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Jellyfin & Emby integration for Gladys Assistant

Jellyfin & Emby integration for Gladys Assistant

Control your Jellyfin and Emby players, see what is playing and react to it in scenes.

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Control the players of your Jellyfin or Emby server from Gladys, see what is being watched around the house, and run scenes when playback starts, pauses or stops — the classic "dim the lights when the movie starts".

Works with Jellyfin 10.9 and later (checked on 10.11 and 12.1) and with Emby (checked on 4.10). The integration detects which server it talks to.

Setup​

  1. Create an API key for Gladys on your server:
    • Jellyfin: Dashboard > API Keys > +, name it "Gladys";
    • Emby: Settings > Advanced > API Keys > New API Key.
  2. In the Configuration tab of the integration, fill in:
    • the server URL, port included (for example http://192.168.1.20:8096). An https address behind a reverse proxy works too; you may paste the address from your browser, /web/... is removed automatically;
    • the API key created in step 1.
  3. Save, then click Test the connection.
  4. The devices show up in the Discovery tab.

A player (TV app, phone, browser) only shows up while it is connected to the server: open the app on the TV, then click Look for players. A player you added stays in Gladys even when it is off.

What you get​

The server: number of active playbacks, number of transcoded playbacks (the ones that load the CPU), a "who watches what, where" summary, and one counter per library (plus episodes for TV shows and tracks for music). The counters can be turned off in the configuration.

Each player: play, pause, stop, previous, next, rewind, forward, volume, mute, playback state, now playing title, remaining time, and two "in intro" and "in credits" flags. The buttons work with the dashboard Music widget.

The intro and credits flags need the server to know those parts:

  • Jellyfin (10.10 and later): install a media segment provider, for example the official Chapter Segments Provider plugin (it reads chapters named "Intro", "Credits"...) or the Intro Skipper plugin;
  • Emby: Emby's intro and credits detection.

Without them, both flags stay at 0.

Scenes​

Four triggers: Playback started, Playback paused, Playback resumed, Playback stopped. Each one can be narrowed to one player and to media types (movie, episode, music, live TV...). The title, name, series_name, media_type, user and player_name variables are available to the following actions.

Example: Playback started, player "Living room TV", type Movie → dim the living room; Playback paused on the same player → lights back on.

Two scene actions:

  • Display a message on a player — for example "Someone is at the door" over the movie;
  • Play a media on a player — searches the library for a title (movie, series, album, artist, playlist...) and plays it, shuffled if you like. The title played is available to the rest of the scene.

The player must be connected to the server to receive a message or a media.

Dashboard widgets​

  • Now playing: who watches what, where, with the posters.
  • Player: the current playback as a remote — the artwork (or the movie fan art), title, state, remaining time, and the play/pause, stop and next buttons. Leave the "Player" setting empty to follow whatever is playing, or pick a player to follow that one only.
  • Latest additions: posters of the movies, series or albums added lately, new episodes grouped by series.

Troubleshooting​

  • "The server refused the API key": the key was deleted or badly copied. Create a new one and save it. The integration deliberately stops calling the server while the key is refused: a reverse proxy running fail2ban could otherwise ban your address.
  • A button does nothing: not every app accepts remote control. TV apps and the web client do; some mobile apps do not. "Next" and "Previous" on an episode play the neighbour episode, which works even on apps without a play queue (Swiftfin).
  • The message does not show up: it depends on the app. Jellyfin Web and Jellyfin for Android TV show it; Swiftfin (Apple TV, iOS) does not handle it yet, and the official iOS app does not show it during video playback.
  • The button does not change state right away: the buttons of the "Player" widget show the expected state as soon as the command is sent, then the app confirms it (some take a few seconds).
  • Updates are slow: the integration follows playback in real time over a WebSocket. If your reverse proxy does not forward WebSockets, it falls back to polling every 15 seconds.
  • The integration logs can be read from the Gladys interface.

Configuration settings​

These are the settings Jellyfin & Emby asks for in its configuration screen in Gladys.

SettingTypeRequiredDescription
Connect to your media serversectionNoWorks with Jellyfin (10.9 and later) and Emby. Enter the address of the server (for example http://192.168.1.20:8096) and an API key created for Gladys: on Jellyfin, Dashboard > API Keys; on Emby, Settings > Advanced > API Keys. The integration detects which server it talks to.
Server URLstringYesAddress of the server, port included (8096 by default). An https address behind a reverse proxy works too.
API keysecretYes
Language of the namesselectNoLanguage of the feature names and of the texts. Names are set when a device is created: to rename them after a change, delete and re-add the device.
Library sensorsbooleanNoAdd one item-count sensor per library on the server device (plus episodes for TV shows and tracks for music).
Library refresh interval (s)numberNoHow often the library counts are refreshed, in seconds. Playback is followed in real time.
Accept a self-signed certificatebooleanNoOnly for https addresses: accept the self-signed certificate of the server. Leave off for http addresses.

How to install Jellyfin & Emby in Gladys​

  1. In Gladys, open Integrations: Jellyfin & Emby appears in the catalog, next to the native integrations, with a community badge.
  2. Click Install. Gladys pulls the Docker image (ghcr.io/guim31/gladys-jellyfin:0.2.1), starts it in a sandbox isolated from the core, and generates the integration's interface (devices, discovery and configuration).
  3. Open the Configuration screen of the integration, fill in the settings, and save.
  4. You can also install it directly from its repository URL: https://github.com/guim31/gladys-jellyfin.

Jellyfin & Emby requires Gladys >=5.1.0. The catalog inside Gladys refreshes every hour, so a new version becomes available at most one hour after its release.

Not running Gladys yet? It is free and open source: follow the installation guide to get started.

About external integrations​

Jellyfin & Emby is an external integration: a community integration packaged as a Docker container and published on GitHub, that Gladys installs in one click and runs in a sandbox isolated from its core. It is published and maintained by guim31, not by the Gladys core team.

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