echo ABSOTUI_SECRET_KEY=secret >> ~/.config/absotui/.envcargo run --releaseWhen a new release is available:
git pull https://github.com/pdwaldrop/absotui
cargo run --releaseRun the binary directly:
cd target/release
./absotuiFiles installed — same as above (.env, config.toml, absotui.log, db.sqlite3, covers/, downloads/), all under ~/.config/absotui.
If your Audiobookshelf server signs people in through an identity provider (authentik, Keycloak, ...), Absotui can too. Enter your server address as usual. If the server offers SSO next to passwords, leave the username empty; if it only offers SSO, Absotui goes straight to it. Your browser opens to your identity provider and you're signed in when you come back.
One-time setup for the server admin: Absotui receives the sign-in on your own machine, at http://127.0.0.1:41729/callback. Audiobookshelf only accepts addresses it's been told about, so add that one under Settings > Authentication > Allowed Mobile Redirect URIs. If the Audiobookshelf mobile app already signs in with SSO on your server, nothing needs to change on the identity provider's side. Absotui tells you the exact address if the server turns it down.
Something else already using port 41729? Set sso_callback_port under [auth] in config.toml, and allow the matching address instead.
Running over SSH, or on a machine without a browser? Absotui shows the sign-in link. Open it in any browser, and when that browser ends up on a page that won't load, copy the address from its address bar and paste it into the box on the Absotui screen.
This uses the same OpenID support as the Audiobookshelf mobile app, so it needs a reasonably recent server.
Recent work: you can play through mpv as well as VLC, sign in through your server's SSO (OpenID Connect), and grab the AppImage on Linux. I also spent a while making it lighter, so it uses a lot less CPU while it's open and no longer waits on GitHub to start.
Planned: an AUR package (absotui-bin), on hold until AUR registrations reopen.
See known bugs for what's still outstanding.
Check the issues list first, then open a new one if yours isn't there.
Contributions of code, ideas, or feedback are welcome — see the contributing guidelines first.
This project follows this branching workflow.
Absotui uses your terminal's own color theme, with a few accent colors taken from it for borders, active items, and keybind hints. There's no separate theme config to keep in sync. The font and emoji you see depend on your terminal.
Absotui works in any modern terminal, but cover art and the taskbar/dock icon depend on what your terminal supports:
| Terminal | Cover art | Taskbar/dock icon & title |
|---|---|---|
| Kitty | ✅ Full | ✅ |
| Ghostty | ✅ Full | ✅ |
| WezTerm | ✅ Full | ✅ |
| iTerm2 (macOS) | ✅ Full | — |
| Alacritty | Fallback¹ | ✅ |
| Foot | Fallback¹ | ✅ |
| Other | Fallback¹ | Terminal default |
¹ Cover art still shows via a Unicode-block fallback instead of a real image — the terminal just doesn't speak the Kitty graphics protocol, the iTerm2 image protocol, or Sixel, which are auto-detected at startup.
Works best in: Kitty, Ghostty, or WezTerm, which support both cover art and the taskbar/dock icon.
Absotui began as a fork of Toutui by AlbanDAVID, archived in December 2025 ("I'm not able to properly maintain this project anymore... please don't wait for any new releases and issue fixing."). Thanks to the original author for getting it started. Toutui itself took its name from the French phrase "tout ouïe" ("all ears").