Layout

On a terminal at least 88 columns wide the track view splits: the cover, metadata, visualizer and progress bar keep a column on the left, and the space that would otherwise sit empty becomes a list.

side_pane = "queue"           # off | queue | library

This is the shape cmus and spotify-tui use — the browser beside the player rather than under it.

j, k and enter act on the side pane while it is showing, since the player column has nothing to select. Below 88 columns it collapses back to a single centred column on its own.

How the column is sized

The player pane takes a share of the terminal up to a cap. Its contents fill the pane rather than being tied to the cover’s width, so the title and progress bar get the room even though the artwork cannot grow past its row cap — and the cover is centred over them.

The visualizer

visualizer_mode = "bars"      # bars | braille | off
visualizer_height = 6
visualizer_bar_width = 2

Braille packs four levels into each cell, so it reads as smoother at the same height. off reclaims the rows for the rest of the layout.

The spectrum is a real FFT over the PipeWire sink monitor, which means it captures everything the machine is playing, not just ytkew. That is how cava behaves too.