volta

A terminal UI for per-channel (L/R) volume and balance control using PulseAudio / PipeWire (pactl).

╭──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────╮
│  volta                                                           │
│    ◀ EDIFIER W830NB ▶  (3 / 6)                                   │
│                                                                  │
│    L   ██████████████████████████████████████░░░░░░░░░░ 80  %    │
│    R   ████████████████████████████████████████████████ 100 %    │
│                                                                  │
│    BAL ────────────────────────┼──●────────────────────  +20 R   │
│                                                                  │
│    ──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────    │
│    k / j  L vol  +5 / -5       │  K / J  R vol  +5 / -5          │
│    h / l  balance  ±3          │  ← / →  prev / next sink        │
│    L      lock  L = R          │  r      reset to 100%           │
│    m      mute toggle          │  q      quit                    │
│                                                                  │
╰──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────╯

Features

• Per-channel control — adjust left and right volume independently
• Balance bar — visual representation of the stereo balance
• Lock mode — link L and R channels so they move together
• Sink cycling — navigate all available audio sinks with arrow keys
• Mute toggle — mute/unmute any sink instantly
• Persistent state — remembers the last used sink across sessions
• Responsive layout — all bars and controls adapt to terminal width
• PipeWire / PulseAudio — works with any pactl-compatible backend

Requirements

• Go 1.22+
• PulseAudio or PipeWire with pactl available

Installation

From source:

git clone git@github.com:mateuspim/volta.git
cd volta
make build
# binary at ./bin/volta

Run directly:

make run

Controls

Key	Action
k / j	Left channel volume +5 / -5
K / J	Right channel volume +5 / -5
h / l	Shift balance left / right by 3
← / →	Previous / next sink
tab / shift+tab	Previous / next sink
L	Toggle lock L = R
r	Reset both channels to 100%
m	Toggle mute
q / ctrl+c	Quit

Arrow keys cycle sinks. hjkl / KJ control volume and balance exclusively.

Volume range

Bars support 0–150%. The 100–150% range renders in red as an over-gain indicator.

State

Last used sink is saved to ~/.config/volta/state.json and restored on the next launch. If the sink is unavailable (e.g. Bluetooth headphones unplugged), volta falls back to the first available sink.

Project structure

volta/
├── cmd/volta/          # entrypoint
├── internal/
│   ├── audio/          # pactl wrapper (list sinks, set volume, mute)
│   ├── tui/            # bubbletea model, update loop, rendering
│   └── state/          # persistent sink state (~/.config/volta/)
├── .github/workflows/  # CI: build + test on dev, release binaries on tags
└── Makefile

CI / Releases

• Push to dev or PR to master → build + vet + test
• Tag v* on master → release with linux/amd64 and linux/arm64 binaries

Tech stack

TUI framework	Bubble Tea
Styling	Lip Gloss
Components	Bubbles
Audio backend	pactl (PulseAudio / PipeWire)

License

MIT