Using the app

What works todayCopy Anchor Link

This early-access build covers signing in, the YouTube and OBS connections, the Dashboard with live chat, the OBS scenes and audio controls, your overlay library and the catalog, the alert designer, chat actions with a built-in tester, the Sound Library (find sounds, get them, upload your own), the widget gallery, plugins, and an App stats screen. Widgets, overlays and themes you press Use on go into OBS as browser sources (how). Until you connect OBS or a channel, the app says plainly that nothing is connected; turn on Preview mode (Settings → Preview & device) to try every screen with sample data: a sample channel, a sample OBS and simulated events. Everything it shows is labelled as a sample, and nothing is sent to OBS or YouTube.

HomeCopy Anchor Link

Home is where you start:

• Hello and what's next: whether OBS and YouTube are connected, the setup steps you haven't done yet, and the next thing to do.
• At a glance: subscribers, this week's support, your viewers this week against the week before, and your setup (or your AI credits).
• Your streams: a graph of your streams over 7, 30 or 90 days (viewers, chat, Super Chats or length). Point at a bar for its numbers; click it for the whole stream: its numbers against your usual, the viewers through the stream, and its report. Below it, your last stream and your last 7 days, each with a report when AI is on. With Ultimate, Compare puts any two streams side by side (their numbers, and both curves on one graph) and shows which days and start times do best; a stream's own window has Compare with another.
• What OBS shows and Recent activity (Super Chats, members, gifts; hover one to replay its alert), and shortcuts to the places you use most.
• Learn ForgeCast: guided tours. The grand tour walks through every screen; shorter ones cover going live, overlays and widgets, automation, and your numbers and AI. You can also start one with Ctrl + K → Take the tour.

ForgeCast records each stream you go live with while it's open: how long, viewers through the stream, chat and support. It's kept on your PC, for every plan, and a restart in the middle of a stream carries on where it left off.

The Dashboard and its chatCopy Anchor Link

The Dashboard follows your channel's live stream (connect it): viewers, likes, uptime, Super Chats, members, and the live chat. Pop out chat opens the chat in a small window you can pin above your game or move to another monitor.

The Filter button on top of the chat, in the Dashboard and in the pop-out, changes how the chat looks and what it shows. The Dashboard and the pop-out each remember their own settings:

These only change what you see. Alerts, chat actions and plugins still get every line.

Scenes and audioCopy Anchor Link

With OBS connected, Scenes lists your OBS scenes (press one to switch) and your audio sources with Mute and Unmute.

The OBS pageCopy Anchor Link

With OBS connected, the OBS page sets OBS up for your computer and moves scenes between computers.

PerformanceCopy Anchor Link

Press Auto-detect and apply and ForgeCast looks at your processor, memory and graphics card, and at how OBS is doing, then sets OBS to suit. It shows what it saw and why it chose what it did. If you know your internet upload speed, type it in first: ForgeCast keeps the bitrate within what your connection can send.

Or pick a ready-made set yourself:

These change the picture size, the frame rate and, when OBS is in its Simple output mode, the bitrate and the x264 speed. They never touch your canvas, so your scenes keep their layout. Size and frame rate change at once; bitrates are used the next time you start streaming or recording. In OBS's Advanced output mode only the picture and frame rate change, and ForgeCast never switches your encoder: it tells you when your graphics card could do the encoding instead.

Every change can be undone with Undo, and ForgeCast won't change anything while OBS is streaming or recording.

Scene packsCopy Anchor Link

Export scenes saves the scenes you pick (and any scene they show inside themselves) into one file in your scene packs folder. Import scenes brings a file's scenes into OBS: you review which scenes come in, what gets a new name because it already exists, and what is reused as it is, then press Import. Undo import removes exactly what it added. Nothing already in OBS is changed.

A pack holds each scene's items (where they are, how big, in what order), the sources behind them and their settings, filters, and each source's volume. It doesn't hold your image, video and font files (only where they were), groups, your desktop-audio and microphone devices, or hotkeys.

