📓 Stream Notebook

A handwritten-looking notebook that lives on your stream and fills itself from chat.

Your mods type !note dont forget the blue key, and it appears on screen in a composition notebook — numbered, checkable, and automatically filed under whatever game you're playing. Switch games and you get a fresh notebook; switch back and your old notes are still there.

Runs on your own PC. Nothing to sign up for, no monthly anything.

---

📥 Get it

⬇ Download Stream Notebook

_{Downloads a ZIP. Unzip it, double-click start.bat, and you're going.
Full steps below — the whole thing takes about five minutes.}

---

What you need

• A Windows PC
• OBS (or Streamlabs — anything that can add a "browser source")
• Your Twitch account
• Node.js — this is the only thing you might not have. Click the big green LTS download button on that page, run the installer, and click Next until it finishes. You never have to open it or look at it again.

That's everything. You do not need Streamer.bot, Mix It Up, a second bot account, an API key, or anything you have to pay for or sign up to.

_{On a Mac or Linux? It works — open a terminal in the folder and run npm install && npm start instead of double-clicking start.bat.}

---

Setup

Step 1 — Unzip it and double-click start.bat

Unzip the download somewhere you'll find it again — C:\StreamNotebook is a good spot. Don't run it from inside the ZIP, Windows won't let it work properly.

Open the folder and double-click start.bat.

A black window opens with white text. That's normal — that's the notebook running. Leave it open the whole time you stream; closing it turns the notebook off.

The very first time, it spends a minute or two setting itself up. After that it starts in a couple of seconds.

Your web browser then opens by itself to the dashboard. If it doesn't, the black window prints the address — type that into your browser. It's usually localhost:8765.

Windows may warn you about the file. If you see "Windows protected your PC", click More info → Run anyway. That warning appears for anything downloaded from the internet that hasn't paid for a signing certificate.

Step 2 — Click "Connect with Twitch"

On the dashboard, click the purple Connect with Twitch button.

You'll get a 6-character code. Click the link next to it, sign in to Twitch if it asks, type the code in, and approve.

Go back to the dashboard — it turns green on its own within a few seconds. You don't need to refresh or click anything else.

There's nothing to copy, paste, or keep safe here. No tokens, no passwords, no developer account.

What it's allowed to do: read your chat, post short confirmations like "Note #3 added", and see which game your channel is set to. That's the complete list. It cannot change your stream title, start ads, see your email, or read your DMs.

Step 3 — Add it to OBS

In OBS, look at the Sources box at the bottom. Click the + → choose Browser → give it a name like Stream Notebook → OK.

A settings window opens. Fill it in like this:

Field	What to put
URL	Click Copy on the dashboard, then paste it here
Width	1920
Height	1080
Shutdown source when not visible	✅ tick this
Refresh browser when scene becomes active	✅ tick this

Leave everything else alone.

Also stream vertically (TikTok, Shorts)? Add a second browser source on your vertical scene, and use the dashboard's vertical Copy button:

Field	What to put
URL	The vertical URL from the dashboard
Width	1080
Height	1920
Shutdown source when not visible	✅ tick this
Refresh browser when scene becomes active	✅ tick this

Both can run at the same time, and each has its own position and size in the dashboard.

_{Always copy the URL from your own dashboard rather than typing one from this page — the number in it can differ from machine to machine.}

Click OK. Don't worry that nothing appears yet — the notebook is invisible until there's a note to show. That's on purpose, so it isn't sitting on your screen empty.

_{Rather not type that URL? The dashboard has a Copy button that puts it on your clipboard — then just click in the URL box in OBS and press Ctrl+V.}

Step 4 — Test it

Go to your own Twitch chat and type:

!note this is my first note

The notebook should slide into the bottom-left of your OBS preview within a second, show your note, then tuck away again after about 20 seconds.

Seeing it? You're completely set up. Drag the source around in OBS if you want it somewhere other than the bottom-left.

Nothing happened? Jump to Troubleshooting — it's almost always one of two easy things.

---

Commands

By default you and your moderators can use everything. Anyone can use the view-only commands. !note and !notes are interchangeable.

Adding and editing

Command	What it does
!note <text>	Add a note
!note 3 <text>	Replace the text of note 3
!note 3 done	Tick note 3 off ✔
!note 3 undone	Un-tick it
!note 3 scratch	Cross it out ✗
!note 3 unscratch	Un-cross it
!note 3 delete	Delete it (remaining notes renumber)

Tidying up

Command	What it does
!note archive	Move every ticked note to a "Completed Notes" page
!note 3 archive	Move just note 3 there, marking it done
!note 3 unarchive	Bring note 3 back to the active list
!note clear all	Wipe the current page 🔥

Pages and chapters

Command	What it does
!note chapter <name>	Switch to a named chapter, creating it if new
!note page next / prev	Flip the notebook page
!note page 2	Jump to page 2

Chapters are tabs within the current game — handy for !note chapter Boss Fight versus your general run notes.

Showing and hiding

Command	Who	What it does
!note show	anyone	Pin the notebook open
!note show 3	anyone	Pin it open, highlighting note 3
!note hide	anyone	Unpin it
!note list	anyone	Print the current notes into chat
!note on / off	mods	Master switch for the whole system
!note help	anyone	Print the command list into chat

Viewers get a cooldown (10s by default) on the public commands so nobody can spam-flicker your overlay. You and your mods are exempt.

---

The dashboard

The page that opens when you start the notebook — usually http://localhost:8765. Everything is configured here. There are no config files to edit.

• Status — Twitch, chat, current game, and whether notes are saving
• Options — chat replies, notebook position and size, who can add notes, cooldown
• Overlay Controls — show/hide/on/off buttons, if you'd rather click than type
• Activity — a live log, useful when something isn't working

Manage Notes

The Manage Notes link at the top of the dashboard — a full editor for every note you've ever taken, across every game. Add, edit, reorder, rename chapters, delete old games. Edits to the game you're currently playing show up on stream instantly.

Useful for prepping a run in advance, or cleaning up after a long stream.

Showing an older game on stream. Click the 📌 next to any game to put its notes on screen, even if you're playing something else. The notebook stays there until you unpin it — it won't jump back when your Twitch category changes. The bar at the top says PINNED while this is on, with an Unpin link.

Handy for pulling up last week's boss notes, or prepping in Just Chatting.

---

Options explained

Notebook position & size — which corner it sits in, and how big it is.

Your normal stream and your vertical stream get their own settings, so you can run both at once and have each look right. Changes appear straight away — you don't need to touch OBS.

Sizes go Small → Huge. Turn it up on a big (1440p/4K) screen or a vertical one, where the normal size looks small. Text stays sharp at every size.

Stop the notebook — turns it off completely. Your notes are saved. Double-click start.bat to bring it back.

Reply in chat — posts short confirmations like 📓 Note #3 added. Turn it off for a quieter chat; the overlay still updates either way.

Organise notes by game

• Auto (default) — follows your Twitch category, so every game keeps a separate notebook. Checked once a minute.
• Manual — files everything under one name you choose. Good for Just Chatting or if you don't change categories.

Who can use notes — three switches. You always have full control.

Switch	Default	What it gives them
Moderators can manage notes	On	Everything — add, edit, delete, clear
VIPs can add notes	Off	Adding only
Subscribers can add notes	Off	Adding only

Turn moderators off if you'd rather be the only one who can change your notes. Anyone in chat can always use !note show, hide and list.

Viewer cooldown — seconds a regular viewer waits between show/hide/list. Set to 0 to disable.

---

Troubleshooting

Nothing appears in OBS Right-click the browser source → Refresh. Check the console window is still open and the dashboard shows Twitch as connected.

The notebook is blurry Don't resize the source by dragging its corners in OBS — that stretches the picture and blurs the text. Set the browser source to the size in the table above, then use Notebook size in the dashboard instead. That redraws it properly, so it stays sharp.

The notebook is too small / in the wrong place Dashboard → Options → Notebook position & size. Your normal and vertical overlays have separate settings.

The notebook is stuck on the wrong game It's pinned. The bar at the top of the Manage Notes page says PINNED — click Unpin and it'll follow your Twitch category again.

Commands do nothing Check the dashboard's Activity log. If chat shows red, reconnect Twitch. Also make sure you're typing in the chat of the account you connected.

"Twitch rejected the login" Your token expired or access was revoked. Click Disconnect, then Connect with Twitch again.

The address isn't localhost:8765 If something else on your PC was already using 8765, Stream Notebook quietly moves to the next free port and tells you which one in its window. Use the address it prints, and copy the overlay URL from the dashboard so OBS matches.

Notes aren't saving The dashboard will say so. Usually means better-sqlite3 failed to install — delete the node_modules folder and run start.bat again.

---

Where your data lives

Everything user-specific is in data/ (gitignored, never committed):

File	Contents
notes.db	Every note, chapter and game — SQLite, back it up if you care about it
settings.json	Your options and Twitch token
notes-state.json	Whether the overlay is currently on/visible

To move to a new PC, copy the data/ folder across.

---

How it works

Twitch chat ──► TwitchChat (IRC) ──► NotesService ──► SQLite (data/notes.db)
                                          │
                                          └──► WebSocket ──► overlay in OBS
                                                         └──► notes manager page

The overlay never holds authoritative state — the server sends a full render on every change and the overlay diffs it to drive the animations. A dropped message can't desync the display; it just resolves on the next update.

Adapted from the notes service in a larger multi-service streaming server. The notebook module (public/notebook-overlay.js) is self-contained and can be dropped into any existing overlay page: include it, call NotesOverlay.attach(ws) on connect, and route note:* events to NotesOverlay.handle(event, data).

---

License

MIT — do what you like with it.