# Build a flow on the canvas

Connect triggers, conditions and actions, then inspect a test run.

Updated 16 October 2026

## The three parts of a flow

| Part | Question it answers | Example |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Trigger | When should this start? | Someone types !hello |
| Condition | Should it continue? | The viewer is a moderator |
| Action | What should happen? | Send a chat message |

> **Pebble can walk you through the canvas**
>
> Pebble’s **Your first flow** tutorial builds a trigger and a reply, tests them and switches the flow on. Start it from [Tutorials](https://bloopbot.com/docs/tutorials).

A straight line of nodes can use the **Simple** form. Switch to **Canvas** when you need branches, extra checks or loops. Both views edit the same flow.

Flows run on Bloopbot’s servers, not on your computer. There is nothing to install: you build them in a browser, and your commands and moderation filters keep answering chat when your PC is off. Overlays still need OBS open, because they are Browser Sources.

## Open and read the canvas

On **Flows**, select a flow’s name to open it. The name is a link, so you can open it in another tab; its checkbox, live switch and **More** menu act independently. With **Flows** or **Groups** focused, use the left or right arrow to switch tabs, or Home and End to go to the first or last tab.

To start an empty flow, open **Flows**, choose **+ New flow**, then **Start blank**. It opens as **New flow**, paused. You can create several before renaming them: Bloopbot gives each an available identifier, such as `new-flow`, `new-flow-2` and `new-flow-3`. Give each flow a useful name in the editor so you can tell them apart.

Open a flow and choose **Canvas** in the top bar. Lines show how execution moves between nodes. Click a node to edit its fields in the side panel. Use the **Fit to view** icon in the toolbar at the bottom right of the canvas to bring the whole graph back into view.

On a short desktop window, the top bar becomes more compact. **Add a node** search and **Browse the library** stay visible while the suggestions scroll between them. Scroll inside the side panel to reach a node’s remaining fields. Opening **Run log** leaves room for the canvas; close it when you want more drawing space. Resizing the window keeps the same part of the graph centred at your chosen zoom, and **Fit to view** places the nodes above the canvas toolbar.

![Hello chat flow in a short desktop window with Chat command selected, compact toolbar and visible node search and Browse the library controls.](https://bloopbot.com/docs/screenshots/flow-short-window.jpg)

_The canvas in a short desktop window, with Chat command settings open and node search and Browse the library still in reach._

![The flow canvas with a Chat command trigger connected to a Chat message action. Under the trigger, a tray of the values it hands on — Who typed it, After the command, Word 1, Word 2 and a +1 more button; under the Chat message, its Message field with a user badge, with a dashed data wire into it from Who typed it. The node palette is on the left, Test fire and Save are in the top bar, and the Tidy up button is in the canvas toolbar.](https://bloopbot.com/docs/screenshots/flow-canvas.jpg)

_A Chat command trigger connected to a Chat message action._

## Describe what a flow is for

A flow can have a short description under its name, such as “Thanks a raider and shouts them out”. It helps you and your editors tell similar flows apart. It is optional. Flows you add from a pack already have one, which you can change or clear like any other.

1. Open the flow.
2. In the top bar, click **Add a description** under the flow's name.
3. Type one sentence, up to 240 characters.
4. Click **Save**.

The description then shows under the flow's name on **Flows**. When the flow answers a chat command, your public [Commands page](https://bloopbot.com/docs/public-page#commands) shows it under that command too, so write it for your viewers. To remove it, clear the text and save. Changing the description is like renaming: an installed flow is not marked **Edited**. An exported flow keeps its description when someone imports it.

## The settings panel

Click a node and its settings open in the panel on the right, with the node's name at the top and the duplicate icon (**Duplicate**) and the bin icon (**Delete**) at the bottom. Point at an icon and its name appears. Only the settings between them scroll, so those two stay in reach however long the list is. On a phone the same settings open as an **Edit node** drawer.

- **Make it wider or narrower.** Drag the panel's left edge to resize it between 300 and 560 pixels. Double-click the edge to go back to the default width. With the edge focused, the left and right arrow keys move it too. Bloopbot remembers the width in this browser.
- **Settings that appear once you choose.** A setting that only matters for one choice shows up only after you make that choice. For example, on **Pin, badge or hide chat**, **Pin it** appears once **Do** is set to pin a message, and **Badge** appears once it is set to badge one. What you typed is kept if you switch away and back. If a hidden setting has an error, it is shown anyway so you can fix it.
- **More options.** Settings most flows never change sit together under **More options** near the end of the panel, just above the **Note** box, with a count of how many there are. It opens by itself when one of them differs from its default or needs attention. Otherwise it stays as you left it while the page is open.
- **More on long help.** A long explanation under a setting shows its first sentence and a **More** link that opens the rest.
- **Insert….** The **Insert…** button sits on the same line as a setting's name. Use it to put a viewer value, such as the viewer's name, into a message; it lists the same values that used to appear as small buttons under the box.

