Skip to content
Vicwomg edited this page Jan 30, 2026 · 10 revisions

Welcome to the wiki! This wiki serves to host guides, tips and tricks for various use cases of pikaraoke.

See the sidebar for more pages/articles on pikaraoke topics.

How do I display all the command line options?

pikaraoke --help

Pikaraoke command line options

Here is a snapshot (as of ver 1.18.2):

usage: pikaraoke [-h] [-p PORT] [-d DOWNLOAD_PATH [DOWNLOAD_PATH ...]] [--youtubedl-proxy YOUTUBEDL_PROXY]
                 [--ytdl-args YTDL_ARGS] [-v VOLUME] [-n] [-s SPLASH_DELAY] [-t SCREENSAVER_TIMEOUT] [-l LOG_LEVEL]
                 [--hide-url] [--prefer-hostname] [--hide-overlay] [--hide-notifications] [--hide-splash-screen]
                 [--high-quality] [-c] [-b BUFFER_SIZE] [--logo-path LOGO_PATH [LOGO_PATH ...]] [-u URL]
                 [--window-size WINDOW_SIZE] [--external-monitor] [--admin-password ADMIN_PASSWORD] [--disable-bg-music]
                 [--bg-music-volume BG_MUSIC_VOLUME] [--bg-music-path BG_MUSIC_PATH [BG_MUSIC_PATH ...]]
                 [--bg-video-path BG_VIDEO_PATH [BG_VIDEO_PATH ...]] [--disable-bg-video] [--disable-score]
                 [--limit-user-songs-by LIMIT_USER_SONGS_BY] [--avsync AVSYNC] [--config-file-path CONFIG_FILE_PATH]
                 [--cdg-pixel-scaling] [--streaming-format {hls,mp4}] [--preferred-language PREFERRED_LANGUAGE]
                 [--enable-swagger] [--dolphly]

options:
  -h, --help            show this help message and exit
  -p PORT, --port PORT  Desired http port (default: 5555)
  -d DOWNLOAD_PATH [DOWNLOAD_PATH ...], --download-path DOWNLOAD_PATH [DOWNLOAD_PATH ...]
                        Desired path for downloaded songs. (default: ~/pikaraoke-songs)
  --youtubedl-proxy YOUTUBEDL_PROXY
                        Proxy server to use for youtube-dl, in case blocked by a firewall
  --ytdl-args YTDL_ARGS
                        Additional arguments to pass to youtube-dl/yt-dlp (as a single string)
  -v VOLUME, --volume VOLUME
                        Set initial player volume. A value between 0 and 1. (default: 0.85)
  -n, --normalize-audio
                        Normalize volume. May cause performance issues on slower devices (default: False)
  -s SPLASH_DELAY, --splash-delay SPLASH_DELAY
                        Delay during splash screen between songs (in secs). (default: 2 )
  -t SCREENSAVER_TIMEOUT, --screensaver-timeout SCREENSAVER_TIMEOUT
                        Delay before the screensaver begins (in secs). Set to 0 to disable screensaver. (default: 300 )
  -l LOG_LEVEL, --log-level LOG_LEVEL
                        Logging level int value (DEBUG: 10, INFO: 20, WARNING: 30, ERROR: 40, CRITICAL: 50). (default: 20 )
  --hide-url            Hide URL and QR code from the splash screen.
  --prefer-hostname     Use the local hostname instead of the IP as the connection URL. Use at your discretion: mDNS is not
                        guaranteed to work on all LAN configurations. Defaults to False
  --hide-overlay        Hide all overlays that show on top of video, including current/next song, pikaraoke QR code and IP
  --hide-notifications  Hide notifications from the splash screen.
  --hide-splash-screen, --headless
                        Headless mode. Don't launch the splash screen/player on the pikaraoke server
  --high-quality        Download higher quality video. May cause CPU, download speed, and other performance issues
  -c, --complete-transcode-before-play
                        Wait for ffmpeg video transcoding to fully complete before playback begins. Transcoding occurs when
                        you have normalization on, play a cdg file, or change key. May improve performance and browser
                        compatibility (Safari, Firefox), but will significantly increase the delay before playback begins.
                        On modern hardware, the delay is likely negligible.
  -b BUFFER_SIZE, --buffer-size BUFFER_SIZE
                        Buffer size for transcoded video (in kilobytes). Increase if you experience songs cutting off early.
                        Higher size will transcode more of the file before streaming it to the client. This will increase
                        the delay before playback begins. This value is ignored if --complete-transcode-before-play was
                        specified. Default is: 150
  --logo-path LOGO_PATH [LOGO_PATH ...]
                        Path to a custom logo image file for the splash screen. Recommended dimensions ~ 2048x1024px
  -u URL, --url URL     Override the displayed IP address with a supplied URL. This argument should include port, if
                        necessary
  --window-size WINDOW_SIZE
                        Desired window geometry in pixels for headed mode, specified as width,height (Example: --window-size
                        800,600). Only works on Chromium browsers. Disables kiosk fullscreen mode. This can be used to open
                        a windowed mode splash screen and move it to an external monitor where it can be fullscreened from
                        the menu or a keyboard shortcut (F11 key, or control+cmd+f on Mac).
  --external-monitor    Experimental: Launch the splash screen on an external monitor by positioning window at x=2000.
                        Useful for dual-monitor setups. Only works on Chromium browsers and possibly only windows.
  --admin-password ADMIN_PASSWORD
                        Administrator password, for locking down certain features of the web UI such as queue editing,
                        player controls, song editing, and system shutdown. If unspecified, everyone is an admin.
  --disable-bg-music    Disable background music on splash screen
  --bg-music-volume BG_MUSIC_VOLUME
                        Set the volume of background music on splash screen. A value between 0 and 1. (default: 0.3)
  --bg-music-path BG_MUSIC_PATH [BG_MUSIC_PATH ...]
                        Path to a custom directory for the splash screen background music. Directory must contain mp3 files
                        which will be randomized in a playlist.
  --bg-video-path BG_VIDEO_PATH [BG_VIDEO_PATH ...]
                        Path to a background video mp4 file. Will play in the background of the splash screen.
  --disable-bg-video    Disable background video on splash screen
  --disable-score       Disable the score screen after each song
  --limit-user-songs-by LIMIT_USER_SONGS_BY
                        Limit the number of songs a user can add to queue. User name 'Pikaraoke' is always unlimited
                        (default: 0 = unlimited)
  --avsync AVSYNC       Use avsync (in seconds) if the audio and video streams are out of sync. (negative = advances audio |
                        positive = delays audio)
  --config-file-path CONFIG_FILE_PATH
                        Path to a config file to load settings from. Config file settings are set in the web interface or
                        manually edited and will override command line arguments. Default config.ini
  --cdg-pixel-scaling   Enable CDG pixel scaling to improve video rendering of CDG files. This may increase CPU usage and
                        may cause performance issues on slower devices.
  --streaming-format {hls,mp4}
                        Video streaming format: 'hls' (HLS with fMP4 segments) or 'mp4' (pushes mp4 directly to the browser
                        - legacy format that might work better on some configurations). Default is 'hls'.
  --preferred-language PREFERRED_LANGUAGE
                        Set the preferred language for the web interface. This will persist across restarts. Available
                        codes: en, de_DE, es_VE, fi_FI, fr_FR, it_IT, ja_JP, ko_KR, nl_NL, no_NO, pt_BR, ru_RU, th_TH,
                        zh_Hans_CN, zh_Hant_TW
  --enable-swagger      Enable Swagger API documentation at /apidocs.
  --dolphly             Enable top-secret DOLPHLY mode.

Clone this wiki locally