--- name: "beetsconfig" section: "5" platform: "linux" package: "beets" version: "2.2.0-3+deb13u1" release: "Debian 13 (Trixie)" platforms: ["linux"] url: "https://new.carta.tech/beetsconfig" --- # beetsconfig(5) beets configuration file Beets has an extensive configuration system that lets you customize nearly every aspect of its operation. To configure beets, you create a file called config.yaml. The location of the file depends on your platform (type beet config -p to see the path on your system): You can launch your text editor to create or update your configuration by typing beet config -e. (See the config command for details.) It is also possible to customize the location of the configuration file and even use multiple layers of configuration. See Configuration Location, below. The config file uses YAML syntax. You can use the full power of YAML, but most configuration options are simple key/value pairs. This means your config file will look like this: In YAML, you will need to use spaces (not tabs!) to indent some lines. If you have questions about more sophisticated syntax, take a look at the YAML documentation. The rest of this page enumerates the dizzying litany of configuration options available in beets. You might also want to see an example. ## NAME beetsconfig - beets configuration file Beets has an extensive configuration system that lets you customize nearly every aspect of its operation. To configure beets, you create a file called **config.yaml**. The location of the file depends on your platform (type **beet** **config -p** to see the path on your system): - • On Unix-like OSes, write **~/.config/beets/config.yaml**. - • On Windows, use **%APPDATA%\\beets\\config.yaml**. This is usually in a directory like **C:\\Users\\You\\AppData\\Roaming**. - • On OS X, you can use either the Unix location or **~/Library/Application** **Support/beets/config.yaml**. You can launch your text editor to create or update your configuration by typing **beet config -e**. (See the *config* command for details.) It is also possible to customize the location of the configuration file and even use multiple layers of configuration. See *Configuration Location*, below. The config file uses *YAML* syntax. You can use the full power of YAML, but most configuration options are simple key/value pairs. This means your config file will look like this: ``` option: value another_option: foo bigger_option: key: value foo: bar ``` In YAML, you will need to use spaces (not tabs!) to indent some lines. If you have questions about more sophisticated syntax, take a look at the *YAML* documentation. The rest of this page enumerates the dizzying litany of configuration options available in beets. You might also want to see an *example*. - • *Global Options* - • *library* - • *directory* - • *plugins* - • *include* - • *pluginpath* - • *ignore* - • *ignore\_hidden* - • *replace* - • *path\_sep\_replace* - • *asciify\_paths* - • *art\_filename* - • *threaded* - • *format\_item* - • *format\_album* - • *sort\_item* - • *sort\_album* - • *sort\_case\_insensitive* - • *original\_date* - • *overwrite\_null* - • *artist\_credit* - • *per\_disc\_numbering* - • *aunique* - • *sunique* - • *terminal\_encoding* - • *clutter* - • *max\_filename\_length* - • *id3v23* - • *va\_name* - • *UI Options* - • *color* - • *colors* - • *terminal\_width* - • *length\_diff\_thresh* - • *import* - • *Importer Options* - • *write* - • *copy* - • *move* - • *link* - • *hardlink* - • *reflink* - • *resume* - • *incremental* - • *incremental\_skip\_later* - • *from\_scratch* - • *quiet* - • *quiet\_fallback* - • *none\_rec\_action* - • *timid* - • *log* - • *default\_action* - • *languages* - • *ignored\_alias\_types* - • *detail* - • *group\_albums* - • *autotag* - • *duplicate\_keys* - • *duplicate\_action* - • *duplicate\_verbose\_prompt* - • *bell* - • *set\_fields* - • *singleton\_album\_disambig* - • *MusicBrainz Options* - • *enabled* - • *searchlimit* - • *extra\_tags* - • *genres* - • *external\_ids* - • *Autotagger Matching Options* - • *max\_rec* - • *preferred* - • *ignored* - • *required* - • *ignored\_media* - • *ignore\_data\_tracks* - • *ignore\_video\_tracks* - • *Path Format Configuration* - • *Configuration Location* - • *Environment Variable* - • *Command-Line Option* - • *Default Location* - • *Example* ## GLOBAL OPTIONS These options control beets’ global operation. ### library Path to the beets library file. By default, beets will use a file called **library.db** alongside your configuration file. ### directory The directory to which files will be copied/moved when adding them to the library. Defaults to a folder called **Music** in your home directory. ### plugins A space-separated list of plugin module names to load. See *Using Plugins*. ### include A space-separated list of extra configuration files to include. Filenames are relative to the directory containing **config.yaml**. ### pluginpath Directories to search for plugins. Each Python file or directory in a plugin path represents a plugin and should define a subclass of **BeetsPlugin**. A plugin can then be loaded by adding the filename to the *plugins* configuration. The plugin path can either be a single string or a list of strings—so, if you have multiple paths, format them as a YAML list like so: ``` pluginpath: - /path/one - /path/two ``` ### ignore A list of glob patterns specifying file and directory names to be ignored when importing. By default, this consists of **.