Web addresses and file paths are left out of an export by default, and left blank on import unless you allow them: an overlay link can contain a secret key, and file paths contain your Windows user name. Only import packs from people you trust.

OverlaysCopy Anchor Link

The Overlays screen has two kinds of overlay, shown side by side in your inventory:

Every overlay you use has a Performance setting in its Use this overlay dialog: Auto, Quality, Balanced or Saver. If OBS lags, pick Saver. What each one does.

Customizing a predefined overlay (Pro and Ultimate)Copy Anchor Link

Open a predefined overlay and choose Customize. ForgeCast makes your own editable copy — the original stays untouched — and adds it to your inventory.

The editorCopy Anchor Link

On Pro and Ultimate the editor lets you place and style layers on a 16:9 canvas: text, images, shapes, a chat box, alert box, goal bar, event list, "latest member" labels and timers. You can bind text to live data (for example the name of your latest member) and add entrance, exit and idle animations. Use Test events to see how it looks without waiting for a real alert.

AlertsCopy Anchor Link

Alerts are the Alert box widget (Widgets → Alert box): pick a style, set its picture or emoji, how it comes on, a sound and the smallest Super Chat it shows, and press Use to put it in OBS. Once it is in OBS, Send test (next to Remove) plays one there. Super Chats, Super Stickers, new members, gifted memberships and new subscribers play on it by themselves while you're live.

Chat actionsCopy Anchor Link

Chat actions turn chat into things that happen on stream. Each one is a flow: blocks on a canvas, joined by wires.

• When blocks start it: a !command (with other names if you like), a keyword, any chat message (or only a viewer's first), an event such as a Super Chat or new member, a timer (every few minutes, only after some chat), or your own Run button.
• Check blocks split the flow: who the viewer is, a cooldown, whether you're live, what they paid, a chance, or Compare any value ({{args.1}} is more than 100, the message contains "gg"…). Each has a Yes and a No way out.
• Do blocks make things happen:
  • points: read, give, take (with a Not enough way out), set, move between viewers (!give @name 100), the top viewers;
  • chat: replies, a random line;
  • YouTube: delete the message, time the viewer out, rename the stream;
  • on stream: alerts, sounds, text to speech, goals;
  • overlays: turn a layer on or off, change a text or press a button, then change it back later; confetti, emoji rain and name cards; text your overlays show;
  • OBS: switch scene, show or hide a source, mute audio, save a replay;
  • counters: deaths, wins and the like, kept between streams;
  • Discord posts, and messages to plugins.
• Flow blocks: Wait, a Random path, Repeat, Run another action, Stop, and sticky notes.

Blocks pass values along as {{names}}: {{user}}, {{args.1}} (the first word after the command), {{target}} (the @name typed), {{balance}} after a points block, {{counter.deaths}}. The { } button beside a box lists the values you can use there.

To build one: press Add block, right-click or double-click the canvas, or drag a wire from a block's dot into empty space and pick what comes next. Delete removes, Ctrl + Z / Ctrl + Y undo and redo, Ctrl + C / Ctrl + V copy and paste (into another action too), and Tidy up lines everything up. Start from a template (!points, !give, !gamble, a death counter, a giveaway winner, a reminder timer…) to see how they're made. Chat actions made before flows became flows by themselves.

Test runs it on a pretend message or event. Sounds, alerts, overlays and OBS happen for real; chat, points, goals, counters, YouTube and Discord are only shown, not done. The canvas then lights up the way it went, and each block shows what it did. Overlays show a counter or an Overlay text value as {{plugin.chat-actions.<name>}}.

The right-click menuCopy Anchor Link

Right-clicking anywhere in ForgeCast opens its own menu. What's in it depends on where you click:

• in a text box: undo, cut, copy, paste and select all;
• on a link: open it or copy it;
• on a chat message: copy it or the viewer's name, plus what your plugins add there;
• anywhere: back, forward and Search (Ctrl + K).

Plugins can add their own items to it (ui.context_menu).

Sound libraryCopy Anchor Link

The Sound Library has two tabs. My sounds is what you can play on stream (in alerts, chat actions and plugins); Find sounds is where more come from.

