A community developer has released a small tool that many self-hosters will find handy: nowplaying, a single local service that produces a live README card and Discord Rich Presence for Jellyfin, Plex, Navidrome and Emby. The project follows up on an earlier post asking whether anyone wanted such a tool, and the author has now built it and published version v0.2.1, inviting feedback. The announcement is in the r/jellyfin thread, which points to the project repository.
Who this is for
If you run a media server and spend any time in Discord, this is aimed at you. Two groups benefit most:
- Server owners who like a public dashboard. A README card can show what is playing without you manually updating anything.
- Communities built around a server. Discord Rich Presence makes it visible to friends and members what is currently playing, which is a nice bit of ambient activity for a small group.
Because it supports four backends, the same service covers a mixed setup. That is useful if, like many people, you started on one server and added another over time.
Why it matters
Most self-hosted stacks are assembled from separate pieces, and each integration usually means another container, another config file and another thing to keep updated. A single local service that talks to several media servers and exposes the result to Discord reduces that overhead. It also keeps the integration local rather than routing your listening data through a third-party hosted service, which is the pattern most self-hosters prefer.
Note that the announcement is short on specifics: there is no detail yet on installation, configuration or which server features are supported. Treat v0.2.1 as an early release, read the project documentation before deploying, and expect things to change as feedback comes in.
Commentary for self-hosters
A few practical points before you install anything:
- Run it locally. The author describes it as a local service. Keep it on your own network or behind your existing reverse proxy rather than exposing a new port to the internet.
- Check permissions. Whatever account the service uses to query your media server should be read-only and limited to what it needs.
- Mind what becomes public. A README card and Discord presence both surface viewing activity. If your library is shared with family or friends, make sure everyone is comfortable with that before you turn it on.
- Pin the version. Early projects move fast. Pin v0.2.1 in your compose file and upgrade deliberately rather than tracking the latest commit.
- Keep it legal. This is a tool for your own library, on a server you run and control.
If you are building out your Jellyfin setup alongside this, have a look at our Jellyfin plugins for user registration, cashier and access logging.