tag-albums/README.md

Tag albums

Tells Home Assistant which album to play when an RFID card (a Tag) is scanned, and provides a web page to give new cards an album (an Assignment). See CONTEXT.md for the vocabulary.

How it fits together:

1. The ESPHome RFID reader sends tag_scanned to Home Assistant, as before.
2. HA's Play album by tag script calls POST /api/scans. The service records the Scan and answers with the album, or assigned: false.
3. A card the service hasn't seen before becomes an Unassigned tag. It appears on the web page within a few seconds, where you search the Music Assistant library and assign an album.
4. When a card is removed, HA's Stop album by tag script calls GET /api/tags/{tag_id}. It stops the player only if that tag has an album.

API

Both endpoints need Authorization: Bearer <API_TOKEN>.

Endpoint	Purpose
POST /api/scans {"tag_id": "53-13-0B-2A"}	Record a Scan; creates the Tag on first sight. Returns {"tag_id", "assigned": true, "artist", "album"} or {"tag_id", "assigned": false}.
GET /api/tags/{tag_id}	Read-only lookup, same response. 404 if the tag has never been seen.

Tag IDs are normalised to upper case.

The web page (/) has no login: keep the service on the LAN.

Configuration

Environment variables:

Variable	Meaning
API_TOKEN	Shared secret Home Assistant sends in the Authorization header
HA_URL	Home Assistant base URL, e.g. https://ha.home.knbg
HA_TOKEN	HA long-lived access token, used to search the Music Assistant library
DB_PATH	SQLite file (default tag_albums.sqlite3); its directory must be writable

HTTPS to HA is verified against the system trust store, so a home CA must be installed on the host. If it isn't, point SSL_CERT_FILE at the CA bundle.

Development

uv sync
uv run pytest
API_TOKEN=dev HA_URL=https://ha.home.knbg HA_TOKEN=... uv run tag-albums serve --port 8087

Deploying in a FreeBSD jail

pkg install python311 py311-uv git       # or any Python >= 3.11
pw useradd tagalbums -d /nonexistent -s /usr/sbin/nologin
git clone <repo> /usr/local/tag-albums && cd /usr/local/tag-albums && uv sync --no-dev
install -d -o tagalbums /var/db/tag_albums

cat > /usr/local/etc/tag_albums.env <<'EOF'
API_TOKEN=<random, e.g. openssl rand -hex 32>
HA_URL=https://ha.home.knbg
HA_TOKEN=<HA long-lived token>
DB_PATH=/var/db/tag_albums/tag_albums.sqlite3
EOF
chmod 600 /usr/local/etc/tag_albums.env

install -m 755 deploy/rc.d/tag_albums /usr/local/etc/rc.d/tag_albums
sysrc tag_albums_enable=YES
service tag_albums start

Logs go to syslog with the tag tag_albums. The port defaults to 8087 (sysrc tag_albums_port=...).

Importing the old tag_albums.yaml

One time, before switching Home Assistant over:

cd /usr/local/tag-albums
env DB_PATH=/var/db/tag_albums/tag_albums.sqlite3 \
  su -m tagalbums -c '.venv/bin/tag-albums import-yaml /path/to/tag_albums.yaml'

Home Assistant side

These pieces live in the home-assistant-config repo:

• configuration.yaml: two rest_commands, tag_albums_scan and tag_albums_lookup, pointing at http://tag-albums.home.knbg:8087.
• secrets.yaml: tag_albums_auth: "Bearer <API_TOKEN>".
• scripts.yaml: play_album_by_tag and stop_album_by_tag call those commands.

If the service is down, a scan plays nothing and play_album_by_tag writes a warning to the HA log.