KAE

A native desktop audio metadata editor with a polished sakura-night interface, embedded artwork tools, batch editing, and professional release packaging.

Overview

KAE is a desktop-first audio tag editor for people who want a fast, focused way to clean up a music library without opening a browser, running a server, or fighting a generic utility window. It edits common metadata, embedded cover artwork, lyrics, comments, technical file details, and sidecar JSON metadata in a single native interface.

The product direction is simple: reliable audio metadata workflows, a distinctive pink anime visual identity, and release artifacts that feel like a real application.

Core Capabilities

• Edit titles, artists, albums, album artists, genres, years, track/disc numbers, composers, comments, lyrics, and BPM.
• Replace, preview, export, and remove embedded cover artwork.
• Import and export metadata as JSON for backups or external workflows.
• Batch-apply shared album, album artist, genre, and year values to selected tracks.
• Open individual files or scan entire folders recursively.
• Search and filter the loaded library.
• Save current or selected tracks with keyboard shortcuts.
• Persist recent files and application preferences.
• Switch between Sakura Candy and Night Sakura themes.
• Use Ukrainian, English, Japanese, Italian, and Spanish UI languages.
• Run as a native PySide6 desktop application with custom title bar controls.

Supported Audio Formats

KAE uses Mutagen for metadata operations.

Format	Metadata	Artwork
MP3	ID3	Embedded APIC
FLAC	Vorbis comments	Embedded FLAC pictures
M4A / AAC	MP4 tags	Embedded cover atom
OGG / OPUS	Vorbis comments	Basic tag workflow
WAV / AIFF	Best-effort tag support	Depends on container support

Installation

Release builds are produced by GitHub Actions.

• Windows: KAE-Setup-<version>.exe installs KAE with Start Menu and optional desktop shortcuts.
• Linux universal: KAE-<version>-x86_64.AppImage.
• Debian / Ubuntu: kae_<version>_amd64.deb.
• Fedora / RHEL: kae-<version>-1.x86_64.rpm.
• Arch: use the provided packaging/linux/PKGBUILD template.

For local development:

python -m venv .venv
.\.venv\Scripts\Activate.ps1
python -m pip install -e ".[dev]"
python -m kae

Detailed platform instructions are in docs/INSTALLATION.md.

Keyboard Shortcuts

Shortcut	Action
Ctrl+O	Open audio files
Ctrl+Shift+O	Open folder
Ctrl+S	Save current file
Ctrl+Shift+S	Save selected files
Ctrl+I	Import JSON metadata
Ctrl+E	Export JSON metadata
Ctrl+Shift+C	Change cover
Ctrl+F	Search library
Ctrl+,	Settings

Engineering Notes

KAE is split into testable core services and a native UI shell:

• src/kae/core: metadata, settings, language strings, and domain models.
• src/kae/ui: PySide6 windows, dialogs, title bar, and theme loading.
• src/kae/assets: mascot, icon, and QSS theme assets.
• packaging: PyInstaller, Windows installer, and Linux packaging assets.
• site: static product site deployed to GitHub Pages.

Additional project documents:

• Architecture
• Roadmap
• Release process
• Privacy
• FAQ
• Acknowledgements
• Support

Development happens on dev. master is reserved for release-ready versions after explicit approval.

git checkout dev
pytest
ruff check .
pyinstaller packaging/kae.spec --noconfirm

Release Pipeline

The release workflow builds and uploads:

• Windows portable bundle
• Windows setup executable
• Linux AppImage
• Debian package
• RPM package
• Python source distribution and wheel

The Pages workflow deploys the static product site from site/.

License

KAE is released under the MIT License.