Getting Started

Trackify is a self-hosted web player for video game music. An instance is one PocketBase application that serves the player UI, the catalog API, and your audio files — all from the same origin, on your own hardware.

This page gets you from zero to listening. If an instance is already running, skip straight to step 3.

1. Run an instance

The fastest path is the Docker image. From a fresh clone of the repository:

# Build the static site (needs Node 20+, CMake, Ninja and the bundled Emscripten SDK)
git submodule update --init --recursive
source ./submodules/emsdk/emsdk_env.sh
npm install
npm run build

# Build and run the image
docker build -t trackify .
docker run -d --name trackify \
  -p 8090:8090 \
  -v trackify-data:/pocketbase/pb_data \
  trackify

Open http://localhost:8090/ — the player UI loads straight from the container. The full walkthrough (base image, TLS, resource sizing) lives in Hosting & Running.

Fresh instances are empty

The catalog database starts with no games and no tracks. Head to Adding Music to populate it.

2. Create a superuser

The superuser manages the catalog and the instance settings:

docker exec -it trackify /pocketbase/pocketbase superuser upsert you@example.com 'a-long-password'

Details and the non-Docker variant are in Administration.

3. Sign in and press play

1. Open the instance URL in any modern browser (Web Audio + WebAssembly).
2. Click Sign in and authenticate with Google — your favorites and playlists are tied to that account.
3. Pick a game from the collections grid and click a track. The first track of a format loads its emulator core on demand, so give it a moment — subsequent tracks start instantly.

Listeners who never sign in can still browse and play; an account is only needed for favorites and playlists. See Playlists & Favorites.