Discord Media RPC

A Discord Rich Presence client that shows what you're watching on Jellyfin or listening to on Audiobookshelf - with cover art, timestamps, and chapter tracking.

Runners

script

media_rpc.py

docker

in addition, you can run it in docker, either building it yourself, or using https://hub.docker.com/repository/docker/simoneklundh/media-rpc

Features

Jellyfin support - movies and TV shows with cover art (falls back to TMDB)
Audiobookshelf support - audiobooks and podcasts with chapter tracking
Privacy-focused - filters by your specific User ID so your friends' streams don't show on your profile
Secure Configuration - uses a .env file to keep your API tokens and IDs safe
Cover art fetched directly from your media servers
Elapsed and remaining time timestamps
Library blacklist to hide specific Jellyfin libraries (cached for performance)
Auto-reconnect if Discord connection drops
Local cover cache to avoid redundant requests
Can optionally be ran without discord running

Requirements

script version

Python 3.10+ (for mac this might require homebrew)

docker version

docker

both

A running Jellyfin and/or Audiobookshelf instance
A Discord application with a Client ID
A reverse proxy (Caddy, Nginx, Apache, Traefik) with a public domain for ABS cover art - see Cover Art Setup

Installation

Docker Compose version

services:
  media-rpc:
    image: simoneklundh/media-rpc:2
    container_name: media-rpc
    restart: unless-stopped
    environment:
      - DISCORD_CLIENT_ID=idhere
      - DISCORD_TOKEN=tokenhere
      - JELLYFIN_SERVER=https://jellyfin.domain.tld/Sessions
      - JELLYFIN_API_KEY=apikeyhere
      - JELLYFIN_USER_ID=useridhere
      - TMDB_API_KEY=api_key_here
      - ABS_SERVER=https://books.domain.tld
      - ABS_API_TOKEN=apitokenhere
      - USE_CHAPTER_TITLE=true
      - USE_CHAPTER_TIMESTAMPS=false
      - DEFAULT_JELLYFIN_SERVER_NAME= Custom Server Name
      - DEFAULT_AUDIOBOOKSHELF_SERVER_NAME= Custom Server Name
      - JELLYFIN_IGNORE_LIBRARIES=Library1,Library2,Library3
      - USE_GATEWAY=true

How to get the variables

How To Get Audiobookshelf Images In Discord

venv version (recommended for non-docker use)

1. Clone the repository:

git clone https://github.com/MakD/media-rpc.git
cd media-rpc

2. Create and source virtual environment

# python or python3 depending on your setup
python -m venv venv

# linux/mac
source venv/bin/activate (or activate.fish for fish users)
# windows powershell:
./venv/bin/Activate.ps1
# in case of permission errors, run this and then retry:
Set-ExecutionPolicy -ExecutionPolicy RemoteSigned -Scope CurrentUser

3. Install dependencies:

pip install -r requirements.txt

4. Configure the script:

# discord (DISCORD_TOKEN is only required for the gateway version)
DISCORD_TOKEN=YOUR_DISCORD_TOKEN
DISCORD_CLIENT_ID=YOUR_DISCORD_CLIENT_ID
# jellyfin
JELLYFIN_SERVER=https://jellyfin.example.com/Sessions
JELLYFIN_API_KEY=YOUR_JELLYFIN_API_KEY
JELLYFIN_USER_ID=YOUR_JELLYFIN_USER_ID
TMDB_API_KEY=YOUR_TMDB_API_KEY
# audiobookshelf
ABS_SERVER=https://abs.example.com
ABS_API_TOKEN=YOUR_ABS_API_TOKEN
# optional, defaults to true
USE_CHAPTER_TITLE=true
#optional, defaults to empty string
DEFAULT_JELLYFIN_SERVER_NAME=jellfin_server_name 
#optional, defaults to empty string
DEFAULT_AUDIOBOOKSHELF_SERVER_NAME=audiobookshelf_server_name 
#optional, defaults to empty list
JELLYFIN_IGNORE_LIBRARIES=library1,library2
# true => use gateway, false => use rpc (requires discord running on your computer)
# defaults to false
USE_GATEWAY=true

