Automation15 min read

NOALBS Setup Guide

NOALBS (Nginx OBS Automatic Low Bitrate Switching) monitors your stream health and automatically switches OBS scenes when your connection drops or has low bitrate. This keeps your viewers engaged even when you're experiencing connection issues.

What Does NOALBS Do?

Bitrate Monitoring

Monitors your stream bitrate in real-time. When it drops below your threshold, NOALBS automatically switches to your LOW or BRB scene.

Disconnect Detection

Detects when your encoder completely disconnects and switches to a BRB scene so viewers see something instead of a frozen frame.

Chat Commands

Control OBS from Twitch/Kick chat. Switch scenes, check bitrate, and manage your stream without touching your computer.

Auto Recovery

Automatically switches back to LIVE scene when your connection recovers, with configurable retry logic.

NOALBS Cloud: Nothing to Install

NOALBS Cloud is the hosted version of NOALBS, built by its original maintainer. It runs online, so there is nothing to download or keep open on your computer. You sign in with Twitch or Kick, and OBS connects to it through a browser source.

Prefer to run NOALBS yourself? The prerequisites and setup steps further down cover NOALBS on your PC.

Add your endpoint in one click

  1. Open your endpoint in the IRLServer dashboard.
  2. On the Connect tab, open "Switch scenes automatically", then "Prefer NOALBS?", and choose NOALBS Cloud.
  3. Click "Add to NOALBS Cloud". Sign in, pick the switcher to add it to, and confirm.
  4. Finish setup in NOALBS Cloud: add its browser source to OBS and pick your LIVE, LOW and BRB scenes.
The link behind the button contains your stream path, which works like a password. Do not share it.

Or add it by hand

  1. Sign in at next.noalbs.com and open your switcher.
  2. Go to Stream servers, add a server and pick SLS (SRT Live Server).
  3. Copy the stats URL and the publisher from the NOALBS Cloud option on your endpoint's Connect tab. Paste them in, then save.

IRLControl: Our Hosted Option

IRLControl is our own hosted switcher, and it is free. It uses the same switching rules as NOALBS and can import your NOALBS config.json, so your triggers, scenes and stream servers come across. On top of switching, it shows your stream health on one screen and lets your mods run the stream from chat.

NOALBS Cloud, IRLControl and NOALBS on your PC all work with your IRLServer endpoint. Pick the one that suits you.

Open IRLControl

Prerequisites

  • OBS Studio with WebSocket enabled (OBS 28+ has it built-in)
  • Scenes created in OBS: LIVE, LOW, BRB (and optionally REFRESH, STARTING, ENDING)
  • An IRLServer endpoint with stats URL (available in your dashboard)
  • Windows, macOS, or Linux computer to run NOALBS

Setup Steps

1

Download NOALBS

Download the latest NOALBS release from GitHub. Choose the version for your operating system:

Download from GitHub
Extract the downloaded ZIP file to a folder on your computer. You should see the NOALBS executable and a config.json file.
2

Enable OBS WebSocket

NOALBS communicates with OBS through WebSocket. Enable it in OBS:

  1. Open OBS Studio
  2. Go to Tools → WebSocket Server Settings
  3. Check "Enable WebSocket server"
  4. Set a password (you'll need this for NOALBS config)
  5. Note the port (default is 4455)
3

Create Your Scenes

Create the following scenes in OBS:

  • LIVEYour main streaming scene with the media source
  • LOWShown during low bitrate (can include the feed + a warning)
  • BRBShown when disconnected (clip player, static image, etc.)
  • REFRESH(Optional) Shown while refreshing the media source
Scene names are case-sensitive. Make sure they match exactly what you put in the config.
4

Configure NOALBS

Edit the config.json file with your settings. Use our config generator for an easy setup:

Open NOALBS Config Generator

Key settings to configure:

  • OBS WebSocket host, port, and password
  • Your stats URL from the IRLServer dashboard
  • Bitrate triggers (e.g., switch to LOW below 800 kbps)
  • Scene names matching your OBS scenes exactly
5

Setup Chat Integration (Optional)

For Twitch chat commands, you need a Twitch OAuth token. Create a .env file in the NOALBS folder:

TWITCH_BOT_USERNAME=your_bot_username
TWITCH_BOT_OAUTH=oauth:your_token_here

Get your OAuth token from twitchtokengenerator.com

6

Run NOALBS

Start the NOALBS executable. You should see it connect to OBS and start monitoring your stream stats.

Keep NOALBS running whenever you stream. You can minimize it to the system tray or run it as a service.

Chat Commands

NOALBS supports various chat commands organized by permission level. Default prefix is "!".

Admin Commands

!start

Start streaming in OBS

Admin
!stop

Stop streaming in OBS

Admin
!switch [scene]

Switch to a specific scene

Admin
!live

Switch to LIVE scene

Admin
!privacy

Switch to privacy scene

Admin
!record

Toggle recording

Admin

Moderator Commands

!trigger [value]

Set low bitrate trigger threshold (kbps)

Mod
!otrigger [value]

Set offline trigger threshold (kbps)

Mod
!fix / !refresh

Try to fix the stream (refresh media source)

Mod
!sourceinfo

Show current source information

Mod

Public Commands

!bitrate

Show current stream bitrate

Public

Troubleshooting

NOALBS can't connect to OBS: Check that WebSocket is enabled in OBS and the password/port in your config matches OBS settings.
Scene switching not working: Verify scene names in config.json match your OBS scenes exactly (case sensitive).
Stats URL returning errors: Make sure your encoder is streaming to the endpoint. Check the stats URL in your browser - you should see JSON data.
Need help? Join our Discord or check the NOALBS Wiki.

Resources

Config Generator

Generate your config.json

NOALBS GitHub

Source code & releases

OBS Setup Guide

Configure OBS for IRL streaming

OAuth Token Generator

Generate Twitch OAuth tokens