\***, **\*~**, **System Volume** **Information**, **lost+found** (i.e., beets ignores Unix-style hidden files, backup files, and directories that appears at the root of some Linux and Windows filesystems). ### ignore\_hidden Either **yes** or **no**; whether to ignore hidden files when importing. On Windows, the “Hidden” property of files is used to detect whether or not a file is hidden. On OS X, the file’s “IsHidden” flag is used to detect whether or not a file is hidden. On both OS X and other platforms (excluding Windows), files (and directories) starting with a dot are detected as hidden files. ### replace A set of regular expression/replacement pairs to be applied to all filenames created by beets. Typically, these replacements are used to avoid confusing problems or errors with the filesystem (for example, leading dots, which hide files on Unix, and trailing whitespace, which is illegal on Windows). To override these substitutions, specify a mapping from regular expression to replacement strings. For example, **\[xy\]: z** will make beets replace all instances of the characters **x** or **y** with the character **z**. If you do change this value, be certain that you include at least enough substitutions to avoid causing errors on your operating system. Here are the default substitutions used by beets, which are sufficient to avoid unexpected behavior on all popular platforms: ``` replace: '[\\/]': _ '^\.': _ '[\x00-\x1f]': _ '[<>:"\?\*\|]': _ '\.$': _ '\s+$': '' '^\s+': '' '^-': _ ``` These substitutions remove forward and back slashes, leading dots, and control characters—all of which is a good idea on any OS. The fourth line removes the Windows “reserved characters” (useful even on Unix for compatibility with Windows-influenced network filesystems like Samba). Trailing dots and trailing whitespace, which can cause problems on Windows clients, are also removed. When replacements other than the defaults are used, it is possible that they will increase the length of the path. In the scenario where this leads to a conflict with the maximum filename length, the default replacements will be used to resolve the conflict and beets will display a warning. Note that paths might contain special characters such as typographical quotes (**“”**). With the configuration above, those will not be replaced as they don’t match the typewriter quote (**"**). To also strip these special characters, you can either add them to the replacement list or use the *asciify\_paths* configuration option below. ### path\_sep\_replace A string that replaces the path separator (for example, the forward slash **/** on Linux and MacOS, and the backward slash **\\\\** on Windows) when generating filenames with beets. This option is related to *replace*, but is distinct from it for technical reasons. **WARNING:** Changing this option is potentially dangerous. For example, setting it to the actual path separator could create directories in unexpected locations. Use caution when changing it and always try it out on a small number of files before applying it to your whole library. Default: **\_**. ### asciify\_paths Convert all non-ASCII characters in paths to ASCII equivalents. For example, if your path template for singletons is **singletons/$title** and the title of a track is “Café”, then the track will be saved as **singletons/Cafe.mp3**. The changes take place before applying the *replace* configuration and are roughly equivalent to wrapping all your path templates in the **%asciify{}** *template function*. This uses the *unidecode module* which is language agnostic, so some characters may be transliterated from a different language than expected. For example, Japanese kanji will usually use their Chinese readings. Default: **no**. ### art\_filename When importing album art, the name of the file (without extension) where the cover art image should be placed. This is a template string, so you can use any of the syntax available to *Path Formats*. Defaults to **cover** (i.e., images will be named **cover.jpg** or **cover.png** and placed in the album’s directory). ### threaded Either **yes** or **no**, indicating whether the autotagger should use multiple threads. This makes things substantially faster by overlapping work: for example, it can copy files for one album in parallel with looking up data in MusicBrainz for a different album. You may