## Leave a note on a node

When a step does something clever, leave a note so future you (or a mod) knows why.

1. Click the node to open its settings panel.
2. Type in the **Note** box at the bottom, after the step's other settings and **More options**. Notes are plain text, up to 500 characters, and keep your line breaks. For example, on a **Cooldown** step: "30 s for the whole channel so a raid can't fill chat with clip links." and, on a second line, "Mods and the broadcaster skip it."
3. Save the flow.

The node now shows a small note icon in its card header. Point at it and the note appears in a popover, as in the picture. A note never changes what the flow does. Notes travel with a flow you share or export, so write them for whoever opens it next.

![The Clip it flow's Cooldown step selected on the canvas, with a two-line note typed in the Note box of its settings panel and the same note showing in a popover over the small note icon on the node's card.](https://bloopbot.com/docs/screenshots/flow-node-note.jpg)

_A Cooldown step with its note: the popover over the note icon on the card, and the Note box in the settings panel._

## Tidy up the layout

A flow that has grown a few branches can end up with lines crossing and nodes on top of each other. **Tidy up** lays the nodes out again from left to right: the trigger on the left, each step to the right of the one before it, and the branches of a check in the order they appear on the node (**true** above **false**, a switch's cases from top to bottom).

1. Open the flow and choose **Canvas**.
2. To tidy only part of the flow, select two or more nodes: hold Shift and drag a box around them, or Ctrl-click each one.
3. Select **Tidy up** (the grid icon beside **Fit to view**), or press **Shift+L** while the canvas is focused.

The nodes move and the view fits to show them. Wiring and settings stay exactly as they were, and so does what the flow does: steps wired to the same output run from top to bottom (left to right when two sit level), and Tidy up keeps them in that order, so it never changes which one runs first. When you tidy a selection and its nodes would land on other cards, they move down together until they are clear. If a selected step has no room to keep its place in that order among the cards you didn't select, it stays where it was, and the selected steps around it may not stay in one row. **Undo** puts every node back in one step. When nothing needed to move you see "Already tidy". Tidy up is not available while you preview an older version. A flow an AI assistant builds for you opens laid out the same way.

## Find and connect a step

1. Use the search button in **Add a node**, or open **Browse the library**. Search in plain words, such as “timer”, “points” or “shoutout”.
2. Choose a node and fill in its fields. A node sitting on the canvas without a connection will not run.
3. Connect the output of the previous step to the new node. You can also drop a palette item onto a connection to insert it.
4. Read the output labels. A condition can take different paths; actions may have separate **next** and **error** outputs.

![The node library reading 132 nodes, grouping Chat and commands into When triggers, Only if conditions and Then actions, with every topic — including Music, Moderation, AI and Groups — across the top, and, along the bottom, Ready-made snippets such as Announce the winner (Giveaway changes → Chat message) and Nuke command (Chat command → Who can trigger → Nuke chat), each with a Details button, and an Add button for all of them.](https://bloopbot.com/docs/screenshots/node-library.jpg)

_The library groups triggers, conditions and actions by what you want to do._

Under the columns, **Ready-made** shows small connected flows that use the topic’s nodes. Press **Details** on one, or **Add** beside **Ready-made** to see them all: the **Add to this flow** panel opens on the right with the snippet’s review, which says what it adds and lists its **When**, **Only if** and **Then** steps. Press **Add**: its nodes land below what is already on the canvas, selected, as one step that **Undo** takes back. Nothing is saved until you save the flow. In **Add a node** search, a ready-made result opens the same review.

![The Add to this flow panel open on the ready-made snippet Announce the winner, Built in · Bloopbot: Adds 2 connected nodes to this flow, below what is already on the canvas, an Add button, the note that nothing is saved until you save the flow, What you get Giveaway changes → Chat message, and a What’s inside fold of 2 nodes.](https://bloopbot.com/docs/screenshots/flow-snippet-review.jpg)

_Add to this flow: a ready-made snippet’s review, docked beside the canvas._

Steps also pass values to each other. The small dots in the tray under a card are the values it hands on and the fields that read one: [connect values with data wires](https://bloopbot.com/docs/data-wires) shows how to drag one step’s value into another. A few steps you want in several flows can become one card — [reuse a set of nodes as a group](https://bloopbot.com/docs/group-nodes).

