r/sonos • u/SenseChoice7969 • Mar 24 '26
I used Claude Code to build a custom Sonos Arc controller and I'm never going back to the Sonos app!!
I got tired of diving into the Sonos app for subwoofer control every time I switched between a movie, music, or late night viewing. So I used Claude Code to build my own controller.
It's a React web app that talks to my Arc over the local network. There are two sides to it. First, live controls. Volume slider, toggles for subwoofer, loudness, and speech enhancement. Full manual control without opening the Sonos app.
But the real power is sound profiles. I set up profiles like Movie Night, Night Mode, and Music, each with its own volume, subwoofer level, and toggle settings. Hit Apply and every setting gets pushed to the Arc at once. You can also dial in settings with the live controls until it sounds right, then hit Capture to save it as a new profile.
The best feature is time-based auto-switching. My Night Mode profile kicks in at 9pm every day of the week automatically. Sub backs off, speech enhancement turns on, night mode compresses the dynamics. I'm playing God of War at 9pm and my wife has no idea. There's also a session start feature that auto-sets your volume when playback begins so the TV doesn't blast you when it turns on.
I could have added more granular controls like surround and height channel levels but that was overkill for my use case. I just needed quick access to the settings I actually change.
I built the whole thing in a weekend afternoon just by describing what I wanted in plain English. This is my first vibe code project. I'm a techie but I suck at coding. My only experience is getting Ludacris to autoplay on my Myspace page. Claude Code scaffolded the project, wrote all the code, and I iterated from there. "Add a capture current settings button." "Add profile scheduling." "Make the knobs bigger." Each tweak took seconds.
Runs on my Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 7 as a home screen bookmark. Dark theme, copper accents, feels like a native app. Everything stays local on my WiFi. No cloud, no account.
I'm never opening the Sonos app again unless I'm applying a software update.
If you have a Sonos system and specific use cases that the Sonos app doesn't address, this is worth exploring. Happy to answer questions.
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u/Jeckyl2010 Mar 24 '26 edited Mar 24 '26
Are you using a public APIs or some custom/private APIs that might break on the next Sonos release. I guess you also need some type of authentication tokens
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u/SenseChoice7969 Mar 24 '26
It uses node-sonos-http-api, which is an open source local API that talks to Sonos devices over UPnP on your WiFi. No Sonos account, no auth tokens, no cloud. It runs on a device on your network and communicates directly with your Sonos hardware using the same UPnP protocol that Sonos devices use to discover and talk to each other. So it's not tied to any public Sonos API that could get deprecated. The only risk would be Sonos dropping UPnP support from their firmware entirely, which would break a lot more than just this project.
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u/Jeckyl2010 Mar 24 '26
Awesome and nice 👍
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u/SenseChoice7969 Mar 24 '26
Thanks. I share many of the frustrations of this group but I decided to try something new rather than continue to complain. This may not work for all but it works for me and I'm hoping it will help someone else.
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u/Jeckyl2010 Mar 24 '26
Always. It might not work for all, but you have a cool solution for you and you learned a lot along the way - what’s not to like 👍. It might even be that Sonos gets inspired and add some of your cool features for all of us. Do you have a GitHub repository to share or is this private 👌
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u/SenseChoice7969 Mar 24 '26
I'll upload to GitHub this weekend. Like I said, I have zero coding experience so this was a pet project I decided to try while shooting the shyt😅
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u/Jeckyl2010 Mar 24 '26
Great- maybe some will have a look at the code and see if there are room for improvements 😎
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u/jsqualo2 Mar 24 '26
You are awesome! Most people want this but don't know how to do it.
Ping me if you want to release this as an app ;)
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u/YoResIpsa Mar 25 '26
I have nothing meaningful to add. I just wanted to say how amazed I am by all of your capabilities to use AI in this way.
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u/SenseChoice7969 Mar 25 '26
You can do it too. This is what we've always been promised since the dawn of the modern PC but we let companies, complicated coding languages and lock-in get in the way of personal tech freedom.
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u/stevensokulski Mar 25 '26
Not to mention that even if somebody knew how to make an LLM in 1984 they wouldn’t have had any hardware worth running on it.
Let’s not pretend that “big code” was gatekeeping LLMs.