want to disable this when debugging problems with the autotagger. Defaults to **yes**. ### format\_item Format to use when listing *individual items* with the *list* command and other commands that need to print out items. Defaults to **$artist - $album - $title**. The **-f** command-line option overrides this setting. It used to be named *list\_format\_item*. ### format\_album Format to use when listing *albums* with *list* and other commands. Defaults to **$albumartist - $album**. The **-f** command-line option overrides this setting. It used to be named *list\_format\_album*. ### sort\_item Default sort order to use when fetching items from the database. Defaults to **artist+ album+ disc+ track+**. Explicit sort orders override this default. ### sort\_album Default sort order to use when fetching albums from the database. Defaults to **albumartist+ album+**. Explicit sort orders override this default. ### sort\_case\_insensitive Either **yes** or **no**, indicating whether the case should be ignored when sorting lexicographic fields. When set to **no**, lower-case values will be placed after upper-case values (e.g., *Bar Qux foo*), while **yes** would result in the more expected *Bar foo Qux*. Default: **yes**. ### original\_date Either **yes** or **no**, indicating whether matched albums should have their **year**, **month**, and **day** fields set to the release date of the *original* version of an album rather than the selected version of the release. That is, if this option is turned on, then **year** will always equal **original\_year** and so on. Default: **no**. ### overwrite\_null This confusingly-named option indicates which fields have meaningful *null* values. If an album or track field is in the corresponding list, then an existing value for this field in an item in the database can be overwritten with *null*. By default, however, *null* is interpreted as information about the field being unavailable, so it would not overwrite existing values. For example: ``` overwrite_null: album: ["albumid"] track: ["title", "date"] ``` ### artist\_credit Either **yes** or **no**, indicating whether matched tracks and albums should use the artist credit, rather than the artist. That is, if this option is turned on, then **artist** will contain the artist as credited on the release. ### per\_disc\_numbering A boolean controlling the track numbering style on multi-disc releases. By default (**per\_disc\_numbering: no**), tracks are numbered per-release, so the first track on the second disc has track number N+1 where N is the number of tracks on the first disc. If this **per\_disc\_numbering** is enabled, then the first (non-pregap) track on each disc always has track number 1. If you enable **per\_disc\_numbering**, you will likely want to change your *Path Format Configuration* also to include **$disc** before **$track** to make filenames sort correctly in album directories. For example, you might want to use a path format like this: ``` paths: default: $albumartist/$album%aunique{}/$disc-$track $title ``` When this option is off (the default), even “pregap” hidden tracks are numbered from one, not zero, so other track numbers may appear to be bumped up by one. When it is on, the pregap track for each disc can be numbered zero. ### aunique These options are used to generate a string that is guaranteed to be unique among all albums in the library who share the same set of keys. The defaults look like this: ``` aunique: keys: albumartist album disambiguators: albumtype year label catalognum albumdisambig releasegroupdisambig bracket: '[]' ``` See *Album Disambiguation* for more details. ### sunique Like *aunique* above for albums, these options control the generation of a unique string to disambiguate *singletons* that share similar metadata. The defaults look like this: ``` sunique: keys: artist title disambiguators: year trackdisambig bracket: '[]' ``` See *Singleton Disambiguation* for more details. ### terminal\_encoding The text encoding, as *known to Python*, to use for messages printed to the standard output. It’s also used to read messages from the standard input. By default, this is determined automatically from the locale environment variables. ### clutter When beets imports all the files in a directory, it tries to remove the directory if it’s empty. A directory is considered empty if it only contains files whose names match the glob patterns in *clutter*, which should be a list of strings. The default list consists of “Thumbs.DB” and “.DS\_Store”. The importer only removes recursively searched subdirectories—the top-level directory you specify on the command line is never deleted. ### max\_filename\_length Set the maximum number of characters in a filename, after which names will be truncated. By default, beets tries to ask the filesystem for the correct maximum. ### id3v23 By default, beets writes MP3 tags using the ID3v2.4 standard, the latest version