beetbox/beets

tidal: `search_limit` is ignored

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#6,770 opened on Jun 24, 2026

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good first issuetidal

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Description

Problem

The Tidal plugin does not appear to honor tidal.search_limit. With a config such as:

tidal:
  search_limit: 1

Tidal album and track searches still return (at least 20+) results.

Expected behavior

Tidal should cap album and track search candidates using the configured search_limit, matching the behavior of other metadata source plugins.

Likely cause

Tidal implements candidates() and item_candidates() directly, then calls api.search_results() from search_albums_by_query() and search_tracks_by_query(). That bypasses the shared search path that reads search_limit into SearchParams.limit.

Suggested fix

Thread search_limit through the Tidal query search path, or truncate returned Tidal relationships before resolving album/track IDs. Add focused tests for both album and track search with search_limit: 1.

Tagging @semohr for visibility.

Contributor guide

Research direction
Trace the search path in the Tidal plugin, identify where search limit is ignored, and modify the code to use it when querying albums and tracks.
Tech stack
python
Domain
apibackend
Issue type
Bug
DifficultyEstimated implementation difficulty for a new contributor, from 1 for very small changes to 5 for expert-level work.
2
Estimated timeA rough time range for an experienced contributor to investigate, implement, test, and prepare a pull request.
1-3 hours
Activity statusHow available the issue appears right now: fresh, active, stale, blocked, or waiting on maintainer input.
Active
ClarityHow clearly the issue explains the expected change, acceptance criteria, and next step.
Clear
Prerequisites
PythonGit
Newbie friendlinessA 1-100 score estimating how approachable this issue is for first-time contributors.
70