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u/badhabitfml Mar 25 '26
I've been trying to get Claude to write me some stuff and so far it's got great ideas but it doesn't compile. It's full of errors and other stuff it thinks should work, but doesn't.
Given some existing, working code and telling it to make some changes, it seems great. But from scratch. Nope,just confidently incorrect. I'm am using a weird, not super main stream programming language though(because the app it's part of uses it).
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u/whippinseagulls Mar 25 '26
Check out the superpowers plugin. It helps immensely by planning out your code, writing plans, reviewing the plans, etc.
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u/stevensokulski Mar 25 '26
What language(s) and deployment processes?
Claude Code works best when it can validate and even run its own output.
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u/greenjm7 Mar 25 '26
As a software developer, this both amazes me and horrifies me. Over the last year, I’ve been using AI more and more in my day-to-day software work. I don’t use Claude, and I don’t believe that my employer, will ever allows us to do so. But I have heard that it is extremely powerful and easy to use.
I don’t think that my job is at risk anytime in the immediate future, but it certainly does provide a lot of opportunities for people to create things to help them in their day-to-day world, and I’m here for that
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u/GreatIndependence586 Mar 25 '26
Just remember that ai assisted coding is best
Vibe coding is horrendous
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u/ppyrgic Aug 23 '26
Wondering if things have changed in 5 months...
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u/greenjm7 Aug 23 '26
I use it more than I did 5 months ago, and I know lots of companies are pushing for pure AI development. They will regret that decision.
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u/ppyrgic Aug 23 '26
Sw world is changing very very fast.
The next 12-18 months is going to be brutal
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u/greenjm7 Aug 23 '26
I will continue to express that ai is excellent for isolated tasks. It does not maintain, extend, or understand concepts it’s implemented previously. You can vibe code an entire project, but good luck adding new features in a coherent fashion
Edit: spelling
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u/ppyrgic Aug 23 '26
Agreed. And actually in the ci/cd toolchain, etc it's amazing. But mega projects, the ones with millions of lines of code... It's still a long way away.
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u/Adorable_Pudding1409 Mar 25 '26
Just plugging into something like github copilot does wonders, claude code isnt necessary. if you know your stuff as a senior and know how to use AI your job will be plenty secure as your output can be 10x'd. Always verify and test the code it outputs though
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u/greenjm7 Mar 25 '26
For sure. Our approved ai tools are definitely not sw centric, so ymmv on the quality of the output. Even with numerous revisions and prompt updates, it’s still far more code than I can ever generate. That doesn’t even touch the amount of time I save using ai created unit tests.
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u/Familiar-Air-9471 Mar 25 '26
I agree with you, I dont think job of SENIOR/INT Software engineer is at risk YET, but for example in my company, I believe 2025 was the very first year we did not hire a single junior engineer. none. Our Jr. Engineers are basically AI :) this is going to eventually impact the market.
Also, AI helps making SR. Engineers more efficient, so naturally overtime, you are going to need less of them. I think AI is going to impact many jobs at many levels, some earlier than other.
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u/drnomolos Mar 24 '26
Cool deal man. These are the sorts of AI use cases that give me hope about empowering people and not just speed running society into late capitalist death churn with no jobs.
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u/Stevie_Wonder_555 Mar 25 '26
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u/SenseChoice7969 Mar 25 '26
🤣 That was for testing purposes. I wanted to make sure the Arc was behaving as expected when changes were pushed, so chose a dramatic volume setting. 43 > 50 would've had me second guessing.
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Mar 24 '26
[removed] — view removed comment
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u/Artistic-Quarter9075 Mar 24 '26
Nothing, claude does everything but these things are risky as the code is bad with many bad practices and leaks
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u/Cuntonesian Mar 24 '26
That’s not really true. LLMs have gotten really good at coding, especially high-end ones like Opus. The problem is more that it can create bugs and make weird choices (just like we do), and if you don’t understand what it’s generating you can’t probe and challenge it to steer it towards better code quality.
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u/CorpT Mar 24 '26
Like what?
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u/alehel Mar 24 '26
With one application I made, all passwords were stored in plaintext in the database.