of ID3. Enable this option to instead use the older ID3v2.3 standard, which is preferred by certain older software such as Windows Media Player. ### va\_name Sets the albumartist for various-artist compilations. Defaults to **'Various** **Artists'** (the MusicBrainz standard). Affects other sources, such as *Discogs Plugin*, too. ## UI OPTIONS The options that allow for customization of the visual appearance of the console interface. These options are available in this section: ### color Either **yes** or **no**; whether to use color in console output (currently only in the **import** command). Turn this off if your terminal doesn’t support ANSI colors. **NOTE:** The *color* option was previously a top-level configuration. This is still respected, but a deprecation message will be shown until your top-level *color* configuration has been nested under *ui*. ### colors The colors that are used throughout the user interface. These are only used if the **color** option is set to **yes**. For example, you might have a section in your configuration file that looks like this: ``` ui: colors: text_success: ['bold', 'green'] text_warning: ['bold', 'yellow'] text_error: ['bold', 'red'] text_highlight: ['bold', 'red'] text_highlight_minor: ['white'] action_default: ['bold', 'cyan'] action: ['bold', 'cyan'] # New colors after UI overhaul text: ['normal'] text_faint: ['faint'] import_path: ['bold', 'blue'] import_path_items: ['bold', 'blue'] added: ['green'] removed: ['red'] changed: ['yellow'] added_highlight: ['bold', 'green'] removed_highlight: ['bold', 'red'] changed_highlight: ['bold', 'yellow'] text_diff_added: ['bold', 'red'] text_diff_removed: ['bold', 'red'] text_diff_changed: ['bold', 'red'] action_description: ['white'] ``` Available colors: black, darkred, darkgreen, brown (darkyellow), darkblue, purple (darkmagenta), teal (darkcyan), lightgray, darkgray, red, green, yellow, blue, fuchsia (magenta), turquoise (cyan), white Legacy UI colors config directive used strings. If any colors value is still a string instead of a list, it will be translated to list automatically. For example **blue** will become **\['blue'\]**. ### terminal\_width Controls line wrapping on non-Unix systems. On Unix systems, the width of the terminal is detected automatically. If this fails, or on non-Unix systems, the specified value is used as a fallback. Defaults to **80** characters: ``` ui: terminal_width: 80 ``` ### length\_diff\_thresh Beets compares the length of the imported track with the length the metadata source provides. If any tracks differ by at least **length\_diff\_thresh** seconds, they will be colored with **text\_highlight**. Below this threshold, different track lengths are colored with **text\_highlight\_minor**. **length\_diff\_thresh** does not impact which releases are selected in autotagger matching or distance score calculation (see *Autotagger Matching Options*, **distance\_weights** and *colors*): ``` ui: length_diff_thresh: 10.0 ``` ### import When importing, beets will read several options to configure the visuals of the import dialogue. There are two layouts controlling how horizontal space and line wrapping is dealt with: **column** and **newline**. The indentation of the respective elements of the import UI can also be configured. For example setting **4** for **match\_header** will indent the very first block of a proposed match by five characters in the terminal: ``` ui: import: indentation: match_header: 4 match_details: 4 match_tracklist: 7 layout: newline ``` ## IMPORTER OPTIONS The options that control the *import* command are indented under the **import:** key. For example, you might have a section in your configuration file that looks like this: ``` import: write: yes copy: yes resume: no ``` These options are available in this section: ### write Either **yes** or **no**, controlling whether metadata (e.g., ID3) tags are written to files when using **beet import**. Defaults to **yes**. The **-w** and **-W** command-line options override this setting. ### copy Either **yes** or **no**, indicating whether to **copy** files into the library directory when using **beet import**. Defaults to **yes**. Can be overridden with the **-c** and **-C** command-line options. The option is ignored if **move** is enabled (i.e., beets can move or copy files but it doesn’t make sense to do both). ### move Either **yes** or **no**, indicating whether to **move** files into the library directory when using **beet import**. Defaults to **no**. The effect is similar to the **copy** option but you end up with only one copy of the imported file. (“Moving” works even across filesystems; if necessary, beets will copy and then delete when a simple rename is impossible.) Moving files can be risky—it’s a good idea to keep a backup in case beets doesn’t do what you expect with your files. This option *overrides* **copy**, so enabling it will always move (and not copy) files. The **-c** switch to the **beet import** command, however, still takes precedence. ### link Either **yes** or **no**, indicating whether to use symbolic links instead of moving or copying files. (It conflicts with the **move**, **copy** and **hardlink** options.) Defaults to **no**. This option only works on platforms that support symbolic links: i.e., Unixes. It will fail on Windows. It’s likely that you’ll also want to set **write** to **no** if you use this option to preserve the metadata on the linked files. ### hardlink Either **yes** or **no**, indicating whether to use hard links instead of moving, copying, or symlinking files. (It conflicts with the **move**, **copy**, and **link** options.) Defaults to **no**. As with symbolic links (see *link*, above), this will not work on Windows and you will want to set **write** to **no**. Otherwise, metadata on the original file will be modified. ### reflink Either **yes**, **no**, or **auto**, indicating whether to use copy-on-write *file clones* (a.k.a. “reflinks”) instead of copying or moving files. The **auto** option uses reflinks when possible and falls back to plain copying when necessary. Defaults to **no**. This kind of clone is only available on certain filesystems: for example, btrfs and APFS. For more details on filesystem support, see the *pyreflink* documentation. Note that you need to install **pyreflink**, either through **python -m pip install beets\[reflink\]** or **python -m pip install reflink**. The option is ignored if **move** is enabled (i.e., beets can move or copy files but it doesn’t make sense to do both). ### resume Either **yes**, **no**, or **ask**. Controls whether interrupted imports should be resumed. “Yes” means that imports are always resumed when possible; “no” means resuming is disabled entirely; “ask” (the default) means that the user should be prompted when resuming is possible. The **-p** and **-P** flags correspond to the “yes” and “no” settings and override this option. ### incremental Either **yes** or **no**, controlling whether imported directories are recorded and whether these recorded directories are skipped. This corresponds to the **-i** flag to **beet import**. ### incremental\_skip\_later Either **yes** or **no**, controlling whether skipped directories are recorded in the incremental list. When set to **yes**, skipped directories won’t be recorded, and beets will try to import them again later. When set to **no**, skipped directories will be recorded, and skipped later. Defaults to **no**. ### from\_scratch Either **yes** or **no** (default), controlling whether existing metadata is discarded when a match is applied. This corresponds to the **--from-scratch** flag to **beet import**. ### quiet Either **yes** or **no** (default), controlling whether to ask for a manual decision from the user when the importer is unsure how to proceed. This corresponds to the **--quiet** flag to **beet import**. ### quiet\_fallback Either **skip** (default) or **asis**, specifying what should happen in quiet mode (see the **-q** flag to **import**, above) when there is no strong recommendation. ### none\_rec\_action Either **ask** (default), **asis** or **skip**. Specifies what should happen during an interactive import session when there is no recommendation. Useful when you are only interested in processing medium and strong recommendations interactively. ### timid Either **yes** or **no**, controlling whether the importer runs in *timid* mode, in which it asks for confirmation on every autotagging match, even the ones that seem very close. Defaults to **no**. The **-t** command-line flag controls the same setting. ### log Specifies a filename where the importer’s log should be kept. By default, no log is written. This can be overridden with the **-l** flag to **import**. ### default\_action One of **apply**, **skip**, **asis**, or **none**, indicating which option should be the *default* when selecting an action for a given match. This is the action that will be taken when you type return without an option letter. The default is **apply**. ### languages A list of locale names to search for preferred aliases. For example, setting this to **en** uses the transliterated artist name “Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky” instead of the Cyrillic script for the composer’s name when tagging from MusicBrainz. You can use a space-separated list of language abbreviations, like **en jp es**, to specify a preference order. Defaults to an empty list, meaning that no language is preferred. ### ignored\_alias\_types A list of alias types to be ignored when importing new items. See the *MusicBrainz Documentation* for more information on aliases. ..\_MusicBrainz Documentation: *https://musicbrainz.org/doc/Aliases* ### detail Whether the importer UI should show detailed information about each match it finds. When enabled, this mode prints out the title of every track, regardless of whether it matches the original metadata. (The default behavior only shows changes.) Default: **no**. ### group\_albums By default, the beets importer groups tracks into albums based on the directories they reside in. This option instead uses files’ metadata to partition albums. Enable this option if you have directories that contain tracks from many albums mixed together. The **--group-albums** or **-g** option to the *import* command is equivalent, and the *G* interactive option invokes the same workflow. Default: **no**. ### autotag By default, the beets importer always attempts to autotag new music. If most of your collection consists of obscure music, you may be interested in disabling autotagging by setting this option to **no**. (You can re-enable it with the **-a** flag to the *import* command.) Default: **yes**. ### duplicate\_keys The fields used to find duplicates when importing. There are two sub-values here: **album** and **item**. Each one is a list of field names; if an existing object (album or item) in the library matches the new object on all of these fields, the importer will consider it a duplicate. Default: ``` album: albumartist album item: artist title ``` ### duplicate\_action Either **skip**, **keep**, **remove**, **merge** or **ask**. Controls how duplicates are treated in import task. “skip” means that new item(album or track) will be skipped; “keep” means keep both old and new items; “remove” means remove old item; “merge” means merge into one album; “ask” means the user should be prompted for the action each time. The default is **ask**. ### duplicate\_verbose\_prompt Usually when duplicates are detected during import, information about the existing and the newly imported album is summarized. Enabling this option also lists details on individual tracks. The *format\_item setting* is applied, which would, considering the default, look like this: ``` This item is already in the library! Old: 1 items, MP3, 320kbps, 5:56, 13.6 MiB Artist Name - Album Name - Third Track Title New: 2 items, MP3, 320kbps, 7:18, 17.1 MiB Artist Name - Album Name - First Track Title Artist Name - Album Name - Second Track Title [S]kip new, Keep all, Remove old, Merge all? ``` Default: **no**. ### bell Ring the terminal bell to get your attention when the importer needs your input. Default: **no**. ### set\_fields A dictionary indicating fields to set to values for newly imported music. Here’s an example: ``` set_fields: genre: 'To Listen' collection: 'Unordered' ``` Other field/value pairs supplied via the **--set** option on the command-line override any settings here for fields with the same name. Values support the same template syntax as beets’ *path formats*. Fields are set on both the album and each individual track of the album. Fields are persisted to the media files of each track. Default: **{}** (empty). ### singleton\_album\_disambig During singleton imports and if the metadata source provides it, album names are appended to the disambiguation string of matching track candidates. For example: **The Artist - The Title (Discogs, Index 3, Track B1, \[The Album\]**. This feature is currently supported by the *Discogs Plugin* and the *Spotify Plugin*. Default: **yes**. ## MUSICBRAINZ OPTIONS You can instruct beets to use *your own MusicBrainz database* instead of the *main server*. Use the **host**, **https** and **ratelimit** options under a **musicbrainz:** header, like so: ``` musicbrainz: host: localhost:5000 https: no ratelimit: 100 ``` The **host** key, of course, controls the Web server hostname (and port, optionally) that will be contacted by beets (default: musicbrainz.org). The **https** key makes the client use HTTPS instead of HTTP. This setting applies only to custom servers. The official MusicBrainz server always uses HTTPS. (Default: no.) The server must have search indices enabled (see *Building search indexes*). The **ratelimit** option, an integer, controls the number of Web service requests per second (default: 1). **Do not change the rate limit setting** if you’re using the main MusicBrainz server—on this public server, you’re *limited* to one request per second. ### enabled This option allows you to disable using MusicBrainz as a metadata source. This applies if you use plugins that fetch data from alternative sources and should make the import process quicker. Default: **yes**. ### searchlimit The number of matches returned when sending search queries to the MusicBrainz server. Default: **5**. ### extra\_tags By default, beets will use only the artist, album, and track count to query MusicBrainz. Additional tags to be queried can be supplied with the **extra\_tags** setting. For example: ``` musicbrainz: extra_tags: [year, catalognum, country, media, label] ``` This setting should improve the autotagger results if the metadata with the given tags match the metadata returned by MusicBrainz. Note that the only tags