Proto-Control

A Linux daemon that brings your Melbourne Instruments Roto-Control device to life — mapping PipeWire audio streams to knobs/buttons, and putting Discord or TeamSpeak voice channel members on dedicated pages for per-user volume and mute control.

Features

• PipeWire integration — each audio output stream gets its own knob (volume) and button (mute). Stream names, colors, and track titles update live.
• Discord voice — per-user volume/mute on page 2, sorted by activity. Requires a Discord application with local RPC enabled.
• TeamSpeak voice — per-user volume/mute on page 3 via a companion TS3 plugin.
• Settings GUI — system-tray icon opens a GUI for renaming streams, assigning colors, managing user priorities, and enabling/disabling integrations — no TOML editing required for day-to-day use.
• Live config reload — changes saved in the GUI apply within ~1 second without restarting the daemon.
• Volume memory — remembered per-app so volumes are restored when a stream restarts.
• MPRIS track titles — optionally pull the current track title from playerctl and show it on the button display.

Requirements

• Linux with PipeWire running
• pw-dump and wpctl (shipped with PipeWire/WirePlumber)
• pactl (for stream change events; ships with PulseAudio/PipeWire-pulse)
• Optionally playerctl for MPRIS track title display
• The Melbourne Instruments Roto-Control device connected via USB

Installation

Pre-built binary (recommended)

Download the latest release from the Releases page:

• proto-control-*-linux-x86_64 — dynamically linked against glibc; works on Ubuntu, Fedora, Arch, etc.
• proto-control-*-linux-x86_64-nix — built with Nix; best on NixOS (requires /nix/store).

Make the binary executable and place it in your PATH:

chmod +x proto-control-*-linux-x86_64
sudo install -m755 proto-control-*-linux-x86_64 /usr/local/bin/proto-control

NixOS / nix-shell

nix run github:Orbsa/Proto-Control

Or add to your flake inputs and use packages.default.

Build from source

# With Nix (recommended — handles all deps automatically)
nix build

# Without Nix — install deps first:
# Ubuntu/Debian: sudo apt install pkg-config libudev-dev libasound2-dev \
#   libwayland-dev libxkbcommon-dev libx11-dev libxcursor-dev libxrandr-dev libxi-dev
cargo build --release --manifest-path daemon/Cargo.toml

Configuration

Proto-Control reads ~/.config/proto-control/config.toml on startup and reloads it automatically when the file changes.

Minimal config (PipeWire only)

No config file needed — PipeWire streams are detected and displayed automatically.

Full config example

# Disable PipeWire page (default: true)
pipewire_enabled = true

# ── Stream overrides ──────────────────────────────────────────────────────
# Rename a stream and assign a knob color
[[streams]]
binary = "zen"
name   = "Zen"
color  = 9          # blue (see color index table below)

# Enable MPRIS track title (shown on the button display below the knob)
[[streams]]
binary       = "tidal-hifi"
name         = "Tidal"
mpris_player = "tidal-hifi"   # pull current track from playerctl
color        = 9              # blue
accent_color = 9              # button accent color when track title is shown

# Hide a stream entirely
[[streams]]
binary  = "some-background-app"
ignored = true

# ── Discord integration ───────────────────────────────────────────────────
[discord]
client_id     = "YOUR_DISCORD_CLIENT_ID"
client_secret = "YOUR_DISCORD_CLIENT_SECRET"
enabled       = true

[[discord_users]]
name     = "Alice"
color    = 0       # pink
priority = 1       # appears first

[[discord_users]]
name     = "Bob"
priority = 2

# ── TeamSpeak integration ─────────────────────────────────────────────────
[teamspeak]
# socket_path is auto-detected (Flatpak or native install).
# Override only if your plugin socket is in a non-standard location:
# socket_path = "/tmp/proto-control-ts3.sock"
enabled = true

[[teamspeak_users]]
name     = "Charlie"
color    = 7       # teal
priority = 1

Color index reference

Index	Color
0	Pink
1	Orange
3	Yellow
5	Green
7	Teal
9	Blue
11	Purple
14	Red
70	Off
null / omitted	Hash-based random

Discord setup

1. Go to the Discord Developer Portal and create a new application.
2. Under OAuth2, note the Client ID and Client Secret.
3. Add http://127.0.0.1 as a redirect URI.
4. Add these to config.toml under [discord].

On first run Proto-Control will open a browser tab for OAuth authorization. The token is cached automatically.

TeamSpeak setup

Proto-Control communicates with TeamSpeak via a companion plugin that creates a Unix socket.

1. Download proto-control-ts3-plugin_linux_amd64.so from the Releases page.
2. Copy it into your TS3 plugin directory:
   • Flatpak: ~/.var/app/com.teamspeak.TeamSpeak3/.ts3client/plugins/
   • Native: ~/.ts3client/plugins/
3. Restart TeamSpeak and enable the plugin in Tools → Plugins.
4. Add [teamspeak] to config.toml and restart the daemon.

The plugin auto-detects which install location to use for the socket. You can override with socket_path in config.toml if needed.

Usage

# Start the daemon (connects to the device, starts all enabled integrations)
proto-control

# Open the settings GUI directly
proto-control --settings

The system tray icon provides quick access to Settings and Quit.

Settings GUI

• PipeWire tab — rename streams, assign knob/accent colors, enable MPRIS track titles, ignore streams.
• Discord tab — set per-user colors and sort priority. Active voice members can be added from the dropdown.
• TeamSpeak tab — same as Discord.
• Enabled checkbox on each tab header — disables the integration without removing credentials.

Changes take effect within ~1 second of saving (no restart needed).

Autostart

systemd user service

# ~/.config/systemd/user/proto-control.service
[Unit]
Description=Proto-Control daemon
After=pipewire.service

[Service]
ExecStart=/usr/local/bin/proto-control
Restart=on-failure

[Install]
WantedBy=default.target

systemctl --user enable --now proto-control

NixOS home-manager

systemd.user.services.proto-control = {
  Unit.Description = "Proto-Control daemon";
  Unit.After = [ "pipewire.service" ];
  Service.ExecStart = "${pkgs.proto-control}/bin/proto-control";
  Service.Restart = "on-failure";
  Install.WantedBy = [ "default.target" ];
};

License

MIT