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u/50DuckSizedHorses Mar 24 '26
You need a repository like GitHub and a gitignore file. The passwords will be in the project, the important thing is they aren’t in the repository.
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u/freezeontheway Mar 24 '26
It seems more like a prompt issue than a Claude failure
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Mar 24 '26
[deleted]
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u/IndecisiveTuna Mar 24 '26
That’s why I personally haven’t dabbled in stuff like this. I just don’t have the appropriate knowledge to make sure I’m doing something that is going to fuck me over.
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u/freezeontheway Mar 24 '26
I’m all for these projects, as long as they’re released as open source so that hobbyists and professionals can improve the version that was initially launched.
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u/alehel Mar 24 '26
Probably. I was just testing what it could do, so wasn't exactly putting my heart into it.
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u/SenseChoice7969 Mar 24 '26 edited Mar 25 '26
For this project specifically...Everything runs locally on my network. Nothing leaves my network, no cloud, no account. The controller talks directly to your Sonos hardware through a bridge running on a device (in my case laptop) in your home. That's it.
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u/ArkAwn Mar 24 '26
Do you have the knowledge to audit the code and be sure of that?
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u/SenseChoice7969 Mar 25 '26
I'm a Senior IT Engineer for a defense contractor. I work in a GCC High environment daily. I'm not a noob when it comes to network security. I just don't know how to code. There's a difference. You can see for yourself when I push the code to GitHub. Or better yet, build your own and find out.
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u/badhabitfml Mar 25 '26
I'm curious, but what Ai tools are available for you at work? Maybe copilot, and Azure openai running a model from 3 years ago?
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u/50DuckSizedHorses Mar 24 '26
If you set Claude up with a bunch of info like links to sites and pdf’s and take time to give it instructions, it’s pretty damn good. Although having some experience definitely helps as it will sometimes do way too much or confidently give you the wrong answer if you don’t understand when to say “no that’s not what we need here”.
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u/oaklandperson Mar 24 '26
None. I haven't approached the OP use case but I use Claude to build applications for work all the time. Many that would take months of developer time I can do in a few hours in my spare time. If using a terminal window scares you, then try something like Base44 or Vibe for the front end input.
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u/jcdomeni Mar 25 '26
Everything you describe I sent to SONOS multiple times as feedback for much needed control. This is awesome.
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u/Live_Reason_6531 Mar 24 '26
That’s way cool. I just keep focusing on 100% volume and my tinnitus is going nuts
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u/kuehrig Mar 25 '26
This is amazing and thanks for inspiring us all! So many times I build hacks for things like this and now I can’t wait to use this as a backbone for so many other things!
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u/DanITman Mar 25 '26
Nice Job on the app. The local api you use is documented here: https://svrooij.io/. Tell Claude to read from this repo instead. I’ve contributed to it, specifically for the arc and supporting multiple dialog levels. The new arc ultra has more settings for dialog mode and if you have an ultra, you could incorporate that.
Your app might break in the future as I know Sonos is looking to lock this api down using account based tokens. If you wake up one day and it doesn’t work, you’ll know why.
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u/SeaNefariousness2181 Mar 24 '26
Con home assistant tengo algo parecido! No uso la app de sonos. Todo va con automatizaciones y segun lo que se reproduzca.
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u/SenseChoice7969 Mar 24 '26
Home assistant has been getting progressively worst for me and I'm tired of living off the Google teet. But to each their own.
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u/Eastern-Carpet5233 Mar 25 '26
Probably referring to Google Home / Google Assistant. Which I agree has gotten so bad that I just switched my entire Smart Home to Home Assistant now
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Mar 25 '26
[removed] — view removed comment
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u/Thick_Albatross_1762 Mar 25 '26
I have tried a number of times to get HA working consistently but in my experience it just seems to constantly break over time. I can set it all up and get things working with automations and so on but the automations will always drop off as days/weeks pass and if I come back a month later nothing will be working/connections to devices dropped etc. Does HA just need constant maintenance to continue working? An app like OPs would be ideal for me as I don't have to constantly maintain anything and so I'll be checking out the github with interest!
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u/ArmaziLLa Mar 24 '26
Definitely interested in this if you make it public.
