Directory Source

The simplest source type scans a local directory for audio files. This is the default collection type — no type field is needed.

Configuration

[music.main]
path = "/path/to/your/music"

How It Works

1. Scans the specified directory recursively for audio files
2. Parses metadata from each file using the music-metadata library
3. Builds an in-memory collection of tracks
4. Compares against iPod contents during sync

Supported Formats

Format	Extension	Behavior
FLAC	.flac	Lossless - transcoded to AAC
MP3	.mp3	Copied directly
AAC	.m4a	Copied directly
ALAC	.m4a	Copied directly (Apple Lossless)
OGG Vorbis	.ogg	Transcoded to AAC
Opus	.opus	Transcoded to AAC
WAV	.wav	Lossless - transcoded to AAC
AIFF	.aiff, .aif	Lossless - transcoded to AAC

Metadata Extracted

podkit extracts the following metadata from audio files:

• Core fields: title, artist, album (required for matching)
• Extended fields: album artist, genre, year, track number, disc number, composer
• Technical info: duration, bitrate, sample rate, file size
• Identifiers: MusicBrainz IDs, AcoustID (for future use)

Multiple Directory Sources

Configure multiple collections for different music categories:

[music.main]
path = "/Volumes/Media/music/library"

[music.vinyl-rips]
path = "/Volumes/Media/vinyl-rips"

[music.jazz]
path = "/Volumes/Media/jazz"

Sync a specific collection:

podkit sync -c vinyl-rips

Adding a Collection via CLI

You can add a directory collection without manually editing the config file:

podkit collection add music main /path/to/your/music

This writes the [music.main] section to your config file automatically. If it is the first music collection, it is also set as the default.

See Also

• Subsonic Source - Sync from Navidrome and other Subsonic servers
• Configuration - Full configuration reference
• Audio Transcoding - Quality settings for transcoding