asak

April 11, 2026 ยท View on GitHub

asak is a terminal audio tool written in Rust. It gives you a keyboard-driven TUI for browsing audio files, previewing waveforms, recording new .wav files, and selecting playback and recording devices.

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What It Does

  • Browse and preview wav, mp3, and ogg files
  • Record .wav files with a live monitor waveform
  • Show a full-take timeline while recording
  • Display playback waveform, time, and channel meters
  • Choose system input and output devices from the terminal

Install

You need a Rust toolchain with cargo installed.

Install from crates.io:

cargo install asak

Install from this repository:

cargo install --path .

On Linux, you will usually need audio development packages for cpal:

sudo apt install libasound2-dev libjack-dev

If you want JACK support explicitly:

cargo install --path . --features jack

Start

Run the app:

asak

Run it from source:

cargo run

Interface

When asak starts, you choose between three modes:

  • Play
  • Rec
  • Settings

Play

Play opens a file browser rooted at the current working directory.

  • Browse folders and supported audio files
  • Open a file to preview it immediately
  • See the full waveform with a left-to-right playhead
  • See playback time, sample rate, channels, and meters

Keys:

  • Up / Down: move through the browser
  • Enter: open folder or preview file
  • Backspace: go to parent directory
  • Space: pause or resume playback
  • Esc: stop playback and return to mode selection

Rec

Rec records a .wav file into the current working directory.

  • Type a file name in the left panel
  • Press Enter to start recording
  • Press Enter again to stop
  • Watch the live monitor waveform while recording
  • See the full-take timeline update as the recording grows

After saving, asak returns to the mode selector and refreshes the Play browser so the new file is ready to preview.

Keys before recording starts:

  • Left / Right: move cursor in the filename
  • Home / End: jump cursor
  • Backspace / Delete: edit filename
  • Enter: start recording

Keys while recording:

  • Enter: stop recording
  • Esc: leave recording mode

Settings

Settings lets you choose playback and recording devices.

  • Select Playback Device or Recording Device
  • Open the device list with Enter
  • Move through devices with Up / Down
  • Confirm and return with Enter or Backspace
  • Refresh device discovery with r

The system default devices are used as the default selection.

Global Keys

  • Up / Down: move between modes on the mode selector
  • Enter: open the selected mode
  • Esc: return to the mode selector
  • q: quit

Development

Format the project:

cargo fmt

Run Clippy with warnings denied:

cargo clippy --all-targets -- -D warnings

Build a release binary:

cargo build --release

The build script also generates shell completions and man pages into target/completions and target/man.

Notes

  • asak uses the current working directory as the initial browser root
  • Recordings are saved into the current working directory by default
  • The app runs in an alternate terminal screen while active

Contributing

Issues and pull requests are welcome.