april 1st, 2026
beepboopd (Beep Boop Daemon) is a tiny Rust program that plays a unique musical tune every hour
Build: Rust 1.85+ and ALSA dev headers
# arch
sudo pacman -S alsa-lib
# debian/ubuntu
sudo apt install libasound2-devRuntime: PipeWire, PulseAudio, or ALSA for audio output.
cargo install beepboopd
beepboopd installOr with a custom config baked in, like zelda all week, but clock on the weekend:
BEEPBOOPD_TUNE=zelda BEEPBOOPD_WEEK="s:clock;su:clock" beepboopd installOr from source:
make installThat's it. Your computer now chimes every hour.
To check on it:
beepboopd statusTo uninstall:
beepboopd uninstallbeepboopd speaks six musical languages:
The original. A tribute to the bash script that started it all. Ascending tones for success, descending for failure. Even hours get success, odd hours get failure.
Westminster chime -- the classic "ding dong ding dong... dong dong ding dong" melody in 3/4 time, followed by deep bongs counting the hour (12h style, so midnight and noon both get 12).
Each hour gets its own chord -- major chords before noon, minor chords after. 24 unique chords walking the chromatic scale from C. Midnight is C major. High noon is C minor.
A quick five-note ascending run for each hour. Major scales for hours 0-11, minor for 12-23. The last note is held longer.
12 Ocarina of Time songs, each mapped to two hours (H and H+12). Sun's Song plays at 07:00 and 19:00. Nocturne of Shadow at 01:00 and 13:00. All five ocarina notes (D4, F4, A4, B4, D5) with per-song timing.
Available songs: lullaby, epona, saria, sun, time, storms, minuet, bolero, serenade, nocturne, requiem, prelude.
The Lick. Jazz's most famous 7-note phrase (D E F G E C D) transposed to all 12 keys by hour.
Swung eighths for that feel.
"It don't mean a thing..."
beepboopd # default: beep success/failure by hour
beepboopd run # daemon mode: chime every hour
beepboopd install # install systemd user service
beepboopd uninstall # remove systemd user service
beepboopd status # show service status + recent logs
beepboopd clock # Westminster chime at current hour
beepboopd chords 15 # 3 PM's chord (C# minor)
beepboopd scale 7 # 7 AM's scale run
beepboopd beep success # the OG ascending beep
beepboopd zelda storms # Song of Storms
beepboopd zelda # picks song by current hour
beepboopd jazz # the lick at current hour
beepboopd -v 0.5 clock # quieter| Env var | Default | Purpose |
|---|---|---|
BEEPBOOPD_VOLUME | 0.9 | Amplitude multiplier (0.0-1.0 for clean signal) |
BEEPBOOPD_TUNE | beep | Default style when no subcommand given |
BEEPBOOPD_WEEK | -- | Per-day style schedule (see below) |
BEEPBOOPD_LOG | -- | Set to false or 0 to suppress info logs |
BEEPBOOPD_WEEK overrides BEEPBOOPD_TUNE for days that are specified. Unspecified days fall back to BEEPBOOPD_TUNE, then to beep.
Volume can also be set with -v <float> on the command line.
Set a different style for each day of the week:
export BEEPBOOPD_WEEK="m:zelda;t:chords;w:clock;th:beep;f:zelda;s:scale;su:clock"Day keys: sumtwthfs
make beep # OG success + failure
make clock # Westminster chime at current hour
make chords # chord at current hour
make scale # scale run at current hour
make zelda # zelda song for current hour
make jazz # the lick at current hour
make all # play all styles in sequence
make h00 # chords for specific hour (h00-h23)| Hour | Root | Quality | Hour | Root | Quality |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 0 | C | major | 12 | C | minor |
| 1 | C# | major | 13 | C# | minor |
| 2 | D | major | 14 | D | minor |
| 3 | D# | major | 15 | D# | minor |
| 4 | E | major | 16 | E | minor |
| 5 | F | major | 17 | F | minor |
| 6 | F# | major | 18 | F# | minor |
| 7 | G | major | 19 | G | minor |
| 8 | G# | major | 20 | G# | minor |
| 9 | A | major | 21 | A | minor |
| 10 | A# | major | 22 | A# | minor |
| 11 | B | major | 23 | B | minor |
| Hour | Song | Hour | Song |
|---|---|---|---|
| 0 | Song of Time | 12 | Song of Time |
| 1 | Nocturne of Shadow | 13 | Nocturne of Shadow |
| 2 | Requiem of Spirit | 14 | Requiem of Spirit |
| 3 | Zelda's Lullaby | 15 | Zelda's Lullaby |
| 4 | Serenade of Water | 16 | Serenade of Water |
| 5 | Minuet of Forest | 17 | Minuet of Forest |
| 6 | Prelude of Light | 18 | Prelude of Light |
| 7 | Sun's Song | 19 | Sun's Song |
| 8 | Epona's Song | 20 | Epona's Song |
| 9 | Saria's Song | 21 | Saria's Song |
| 10 | Bolero of Fire | 22 | Bolero of Fire |
| 11 | Song of Storms | 23 | Song of Storms |
Structured JSON to stderr via tracing. Every play emits:
{
"timestamp": "...",
"level": "INFO",
"fields": {
"message": "playing",
"cmd": "zelda",
"tune": "storms",
"volume": 0.9
}
}Suppress with BEEPBOOPD_LOG=false. Errors always log.
When running under systemd, logs land in the journal: journalctl --user -u beepboopd.