install

Additional install commands

macOS

Homebrewverified · 100%

brew install chordii

local Homebrew formula metadata

MacPortsverified · 94%

sudo port install chordii

MacPorts ports tree · textproc/chordii/Portfile · source: api.github.com

Linux

Debian aptverified · 92%

sudo apt install chordii

Debian stable package indexes · chordii · source: deb.debian.org

overview

Package summary

Text file to music sheet converter

Project links

Commands and aliases

a2crd
chordii

history

Project history and usage

Chordii is a command-line song-sheet and songbook generator for lyrics with chords, centered on the Chord/ChordPro text format and PostScript output.

Project history

The official Chordii site traces the project to the original CHORD program by Martin Leclerc and Mario Dorion. It says the chord notation was invented in June 1991, with original releases recovered from 1992 archives and the last known original CHORD 3.6.2 distribution dated July 1995.

Johan Vromans and Adam Monsen revived the unmaintained program in 2007 after being unable to contact the original authors. The revived project was first called Chordie, then renamed Chordii in 2008 to avoid confusion with chordie.com.

A major packaging milestone came in December 2009, when the original authors agreed to a GPL-only CHORD 3.6.4 release. Chordii 4.3 was then rebased on that release, making it officially GPL and suitable for inclusion in distributions.

Adoption history

The official news page records Fedora approval for Chordii 4.3 in January 2010, with inclusion planned for Fedora 13 and updates for Fedora 11 and 12. The supplied package-manager facts list Homebrew, Debian, Ubuntu, and MacPorts packages.

Homebrew currently packages Chordii as a niche formula with stable version 4.5.3b and low install counts, consistent with a specialized music-notation utility rather than a broad CLI platform.

How it is used

Chordii reads lyrics and chord annotations in ChordPro format and emits PostScript song sheets with titles, chord names above words, chord diagrams, columns, indexes, multiple logical pages, configurable fonts, and songbook support.

The 2013 Chordii 4.5 news item added reading input from standard input, explicitly making Chordii usable as a filter in toolchains.

Why package nerds care

Chordii matters to package-history people because it preserves an early plain-text music notation ecosystem: a 1991-era Unix tool, alt.sources-era releases, licensing cleanup for distro inclusion, and a later handoff to the ChordPro project.

Its long tail in Homebrew, Debian/Ubuntu, MacPorts, and Fedora history shows how small domain-specific command-line tools survive through package managers long after their main upstream development has slowed or moved to a successor.

Timeline

1991: Original CHORD notation and program conceived by Martin Leclerc and Mario Dorion.
1992: Early CHORD 1.0, 1.0PL1, and 1.2 source kits distributed and later recovered from archives.
1995: Last known original CHORD 3.6.2 distribution.
2007: Johan Vromans and Adam Monsen revive the project.
2008: Project renamed from Chordie to Chordii; 4.2 adds a Windows port.
2009: Original authors agree to GPL-only CHORD 3.6.4; Chordii 4.3 is rebased on it.
2010: Chordii 4.3 approved for Fedora inclusion.
2013: Chordii 4.5 released with stdin/filter usage support.
2021: Official site says Chordii has been discontinued and points users to ChordPro.

Related projects

ChordPro is the successor and related reference ecosystem. The official Chordii home page says Chordii has been discontinued and directs users to the ChordPro site.
The original CHORD program is the direct ancestor, and the ChordPro format page describes the format as a simple text notation for lyrics with chords that many tools adopted.

Sources

security posture

Risk level: green

narrow executable package without higher-risk signals.

Risk classifier

green risk · low confidence · appliance

Why

narrow executable package without higher-risk signals

Signals

metadata:no-higher-risk-signals

Install behavior

No Homebrew post-install hook is recorded in formula metadata.
Homebrew bottle metadata is available for 13 platform targets.

