kodi-cli

Kodi/XBMC bash script to send Kodi commands using JSON RPC. It also allows sending YouTube videos to Kodi.

Usage

A sample usage would be

kodi-cli -[p|i|s|(y|q) youtube URL/ID|t "text to send"|o "youtube title"]

Please check the Arguments section on how to use the rest of the available options.

Setup

You must either put your Kodi setup (found under "Interfaces") in the first few lines of the script itself, or put a file named .kodirc in your $HOME directory. This file (example provided) contains only four lines in this specific order:

The Kodi Host
The port Kodi listens on (the webserver port)
Username
Password

If you don't want to add your kodi passwword, you might leave the password line empty and instead specify a command invocation in the next line that returns your password on stdout.

The Kodi Host
The port Kodi listens on (the webserver port)
Username

Commannd invocation that returns the password on stdout (e.g. pass mykodibox/kodi)

Arguments

 -p Play/Pause the current played video
 -s Stop the current played video
 -j Skip forward in the current played video by 10 seconds. Use -j <seconds> to specify custom time
 -k Skip backward in the current played video by 10 seconds. Use -k <seconds> to specify custom time
 -y Play youtube video. Use either URL/ID (of video)
 -q Queue youtube video to the current list. Use either URL/ID (of video). Use instead of -y.
 -o Play youtube video directly on Kodi. Use the name of video.
 -v Interactive volume control
 -i Interactive navigation mode. Accept keyboard keys of Up, Down, Left, Right, Back,
    Context menu and information
 -l Play default playlist (most useful after using -q a few times)
 -t 'text to send'
 -r Send text from stdin to kodi
 -u Increment the volume on Kodi
 -d Decrement the volume on Kodi
 -x Mute/Unmute the volume on Kodi
 -f Toggle fullscreen
 -m Update libraries
 -n Clean libraries
 -h Showing this help message

Dependencies

• bash version 4+
• curl
• Kodi

Optional dependencies

• mps-youtube on the machine running Kodi for the -o option to work.

Advanced usage

With the addition of a few other tools, most notably

• youtube-dl
• jq
• zenity
• awk (should be part of your distro).

You can create a dialog to download and sequentially (and with confirmation) play entire playlists - defaulting to your Watch Later playlist - on your Kodi, acting like a kind of remote "casting" program. See the script playlist_to_kodi for an example.