SubMiner/docs-site/installation.md

Installation

SubMiner is a desktop app that draws an interactive layer - an overlay - on top of the mpv video player. As you watch native Japanese media, you can click or hover any word in the subtitles to look it up, then turn it into an Anki flashcard without pausing to switch apps. Building flashcards from real content you're watching is called sentence mining, and it's what SubMiner is built for. It bundles its own copy of Yomitan (a pop-up dictionary) and talks to AnkiConnect (an add-on that lets other programs add cards to Anki) so cards get filled in automatically.

Three steps to get started:

1. Install requirements - mpv and a few optional extras
2. Install SubMiner - from the AUR, or download from GitHub Releases
3. Launch the app - first-run setup walks you through dictionaries, the launcher, and everything else

1. Install Requirements

Only mpv is strictly required to run SubMiner. Everything else enhances the experience but is optional.

Several entries below exist only for the subminer command-line launcher, which is Linux and macOS only. On Windows you launch playback with the SubMiner mpv shortcut instead, so you can ignore those rows.

Dependency	Status	Platforms	What it does
mpv	Required	All	The video player SubMiner overlays on. Must support --input-ipc-server.
ffmpeg	Recommended	All	Audio extraction and screenshots for Anki cards. Without it SubMiner still runs, but media fields will be empty.
MeCab + mecab-ipadic	Recommended	All	Part-of-speech filtering for more precise N+1, JLPT, and frequency annotations. Without it annotations still render, but POS-based filtering is less accurate.
yt-dlp	Optional	All	YouTube playback and subtitle extraction.
xz	Optional	All	Required for TsukiHime subtitle downloads (subtitles are served xz-compressed). Preinstalled on most Linux distros; not present on Windows by default.
guessit	Optional	All	Better AniSkip title/season/episode parsing.
alass	Optional	All	Subtitle sync engine (preferred). Disabled without alass or ffsubsync.
ffsubsync	Optional	All	Audio-based subtitle sync engine. Disabled without alass or ffsubsync.
fzf	Optional	Linux, macOS	Terminal-based video picker in the subminer launcher.
rofi	Optional	Linux	GUI-based video picker in the subminer launcher.
chafa	Optional	Linux, macOS	Thumbnail previews in the fzf picker.
ffmpegthumbnailer	Optional	Linux, macOS	Video thumbnail generation for the pickers.
fuse2	Required	Linux	Needed to run the AppImage.

Linux

Window backend - you need one of these depending on your compositor:

• Hyprland - native Wayland support (uses hyprctl)
• Sway - native Wayland support (uses swaymsg)
• X11 / Xwayland - for X11 sessions or any other Wayland compositor (uses xdotool and xwininfo)

::: warning Wayland support is compositor-specific Wayland has no universal API for window positioning - each compositor exposes its own IPC, so SubMiner needs a dedicated backend per compositor. Only Hyprland and Sway have native Wayland backends. If you run a different Wayland compositor (GNOME, KDE Plasma, river, etc.), both mpv and SubMiner must run under X11 or Xwayland. The subminer launcher handles this automatically when --backend x11 is set or the X11 backend is auto-detected. :::

Arch Linux

sudo pacman -S --needed mpv ffmpeg
# Recommended
sudo pacman -S --needed mecab mecab-ipadic
# Optional
sudo pacman -S --needed yt-dlp fzf rofi chafa ffmpegthumbnailer
# Optional: subtitle sync (at least one needed for subtitle syncing)
paru -S --needed alass python-ffsubsync
# X11 / Xwayland (required for non-Hyprland/Sway compositors)
sudo pacman -S --needed xdotool xorg-xwininfo

Ubuntu / Debian

sudo apt install mpv ffmpeg
# Recommended
sudo apt install mecab libmecab-dev mecab-ipadic-utf8
# Optional
sudo apt install yt-dlp fzf rofi chafa ffmpegthumbnailer
# X11 / Xwayland (required for non-Hyprland/Sway compositors)
sudo apt install xdotool x11-utils
# Optional: subtitle sync
pip install ffsubsync
# alass is not in apt - install via cargo: cargo install alass-cli

Fedora

sudo dnf install mpv ffmpeg
# Recommended
sudo dnf install mecab mecab-ipadic
# Optional
sudo dnf install yt-dlp fzf rofi chafa ffmpegthumbnailer
# X11 / Xwayland (required for non-Hyprland/Sway compositors)
sudo dnf install xdotool xorg-x11-utils
# Optional: subtitle sync
pip install ffsubsync
# alass: cargo install alass-cli

macOS

macOS 11 (Big Sur) or later. Accessibility permission - the macOS setting that lets one app observe and position another app's windows - is required so the overlay can follow the mpv window (see step 2).

brew install mpv ffmpeg
# Recommended
brew install mecab mecab-ipadic
# Optional
brew install yt-dlp fzf chafa ffmpegthumbnailer
# Optional: subtitle sync
brew install alass
pip install ffsubsync

Windows

Windows 10 or later. No compositor tools or window helpers are needed - native window tracking is built in.

You need mpv (required) and ffmpeg (strongly recommended, for card audio and screenshots), and both must be on your PATH.

::: tip What is PATH? PATH is the list of folders Windows searches when a program asks to run another program by name. SubMiner runs mpv and ffmpeg by name, so if their folders are not on PATH, SubMiner cannot find them even though they are installed. The routes below mostly handle PATH for you; the manual route explains how to add a folder yourself. :::

You can install these with a package manager or by hand. Coverage differs, so pick based on what you need:

Dependency	winget	Scoop
mpv (required)	shinchiro.mpv	extras/mpv
ffmpeg	Gyan.FFmpeg	main/ffmpeg
yt-dlp (YouTube)	yt-dlp.yt-dlp	main/yt-dlp
xz (TsukiHime)	not packaged	main/xz

Use winget if you want Microsoft's first-party tool and don't need TsukiHime subtitle downloads. Use Scoop if you want one package manager to cover everything, since it is the only one that also packages xz.

Recommended: winget

winget is Microsoft's own package manager and ships with Windows 11 and current Windows 10 (it comes with App Installer from the Microsoft Store). In PowerShell or Command Prompt:

winget install shinchiro.mpv
winget install Gyan.FFmpeg

Close and reopen your terminal, then check that both are found:

mpv --version
ffmpeg -version

ffmpeg is installed as a portable package, so winget links it into a folder that is already on your PATH and it should work right away.

mpv uses a regular installer, and depending on the version it may not add itself to PATH. If mpv --version says not recognized, you have two easy options:

• Note where it installed (usually %LOCALAPPDATA%\Programs\mpv) and add that folder to PATH using the manual steps below, or
• Skip PATH entirely and set mpv.executablePath to the full path of mpv.exe during first-run setup.

Once mpv --version works, or you have the full path to mpv.exe ready, continue to step 2.

Alternative: Scoop (covers every dependency, no admin rights)

Scoop installs into your user profile, needs no administrator prompt, and always puts commands on PATH. It is the only Windows package manager that carries all of SubMiner's optional dependencies, including xz, so it is the best choice if you want a single tool to manage everything.

# One-time Scoop setup (skip if you already have it)
Set-ExecutionPolicy -ExecutionPolicy RemoteSigned -Scope CurrentUser
Invoke-RestMethod -Uri https://get.scoop.sh | Invoke-Expression

# mpv lives in the "extras" bucket; everything else is in "main"
scoop bucket add extras
scoop install extras/mpv main/ffmpeg

# Optional: yt-dlp for YouTube playback, xz for TsukiHime subtitle downloads
scoop install main/yt-dlp main/xz

Close and reopen your terminal, then verify with mpv --version and ffmpeg -version.

Manual install (download the zips yourself)

1. Download mpv from mpv.io/installation (the Windows builds link) and ffmpeg from ffmpeg.org/download.html.
2. Unzip each one somewhere permanent, for example C:\Tools\mpv and C:\Tools\ffmpeg. Note the folder that actually contains mpv.exe and the one containing ffmpeg.exe (for ffmpeg this is usually a bin subfolder).
3. Press Win, type Edit the system environment variables, and open it. Click Environment Variables…, select Path under User variables, click Edit…, then use New to add each of those two folders. Confirm with OK on every dialog. Microsoft documents this in more detail under environment variables.
4. Close and reopen your terminal, since PATH changes only apply to newly opened windows. Then check:

mpv --version
ffmpeg -version

If you see not recognized as the name of a cmdlet, the folder you added is not the one holding the .exe. Reopen the Path editor and double-check.

::: tip mpv can skip PATH, ffmpeg cannot If you would rather not edit PATH for mpv, set mpv.executablePath to the full path of mpv.exe during first-run setup instead.

There is no equivalent setting for ffmpeg: SubMiner invokes it by bare name when generating card audio and screenshots, so ffmpeg has to be on PATH. Without it, cards are still created but their audio and image fields come out empty. (subsync.ffmpeg_path only affects subtitle sync, not card media.) :::

Optional extras: MeCab for Windows with the UTF-8 dictionary improves annotation accuracy; it is not in any package manager, so install it from that page. xz is needed only for TsukiHime subtitle downloads and is not packaged by winget or Chocolatey, so use scoop install main/xz or download XZ Utils and add its folder to PATH.

