Install

amp needs three things: libmpv, which plays the sound; uv, which brings the right Python and amp’s dependencies; and amp itself. Ten minutes at most, most of it downloading.

1. libmpv

brew install mpv                    # macOS
sudo apt install libmpv2            # Debian, Ubuntu (libmpv1 on older releases)
sudo dnf install mpv-libs           # Fedora
sudo pacman -S mpv                  # Arch
scoop install mpv                   # Windows

On Windows you can also put libmpv-2.dll next to python.exe or anywhere on your PATH. If libmpv lives somewhere unusual, tell amp where: AMP_LIBMPV=/path/to/libmpv.dylib.

No libmpv yet? amp still opens with --no-audio: everything works but the sound — handy to look around first.

2. uv

uv installs Python 3.14 and the exact versions of amp’s dependencies. You never touch a virtual environment yourself.

curl -LsSf https://astral.sh/uv/install.sh | sh                 # macOS, Linux
powershell -c "irm https://astral.sh/uv/install.ps1 | iex"      # Windows

3. amp

git clone <repository> amp && cd amp
uv sync                             # everything, with cover thumbnails
uv run amp --diagnose               # checks libmpv, the level meter and covers

--diagnose tells you what your terminal can show (real images in kitty and Ghostty, half blocks elsewhere) and whether the audio engine answers.

amp everywhere

To type amp from any folder instead of uv run amp, install the commands once:

uv tool install ./amp-tui --with ./amp-core --with-executables-from amp-core

This gives you amp and ampd. The window version is installed the same way: uv tool install ./amp-qt --with ./amp-core, then amp-qt.

Optional extras

Tool	For
ffmpeg on the PATH	converting files, converting recordings, Opus or MP3 for a phone
fpcalc (Chromaprint) and a free AcoustID key	recognising a file by its sound

fpcalc comes with Chromaprint: brew install chromaprint, sudo apt install libchromaprint-tools, or the Windows build from acoustid.org.