A (new?) PipeWire & WirePlumber app…

IMHO, the PipeWire / WirePlumber management tools currently available on Linux only expose a fraction of the massive potential of this modern Linux Audio dream team.

This article should in no way be interpreted as a lack of respect for the time and love that has gone into projects like qpwgraph and helvum. On the contrary, I am genuinely grateful to have them in my arsenal and enjoy using both and have a deep respect for the effort their developers have put in.

That said, I’ve been dreaming for some time now about what an app would look and feel like that I personally would love to use on Linux Desktop and Linux Mobile for managing Linux Audio's backbone: PipeWire and WirePlumber. 😎

Here’s my dream feature set for a unified control surface for PipeWire’s graph engine and WirePlumber’s policy layer

  • Monitor (and restart) PipeWire and WirePlumber status
  • Create, rename, and show or hide temporary or persistent nodes and devices
  • Configure per-device buffer and quantum settings, bit depths, sample rates, and a global or per-graph clock source
  • Combine physical devices into aggregated virtual devices
  • Save, recall, and switch between routing configurations (including export and import)
  • Display live graph view
  • Patch and manage audio and MIDI connections
  • Edit node metadata
  • Display per-node and per-stream latency
  • Display audio mixer with level controls and mute/solo toggles for all inputs and outputs
  • System notifications for broken or disconnected links
  • Route and organize signals with buses, groups, and sub-mixes
  • Inserts real-time effects (CLAP, VST3, LV2 plugins) into signal paths
  • Define auto-connect rules
  • Define per-application policies
  • Define default device selection logic
  • Visually monitor CPU and RAM usage as well as xruns and dropouts
  • Monitor PipeWire and WirePlumber log
  • Select Bluetooth profile and codec per-device

So, I wonder...

  1. Should we gather like-minded people and start working together on a new, comprehensive, modern, accessible, and visually compelling PipeWire & WirePlumber app to further accelerate Linux Audio? 🤔
  2. Are there features you personally care about that aren’t on my list yet?
  3. And could (or should) such a vision potentially be built on top of an existing project like qpwgraph or helvum?
#linuxaudio
2026-01-20 (amadeus)