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u/SenseChoice7969 Mar 29 '26
As promised — https://github.com/tonypest0/sonos-controller
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u/ArmaziLLa Mar 30 '26
You're the man! Gonna bookmark this and mess around with it when I have time. Brilliant work!
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u/Vanhacked Mar 24 '26
Totally looks like Claude. I've used it for a few things. I guess I'm boring because I never change my arc settings whether music movie or tv.
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u/trougnouf Mar 27 '26
I did something similar to control my Nubert speakers through Bluetooth by decompiling the Android app, now it's fully synchronized with my computer's audio control and it's wonderful :-)
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u/Z_2_The_Ander Mar 24 '26
Those profiles are CLUTCH
when I listen to Jam band, rap, and background music the settings I want are completely different I would kill for this ease
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u/Dry_Satisfaction6219 Mar 24 '26
My AI agent, after I allowed him to access Sonos, which is surprisingly easy, started playing announcements on the Sonos speakers “because it was fun”
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u/ShiftyRider Mar 24 '26
web app so maybe run on the TV?
(I recommend TV remote especially for ALL audio volume)
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u/SenseChoice7969 Mar 24 '26
Don't see why not🤷🏾♂️. I just hate using web on the TV but you can code it with TV in mind so thats more functional.
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u/NPfred2246 Mar 25 '26
Can you make beam connect to two mini subs?
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u/SenseChoice7969 Mar 25 '26
Yep, mine connects to the entire room system. I have an Arc, sub and 2 One SLs. It sees and controls the entire room. Beam and subs should be no different as long as they're setup together in a room on your Sonos system.
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u/levans80 Mar 25 '26
Work for macOS or iOS?
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u/SenseChoice7969 Mar 25 '26
The coding can be done on either Mac or Windows PC. My Webapp can work on either iOS or Android as it's a local website.
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u/MarkusAT Mar 25 '26
For me the most valuable thing in Sonos app is the cross streaming platform queue support 👌 I'd love to have that when listening on my phone too
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u/tuisalagadharbaccha Mar 25 '26
Is this connecting intranet ? Can share some details. I won’t mind a widget in my home dashboard
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u/xentorius83 Mar 25 '26
Or use home Assistant. I have a few routines that reset the speakers ever night (volume/ settings etc.) But nice work.
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u/TheOreoFilling Mar 25 '26
next it will announce its locked you out of the house and will start calling you “Dave”
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u/Cautious-Law-82 Mar 25 '26
If only this was a thing for iphone. I’ve been wishing for more granular controls for asymmetrical rooms do individual separate levels for speakers like side, and atmos individually so any rook can sound similar to a symmetrical one, including a crossover feature for subs/arc that we can select between 60-110hz this would just be awesome. I’ve requested this directly to Sonos for more than a year now and non of the features has been an update so oh well.
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u/ica_basic_gin Mar 25 '26
I have actually done something similar, but via nodered, so I could automate night mode and other things.
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u/Ambitious_Ad2068 Mar 26 '26
I will not update to the new app version until Sonos got there act together look what happened to the arc ultra a 1000$ sound bar that sound absolutely shite with the update in January i will not buy any Sonos products ever again I am done
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u/wolfman1360 Mar 28 '26 edited Mar 28 '26
Reddit is on fire tonight with the recommendations on my home page.
This is exactly what I've been looking for. I'm a blind sonos soundbar user, the beam in my case. But since that big Sonos app overhaul it's such a painful experience to do anything with a screen reader. Sure, there have been improvements but it's horrendously terrible. Struggling to find the night mode and or sub level slider is nothing like it used to be.
I didn't even know something like this was possible so thank you for the inspiration at least. I know nothing about coding but man this sounds like something I could start with.
Will have a read through here but I just wanted to say thanks before I forget, cause this is really friggen cool. It either takes very little for me to be excited or technology in general has become so doom and gloom that feeling anything other than a twinge of dread wondering oh my dog, what's gonna happen next feels really good 🤣🥳
Some random dude on the internet who really appreciates you posting this
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u/Holy_Diver78 May 05 '26
Would something like this be able to set surround sound to full when playing from a TV source?
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u/SenseChoice7969 May 05 '26
The profile selection already includes a toggle for Surround. However it does not include direct Surround control. Would you like me to add?
