Launcher Script

The subminer wrapper script is an all-in-one launcher that handles video selection, mpv startup, and overlay management. It's a Bun script distributed alongside the AppImage.

Video Picker

When you run subminer without specifying a file, it opens an interactive video picker. By default it uses fzf in the terminal; pass -R to use rofi instead.

fzf (default)

subminer                        # pick from current directory
subminer -d ~/Videos            # pick from a specific directory
subminer -r -d ~/Anime          # recursive search

fzf shows video files in a fuzzy-searchable list. If chafa is installed, you get thumbnail previews in the right pane. Thumbnails are sourced from the freedesktop thumbnail cache first, then generated on the fly with ffmpegthumbnailer or ffmpeg as fallback.

Optional tool	Purpose
chafa	Render thumbnails in the terminal
ffmpegthumbnailer	Generate thumbnails on the fly

rofi

subminer -R                     # rofi picker, current directory
subminer -R -d ~/Videos         # rofi picker, specific directory
subminer -R -r -d ~/Anime       # rofi picker, recursive

rofi shows a GUI menu with icon thumbnails when available. SubMiner ships a custom rofi theme that can be installed from the release assets:

mkdir -p ~/.local/share/SubMiner/themes
cp /tmp/assets/themes/subminer.rasi ~/.local/share/SubMiner/themes/subminer.rasi

The theme is auto-detected from these paths (first match wins):

• $SUBMINER_ROFI_THEME environment variable (absolute path)
• $XDG_DATA_HOME/SubMiner/themes/subminer.rasi (default: ~/.local/share/SubMiner/themes/subminer.rasi)
• /usr/local/share/SubMiner/themes/subminer.rasi
• /usr/share/SubMiner/themes/subminer.rasi
• macOS: ~/Library/Application Support/SubMiner/themes/subminer.rasi

Override with the SUBMINER_ROFI_THEME environment variable:

SUBMINER_ROFI_THEME=/path/to/custom-theme.rasi subminer -R

Common Commands

subminer video.mkv              # play a specific file (default plugin config auto-starts visible overlay)
subminer --start video.mkv      # optional explicit overlay start when plugin auto_start=no
subminer -S video.mkv           # same as above via --start-overlay
subminer https://youtu.be/...   # YouTube playback (requires yt-dlp)
subminer ytsearch:"jp news"     # YouTube search

Subcommands

Subcommand	Purpose
subminer jellyfin / jf	Jellyfin workflows (-d discovery, -p play, -l login)
subminer yt / youtube	YouTube shorthand (-o, -m)
subminer doctor	Dependency + config + socket diagnostics
subminer config path	Print active config file path
subminer config show	Print active config contents
subminer mpv status	Check mpv socket readiness
subminer mpv socket	Print active socket path
subminer mpv idle	Launch detached idle mpv instance
subminer dictionary <path>	Generate character dictionary ZIP from file/dir target
subminer texthooker	Launch texthooker-only mode
subminer app	Pass arguments directly to SubMiner binary

Use subminer <subcommand> -h for command-specific help.

Options

Flag	Description
-d, --directory	Video search directory (default: cwd)
-r, --recursive	Search directories recursively
-R, --rofi	Use rofi instead of fzf
--start	Explicitly start overlay after mpv launches
-S, --start-overlay	Explicitly start overlay after mpv launches
-T, --no-texthooker	Disable texthooker server
-p, --profile	mpv profile name (default: subminer)
-b, --backend	Force window backend (hyprland, sway, x11)
--log-level	Logger verbosity (debug, info, warn, error)
--dev, --debug	Enable app dev-mode (not tied to log level)

With default plugin settings (auto_start=yes, auto_start_visible_overlay=yes, auto_start_pause_until_ready=yes), explicit start flags are usually unnecessary.

Logging

• Default log level is info
• --background mode defaults to warn unless --log-level is explicitly set
• --dev / --debug control app behavior, not logging verbosity — use --log-level for that