omx-panel

Panels for audio plugins, generated from what the plugin declares. Give any LV2 or CLAP plugin a panel without drawing one: a MOD GUI for MOD and Zynthian, pages for a controller, a layout for a host, all from the plugin's own declaration, in the omx look, vintage or modern.

What is here

• The layout: tools/panel-description.mjs lays out a panel from a plugin's descriptor (sections, controls, roles, the family, the pages of eight a controller shows), under the plugin's declared panel when it has one (docs/panel-layout.md).
• The MOD GUI generator: omx-panel modgui writes a plugin's MOD GUI from its descriptor, its images rasterised byte for byte, in the omx look (tools/look/tokens.css) (docs/modgui.md).
• The sync: omx-modgui-sync gives a generated MOD GUI to every installed LV2 plugin that ships none, into /usr/local/lib/lv2 (~/.lv2 for a user), one bundle per plugin, never touching a bundle that is not its own. The systemd unit is installed, not enabled: systemctl enable omx-modgui-sync makes it run after each plugin-qualify-sync (a drop-in on that unit queues it when a scan finishes, only if enabled). omx-modgui-sync --check says whether MOD-UI reads the folder. A plugin that cannot get a GUI never fails the run; omx-modgui-sync(1) has the directories, the exit status and the summary.
• The group inference: tools/group-infer.mjs finds the port groups an LV2 plugin lacks from what it states (its own partial groups, designations, name and symbol prefixes, units, index runs, its MOD GUI), or says it cannot with confidence and leaves the plugin as it is (docs/group-inference.md).
• The complement: omx-complement-sync (omx-panel complement) carries those groups to lilv, for jalv on the Zynthian touchscreen: for an installed bundle with a plugin to group it writes, beside omx-modgui-sync's GUIs, a bundle that restates the installed TTL, adds the groups and raises lv2:microVersion by one, so lilv loads it in place of the installed one. The installed files are never touched; a marker makes a second run write nothing, a run removes the bundles of its own no longer wanted (the installed bundle gone, changed or needing no groups now), and deleting the bundle restores the plugin as installed (docs/lv2-complement.md, omx-complement-sync(1)).
• The skin package: its schema, omx-panel validate, and its facts as a module (src/skin-package.ts: the directory name, the override and how it applies, the licence allow-list, the refusal codes) (docs/skin-package.md).
• The importer: omx-panel import turns a MOD GUI bundle into a skin package.
• The widgets a panel names (schema/panel.schema.json): knob, fader, switch, selector.
• A worked example: a third-party LV2 plugin (ZamComp) and CLAP plugin (LSP Limiter Mono) from the scan to a generated panel, and where Zynthian reads the LV2 one (docs/worked-example.md).

Install

omx-panel comes as an RPM and a DEB, each carrying the tools, the schema and the skins directory, and as @openmixer/omx-panel on npm (npm install @openmixer/omx-panel).

Fedora 44, x86_64 or aarch64:

sudo dnf install https://www.openmixer.org/rpm/openmixer-release.noarch.rpm
sudo dnf install omx-panel

Debian bookworm and trixie, amd64 or arm64 (also Raspberry Pi OS and Zynthian):

curl -fsSLO https://www.openmixer.org/deb/openmixer-release.deb && sudo apt install ./openmixer-release.deb
sudo apt install omx-panel

To build from source, see BUILDING.md.

For a plugin author

A skin package is a directory named after the plugin, holding a skin.json that says how the plugin's panel is drawn: its sections, labels and displays, the art it brings, and the licence of everything in it. The plugin's own description keeps every range, unit and scale; the skin refers to controls by id. The format is described in docs/skin-package.md; omx-panel validate checks a package before it is installed.

A plugin with no MOD GUI gets one from its descriptor: omx-panel modgui --descriptor <file> --out <bundle.lv2> writes modgui.ttl and modgui/ into the bundle, every control drawn with its own travel and default. omx-panel descriptors --installed lists the installed descriptor files, one path per line.

A plugin that already ships a MOD GUI does not start from nothing: the importer reads the bundle's modgui.ttl and the plugin's licence and writes a skin package from them, one section in port order, the labels from the port names and the screenshot as the backdrop. A bundle whose licence is missing or not on the allow-list is refused with a named code and nothing is written.

Licence: GPL-3.0-or-later (LICENSE).