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Spotify

Control Spotify — play music, search the catalog, manage playlists and library, inspect devices and playback state. Loads when the user asks to play/pause/queue music, search tracks/albums/artists, manage playlists, or check what's playing. Assumes the Hermes Spotify toolset is enabled and hermes auth spotify has been run.

Skill metadata​

SourceBundled (installed by default)
Pathskills/media/spotify
Version1.0.0
AuthorHermes Agent
LicenseMIT
Tagsspotify, music, playback, playlists, media
Related skillsgif-search

Reference: full SKILL.md​

info

The following is the complete skill definition that Hermes loads when this skill is triggered. This is what the agent sees as instructions when the skill is active.

Spotify

Control the user's Spotify account via the Hermes Spotify toolset (7 tools). Setup guide: /docs/user-guide/features/spotify

When to use this skill​

The user says something like "play X", "pause", "skip", "queue up X", "what's playing", "search for X", "add to my X playlist", "make a playlist", "save this to my library", etc.

The 7 tools​

  • spotify_playback — play, pause, next, previous, seek, set_repeat, set_shuffle, set_volume, get_state, get_currently_playing, recently_played
  • spotify_devices — list, transfer
  • spotify_queue — get, add
  • spotify_search — search the catalog
  • spotify_playlists — list, get, create, add_items, remove_items, update_details
  • spotify_albums — get, tracks
  • spotify_library — list/save/remove with kind: "tracks"|"albums"

Playback-mutating actions require Spotify Premium; search/library/playlist ops work on Free.

Canonical patterns (minimize tool calls)​

"Play <artist/track/album>"​

One search, then play by URI. Do NOT loop through search results describing them unless the user asked for options.

spotify_search({"query": "miles davis kind of blue", "types": ["album"], "limit": 1})
→ got album URI spotify:album:1weenld61qoidwYuZ1GESA
spotify_playback({"action": "play", "context_uri": "spotify:album:1weenld61qoidwYuZ1GESA"})

For "play some <artist>" (no specific song), prefer types: ["artist"] and play the artist context URI — Spotify handles smart shuffle. If the user says "the song" or "that track", search types: ["track"] and pass uris: [track_uri] to play.

"What's playing?" / "What am I listening to?"​

Single call — don't chain get_state after get_currently_playing.

spotify_playback({"action": "get_currently_playing"})

If it returns 204/empty (is_playing: false), tell the user nothing is playing. Don't retry.

"Pause" / "Skip" / "Volume 50"​

Direct action, no preflight inspection needed.

spotify_playback({"action": "pause"})
spotify_playback({"action": "next"})
spotify_playback({"action": "set_volume", "volume_percent": 50})

"Add to my <playlist name> playlist"​

  1. spotify_playlists list to find the playlist ID by name
  2. Get the track URI (from currently playing, or search)
  3. spotify_playlists add_items with the playlist_id and URIs
spotify_playlists({"action": "list"})
→ found "Late Night Jazz" = 37i9dQZF1DX4wta20PHgwo
spotify_playback({"action": "get_currently_playing"})
→ current track uri = spotify:track:0DiWol3AO6WpXZgp0goxAV
spotify_playlists({"action": "add_items",
                   "playlist_id": "37i9dQZF1DX4wta20PHgwo",
                   "uris": ["spotify:track:0DiWol3AO6WpXZgp0goxAV"]})

"Create a playlist called X and add the last 3 songs I played"​

spotify_playback({"action": "recently_played", "limit": 3})
spotify_playlists({"action": "create", "name": "Focus 2026"})
→ got playlist_id back in response
spotify_playlists({"action": "add_items", "playlist_id": <id>, "uris": [<3 uris>]})

"Save / unsave / is this saved?"​

Use spotify_library with the right kind.

spotify_library({"kind": "tracks", "action": "save", "uris": ["spotify:track:..."]})
spotify_library({"kind": "albums", "action": "list", "limit": 50})

"Transfer playback to my <device>"​

spotify_devices({"action": "list"})
→ pick the device_id by matching name/type
spotify_devices({"action": "transfer", "device_id": "<id>", "play": true})

Critical failure modes​

403 Forbidden — No active device found on any playback action means Spotify isn't running anywhere. Tell the user: "Open Spotify on your phone/desktop/web player first, start any track for a second, then retry." Don't retry the tool call blindly — it will fail the same way. You can call spotify_devices list to confirm; an empty list means no active device.

403 Forbidden — Premium required means the user is on Free and tried to mutate playback. Don't retry; tell them this action needs Premium. Reads still work (search, playlists, library, get_state).

204 No Content on get_currently_playing is NOT an error — it means nothing is playing. The tool returns is_playing: false. Just report that to the user.

429 Too Many Requests = rate limit. Wait and retry once. If it keeps happening, you're looping — stop.

401 Unauthorized after a retry — refresh token revoked. Tell the user to run hermes auth spotify again.

URI and ID formats​

Spotify uses three interchangeable ID formats. The tools accept all three and normalize:

  • URI: spotify:track:0DiWol3AO6WpXZgp0goxAV (preferred)
  • URL: https://open.spotify.com/track/0DiWol3AO6WpXZgp0goxAV
  • Bare ID: 0DiWol3AO6WpXZgp0goxAV

When in doubt, use full URIs. Search results return URIs in the uri field — pass those directly.

Entity types: track, album, artist, playlist, show, episode. Use the right type for the action — spotify_playback.play with a context_uri expects album/playlist/artist; uris expects an array of track URIs.

What NOT to do​

  • Don't call get_state before every action. Spotify accepts play/pause/skip without preflight. Only inspect state when the user asked "what's playing" or you need to reason about device/track.
  • Don't describe search results unless asked. If the user said "play X", search, grab the top URI, play it. They'll hear it's wrong if it's wrong.
  • Don't retry on 403 Premium required or 403 No active device. Those are permanent until user action.
  • Don't use spotify_search to find a playlist by name — that searches the public Spotify catalog. User playlists come from spotify_playlists list.
  • Don't mix kind: "tracks" with album URIs in spotify_library (or vice versa). The tool normalizes IDs but the API endpoint differs.