Recommended review

Before unattended agent use, check whether the tool reads plaintext credentials, writes remote state, publishes artifacts, or shells out to plugins.

local files

Configuration and credential file locations

These source-backed paths show where this package keeps local settings or durable credentials. Automic Vault can use them as review targets for secret scanning, migration, and command approval.

Configuration files

Config paths the tool may read or write during local use.

Unix: ~/.chordrc

executables

Installed executables

Command	Kind	Exposure	Note
`a2crd`	cli	global executable
`chordii`	cli	global executable

freshness

Version and freshness

These signals separate page generation age, package-manager activity, and upstream release comparison. Version lag is warned only when an evidence URL and comparable versions are present.

page generated2026-07-08

manager version4.5.3b

manager updated

local dataok

upstreamnot checked

latest detectednot detected

https://www.vromans.org/johan/projects/Chordii/

infoNo package-manager update timestamp was available.low confidence
infoRelease/tag comparison is only available for GitHub repositories.https://www.vromans.org/johan/projects/Chordii/none confidence

install metadata

Package metadata

Package key	brew:chordii
Version	4.5.3b
Package manager	Homebrew
Package manager page	https://formulae.brew.sh/formula/chordii
Homepage	https://www.vromans.org/johan/projects/Chordii/
Repository	https://sourceforge.net/p/chordii/code
Upstream docs	https://www.vromans.org/projects/Chordii/chordpro/index.html
License	GPL-3.0-or-later
Source archive	https://downloads.sourceforge.net/project/chordii/chordii/4.5/chordii-4.5.3b.tar.gz
Bottle	available (on arm64_big_sur, arm64_linux, arm64_monterey, arm64_sequoia, arm64_sonoma, arm64_tahoe, arm64_ventura, big_sur, catalina, monterey, sonoma, ventura, x86_64_linux)
Homebrew post-install	not defined
Service	none declared

registry facts

Source database details

Source Database	Homebrew formula API
Tap	homebrew/core
Full Name	chordii
Version Scheme	0
Revision	0
Bottle Stable Root URL	https://ghcr.io/v2/homebrew/core
Deprecated	no
Disabled	no
Keg Only	no
URL Keys	stable

source database matches

Other package-manager records

Matches are pulled from external package-manager indexes and kept separate from local Automic Vault package links.

Debian apt95%

chordii 6.070+ds-3

transitional package

https://www.chordpro.org/

sudo apt install chordii

Section: text
Architecture: all
Source Package: chordpro
1 dependencies
normalized package name match
Matched by: Chordii

Debian stable package indexes · deb.debian.org · Debian stable package indexes: chordii from https://deb.debian.org/debian/dists/stable/main/binary-amd64/Packages.xz

Ubuntu apt95%

chordii 4.5.3+repack-0.2

Text file (chordpro format) to music sheet converter

http://chordii.sourceforge.net/

sudo apt install chordii

Section: universe/text
Architecture: amd64
1 dependencies
normalized package name match
Matched by: Chordii

Ubuntu 24.04 LTS package indexes · archive.ubuntu.com · Ubuntu 24.04 LTS package indexes: chordii from https://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/dists/noble/universe/binary-amd64/Packages.gz

MacPorts95%

chordii

sudo port install chordii

normalized package name match
Matched by: Chordii

MacPorts ports tree · api.github.com · MacPorts ports tree: textproc/chordii/Portfile from https://api.github.com/repos/macports/macports-ports/git/trees/master?recursive=1

package graph

Links come from deterministic package relationships, av.db category and tag curation, ecosystem matches, and package hub membership.

source trail

Generated from repository data

This page is generated by av-web from the private package SQLite artifact built by scripts/generate-pkg-sqlite.py.

Combined YAML source

View the package source record on GitHub.

combined/chordii.yml

Used sources

Geiger risk classifier
Nucleus package database
av.db category and tag curation
cross-ecosystem install command graph
curated configuration and credential file locations
curated package history
external package-manager database matches
package relationship graph
package version freshness
package-page enrichment

Install chordii with Homebrew, apt, MacPorts