alt.hn

3/2/2026 at 8:50:03 PM

Show HN: Pianoterm – Run shell commands from your Piano. A Linux CLI tool

 https://github.com/vustagc/pianoterm

by vustagc

3/5/2026 at 2:39:53 PM

I did a similar thing a while back: https://github.com/eras/midihidi

While that one might not be of much use, yours might be :). Actually I just have a small midikbd next to my computer, so maybe I could find use for this.

I did think of one potential use for midihidi: using MIDI as input device when running a tracked in an Amiga emulator.

by _flux

3/2/2026 at 10:59:25 PM

Nice job. Feels like there's a bit of misunderstanding of what this project is. It has nothing to do with audio - it's purely a means of mapping MIDI to shell commands.

There was (still is) a very popular program called BOME Midi Translator that did something similar - think of it like AutoHotKey but specifically for midi.

Back when I made heavy use of Kontakt libraries I got frustrated at the lack of an easy way to audition the patches (of which there could be hundreds on a single sampler). To get around it, I created a Bome script so when I pressed an unused button on my midi controller it would trigger a mouse click to advance to the next patch in my DAW and then send a note-on / note-off for C4 for half a second.

Made previewing the sounds much easier.

by vunderba

3/3/2026 at 8:32:20 AM

Thanks. So you essentially get an 88 key macro board in your lounge?

by snthpy

3/3/2026 at 3:33:00 PM

Exactly. Instead of buying something like an Elgato Deck, you can repurpose (or buy really cheap) midi keyboards/controllers and map them through a Midi->Script translators and achieve the same result.

by vunderba

3/2/2026 at 11:27:05 PM

That's nice!

That may not seem like an obvious use-case when only thinking about a piano, but since it's mapping MIDI keys to commands, I guess it should be able — or at least no very far from being able — to map ergonomic MIDI controllers to actions that are not as ergonomic with the usual keyboard / mouse / trackball / touchpad most people use.

I wrote what I believe is a similar tool but with completely different goals initially: https://github.com/Arkanosis/smhkd ; I use it with a cheap MIDI controller (namely the KORG nanoKONTROL2) and was considering using another one with motorized faders (namely the Icon Platform M).

MIDI controllers are great for all kinds of non-musical things like: - setting the volume / balance / solo / mute for speakers / multiple headsets and mixing multiple applications (eg. using pactl); - setting the zoom level / brightness for camera / webcam (eg. using v4l2-ctl) ; - setting the source / brightness for monitors (eg. using ddcutil)…

by Arkanosis

3/3/2026 at 12:07:57 AM

I see I'm not the first to have this idea haha. I suppose you could use additional midi controllers as extra "function" keys, for things like volume control, brightness, etc.. Could be useful especially if using smaller keyboards without a numpad or a function row.

by vustagc

3/3/2026 at 12:43:57 AM

Same. In the past I've mapped cheap midi controllers with endless encoders over to act as a "scrubbers" when doing video editing.

by vunderba

3/2/2026 at 10:05:30 PM

This is one of those projects that would be 10x better with a video demonstration!

by sigseg1v

3/3/2026 at 10:49:03 AM

Love this. Using a piano as a macro board is the kind of creative dev tooling I wish I saw more of.

Have you considered letting users define their own key mappings in a YAML config? That way people could customize it for their specific DAW workflow without touching the code.

by recognity

3/3/2026 at 11:12:55 AM

You can define the mappings in a plain text (key = command) config file. No need to touch the code.

by vustagc

3/2/2026 at 10:10:55 PM

How about chords? Melodies which are paths? Passwords? Lots of great potential here!

by ctoth

3/2/2026 at 10:56:51 PM

Password is 3rd movement of Moonlight Sonata without "typos".

by lysp

3/2/2026 at 11:48:48 PM

nice... ;-)

Funny how we don't hear that movement much...

by iainctduncan

3/3/2026 at 4:44:18 AM

This would pair well with Midicard, the tiny credit-card-sized MIDI keyboard I make: https://midicard.com

by alana314

3/2/2026 at 9:43:34 PM

Ooh, let's spend next weekend doing this with my acoustic piano!

by smokel

3/3/2026 at 11:19:39 AM

Very interesting idea.

Mapping MIDI keys to shell commands opens some fun automation possibilities. Nice and clean project.

Thanks for sharing it.

by yarivk

3/2/2026 at 11:18:14 PM

This reminds me of the Symphonic which is featured in the show Halt and Catch Fire

by gchamonlive

3/2/2026 at 10:21:47 PM

My Claude Code sessions are about to sound like the Breath of the Wild soundtrack

by matthew_hre

3/2/2026 at 10:03:46 PM

So I can run shell from a Miracle Piano connected to a NES running Linux?

by runamuck

3/2/2026 at 11:52:03 PM

I thought you might have “composable” pipelines!

by shrubble

3/2/2026 at 9:21:32 PM

[dead]

by shablulman

3/2/2026 at 11:05:19 PM

[dead]

by CagedJean