5. Run media-rpc:

python media_rpc.py

global version (not recommended)

1. Clone the repository:

git clone https://github.com/MakD/media-rpc.git
cd media-rpc

2. Install dependencies:

pip install -r requirements.txt

3. Configure the script: Create a new file named .env in the same directory as the script and fill in your details:

# discord (DISCORD_TOKEN is only required for media_rpc_gateway.py)
DISCORD_TOKEN=YOUR_DISCORD_TOKEN
DISCORD_CLIENT_ID=YOUR_DISCORD_CLIENT_ID
# jellyfin
JELLYFIN_SERVER=https://jellyfin.example.com/Sessions
JELLYFIN_API_KEY=YOUR_JELLYFIN_API_KEY
JELLYFIN_USER_ID=YOUR_JELLYFIN_USER_ID
TMDB_API_KEY=YOUR_TMDB_API_KEY
# audiobookshelf
ABS_SERVER=https://abs.example.com
ABS_API_TOKEN=YOUR_ABS_API_TOKEN
# optional, defaults to true
USE_CHAPTER_TITLE=true
# optional, defaults to false
USE_CHAPTER_TIMESTAMPS=false
#optional, defaults to empty string
DEFAULT_JELLYFIN_SERVER_NAME=jellfin_server_name 
#optional, defaults to empty string
DEFAULT_AUDIOBOOKSHELF_SERVER_NAME=audiobookshelf_server_name 
#optional, defaults to empty list
JELLYFIN_IGNORE_LIBRARIES=library1,library2
# defaults to false. true => use the gateway, no discord client needed. requires DISCORD_TOKEN
USE_GATEWAY=true

4. Run manually to test:

python3 media_rpc.py

Configuration

Discord Application ID

Go to the Discord Developer Portal
Create a new application
Copy the Application ID (not a bot token) into DISCORD_CLIENT_ID

Discord User Token

log into discord in the browser
open browser dev tools (usually ctrl+shift+i or cmd+shift+i)
open the network tab
refresh page
in the search field: search for credentials
click the credentials item
under "Request Headers", find the "Authorization" part.
copy the value and put it into DISCORD_TOKEN

it should look something like this MTIzNDU2Nzg5MDEyMzQ1Njc4.GxKp2A.aBcDeFgHiJkLmNoPqRsTuVwXyZ0123456789ab

Jellyfin API Key

In Jellyfin, go to Dashboard → API Keys
Create a new key and paste it into JELLYFIN_API_KEY

Jellyfin User ID (Required for Privacy)

To ensure Discord only shows what you are watching and ignores other users on your server:

Open your Jellyfin web dashboard.
Go to Dashboard → Users and click on your user profile.
Look at the URL in your browser. Copy the long string of letters and numbers after userId=.
Paste it into JELLYFIN_USER_ID in your .env file.

Audiobookshelf API Token

In Audiobookshelf, go to Settings → Users
Click your user and copy the API Token

TMDB API Key (optional, Jellyfin cover fallback)

Create an account at themoviedb.org
Go to Settings → API and request a key

Library Blacklist (optional)

To hide specific Jellyfin libraries from showing in RPC, edit the list in the .env or the variable JELLYFIN_IGNORE_LIBRARIES in the compose:

JELLYFIN_IGNORE_LIBRARIES = ["Bollywood", "Kids"]

JELLYFIN_IGNORE_LIBRARIES=Bollywood,Kids

Gateway

To use the discord gateway instead of rpc, add USE_GATEWAY=true and the Discord Token to the .env

Cover Art Setup

Discord fetches cover images directly from the URL you provide, which means your media server needs to be publicly accessible. Since Audiobookshelf requires authentication, you need to set up an authenticated proxy route in your reverse proxy. This lets Discord access cover art via a short, clean URL, while your token stays on the server and is never exposed.

This only makes cover artwork publicly accessible - not your audio files or any other data.

