The bridge to everything else.
MBXHub transforms your media library into a network-accessible exchange service. Control or access it from any device on your local network. Integrate with other systems using standard HTTP/REST and WebSocket protocols.
A MusicBee plugin with a companion desktop Shell, MBXHub brings together a browser-based media hub, device controls, automation and an API. Browse, play, search and manage your queue from a phone, tablet or desktop — no cloud, internet connection or account required.
Prerelease — v0.5.x.x (release candidate). MBXHub is under active development. The standing rule: every build should be better than the last.
This repository contains the Charms SDK documentation, integration examples and companion works. SDK documentation lives in the root-level MBXHUB-SDK/ folder; examples live in samples/. Hub releases live at mbxhub.com.
| Product | What it does |
|---|---|
| Web application | Browse, play, search and manage the queue from your phone, tablet or desktop. The Now Playing dashboard includes artwork, ratings, reactions and playback controls. |
| AutoQ — Music Mood Classification | Use Truedat to scan your library's musical properties. Build stations influenced by your tastes, with queue selection based on mood, reactions, audio features and diversity. |
| Listen Here — Streamer | Play through your normal speakers or stream selected music to the device in your hand. |
| ARiA — Automated Remote Input | Send keyboard and mouse input to the host, launch applications, trigger hotkeys and run macros with DuckyScript syntax. |
| Charms — Application Host and Device Proxy | Bring mini web apps and device controls onto the dashboard. Control volume, sources and configuration on supported WiiM and Fosi devices; Devialet devices are identified on the network. |
| REST / WebSockets | Integrate through the REST and MusicBee APIs, with push events for playback, queue changes, artwork and reactions. |
The desktop Shell adds a customizable HUD for browsing, playback and the queue, plus a system-tray application and Windows media controls through SMTC. It can target different MBXHub instances on the network and reconnect after an interruption.
Clients discover MBXHub through SSDP / WS-Discovery. Bring your own HTML web app to build a player UI against the API, or use Party Mode for QR-code joining, song requests and reactions.
See the feature overview and AutoQ audio features for details.
Once the plugin is installed in MusicBee:
- Open the dashboard — Tools → MBXHub → Dashboard. The Now Playing dashboard and built-in pages work right away on this PC; nothing else needed to get going.
- Open network access so phones and other devices can reach it — Tools → MBXHub → Settings → Firewall (Step 4 of the install guide). This also confirms the port MBXHub is using.
- Connect other devices — scan the QR code on the dashboard, once the firewall is open.
MBXHub uses port 8080 by default. Ports are claimed as an even pair — the REST API on the even port, the Shell's own listener on the odd one above it — so a first run that finds 8080/8081 taken steps to 8082/8083, and so on up to 8098/8099. Port 80 is never picked automatically: it needs a URL-ACL reservation, so set it by hand for intentional production use. You can set it to 80 or any other port you like. The current port is shown in MBXHub Settings (Tools → MBXHub → Settings, or Preferences → Plugins → Configure).
MBXHub serves its own documentation. With the hub reachable at http://<hub>/:
| Endpoint | What |
|---|---|
http://<hub>/docs |
Full REST API reference |
http://<hub>/changelog |
Release notes |
http://<hub>/llms.txt |
Machine-readable API summary |
Project site: mbxhub.com
- Windows 10 or later
- MusicBee 3.x
- .NET Framework 4.8 for the plugin
- .NET 8.0 Desktop Runtime for the MBXHub Shell
Writing an extension? Start at the SDK index.
| Documentation | What it covers |
|---|---|
| Integration guide | Choose an integration kind and follow the registration flow. |
| Charms SDK reference | Manifest fields, capabilities, credential lifecycle and implementation limits. |
| Browser reference | Generated HTML version of the SDK reference. |
| Examples | Sample selection, setup and requirements. |
For documentation changes, see SDK maintenance. Run ./build-charms-sdk.ps1 from this repository root to regenerate the reference, then ./build-charms-sdk.ps1 -Check to verify it (PowerShell 7 required).
Examples live in samples/: three introductory charms, one per kind — a page, a program on the machine, and a service somewhere else — plus a desktop app, Spout video, a browser control, a Lyrion Music Server plugin, an MCP server, and prompt recipes. They use MBXHub's public interfaces without the hub's source. Each README lists its requirements; the Spout sample also needs the sibling mbxspout checkout and its built DLL.
MBXHub is built by HALRAD Research.
© 2026 HALRAD Research · haro@halrad.com