supported by this setting are the ones listed in the above example. Default: **\[\]** ### genres Use MusicBrainz genre tags to populate (and replace if it’s already set) the **genre** tag. This will make it a list of all the genres tagged for the release and the release-group on MusicBrainz, separated by “; “ and sorted by the total number of votes. Default: **no** ### external\_ids Set any of the **external\_ids** options to **yes** to enable the MusicBrainz importer to look for links to related metadata sources. If such a link is available the release ID will be extracted from the URL provided and imported to the beets library: ``` musicbrainz: external_ids: discogs: yes spotify: yes bandcamp: yes beatport: yes deezer: yes tidal: yes ``` The library fields of the corresponding *Autotagger Extensions* are used to save the data (**discogs\_albumid**, **bandcamp\_album\_id**, **spotify\_album\_id**, **beatport\_album\_id**, **deezer\_album\_id**, **tidal\_album\_id**). On re-imports existing data will be overwritten. The default of all options is **no**. ## AUTOTAGGER MATCHING OPTIONS You can configure some aspects of the logic beets uses when automatically matching MusicBrainz results under the **match:** section. To control how *tolerant* the autotagger is of differences, use the **strong\_rec\_thresh** option, which reflects the distance threshold below which beets will make a “strong recommendation” that the metadata be used. Strong recommendations are accepted automatically (except in “timid” mode), so you can use this to make beets ask your opinion more or less often. The threshold is a *distance* value between 0.0 and 1.0, so you can think of it as the opposite of a *similarity* value. For example, if you want to automatically accept any matches above 90% similarity, use: ``` match: strong_rec_thresh: 0.10 ``` The default strong recommendation threshold is 0.04. The **medium\_rec\_thresh** and **rec\_gap\_thresh** options work similarly. When a match is below the *medium* recommendation threshold or the distance between it and the next-best match is above the *gap* threshold, the importer will suggest that match but not automatically confirm it. Otherwise, you’ll see a list of options to choose from. ### max\_rec As mentioned above, autotagger matches have *recommendations* that control how the UI behaves for a certain quality of match. The recommendation for a certain match is based on the overall distance calculation. But you can also control the recommendation when a specific distance penalty is applied by defining *maximum* recommendations for each field: To define maxima, use keys under **max\_rec:** in the **match** section. The defaults are “medium” for missing and unmatched tracks and “strong” (i.e., no maximum) for everything else: ``` match: max_rec: missing_tracks: medium unmatched_tracks: medium ``` If a recommendation is higher than the configured maximum and the indicated penalty is applied, the recommendation is downgraded. The setting for each field can be one of **none**, **low**, **medium** or **strong**. When the maximum recommendation is **strong**, no “downgrading” occurs. The available penalty names here are: - • source - • artist - • album - • media - • mediums - • year - • country - • label - • catalognum - • albumdisambig - • album\_id - • tracks - • missing\_tracks - • unmatched\_tracks - • track\_title - • track\_artist - • track\_index - • track\_length - • track\_id ### preferred In addition to comparing the tagged metadata with the match metadata for similarity, you can also specify an ordered list of preferred countries and media types. A distance penalty will be applied if the country or media type from the match metadata doesn’t match. The specified values are preferred in descending order (i.e., the first item will be most preferred). Each item may be a regular expression, and will be matched case insensitively. The number of media will be stripped when matching preferred media (e.g. “2x” in “2xCD”). You can also tell the autotagger to prefer matches that have a release year closest to the original year for an album. Here’s an example: ``` match: preferred: countries: ['US', 'GB|UK'] media: ['CD', 'Digital Media|File'] original_year: yes ``` By default, none of these options are enabled. ### ignored You can completely avoid matches that have certain penalties applied by adding the penalty name to the **ignored** setting: ``` match: ignored: missing_tracks unmatched_tracks ``` The available penalties are the same as those for the *max\_rec* setting. For example, setting **ignored: missing\_tracks** will skip any album matches where your audio files are missing some of the tracks. The importer will not attempt to display these matches. It does not ignore the fact that the album is missing tracks, which would allow these matches to apply more easily. To do that, you’ll want to adjust the penalty for missing tracks. ### required