Spotify

You can connect Claude Desktop to Spotify through a dedicated MCP server that exposes search, playback, library, playlist, and recommendation capabilities. This MCP server handles authentication, talks to Spotify on your behalf, and lets you control playback, manage your library, and discover new music from your Claude prompts and conversations.

How to use

Use the MCP server by adding it as a local process that Claude Desktop can talk to. You’ll interact with it through prompts and tool calls that map to Spotify actions like searching for tracks, playing or pausing music, saving tracks to your library, managing playlists, and getting recommendations. Typical workflows include discovering music by mood, starting playback, saving interesting tracks, and creating themed playlists.

How to install

Prerequisites: ensure you have Node.js installed on your system and a working Claude Desktop setup.

Clone the MCP Spotify project, install dependencies, and build the server.

# Install dependencies
npm install

# Build the MCP Spotify server
npm run build

Configuration and run

Configure Claude Desktop to connect to the MCP server. You’ll specify a stdio-based server that runs locally and exposes the built MCP index.

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "spotify_mcp": {
      "command": "node",
      "args": [
        "C:\\path\\to\\mcp-spotify\\build\\index.js"
      ]
    }
  }
}

First run authentication

When you start Claude Desktop with the MCP server configured, the server will open a browser window to authenticate with Spotify. Log in, authorize the app, and the server will save tokens to your local token store.

Troubleshooting

Spotify API errors can mean tokens expired or misconfigurations. If you run into a 401, delete the token cache at the default path and restart the client. Double-check your SPOTIFY_CLIENT_ID, SPOTIFY_CLIENT_SECRET, and SPOTIFY_REDIRECT_URI are correctly set in your environment or .env file.

Notes on behavior and features

The server offers search for tracks, albums, artists, and playlists; playback control (play/pause/skip/volume/shuffle/seek); library management (save/remove tracks, get saved tracks, recently played); playlists (get, create, add/remove tracks, details); and recommendations based on seeds and mood preferences. It also provides themed prompts for discovery, analysis of currently playing tracks, and themed playlist creation.

Security and data

OAuth 2.0 Authorization Code Flow with refresh tokens is used for authentication. Tokens are stored locally and auto-refreshed as needed.

Technical details

Language: TypeScript. Runtime: Node.js. MCP SDK: @modelcontextprotocol/sdk. Transport: stdio. Token storage: ~/.mcp-spotify/tokens.json.

Available tools

search_tracks

Search for tracks by query and retrieve matching results.

search_albums

Search for albums by query and retrieve matching results.

search_artists

Search for artists by query and retrieve matching results.

search_playlists

Search for playlists by query and retrieve matching results.

get_playback_state

Get the current playback state including track, device, and progress.

playback_control

Control playback actions such as play, pause, skip, previous, shuffle, volume, and seek.

get_saved_tracks

Retrieve the user’s saved tracks from their Spotify library.

save_tracks

Save given tracks to the user’s library.

remove_saved_tracks

Remove given tracks from the user’s library.

get_recently_played

Fetch tracks recently played by the user to inform recommendations.

get_playlists

Retrieve the user’s playlists.

create_playlist

Create a new playlist in the user’s account.

add_tracks_to_playlist

Add tracks to a specified playlist.

get_recommendations

Get track recommendations based on seeds and preferences.

get_genre_seeds

Retrieve available genre seeds for recommendations.

discover_music

Discover new music based on mood and preferences.

analyze_now_playing

Analyze the currently playing track and provide insights.

create_themed_playlist

Create a playlist around a theme or activity.