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AirPlay Audio

by Kyle Kincer

Play to multiple AirPlay speakers from Omarchy's audio panel, with per-room volume and a master control that preserves the mix.

GitHub

Security review

No obvious issues detected

Deterministic scan — not a security guarantee

None
Risk level
None
Analyzed commit
8c0ce32
Scanned
1 month ago

No potentially dangerous behavior detected in the analyzed commit.

Automated analysis only — not a security guarantee.

AI advisory review

No obvious issues detected

Language-model assessment · ~deepseek/deepseek-v4-flash-latest — advisory only

None
AI risk level
None
Recommendation
install
Model
~deepseek/deepseek-v4-flash-latest
Analyzed commit
8c0ce32
Reviewed
1 month ago

The plugin is a legitimate AirPlay audio control widget that interacts with local PipeWire and mDNS. It performs no network calls, requires no elevated privileges, and all configuration changes are explicitly user-initiated. The code is straightforward and contains no obfuscation or malicious behavior.

How this check works

This review combines the deterministic scan (the rule-based results above) with an independent look at the plugin's code by a language model. The model reads a trimmed sample of the repository's files, the manifest, and the README, then gives a plain-language risk level and a recommendation: install (no notable danger), review (look closer first), or avoid (clearly dangerous).

It runs on the same analyzed commit as the deterministic scan and is strictly advisory — it is not a security guarantee and never blocks a plugin by itself. A human moderator still reviews plugins before they are listed.

AI advisory only — automated analysis, not a security guarantee.

Install
$ omarchy plugin add https://github.com/KyleKincer/omarchy-airplay-audio --enable
Widgets #bar #quickshell #media

AirPlay Audio for Omarchy

Omarchy's stock audio panel chooses one output at a time. AirPlay Audio adds multi-room AirPlay without giving up the local controls: select any mix of speakers, set each room independently, or move the whole group with one master slider that preserves their relative levels.

AirPlay Audio panel with two selected rooms and individual volume controls

Features

  • Select multiple AirPlay speakers directly in the audio panel
  • Per-room sliders plus proportional master volume
  • Direct single-room routing for receiver-aware audio/video synchronization
  • Latency-compensated PipeWire grouping for multiple rooms
  • Seamless room addition and removal during playback
  • Immediate master and per-room volume controls
  • Live updates from media keys and external mixers
  • Collapsed stream diagnostics for routing, format, latency, and receiver links
  • Local outputs, inputs, mute controls, and per-application volume
  • Persistent room selection across receiver reconnects and DHCP address changes

Requirements

  • Omarchy Quattro 4.0 or newer
  • PipeWire with libpipewire-module-raop-discover
  • AirPlay receivers advertising RAOP over mDNS on the same network
  • bash, jq, pactl, pw-dump, flock, and standard POSIX text tools

These tools are part of a normal Omarchy installation. No elevated privileges, background service, external download, or cloud account is required.

Stream info

Select an AirPlay room, then open Stream info at the bottom of the panel (or press i). It reports the active route and source, PCM format and rate, PipeWire's reported and buffered latency, packet sizing, receiver firmware, and available connection metrics. Each selected receiver gets its own status card. Use the copy button to put the complete JSON snapshot on the clipboard.

The latency values describe PipeWire's transport target, not a microphone measurement of sound in the room. Receiver metadata and network details degrade cleanly when optional system tools such as avahi-browse, iw, ip, ss, or pw-top are unavailable.

Install

Add and enable the plugin:

omarchy plugin add https://github.com/KyleKincer/omarchy-airplay-audio.git --enable

Enable native AirPlay discovery. This is an explicit, user-owned PipeWire configuration change; the plugin does not make it automatically:

PLUGIN_DIR="$HOME/.config/omarchy/plugins/io.github.kylekincer.airplay-audio"
install -Dm644 \
  "$PLUGIN_DIR/extras/50-omarchy-airplay-audio.conf" \
  "$HOME/.config/pipewire/pipewire.conf.d/50-omarchy-airplay-audio.conf"
omarchy restart audio

Replace the built-in widget after the AirPlay Audio panel appears:

omarchy plugin disable omarchy.audio
omarchy bar move io.github.kylekincer.airplay-audio --section right

Receivers can take several seconds to appear after restarting audio. They must be on the same network and visible through mDNS.

