Spotify Now Playing on GitHub Profile

Display your currently playing Spotify track in your GitHub profile README automatically using GitHub Actions and the Spotify API.

---

Features

• Shows your currently playing Spotify track in your README.
• Automatically updates every 5 minutes.
• Handles “Not playing anything” if nothing is currently playing.
• Secure — Spotify credentials are stored as GitHub Secrets.

---

Repository Structure

Your repository should look like this:

your-repo/
├── README.md
├── nowplaying.py # Python script that fetches current track
└── .github/
      └── workflows/
             └── spotify.yml

GitHub Actions workflow

• nowplaying.py: Fetches your currently playing song from Spotify and writes it to spotify.txt.
• .github/workflows/spotify.yml: Defines the GitHub Actions workflow that runs the script every 5 minutes and updates your README.
• README.md: Contains a placeholder that will be replaced by your current song.

---

Setup Instructions

1. Register a Spotify App

1. Go to Spotify Developer Dashboard.
2. Click Create an App.
3. Copy Client ID and Client Secret.
4. Add a Redirect URI: http://127.0.0.1:8080/callback.
5. Generate a Refresh Token using the authorization code flow.
   • You can use the Python script or Django flow from this repo to obtain it.

---

2. Add GitHub Secrets

Go to your repository → Settings → Actions → Secrets and variables → Actions and add:

• SPOTIFY_CLIENT_ID → your Spotify Client ID
• SPOTIFY_CLIENT_SECRET → your Spotify Client Secret
• SPOTIFY_REFRESH_TOKEN → your Spotify refresh token

---

3. Add Placeholder in README

Add this placeholder in your README.md where you want your current song to appear:

<!-- SPOTIFY -->Loading...<!-- END_SPOTIFY -->

- <!-- SPOTIFY --> → start marker

- Loading... → default text

- <!-- END_SPOTIFY --> → end marker

Example:

Currently Listening To:

Loading...

---

4. Place the Python Script and Workflow

Upload nowplaying.py to the root of your repository.

Upload .github/workflows/spotify.yml to the workflow folder:

.github/ 
    └── workflows/ 
              └── spotify.yml

---

5. Test Locally (Optional)

Before pushing to GitHub:

export SPOTIFY_CLIENT_ID="your_client_id"
export SPOTIFY_CLIENT_SECRET="your_client_secret"
export SPOTIFY_REFRESH_TOKEN="your_refresh_token"
python nowplaying.py
cat spotify.txt

• This should show your currently playing track.

---

6. Run Workflow on GitHub

1. Commit and push all files (nowplaying.py, .yml, README.md).

2. Go to Actions tab → Update Spotify Now Playing → Run workflow.

3. After it runs, your README placeholder will be replaced with your current song.

---

7. Example Output

After workflow runs, your README will show:

🎶 Blinding Lights — The Weeknd

or if nothing is playing:

🎧 Not playing anything

Notes

• Make sure your GitHub Actions secrets are correct — otherwise the workflow will fail.

• Workflow runs every 5 minutes automatically.

• No sensitive information is exposed in your README — only your currently playing track.