You can avoid matches that lack certain required information. Add the tags you want to enforce to the **required** setting: ``` match: required: year label catalognum country ``` No tags are required by default. ### ignored\_media A list of media (i.e., formats) in metadata databases to ignore when matching music. You can use this to ignore all media that usually contain video instead of audio, for example: ``` match: ignored_media: ['Data CD', 'DVD', 'DVD-Video', 'Blu-ray', 'HD-DVD', 'VCD', 'SVCD', 'UMD', 'VHS'] ``` No formats are ignored by default. ### ignore\_data\_tracks By default, audio files contained in data tracks within a release are included in the album’s tracklist. If you want them to be included, set it **no**. Default: **yes**. ### ignore\_video\_tracks By default, video tracks within a release will be ignored. If you want them to be included (for example if you would like to track the audio-only versions of the video tracks), set it to **no**. Default: **yes**. ## PATH FORMAT CONFIGURATION You can also configure the directory hierarchy beets uses to store music. These settings appear under the **paths:** key. Each string is a template string that can refer to metadata fields like **$artist** or **$title**. The filename extension is added automatically. At the moment, you can specify three special paths: **default** for most releases, **comp** for “various artist” releases with no dominant artist, and **singleton** for non-album tracks. The defaults look like this: ``` paths: default: $albumartist/$album%aunique{}/$track $title singleton: Non-Album/$artist/$title comp: Compilations/$album%aunique{}/$track $title ``` Note the use of **$albumartist** instead of **$artist**; this ensures that albums will be well-organized. For more about these format strings, see *Path Formats*. The **aunique{}** function ensures that identically-named albums are placed in different directories; see *Album Disambiguation* for details. In addition to **default**, **comp**, and **singleton**, you can condition path queries based on beets queries (see *Queries*). This means that a config file like this: ``` paths: albumtype:soundtrack: Soundtracks/$album/$track $title ``` will place soundtrack albums in a separate directory. The queries are tested in the order they appear in the configuration file, meaning that if an item matches multiple queries, beets will use the path format for the *first* matching query. Note that the special **singleton** and **comp** path format conditions are, in fact, just shorthand for the explicit queries **singleton:true** and **comp:true**. In contrast, **default** is special and has no query equivalent: the **default** format is only used if no queries match. ## CONFIGURATION LOCATION The beets configuration file is usually located in a standard location that depends on your OS, but there are a couple of ways you can tell beets where to look. ### Environment Variable First, you can set the **BEETSDIR** environment variable to a directory containing a **config.yaml** file. This replaces your configuration in the default location. This also affects where auxiliary files, like the library database, are stored by default (that’s where relative paths are resolved to). This environment variable is useful if you need to manage multiple beets libraries with separate configurations. ### Command-Line Option Alternatively, you can use the **--config** command-line option to indicate a YAML file containing options that will then be merged with your existing options (from **BEETSDIR** or the default locations). This is useful if you want to keep your configuration mostly the same but modify a few options as a batch. For example, you might have different strategies for importing files, each with a different set of importer options. ### Default Location In the absence of a **BEETSDIR** variable, beets searches a few places for your configuration, depending on the platform: - • On Unix platforms, including OS X:**~/.config/beets** and then **$XDG\_CONFIG\_DIR/beets**, if the environment variable is set. - • On OS X, we also search **~/Library/Application Support/beets** before the Unixy locations. - • On Windows: **~\\AppData\\Roaming\\beets**, and then **%APPDATA%\\beets**, if the environment variable is set. Beets uses the first directory in your platform’s list that contains **config.yaml**. If no config file exists, the last path in the list is used. ## EXAMPLE Here’s an example file: ``` directory: /var/mp3 import: copy: yes write: yes log: beetslog.txt art_filename: albumart plugins: bpd pluginpath: ~/beets/myplugins ui: color: yes paths: default: $genre/$albumartist/$album/$track $title singleton: Singletons/$artist - $title comp: $genre/$album/$track $title albumtype:soundtrack: Soundtracks/$album/$track $title ``` ## SEE ALSO **https://beets.readthedocs.org/** **[beet(1)](/beet/1.md)** ## AUTHOR Adrian Sampson ## COPYRIGHT 2016, Adrian Sampson