Playlists — Overview
The Playlists panel has four tabs: All, Smart, Genius, and Savant. Each serves a different purpose.
What each tab does
| Tab | Purpose | Syncs as |
|---|---|---|
| All | View, create, delete, and export all playlists. See tracks in any playlist. | — |
| Smart | Create rule-based playlists (genre, artist, album) with a track limit. | .m3u or tagnavi¹ |
| Genius | Create playlists from Rockbox playback history (Rediscovery, Forgotten Gems, Most Played, etc.). | .m3u |
| Savant | AI-generated playlists from mood. Requires OpenRouter API key. Uses harmonic data when available. | .m3u |
¹ Smart playlists write as live tagnavi queries when Rockbox smart playlists (tagnavi) is enabled on the device profile. Genius and Savant are always .m3u because they are static track selections — see why.
When to use which
- Smart — When you want a fixed set of rules (e.g. "Rock genre, 50 tracks").
- Genius — When you want playlists based on what you actually listen to. Connect a device, load/recheck playback log, then generate.
- Savant — When you want a playlist that matches a mood or intent ("chill evening", "workout mix"). The AI picks tracks and can order them harmonically.
How to work with it
- Start with All to see existing playlists and create new ones (Smart or Genius from the Create button).
- For Genius, add a device and enable playback log. Load from database or recheck the device before generating.
- For Savant, add your OpenRouter API key in Settings first. Enable harmonic extraction in Library for better key-aware mixing.
Rocksy
Rocksy can create and triage playlists from the chat:
- "Make a Smart playlist of my 4-star Rock tracks" →
playlist_create_smart - "Build a Genius playlist from my most played, 25 tracks" →
playlist_create_genius - "Which playlists have missing songs?" →
playlist_list_broken - "Repair that playlist" →
playlist_repair - "Delete the Workout playlist" →
playlist_delete(asks you to confirm first)
Smart and Genius creation and repair run immediately; deleting a playlist pauses for a Confirm / Cancel prompt. Rocksy creates Smart/Genius playlists through the same backend as the Playlists panel (the legacy <SMART_PLAYLIST> / <GENIUS_PLAYLIST> tags remain as a fallback). Savant playlists are not created via Rocksy — use the Savant tab.