The subminer command-line launcher and its picker tools (fzf, rofi, chafa, ffmpegthumbnailer) are Linux/macOS only; on Windows you use the SubMiner mpv shortcut instead.

2. Install SubMiner

Arch Linux (AUR)

Install subminer-bin from the AUR. The package includes the SubMiner AppImage and the subminer launcher.

paru -S subminer-bin

Or manually:

git clone https://aur.archlinux.org/subminer-bin.git
cd subminer-bin
makepkg -si

Linux (AppImage)

Download the latest AppImage from GitHub Releases:

mkdir -p ~/.local/bin
wget https://github.com/ksyasuda/SubMiner/releases/latest/download/SubMiner.AppImage -O ~/.local/bin/SubMiner.AppImage
chmod +x ~/.local/bin/SubMiner.AppImage

::: tip Launcher install is optional First-run setup can install Bun and the subminer command-line launcher for you automatically. You don't need to download the launcher separately.

If you prefer to install it manually, see manual launcher install. :::

macOS (DMG)

Download the DMG from GitHub Releases, open it, and drag SubMiner.app into /Applications. A ZIP artifact is also available as a fallback.

Gatekeeper: If macOS blocks SubMiner on first launch, right-click the app and select Open to bypass the warning. Alternatively:

xattr -d com.apple.quarantine /Applications/SubMiner.app

Accessibility permission: Grant accessibility permission so the overlay can track the mpv window:

1. Open System Settings → Privacy & Security → Accessibility
2. Enable SubMiner in the list (add it if it does not appear)

::: tip Launcher install is optional First-run setup can install Bun and the subminer command-line launcher for you automatically. You don't need to download the launcher separately.

If you prefer to install it manually, see manual launcher install. :::

Windows (Installer)

Download the latest installer from GitHub Releases:

• SubMiner-<version>.exe - installer (recommended)
• SubMiner-<version>-win.zip - portable fallback

Make sure mpv.exe is on your PATH, or set mpv.executablePath in the config during first-run setup.

From Source

Linux

git clone --recurse-submodules https://github.com/ksyasuda/SubMiner.git
cd SubMiner
make deps
bun run build

# Optional: build AppImage
bun run build:appimage

Bundled Yomitan is built during bun run build.

macOS

git clone --recurse-submodules https://github.com/ksyasuda/SubMiner.git
cd SubMiner
make deps
make build-macos

The built app will be in the release directory (.dmg and .zip). For unsigned local builds: bun run build:mac:unsigned.

Windows

git clone https://github.com/ksyasuda/SubMiner.git
cd SubMiner
git submodule update --init --recursive
bun install
Set-Location stats
bun install --frozen-lockfile
Set-Location ../vendor/texthooker-ui
bun install --frozen-lockfile
bun run build
Set-Location ../..
bun run build:win

3. Launch & First-Run Setup

Launch SubMiner and the setup wizard will open automatically:

# Linux (AUR install)
subminer app --setup

# Linux (AppImage directly)
~/.local/bin/SubMiner.AppImage --setup

# macOS - launch SubMiner.app from /Applications, or:
subminer app --setup

On Windows, just run SubMiner.exe - the setup wizard opens automatically on first launch.

The setup wizard walks you through:

• Config file - auto-created at ~/.config/SubMiner/config.jsonc (Linux/macOS) or %APPDATA%\SubMiner\config.jsonc (Windows)
• Yomitan dictionaries - import at least one dictionary so word lookups work
• Bun + subminer launcher (optional) - installs the command-line launcher into a writable PATH directory
• Windows shortcut (Windows only) - create a SubMiner mpv Start Menu/Desktop shortcut

The Finish setup button requires a config file and at least one Yomitan dictionary. Bun and the launcher are optional and never block setup completion.

Tip

You can re-open the setup wizard at any time with subminer app --setup or SubMiner.AppImage --setup.

Play a Video

Once setup is complete:

subminer video.mkv

You should see the overlay appear over mpv. If subtitles are loaded, they will appear as interactive text in the overlay.

On Windows, the recommended way to play video is with the SubMiner mpv shortcut created during setup - double-click it, or drag a video file onto it.

Verify Setup

Run the built-in diagnostic to confirm everything is working:

subminer doctor

This checks for the app binary, mpv, ffmpeg, yt-dlp, fzf, rofi, your config file, and the mpv socket path. Only the app binary and mpv are hard failures; the rest are reported as optional. Fix any hard failures before continuing.

Anki Setup (Recommended)

If you plan to mine Anki cards:

1. Install Anki
2. Install AnkiConnect - open Anki → Tools → Add-ons → Get Add-ons → enter code 2055492159
3. Restart Anki and keep it running while using SubMiner

AnkiConnect listens on http://127.0.0.1:8765 by default. SubMiner connects automatically with no extra config needed.

For enrichment configuration (sentence, audio, screenshot fields), see Anki Integration.

Updates

subminer -u
# or
subminer --update

SubMiner verifies AppImage, launcher, and Linux support-asset downloads against SHA256SUMS.txt. On Linux those support assets include the launcher-managed runtime plugin copy under SubMiner/plugin/subminer plus the rofi theme at SubMiner/themes/subminer.rasi. If the binary is in a protected path, SubMiner shows the exact command to run rather than elevating itself.

The tray "Check for Updates" entry installs the new app automatically on Linux, macOS, and Windows. On Linux it replaces the running .AppImage in place via electron-updater and refreshes the managed support assets from subminer-assets.tar.gz; AppImages managed by a system package (for example the AUR /opt/SubMiner/SubMiner.AppImage) are skipped so the package manager stays in charge.

subminer -u also performs the AppImage, launcher, and managed support-asset updates directly from the launcher process, which is useful when SubMiner is not currently running.

How It All Fits Together

SubMiner is an overlay that sits on top of mpv. It connects to mpv through an IPC socket, renders subtitles as interactive text using a bundled Yomitan dictionary engine, and optionally creates Anki flashcards via AnkiConnect.

The subminer launcher handles mpv IPC socket setup automatically. If you launch mpv yourself or from another tool, you must pass --input-ipc-server=/tmp/subminer-socket (or \\.\pipe\subminer-socket on Windows) - without it the overlay starts but subtitles won't appear.

The bundled mpv plugin is injected at runtime automatically - you don't need to install it separately. On Linux, the subminer launcher now checks for its managed runtime plugin copy and rofi theme before every mpv-managed launch and installs those support assets from the bundled app automatically if either one is missing. It provides in-player keybindings (the y chord) for controlling the overlay from within mpv. See MPV Plugin for the full keybinding and configuration reference.

Platform Notes

macOS

MeCab paths (Homebrew):

• Apple Silicon (M1/M2): /opt/homebrew/bin/mecab
• Intel: /usr/local/bin/mecab

Ensure mecab is available on your PATH when launching SubMiner.

Fullscreen: The overlay should appear correctly in fullscreen. If you encounter issues, check that accessibility permissions are granted.

Windows

• The SubMiner mpv shortcut is the recommended way to launch playback. It starts mpv.exe with the right IPC socket and subtitle defaults.
• First-run setup adds only %LOCALAPPDATA%\SubMiner\bin to the HKCU user PATH. It does not add SubMiner.exe to PATH.
• IPC socket on Windows is \\.\pipe\subminer-socket - do not use /tmp/subminer-socket.
• Config is stored at %APPDATA%\SubMiner\config.jsonc.

Manual Launcher Install

The subminer launcher uses a Bun shebang, so Bun must be installed. First-run setup can handle this automatically, but if you prefer to do it yourself:

Linux

# Install Bun
curl -fsSL https://bun.sh/install | bash

# Download the launcher
wget https://github.com/ksyasuda/SubMiner/releases/latest/download/subminer -O ~/.local/bin/subminer
chmod +x ~/.local/bin/subminer

macOS

# Install Bun
curl -fsSL https://bun.sh/install | bash

# Download the launcher
sudo curl -fSL https://github.com/ksyasuda/SubMiner/releases/latest/download/subminer -o /usr/local/bin/subminer
sudo chmod +x /usr/local/bin/subminer

Optional Extras

Linux Support Assets

SubMiner ships the Linux rofi theme plus the launcher-managed runtime plugin copy in subminer-assets.tar.gz:

wget https://github.com/ksyasuda/SubMiner/releases/latest/download/subminer-assets.tar.gz -O /tmp/subminer-assets.tar.gz
tar -xzf /tmp/subminer-assets.tar.gz -C /tmp
mkdir -p ~/.local/share/SubMiner/themes
cp /tmp/assets/themes/subminer.rasi ~/.local/share/SubMiner/themes/subminer.rasi
mkdir -p ~/.local/share/SubMiner/plugin
cp -R /tmp/plugin/subminer ~/.local/share/SubMiner/plugin/subminer

subminer -u and the tray updater keep those Linux support assets in sync automatically once the SubMiner data dir exists. Normal Linux launcher playback also auto-installs the managed runtime plugin copy and rofi theme from the bundled app if either support asset is missing, so manual extraction is mainly useful for pre-seeding or custom setups.

Override the theme path with SUBMINER_ROFI_THEME=/absolute/path/to/theme.rasi.

Next: Usage - learn about the subminer wrapper, keybindings, and YouTube playback.