Kalinka

A self-hosted, open-source Hi-Fi music system for Raspberry Pi and Linux — with on-device AI search over your own library.

Ask for a mood, get a queue. Semantic search turns a phrase like "something melancholic for tonight" into matching tracks — running locally on your own hardware, no cloud and no subscription:

This repository is the Kalinka app — the cross-platform remote control (Android, Linux desktop, web). The music is served by the separate Kalinka Music Server: a lightweight backend with a C++/ALSA audio engine, the library indexer and metadata-enrichment pipeline, and the CLAP semantic-search engine. You need both — the app talks to a server running on your network.

Website: kalinkaplayer.com

Install the app

Obtainium installs the app straight from GitHub Releases and keeps it updated — tap the badge (on your phone, with Obtainium installed) and it pre-fills this repo. Prefer to grab a file yourself? Everything is on the releases page.

• Android — each release ships three APKs. Pick arm64-v8a unless your phone is ancient (armeabi-v7a for old 32-bit devices); the unsuffixed universal APK runs on anything but is larger. Obtainium will ask which one — choose arm64-v8a.
• Linux desktop (x64) — download and extract the linux-x64 tarball and run ./install.sh (registers the launcher icon; --uninstall reverses it), or just run the kalinka binary directly.

All release APKs are signed with the Kalinka release key. Certificate SHA-256 (Obtainium can pin it):

79e0051195d444fd531637202870223455fb436b80b75d55ce2c133aa33e11fb

Getting started

The app is only half the system — you also need the server running.

• Initial setup guide — installing the server, pointing it at your music collection, and connecting the app.
• First-run setup — what the setup wizard asks for, step by step, in the app and in the browser.
• App manual — illustrated tour: the setup wizard, the server chip and settings, music folders, AI search and queueing.

License

• Source code: Apache License 2.0 (see LICENSE and NOTICE).
• Visual assets (icons, logos, images): Private license (see LICENSE-ASSETS).

Visual assets are not open-source in this repository and require prior author permission for use.

Permission contact: MadEnvel support@kalinkaplayer.com

Distribution

• Open-source/community builds: You can distribute the code under Apache 2.0, but replace visual assets with your own assets unless you have explicit author permission.
• Official asset redistribution: Requires prior written permission from the author.