Media keys

The panel works without custom keybindings. For multi-room playback, the stock volume bindings adjust the combine sink's buffered software gain. To get the same immediate, proportional receiver-volume behavior as the panel's master slider, add this block to ~/.config/hypr/bindings.lua:

local airplay_audio = os.getenv("HOME") ..
  "/.config/omarchy/plugins/io.github.kylekincer.airplay-audio/bin/omarchy-airplay-multiroom"

hl.unbind("XF86AudioRaiseVolume")
hl.unbind("XF86AudioLowerVolume")
hl.unbind("XF86AudioMute")
hl.unbind("ALT + XF86AudioRaiseVolume")
hl.unbind("ALT + XF86AudioLowerVolume")

o.bind("XF86AudioRaiseVolume", "Volume up", airplay_audio .. " volume-action raise", { locked = true, repeating = true })
o.bind("XF86AudioLowerVolume", "Volume down", airplay_audio .. " volume-action lower", { locked = true, repeating = true })
o.bind("XF86AudioMute", "Mute", airplay_audio .. " volume-action mute-toggle", { locked = true })
o.bind("ALT + XF86AudioRaiseVolume", "Volume up precise", airplay_audio .. " volume-action +1", { locked = true, repeating = true })
o.bind("ALT + XF86AudioLowerVolume", "Volume down precise", airplay_audio .. " volume-action -1", { locked = true, repeating = true })

Then reload and inspect Hyprland's configuration:

hyprctl reload
hyprctl configerrors

How synchronization works

With one room selected, applications route directly to PipeWire's native RAOP sink. That exposes receiver transport timing to the media graph, allowing video players to compensate for the AirPlay buffer.

With multiple rooms selected, the plugin creates a PipeWire combine sink with latency compensation and keeps that sink at unity gain. The master control changes the receivers themselves, preserving each room's volume ratio.

This is synchronized host-side RAOP, not Apple's native AirPlay 2 group-control protocol. Multi-room alignment depends on accurate latency reporting from each receiver, the network, and PipeWire. It works especially well with receivers of the same family, but no plugin can promise sample-perfect alignment for every mix of AirPlay hardware.

State and security

The helper stores only receiver selection and the last local sink under ${XDG_STATE_HOME:-$HOME/.local/state}/omarchy-airplay. It talks to the local PipeWire server and does not contact any internet service. The plugin runs with your normal user permissions, like every Omarchy shell plugin.

Remove

First leave AirPlay while the helper still exists:

PLUGIN_DIR="$HOME/.config/omarchy/plugins/io.github.kylekincer.airplay-audio"
"$PLUGIN_DIR/bin/omarchy-airplay-multiroom" reset

Remove the media-key block above from ~/.config/hypr/bindings.lua, then remove only this plugin's discovery file and restore Omarchy's widget:

rm -f "$HOME/.config/pipewire/pipewire.conf.d/50-omarchy-airplay-audio.conf"
omarchy restart audio
omarchy plugin remove io.github.kylekincer.airplay-audio
omarchy plugin enable omarchy.audio
omarchy bar move omarchy.audio --section right
hyprctl reload

Optional saved selection state can be removed afterward:

rm -rf "$HOME/.local/state/omarchy-airplay"

Troubleshooting

Validate the checkout and QML against the installed shell:

PLUGIN_DIR="$HOME/.config/omarchy/plugins/io.github.kylekincer.airplay-audio"
omarchy plugin validate "$PLUGIN_DIR"
qmllint -I "$OMARCHY_PATH/shell" "$PLUGIN_DIR/Panel.qml"

If no rooms appear, confirm mDNS discovery and native sinks:

pactl list short sinks | grep '^.*raop_sink\.'

If a receiver disconnects, the panel preserves its stable mDNS identity and routes back to it when it returns. Network isolation, multicast filtering, or a password-protected receiver can still prevent PipeWire from connecting.

Development

omarchy plugin validate .
qmllint -I "$OMARCHY_PATH/shell" Panel.qml
bash -n bin/omarchy-airplay-multiroom

Most installed-plugin edits hot-reload. Run omarchy restart shell after changing a panel component that is already open in the bar.

License

MIT. The UI began as a modification of Omarchy's built-in audio widget; see THIRD_PARTY_NOTICES.md.