Caddy

your-abs-domain.com {
    handle /cover/* {
        rewrite * /api/items/{http.request.uri.path.1}/cover
        reverse_proxy localhost:13378 {
            header_up Authorization "Bearer YOUR_ABS_TOKEN"
        }
    }

    reverse_proxy localhost:13378
}

Nginx

location /cover/ {
    rewrite ^/cover/(.*)$ /api/items/$1/cover break;
    proxy_pass http://localhost:13378;
    proxy_set_header Authorization "Bearer YOUR_ABS_TOKEN";
}

Apache

RewriteRule ^/cover/(.*)$ /api/items/$1/cover [PT]
RequestHeader set Authorization "Bearer YOUR_ABS_TOKEN"
ProxyPass /cover/ http://localhost:13378/api/items/

After setup, test it by opening this in your browser (no login required):

[https://your-abs-domain.com/cover/ANY_LIBRARY_ITEM_ID](https://your-abs-domain.com/cover/ANY_LIBRARY_ITEM_ID)

For Jellyfin, no extra proxy setup is needed - cover art is fetched using your API key directly.

Running as a Background Service (Linux)

Because Discord runs under your personal user account, this must be set up as a User Service, not a system-wide root service. Do not use sudo for these steps.

1. Create the user systemd directory:

mkdir -p ~/.config/systemd/user

2. Create the service file:

nano ~/.config/systemd/user/media-rpc.service

3. Paste the following configuration: (Make sure to replace /home/YOUR_USERNAME/path/to/ with the actual absolute path to your cloned folder!)

[Unit]
Description=Media Discord RPC
After=network.target

[Service]
Type=simple
ExecStart=/usr/bin/python3 /home/YOUR_USERNAME/path/to/media-rpc/media_rpc_gateway.py # or use local if you want to run discord still
WorkingDirectory=/home/YOUR_USERNAME/path/to/media-rpc/
Restart=always
RestartSec=10

[Install]
WantedBy=default.target

4. Enable and start the service:

systemctl --user daemon-reload
systemctl --user enable --now media-rpc.service

5. Check the live logs:

journalctl --user -u media-rpc.service -f

How It Works

Every 15 seconds, the script polls your media servers for active sessions. If something is playing, it constructs a Rich Presence payload with the title, state, timestamps, and cover art, then sends it to Discord over a local Unix socket. Cover URLs are cached in cover_cache.json so they are only fetched once per item. If nothing is playing, the presence is cleared.

Troubleshooting

RPC not showing

Make sure Discord is running, and your status is not set to invisible
Confirm DISCORD_CLIENT_ID is the Application ID, not a bot token

Cover art showing a dice/placeholder icon

Your image URL is likely not publicly accessible, or exceeds Discord's 256-character URL limit
Follow the Cover Art Setup instructions for your reverse proxy

Audiobookshelf not showing

The script detects playback by comparing the position between polls - it needs two cycles to confirm something is playing, so there may be a brief delay on startup
Make sure ABS_SERVER has no trailing slash

Jellyfin not showing

Paused sessions are intentionally ignored
Check that your JELLYFIN_API_KEY is valid and your server is reachable

Name		Name	Last commit message	Last commit date
Latest commit History 56 Commits
.vscode		.vscode
discord_api		discord_api
discord_connection		discord_connection
media_server_connection		media_server_connection
screenshots		screenshots
.gitignore		.gitignore
Dockerfile		Dockerfile
README.md		README.md
cache_handler.py		cache_handler.py
example.env		example.env
media_rpc.py		media_rpc.py
requirements.txt		requirements.txt

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Discord Media RPC

Runners

script

docker

Features

Requirements

script version

docker version

both

Installation

Docker Compose version

venv version (recommended for non-docker use)

global version (not recommended)

Configuration

Discord Application ID

Discord User Token

Jellyfin API Key

Jellyfin User ID (Required for Privacy)

Audiobookshelf API Token

TMDB API Key (optional, Jellyfin cover fallback)

Library Blacklist (optional)

Gateway

To use the discord gateway instead of rpc, add USE_GATEWAY=true and the Discord Token to the .env

Cover Art Setup

Caddy

Nginx

Apache

Running as a Background Service (Linux)

How It Works

Troubleshooting

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