Introduction to Flows
Flows are Streamerly's visual automation system. They let you build powerful, custom automations for your stream by connecting nodes together in a visual editor — no coding required.
With Flows, you can go far beyond simple chat triggers. You can build conditional logic, process data, interact with OBS, trigger alerts, and combine multiple actions into a single automation.
How It Works
A flow is made up of nodes connected by edges. Each node performs a specific task — listening for an event, checking a condition, transforming data, or performing an action. You connect nodes together to create a chain of operations that runs automatically.
Node Categories
Every node belongs to one of these functional categories:
- Triggers — Entry points that start your flow when something happens (a chat command, a subscription, a raid, etc.)
- Checks — Decision points that route data based on conditions (is the user a mod? is the number greater than 100?)
- Process — Transformation nodes that manipulate data (math operations, text formatting, delays)
- Effects — Action nodes that do something visible (send a chat message, switch an OBS scene, trigger an alert)
- Data — Value providers that supply static or dynamic data to your flow (text, numbers, variables, time)
- List — Nodes for building and manipulating lists of values
- Label — Visual annotation nodes for commenting your flow (no execution)
Where Nodes Run
Nodes don't all run in the same place. Each node falls into one of three runtime classes, and every node doc in this reference is tagged with its class directly under the title.
- Backend — Runs on the Streamerly server. These nodes can touch the database, talk to the Twitch API, control OBS, trigger overlay alerts, and access persistent state. Almost all nodes that do something visible to viewers are backend nodes.
- Shared — Pure logic that runs anywhere. These nodes have no external dependencies — they're math, string work, list operations, branching, etc. The same executor code runs both on the backend and inside frontend flow environments like the Chatbox Flow Editor.
- Frontend (Chatbox) — Runs inside the browser, specifically in the Chatbox Flow Editor which executes on the OBS browser source. These nodes only appear in chatbox flows and operate on a single chat message as it arrives on the client. They cannot touch the database or make API calls.
See How Flows Execute for a deeper explanation of each runtime environment.
What Can You Build?
Here are a few examples of what you can create with Flows:
- Custom chat commands with conditional responses based on user roles
- Automated alerts that trigger OBS scene changes and chat messages simultaneously
- Bit/sub counters that track totals using variables and display progress
- Timed automations that run on a schedule (reminders, rotating messages)
- Channel point integrations that control OBS sources, play sounds, or modify your stream
- Raid responses that switch scenes, send announcements, and trigger alerts all at once
Getting Started
Ready to build your first flow? Head to the Getting Started guide for a step-by-step walkthrough.
Want to understand the fundamentals? Check out the Concepts section to learn about nodes, edges, data types, and how flows execute.
Node Reference
Browse all available nodes by category: