Set up spool

Install the app

Mac

Open the downloaded .dmg and drag spool to Applications. It is signed and notarized, so it opens like any other app.

Windows

Run the installer. The first time, Windows says Windows protected your PC: choose More info, then Run anyway. You do this once; later updates do not ask. Before that, Edge may say spool is not commonly downloaded: open that warning's ⋯ menu, choose Keep, then Keep anyway.

Linux

Download the .AppImage, make it executable and run it:

chmod +x spool-*.AppImage
./spool-*.AppImage

The app updates itself after that.

Get your printers ready

On each printer's own screen:

1. Turn on LAN Only mode.
2. Turn on Developer Mode.
3. Note its access code, shown under LAN Only. spool asks for it when you add the printer.

The printers and the computer that runs spool must be on the same network.

The trade-off. In LAN Only mode a printer leaves Bambu's cloud, and with it the Bambu Handy phone app. A printer you leave in cloud mode still works with spool: it sends that printer's prints through Bambu Connect, Bambu's own app, and you press Print there once for each print. So the queue cannot start prints by itself on that printer.

Slicing

spool slices with Bambu Studio, installed on the computer that is the spool (the one that keeps the queue; see More computers). spool notices it within a minute.

Mac and Windows

Install it the usual way, from Bambu Lab's download page.

Linux

Download the Bambu Studio .AppImage from its releases, unpack it, and move the unpacked folder to /opt/bambu-studio:

chmod +x Bambu_Studio_*.AppImage
./Bambu_Studio_*.AppImage --appimage-extract
sudo mv squashfs-root /opt/bambu-studio

On Ubuntu or Debian without a desktop, Bambu Studio may also need a library it does not bring:

sudo apt install libwebkit2gtk-4.1-0

More computers

One computer is the spool. It keeps the queue, talks to the printers and slices. Others join it and show the same printers, queue and parts.

1. On the spool: Settings, This computer, Add another computer. It shows a six-digit code, good for ten minutes and for one use.
2. On the new computer: install spool, then Settings, Use a spool on another computer. Pick the spool from the list and type the code.

A computer on another network (through a VPN such as Tailscale) types the spool's address instead of picking it from the list. The address is shown beside the code.

Prints carry on while the spool's computer is on and awake. A print already running always finishes on the printer.

An always-on Linux computer

For a computer that stays on and needs no screen, one command installs spool as a background service and prints a code to join it from your app:

curl -fsSL https://spool.spencerhubert.info/install.sh | sudo sh

It installs the spool program and a service that starts with the computer. The service keeps its data in /var/lib/spool and listens on port 7850 on your network.

Then add Bambu Studio for slicing (see Slicing) and join it from your app, as under More computers. Run the same command again to update. You can read the script first.

sudo spool code

a new code to join with

sudo systemctl status spool

whether it is running

sudo journalctl -u spool -f

its log, as it is written

sudo spool service uninstall

removes the service; the data stays in /var/lib/spool

The command line

Every install includes the spool command.

spool find

the spools on this network

spool join CODE
spool join ADDRESS CODE

join one from a computer with no app; the address is for one on another network

spool code

a code for another computer to join with

spool help

everything else: the queue, printers, parts

Have an AI assistant set it up

Paste this into an AI assistant that can run commands on your computer (Claude Code, for example) and it walks you through the whole setup, asking before anything that needs your password.

Loading…

Open the text on its own