Sidecar Binary Setup

MetaForge uses Tauri sidecars — bundled executables — to perform actual tagging operations.

Required Binaries

| Binary | Used For | |--------|----------| | ffmpeg | MP4/M4V/MOV/MP3/M4A tagging and cover frame extraction | | mkvpropedit | MKV tagging and cover attachment |

Auto-Detection

On startup, MetaForge searches your system PATH for these binaries. The General tab in Preferences shows their status:

• Found (green badge) — binary detected on your system
• Not Found (red badge) — binary not in PATH
• Overridden (blue badge) — you manually specified a custom path

Manual Path Override

If the binaries are in a non-standard location:

1. Open Preferences > General.
2. Under Sidecar Paths, type or paste the full path to the binary.
3. The status badge updates to "Overridden" with a verification check.

Re-Detect

Click Re-detect Binaries to re-scan your system PATH. This is useful after installing or updating ffmpeg or mkvtoolnix.

Installing the Binaries

Debian/Ubuntu:

sudo apt install ffmpeg mkvtoolnix

Fedora:

sudo dnf install ffmpeg mkvtoolnix

Arch:

sudo pacman -S ffmpeg mkvtoolnix