Audio play/pause keybind for i3wm and pipewire, tested with Spotify, Strawberry, and Firefox

config

# usage: place in ~/.i3/config

bindsym XF86AudioPrev exec playerctl previous
bindsym XF86AudioNext exec playerctl next
bindsym XF86AudioPlay exec playerctl -p "$(~/.local/bin/get-player-name)" play-pause
bindsym XF86AudioStop exec playerctl -p "$(~/.local/bin/get-player-name)" pause
bindsym Mod4+F5 exec playerctl previous
bindsym Mod4+F6 exec playerctl next
bindsym Mod4+F7 exec playerctl -p "$(~/.local/bin/get-player-name)" play-pause
bindsym Mod4+F8 exec playerctl -p "$(~/.local/bin/get-player-name)" stop
bindsym Mod4+Home exec playerctl previous
bindsym Mod4+End exec playerctl next
bindsym Mod4+Next exec playerctl -p "$(~/.local/bin/get-player-name)" play-pause

get-active-pipewire-stream.sh

#!/bin/bash

# purpose: query pipewire for application name that is actively playing audio
# usage: symlink file to ~/.local/share/bin/get-active-player

pw-dump | jq -r '
  .[] |
  select((.type//"") | test("Node")) |
  ( .info?.props // .props // {} ) as $p |
  ($p["media.class"] // "") as $mc |
  select($mc | test("Stream/Output/Audio|Audio/Stream/Output|Output/Audio|Audio/Output")) |
  .id
' | while read -r id; do
  out=$(pw-cli info "$id" 2>/dev/null) || continue
  state=$(printf '%s\n' "$out" | sed -n 's/.*state: *"\([^"]*\)".*/\1/p')
  [ "$state" != "running" ] && continue
  app=$(printf '%s\n' "$out" \
    | sed -n -e 's/.*application.name = *"\([^"]*\)".*/\1/p' \
          -e 's/.*application.process.binary = *"\([^"]*\)".*/\1/p' \
          -e 's/.*media.name = *"\([^"]*\)".*/\1/p' \
    | head -n1 \
  )
  printf '%s\n' "${app:-unknown}"
done

get-player-name.sh

#!/bin/bash -a

# logic flow: 
# 1. call other script
# 2. return active player name and cache it in a state file, if successful response
# 3. otherwise, return player name from cache/state file, if set
# 4. otherwise, return 'unknown'

# usage:
# - symlink file to ~/.local/share/bin/get-player
# - create ~/.local/state directory if needed

_STATE="$HOME/.local/state/player"
test -f "$_STATE" && read _CACHE < "$_STATE"

read -a _PLAYERS < <(
  "$HOME/.local/bin/get-active-player-name" |
    tr '[:upper:]' '[:lower:]'
)
_PLAYER="${_PLAYERS[0]}"

if [ -n "$_PLAYER" ]; then
  if [[ "$_PLAYER" = 'unknown' && -z "$_CACHE" ]]; then
    echo -n "$_PLAYER" >&2
  elif [[ "$_PLAYER" != 'unknown' || -z "$_CACHE" ]]; then
    [ "$_PLAYER" = 'firefox' ] &&
      _PLAYER="$(playerctl -l | grep $_PLAYER)"
    echo -n "$_PLAYER" | tee "$_STATE"
  fi
elif [[ -z "$_PLAYER" || -n "$_CACHE" ]]; then
    cat "$_STATE"
else
  printf 'unknown' >&2
fi