Every sound is a file in your sounds folder on this PC. Open sounds folder (top right, next to Upload sound) opens it in Explorer. Files you drop into it show up in the library, and a file you delete there disappears from it.

• Find sounds. Search thousands of sounds, or browse Trending, Best of all time, Recent and categories such as Games, Memes and Reactions. Press the round button on a pad to listen first. Press Get and a progress bar shows the download; when it's done the sound is in your sounds folder and in My sounds.
• Upload sound. Pick your own clips (mp3, wav, ogg, m4a or flac, up to 50 MB each). They are copied into your sounds folder and stay on your PC.
• Edit. Press a sound's name to trim it, set its volume and fades, loop it, tag it and sort it into a category. Replace sound swaps its audio and keeps where it is used.

The catalog is the ForgeCast website reading Myinstants, so the app only ever talks to ForgeCast. Hotkeys are planned.

WidgetsCopy Anchor Link

Pick a goal bar, counter, live chat, recent events, "latest member" label, timer or alert box, choose one of its styles, set it up (a goal, a colour, a countdown, a sound) and press Use: it goes into the scene you have selected in OBS. While a chat box, alert box, recent events list or latest label is in OBS, Send test next to Remove shows a test message or event on it. Switch styles any time and your settings come along. With Pro or Ultimate, Customize in the editor opens your own copy of a style in the Editor. See Built-in widgets and their styles.

PluginsCopy Anchor Link

Plugins are small Lua programs that add to ForgeCast: notifications and sounds for keywords, a giveaway, a chat filter, a window with live numbers. Turn one on, approve what it may do, and change its settings on its card. Turn on Developer mode (Settings → Developer) to make your own, with a console and a test environment. See Build plugins.

Settings and App statsCopy Anchor Link

Settings has your account, the theme (light or dark), updates, Developer mode, Preview mode, and App stats: how much memory, processor, graphics card and network ForgeCast is using right now, with a one-minute history and a breakdown by process (the app and the windows it draws in). Network numbers cover ForgeCast's own requests: YouTube, your account and plugins. Pictures a window loads itself (avatars, thumbnails) aren't counted.

What's kept on your PCCopy Anchor Link

Everything the app keeps is in one folder on your computer (%APPDATA%\app.forgecast.desktop on Windows): your streams and their reports, chat actions, sound settings, Beta Lab data and preferences, plugins and what they save, sounds, overlay pictures and scene packs. It stays when you update or reinstall. If the app's own storage is ever cleared, it is put back from the folder the next time ForgeCast starts.

Settings → On this PC shows what is in it and how big each part is, opens the folder, and makes backups: one a day by itself (the last 7 are kept), or Back up now. Restore puts a backup back.

In the same place:

• Cache: the pages, scripts, pictures and graphics ForgeCast keeps so it opens and draws faster, and how big it is. Clear cache clears it on the spot and reloads the window (nothing you made or set is lost). You can also clear the overlay pictures it downloaded from your account; they are fetched again when an overlay needs them.
• Graphics (Windows): Use graphics acceleration draws ForgeCast with your graphics card. Turn it off if the window flickers, goes black or your game stutters while ForgeCast is open, then restart ForgeCast. Overlays in OBS are drawn by OBS and don't change.
• Clear data: your stream history and reports, recent activity, the AI work history, what your plugins saved, or everything ForgeCast remembers (a fresh start that keeps you signed in and keeps your plugins, sounds, pictures and scene packs). A backup is made first each time, so Restore can bring it back. To move everything to another PC, copy the whole folder. Your sign-in and OBS password are kept in Windows Credential Manager, not in the folder. Your plan and the overlays you own are on your account and come back when you sign in.

Cloud sync: two PCs, one setup (Ultimate)Copy Anchor Link

Settings → On this PC → Cloud sync keeps your setup the same on every PC you sign in on: chat actions, widgets, goals, Autopilot, stream history and stream reports, currency and AI settings, Beta Lab settings, and how lists and chat look. Turn on Keep this PC in sync on each PC.