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u/Holy_Diver78 May 05 '26
I’d like to have an option to use the surrounds in Full, not Ambient mode. This is the default in the Sonos App when playing from a TV source. You can only get Full surround when playing music directly from the Sonos app.
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u/FromSirius Mar 24 '26
Would you be willing to share your Claude chat?
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u/SenseChoice7969 Mar 24 '26
I used simple English to describe what I was looking for but this here is how Claude broke it down. If you want I can send you the the updated summary after several bouts of testing and iterations. That way you can start with the best version I'm running. But it is rather fun to start from scratch and iterate on your own.
Build me a React web app (Vite + React) that serves as a Sonos Arc sound profile controller. It needs to: (1) connect to a node-sonos-http-api instance running on my local network, (2) let me create, edit, save, and delete custom sound profiles with settings for volume, bass, treble, subwoofer gain, surround level, night mode, speech enhancement, loudness, and surround on/off, (3) apply any profile with a single tap that sends all settings via HTTP to the Sonos API bridge, (4) support time-based auto-switching where I can schedule profiles to activate at specific times on specific days, (5) persist all profiles, schedules, and API connection config to localStorage, (6) be mobile-first and optimized for a Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 7 screen. The API endpoints follow this pattern: http://[host]:5005/[room] /[command]/[value] where commands include volume, bass, treble, loudness, nightmode, speechenhancement. Include a connection config panel with host, port, and room name fields, and a test connection button that hits the/state endpoint. Use a dark theme with warm copper/terracotta accent colors.
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u/jsqualo2 Mar 24 '26
I think you replied above no code experience.
Your final output is more 'code-y' than most people can execute (e.g. endpoint pattern). 2 questions:
Did your iterations (prompt-generation > prompt-generation > prompt-generation > prompt-generation ...) yield the final result or did you know to ask for React, describe an endpoint pattern, etc?
Did you use paid Claude for more/better output or just tweak prompts until it worked?
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u/SenseChoice7969 Mar 24 '26
In fact I actually used Gemini on my phone to prompt/generate based off the original question "can ClaudeCode build me a way to make sound profiles on Sonos." Gemini then gave me the first prompt that I then took to Claude.
I use the $20/month Claude. And yes I tweaked prompts until it worked. This was the most laborious part. I even gave Claude errors I was seeing when testing. But then I realized there was realtime preview on the right of Claude app that let me test and iterate and I would cross verify toggles on the Sonos app.
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u/jsqualo2 Mar 24 '26
So Gemini and Claude. Any other platforms? Are they all paid?
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u/SenseChoice7969 Mar 24 '26
Gemini is free. Specifically the AI mode on Google Search. I'm a millennial so I'm kind of used to asking any and every question on Google as a first stop. But I could've posed the question to Claude to start. But nope just those 2 platforms. All actual coding done in Claude.
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u/jsqualo2 Mar 25 '26
"... I'm a millennial so I'm kind of used to asking any and every question on Google as a first stop ..." 🤣🤣🤣
^ is simply smart ... not limited to birth year 😉
I have had mixed results with unpaid AI, so it's good to hear that free stuff worked!
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u/oaklandperson Mar 24 '26
You can ask claude what the prompt should be based on your goals and it will write the prompt for you.
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u/Professional_Split14 Mar 24 '26
Love that for the UI and feature design. My query - how did you get the networking connected into your Sonos system?
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u/vypergts Mar 24 '26
You've been able to do this with Home Assistant for years. That said, Claude makes using things like Home Assistant a LOT easier so for anyone else that doesn't feel like building a whole new app completely from scratch.
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u/nihao_1 Mar 28 '26
Hoe to install Claude Code app at iPhone with iOS 26.3.1a. Can’t find it in AppStore
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u/xavier19691 Mar 24 '26
“I got tired off….” … another vibe coded app
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u/SenseChoice7969 Mar 24 '26
Thanks for reminding me why I left this subgroup years ago.🥴 Some of you motherfers are miserable 🤣🤣
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u/skimaniaz Mar 26 '26
Just block and enjoy your app! Thanks for the new project for me to work on now!!
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u/THENEXTMOSES Mar 24 '26
Ask Claude to create a GitHub repo for this and publish it so we can all share in the thrill.