govi

A minimalistic video player based on mpv (libmpv via go-mpv): it plays a file, gets out of the way, and leaves the keyboard in charge.

Status: under development. Things work, but interfaces, config and shortcuts may still change between versions.

Screenshots

Install

macOS (Homebrew)

govi is published to the shared candy-tools Homebrew tap. Add the tap, trust it (third-party taps aren't trusted by default since Homebrew 6.0.0), then install:

brew tap candy-tools/tap
brew trust candy-tools/tap
brew install --cask candy-tools/tap/govi

mpv is pulled in as a dependency (it provides libmpv), and brew upgrade will track future releases. Apple Silicon only.

This installs govi.app into /Applications — a Dock icon, a Launchpad entry, and "Open with → govi" in Finder — and symlinks the govi command onto your PATH, so both of these work:

govi ~/Movies/clip.mkv    # from a terminal
open -a govi              # or launch it from Launchpad / Spotlight

Prefer not to use Homebrew? Download govi_<version>_macos_arm64.dmg from the releases page, open it and drag govi.app into Applications. Install mpv yourself in that case (brew install mpv) — govi needs libmpv at runtime.

Debian / Ubuntu

govi is published to the candy-tools APT repository (amd64). Trust the signing key, add the source, then install (this also pulls in libmpv):

sudo install -d -m 0755 /etc/apt/keyrings
sudo curl -fsSL https://candy-tools.github.io/debian-repo/candy-tools-archive-keyring.gpg \
  -o /etc/apt/keyrings/candy-tools-archive-keyring.gpg
sudo curl -fsSL https://candy-tools.github.io/debian-repo/candy-tools.sources \
  -o /etc/apt/sources.list.d/candy-tools.sources
sudo apt update
sudo apt install govi

Prefer a one-off? Download the amd64 .deb from the releases page and sudo apt install ./govi_*_amd64.deb.

Other

Grab a prebuilt tar.gz archive from the releases page.

Usage

govi <file>    # play a file
govi <dir>     # play all videos in a folder
govi .         # play all videos in the current folder
govi           # open the idle screen (drop a file on it)
govi version

An empty folder (no videos) opens the idle screen — drop a file on it to play.

Distinctive features

• Automatic playlist — opening a file makes its folder the playlist, so next/previous walks the sibling videos without any setup.
• File deletion from the player — move to trash or delete permanently, with a confirmation step and auto-advance to the next video.
• Fully controllable with shortcuts — every action is keyboard-driven and rebindable, either from the preferences overlay or the config file.

Development

Common tasks are driven by make:

make help     # list all targets
make test     # run the go tests
make lint     # run golangci-lint
make verify   # full verification suite (test, lint, license-check, benchmark, coverage)
make build    # build a snapshot binary with goreleaser

Release

Releases are published by GitHub Actions when a version tag is pushed:

make tag version="v0.1.0"