Astra Miniplayer for VS Code

March 20, 2026 ยท View on GitHub

A lightweight miniplayer extension that integrates directly with the Astra music player application, allowing you to control playback without leaving VS Code.

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Note

Made for Astra - An audiophile music player with gapless playback, parametric EQ, and real-time DSP visualizers.

Features

  • Sidebar Miniplayer: Collapsible miniplayer in the VS Code Explorer sidebar (like VS Code Pets)
  • Playback Controls: Play/Pause, previous track, and next track buttons
  • Real-time Status: Automatically detects when Astra is running and syncs playback state
  • Now Playing Display: Shows current track title and artist
  • Process Detection: Automatically finds and connects to running Astra instance
  • IPC Integration: Uses Astra's native API message system to allow liking of songs.

Requirements

  • Astra 0.4.0 or greater must be installed and running on your system
  • VS Code 1.109.0 or higher
  • Node.js 22 LTS and npm for building from source

Installation

To install the extension in your normal VS Code instance:

  1. Clone this repository and open it in VS Code.
  2. Install dependencies:
npm ci
  1. Build the extension:
npm run compile
  1. Package the extension as a VSIX:
npx @vscode/vsce package --no-yarn
  1. In VS Code, open the Extensions view.
  2. Open the ... menu in the top right of the Extensions view.
  3. Choose Install from VSIX....
  4. Select the generated miniplayer-0.0.3.vsix file.

For development only, use F5 to launch an Extension Development Host instead of installing the VSIX.

Building

Use the standard project scripts:

npm run compile

This compiles the TypeScript source into out/.

To create an installable VSIX package, run:

npx @vscode/vsce package --no-yarn

For active development, run:

npm run watch

To check the codebase before committing, run:

npm run lint

How to Use

Enable the Miniplayer

  1. Open VS Code
  2. Look for "Astra Miniplayer" in the Explorer sidebar
  3. You should see a connection status indicator
  4. Press CTRL + P and type >Astra:Configure Astra API
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  1. Get your API key from the intergrations tab of Astra's settings

Warning

Both Local Integration API and External Playback Controls needs to be enabled in Astra settings for the extension to work properly

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  1. Copy the Local API endpoint and remove the end part so it shows up as http://127.0.0.1:38401 for example
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  1. Input your API Key
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  1. Done!

Troubleshooting

"Astra not found" message

  • Ensure Astra application is installed and running
  • Try closing and reopening Astra
  • The extension will automatically retry every 5 seconds

No track info displayed

  • Ensure a track is loaded or playing in Astra
  • Check that Astra's mini player is functional
  • Refresh VS Code window (Ctrl+R)

Commands not working

  • Verify Astra is responding to controls (use Astra's mini player window)
  • Check that VS Code has focus before clicking controls
  • File an issue with reproduction steps

License

This extension follows the same license as Astra (GPL-3.0).

Contributing

Found a bug? Have a suggestion? Feel free to submit PRs or issues.