• The first time a second PC joins, choose Use my account's setup or Keep this PC's for the settings that differ. Stream history and reports from both PCs are kept either way.
• After that each PC syncs by itself, about a minute after you change something. A setting changed on one PC only is taken as is; stream history changed on both is put together (a stream deleted on either PC stays deleted). If the same setting was changed on both, the PC that syncs later keeps its own.
• When your other PC changed something while ForgeCast is open, a note says what changed: Update now reloads ForgeCast for a second to take it on. At start-up it is taken on by itself.
• What stays on each PC: your sign-in, OBS and devices, the phone remote, hotkeys, and files (your sounds, plugins, pictures and scene packs).
• Delete the cloud copy removes it from your account; each PC keeps what it has.

Updates and the betaCopy Anchor Link

ForgeCast updates itself: it checks when it starts and every few hours, and installs what it finds (turn off Install updates automatically to be asked first). Every update is signed, and a download that doesn't match is thrown away.

With Ultimate you can choose the Beta channel in Settings → Updates: ForgeCast downloads the beta build, installs it and restarts, and shows Beta next to its name while you are on it. Betas get new features first and can have rough edges. Choosing Stable again puts the stable build back, even when it is an older version. Your overlays, settings and sign-in stay either way. If your plan stops including Ultimate, ForgeCast goes back to the stable build at its next update.

AutopilotCopy Anchor Link

With Ultimate, Autopilot (in the sidebar) runs parts of the stream for you:

• Auto scenes. Pick a scene for when you press Start Streaming in OBS, the scene to switch to when the stream is live (when YouTube shows it live, after a short wait for your viewers' delay, or after a countdown), and a scene for when you stop. Opening ForgeCast in the middle of a stream switches nothing. Below them: a Starting soon countdown you start yourself, and a BRB scene while your mic is muted.
• Milestone moments. A banner and confetti on your running overlays when the stream passes a round number: 100 viewers, 1,000 likes, your first new member, 10 Super Chats, 1,000 chat messages… Each one once per stream. Celebrate shows a test now.
• Live captions. Turn on Live captions and what you say appears as text on stream: add the Live captions widget (Widgets → Live captions; it starts at the bottom of the scene), or put {{captions.text}} in any overlay. Windows' own speech recognition does the listening in the language Windows is set to, and needs online speech recognition on (Windows Settings → Privacy & security → Speech). A line goes a few seconds after you stop talking. Translate into adds a second line in another language ({{captions.translated}}), translated by the AI, which uses AI credits while it's on. On Mac, captions are coming.
• Stream health alerts. A private word when OBS drops frames or lags, when your upload falls below half of what it usually is (or the connection congests), and when chat has been quiet for the minutes you choose. With Phone remote paired, your phone buzzes and shows the alert too.

Beta LabCopy Anchor Link

In a beta build, Beta Lab (in the sidebar) lists the features being tried out. Each one is off until you turn it on, and its settings appear under its switch. Each also has a How is it working for you? box: a thumbs up or down and a few words go straight to the ForgeCast team. Features you use during a stream get a panel under Beta tools on the Dashboard. Beta features can change, or be dropped, before they reach the stable build.

Global hotkeys. Click the key box and press the keys. A key you set stops reaching other programs while ForgeCast runs, so letters and numbers need Ctrl or Alt with them. F-keys, the number pad and media keys can be used on their own. If another program already uses a key, Beta Lab says so next to it.

Phone remote. Turn it on, open the address it shows in your phone's browser (the phone must be on the same Wi-Fi), and type the 6-digit code. Each code pairs one phone. Choose what the phone shows: your favourite sounds or all of them, your OBS scenes, and stream buttons such as mute, clip or next question. The first time, Windows asks whether ForgeCast may use your network: allow it on private networks. Phones that pair stay paired until you Forget them. Nothing outside your local network can reach it, and it stops when you turn it off.

Keyboard shortcutsCopy Anchor Link

On a Mac, use ⌘ (Command) where this says Ctrl.