plexctl — Plex Media Server Control

Standalone CLI for controlling Plex Media Server and clients via the Plex API

When to Use

Trigger phrases:

• "play [title] on Plex"
• "search Plex for [query]"
• "what's playing on Plex"
• "pause/resume Plex"
• "show me what's on deck"
• "what's new on Plex"
• "list Plex clients"
• "tell me about [movie/show]"

Use this skill when:

• User wants to play specific content on Plex
• User wants to search their Plex library
• User wants to control playback (pause, resume, stop, next, prev)
• User wants to see what's currently playing
• User wants to browse recently added content
• User wants to see continue watching (on-deck)
• User wants detailed info about a title

Don't use this skill when:

• User wants Apple TV-specific navigation (use ClawTV instead)
• User wants vision-based automation (use ClawTV instead)
• User wants to manage Plex server settings (use Plex web UI)

Commands

Setup

plexctl setup

Interactive first-time setup:

• Plex server URL (e.g., http://192.168.86.86:32400)
• Plex token
• Default client selection

Playback

# Play a movie (fuzzy search)
plexctl play "Fight Club"
plexctl play "inception"

# Play specific TV episode
plexctl play "The Office" -s 3 -e 10
plexctl play "Westworld" --season 2 --episode 6

# Play on specific client (overrides default)
plexctl play "Matrix" -c "Living Room TV"

Playback Control

plexctl pause              # Pause current playback
plexctl resume             # Resume playback
plexctl stop               # Stop playback
plexctl next               # Skip to next track/episode
plexctl prev               # Go to previous track/episode

Search & Discovery

# Search across all libraries
plexctl search "matrix"
plexctl search "breaking bad"

# Recently added content
plexctl recent             # Last 10 items
plexctl recent -n 20       # Last 20 items

# Continue watching (on-deck)
plexctl on-deck

# What's currently playing
plexctl now-playing

# Detailed info about a title
plexctl info "Inception"
plexctl info "The Office"

Library Management

# List all libraries
plexctl libraries

# List available clients
plexctl clients

Setup Instructions

1. Install Dependencies

pip install plexapi

2. Run Setup

plexctl setup

You'll need:

• Plex server URL: Usually http://[local-ip]:32400
• Plex token: Get from Settings → Account → Authorized Devices
  • Or from browser URL when logged into Plex Web
  • Look for X-Plex-Token parameter
• Default client: The tool will discover available clients

3. Verify

plexctl clients            # Should list your devices
plexctl libraries          # Should list your libraries
plexctl search "test"      # Should return results

Required Credentials

Config stored in ~/.plexctl/config.json: