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Setup & First Run

This page covers the first run: the setup wizard, importing a Spotify login from your browser and starting monitoring. Examples use the PyPI command spotify_profile_monitor. Manual script users should replace that command with python3 spotify_profile_monitor.py on macOS or Linux, or python spotify_profile_monitor.py on Windows.

Before you start

The easiest path is the interactive wizard:

spotify_profile_monitor --setup

It asks for the target, authentication, polling interval and optional email or webhook alerts. You can review or change each section before saving. Regular settings go to spotify_profile_monitor.conf. Private values go to .env.

For manual setup you need two values:

  1. A Spotify target for the person you want to monitor. The easiest form is the complete profile URL copied from Spotify. A spotify:user: URI or user ID is also accepted. See How to Find a Friend's Spotify Profile URL.
  2. The sp_dc login cookie from the Spotify account used for monitoring. Follow the manual cookie extraction steps and treat this value like a password.

In commands below, <spotify_target> means any accepted profile URL, spotify:user: URI or user ID.

Save the cookie through the hidden prompt:

spotify_profile_monitor --set-sp-dc

The command validates the cookie with Spotify before saving SP_DC_COOKIE to .env. The value is not displayed or placed in shell history. Do not share the generated .env file or commit it to a repository.

Start monitoring profile and playlist changes:

spotify_profile_monitor <spotify_target>

Or if you installed manually:

python3 spotify_profile_monitor.py <spotify_target>

To get the list of all supported command-line arguments / flags:

spotify_profile_monitor --help

Setup Wizard

Run spotify_profile_monitor --setup in an interactive terminal. Press Enter to accept each displayed default. The final setup summary contains no secret values and offers these actions:

  • Save settings.
  • Review or change target, authentication, polling, email, webhook or file destinations.
  • Discard every answer without changing the destination files.

If the selected config file already exists, setup asks before replacement or lets you choose another destination. An approved replacement creates a timestamped .bak copy and validates the new Python config before atomically installing it. A manually entered sp_dc value is validated before it is queued for saving. Setup can then run Doctor and optionally start monitoring.

When you enable email or ntfy alerts, setup offers artwork attachments. If the optional Pillow package is missing it says so and can install the notification-images extra for you, then enables the matching setting only when the install succeeds. Declining keeps the alerts text-only.

Polling intervals accept seconds or readable durations such as 90, 2m, 1.5h or 1h 30m.

Generated Doctor, browser import and monitoring commands use the active Python interpreter. They also carry explicit --config-file and --env-file paths so virtual environments and custom destinations remain intact.

First open Spotify Web Player in the selected browser and sign in to the Spotify account used for monitoring. Then run:

spotify_profile_monitor --import-browser-cookie --browser firefox

Supported sources are Firefox, Chrome, Brave and Chromium. Firefox works on macOS, Linux and Windows without an extra package. Chromium import works on macOS and Linux with the browser extra. If that extra is missing, setup can install it through the active Python interpreter after approval. Current Chromium app-bound encryption prevents reliable import on Windows, so use Firefox there.

The importer discovers browser profiles, lets you choose when several exist, reads only the Spotify sp_dc cookie, validates it through Spotify and updates only SP_DC_COOKIE in the selected dotenv file. Existing dotenv content is preserved. Replacement needs confirmation in an interactive terminal or --force in a noninteractive script.

Useful overrides are --browser-profile PROFILE, --cookie-file PATH and --env-file PATH.

Next Step

Run Doctor before an unattended run to confirm authentication, connectivity and notification settings.

For every configurable setting, see Configuration. For monitoring options, listing commands, notifications and output files, see Usage.