openpodgo

An open-source editor for the Line 6 POD Go on Linux — a community clone of POD Go Edit.

openpodgo talks to the pedal over the Helix/HX family's USB vendor protocol (bulk transfers + presets in MessagePack), reverse-engineered by the community and adapted to the POD Go (0e41:4247). It runs where the official editor does not: Linux.

Screenshots

⚠️ Unofficial. This project is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or supported by Yamaha Guitar Group / Line 6. Use at your own risk. See Disclaimer.

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What it does

• USB protocol layer, validated against a real POD Go (0e41:4247): device open, session handshake, streaming and parsing of all 128 presets (MessagePack), reading the active preset, and writing parameters / block reordering back to the pedal via the vendor protocol.
• Preset librarian — browse the Factory and User setlists; recall a preset with a click.
• Visual chain editor (PySide6, dark theme) — signal-flow view, block inspector, model swapping, parameter editing, bypass/controller assignment, snapshots, and bidirectional live-sync (changes on the pedal update the UI).
• .pgp import/export compatible with the POD Go Edit / CustomTone format.
• MIDI helpers over ALSA (amidi): program change, setlist select, snapshots, footswitches, tap.

What it does not do (yet) / limits

• It is unofficial and reverse-engineered. A firmware update can change the protocol and break things. Development has tracked POD Go firmware up to v2.01; other versions are untested.
• No proprietary assets are bundled. Out of the box the UI uses neutral placeholder icons. To get the real artwork you copy it in yourself — see Icons & artwork.
• Linux-focused. It may work on other platforms with libusb, but only Linux is tested.
• Some features are work-in-progress; see docs/specs/00-roadmap.md.
• Back up your presets. Writing to hardware always carries risk.

Requirements

• Linux, Python 3.10+
• A POD Go connected over USB
• For the UI: a Qt-capable desktop (PySide6 is installed via the ui extra)

Download

Prebuilt tarballs are attached to each GitHub Release:

• Latest (nightly build of the trunk): the rolling latest pre-release always tracks the freshest commit on main.
• Stable: numbered releases (X.Y.Z) cut from the trunk.

Grab openpodgo-<ver>.tar.gz from Releases and install it:

python3 -m venv .venv && . .venv/bin/activate
pip install "openpodgo-<ver>.tar.gz[ui]"     # includes the UI

For USB access without sudo, see "USB access without sudo" below.

Install

git clone https://github.com/agarat/openpodgo.git
cd openpodgo
python3 -m venv .venv && . .venv/bin/activate
pip install -e '.[dev,ui]'     # library + tests + UI

USB access without sudo

sudo cp 99-podgo.rules /etc/udev/rules.d/99-podgo.rules
sudo udevadm control --reload-rules && sudo udevadm trigger
# then reconnect the POD Go

Run

python -m openpodgo.app        # or: openpodgo   (launches the UI)

Icons & artwork

openpodgo ships no Line 6 / POD Go Edit artwork. Without it, the UI falls back to neutral placeholder icons (fully usable). To get the real model thumbnails, category icons and logos, copy the res/ folder from an existing POD Go Edit installation into the repository root:

OS	POD Go Edit resources folder
Windows	C:\Program Files (x86)\Line6\POD Go Edit\res
macOS	inside the POD Go Edit.app bundle (.../Contents/.../res)

# from the repo root, with <SRC> = the res folder above
cp -r "<SRC>" ./res

The app picks it up automatically on the next launch — real icons replace the placeholders. res/ is git-ignored and is never redistributed by this project; it stays on your machine.

A note on the model catalog

The app ships src/openpodgo/data/{models,controls,icon_map}.json: factual id → name → parameter-range mappings needed to interpret presets. These are derived from the official POD Go Edit resources (they are data, not artwork or code). They let openpodgo work out of the box; tools/build_catalog.py can regenerate them from your own POD Go Edit installation.

Development

python -m pytest                       # offline test suite (no pedal needed)

The suite runs entirely offline against small, sanitized fixtures under tests/fixtures/. In a fresh clone (no proprietary resources present) it runs 315 tests; a further 28 are skipped because they need the official POD Go Edit resources or your own USB captures locally.

RE / hardware tools live in tools/ (they talk to a real pedal — close the app first, since only one process can claim the vendor interface):

python tools/probe.py                  # open, handshake, list presets
python tools/capture.py --label "..."  # labeled capture for RE

Project structure

• src/openpodgo/ — the library: usb_transport, session, packets, preset, l6helix, catalog, device, editor, midi, and ui/.
• tools/ — reverse-engineering / validation scripts (run against a real pedal).
• docs/ — protocol.md and the numbered RE specs/.
• tests/ — offline test suite and sanitized fixtures.

Contributing

Issues and pull requests are welcome. The project is documented in English; the reverse-engineering knowledge lives in docs/. If you own a POD Go, the most valuable contributions are captures/validation against firmware versions other than v2.01. Please don't commit proprietary Line 6 assets or personal device backups.

Acknowledgements

Built on the community's reverse-engineering of the Helix/HX USB protocol:

• openhx (MIT) — the protocol templates were ported from its HX Stomp XL documentation and adapted to POD Go.
• helix_usb (MIT) — early Helix/HX USB reverse-engineering.

See NOTICE for details. No code or docs from those projects are redistributed here.

Disclaimer

This is an independent, unofficial project. It is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or supported by Yamaha Guitar Group / Line 6. "Line 6", "POD Go", "POD Go Edit" and "Helix" are trademarks of their respective owners, used here only to describe interoperability. No official assets, manuals, or fonts are distributed. Interacting with your hardware is at your own risk.

License

OpenPODGo is released under the MIT License.