MPV Single Instance Script

This repo contains a Lua script for MPV that forces all secondary MPV launches to send the file to the main MPV window instead of opening multiple players.

📌 Features

• Ensures # MPV Single Instance Script runs as a single instance
• Secondary launches forward file paths to the main instance
• Uses IPC pipes/sockets for communication
• Supports Windows and Linux
• Automatically detects whether the instance is main or secondary

📂 Installation

1. Create your MPV scripts folder

• Windows: %AppData%\mpv\scripts\
• Linux: ~/.config/mpv/scripts/

2. Copy the script

Place single_instance.lua into the scripts folder.

3. Done!

MPV will automatically detect the script at next launch.

📘 How it works

The script:

1. Checks whether an IPC server is already active.
2. If not found → becomes the main MPV instance and creates one.
3. If found → becomes a secondary instance, sends its file path via IPC, and exits.

🛠 IPC Socket Paths

• Windows: \\.\pipe\mpvsocket
• Linux: /tmp/mpvsocket

▶️ Example behavior

• You open a file → MPV starts normally.
• You double-click another video → the second MPV launches but detects main instance → sends the new file to the main MPV → quits.

📜 Script included

The repo also contains the single_instance.lua file with full source code.

📄 License

MIT License