## Start one flow in more than one way

Use multiple triggers when different events should run the same steps. For example, a **Chat command** for `!welcome` and a **New follower** can both lead to one **Chat message** saying “Welcome in!” You need a flow with at least one trigger and a step you want to share.

1. Open the flow in **Canvas** view and add another trigger from **Add a node** or **Browse the library**.
2. Set up the new trigger, then connect its **next** output to the first step the triggers should share. Leave the existing trigger connected there too.
3. Save the flow. The **Simple** view is available for straight lines with one trigger; flows with several triggers stay on the canvas.
4. Choose a trigger beside **Test fire**, then run the test. Repeat for the other triggers and check the **Run log** for the path each one took.
5. Turn the flow on when both test paths do what you expect. Test fire simulates events and actions; a real chat or Twitch event is still needed to confirm live permissions and delivery.

![A flow canvas with a Chat command trigger and a New follower trigger both connected to the same Chat message action; the top bar lets the streamer choose which trigger to test.](https://bloopbot.com/docs/screenshots/flow-multiple-triggers.jpg)

_A Chat command and a New follower trigger joined to one Chat message, with a trigger choice beside Test fire._

A flow can have one trigger of each kind. A **Chat command** and a **New follower** can share steps, but two **Chat command** triggers can't: saving the flow is refused with “This flow already has a Chat command trigger”. To answer more than one command word, list the others under **Also responds to** on the one **Chat command**. For a command that should do something different, make a flow of its own.

Each matching trigger starts its own run. If two triggers match the same event, the shared action can run twice. Values such as `$(user)` come from the trigger that started that run; a value available only on one trigger may be empty on the other path. If a path does not run, check that its trigger is connected to the shared step and that its own filters match the event.

## Check a value from the event

Most conditions check who is talking or how often something has run. **Check a value** instead looks at a detail carried by whatever just triggered the flow — a poll’s choices, a goal’s current amount — using the same `$(...)` tokens the **Insert…** menu offers.

A Twitch prediction ends the same way whether it resolved or was cancelled, and a poll can end because it ran its course, was stopped early, or was archived — a prediction or poll trigger’s own **Outcome** field tells those apart without a condition at all, and a Twitch goal’s **When it** field offers **Ends without reaching it** alongside **Is reached**. The **Stream events** pack’s Prediction, Poll and Twitch goal flows are all set this way already.

Reach for **Check a value** when you want a cutoff none of those fields offer — for example, only reacting once a goal’s `$(current)` passes a number of your own, or a poll’s `$(choices)` containing a particular word.

## Wait before the next step

A **Wait** node pauses its path for a while, then carries on with the next step. Use it for anything that should happen later in the same flow: thank a raider now and post a reminder in two minutes, or turn a mode on and back off again ten minutes later.

1. In **Add a node**, search for “wait” and add **Wait**.
2. Set **Wait for**: type an amount and pick **seconds**, **minutes** or **hours** beside it, from 1 second up to an hour. For ten minutes, type 10 and pick **minutes**.
3. Connect the step before it to the **Wait**, and the **Wait**’s **next** output to what should happen afterwards.
4. Save the flow and turn it on.

For example, a **Chat command** for `!stretch` connected to a **Chat message** saying “Stretch break!” and to a **Wait** of 5 minutes, with the **Wait** connected to a second **Chat message** saying “Break’s over, welcome back!”, posts the first message at once and the second five minutes later.

What to expect:

- **Timing.** The next step starts up to 5 seconds after the time you set, never before. Waits keep going even if Bloopbot restarts in the meantime.
- **Other paths keep going.** Only the steps after the **Wait** are held back. If the step before it also connects to other nodes, those run straight away.
- **Editing cancels.** If you save a change to the flow’s canvas while a wait is pending (adding, removing, moving or changing a node, or changing a connection), that wait is dropped and the rest of its path doesn’t run. Renaming the flow doesn’t cancel it. Switching the flow off cancels a wait too, but only if the flow is still off when the wait ends: switch it back on before then and the wait carries on as normal.
- **Up to 20 at once.** A channel can have at most 20 waits pending across all its flows. While 20 are pending, a **Wait** fails, with “Too many waits are pending on this channel (20).” in the run log. Connect its **error** output to say what happens then; with nothing connected, the run ends there. Steps that already ran in that run are not undone.
- **Not inside loops or groups.** A **Wait** can’t sit on a **For each** node’s item branch or inside a group, and the flow won’t save with one there. Put it before the **For each**, or after its completion branch.

**In the run log**, a waiting flow shows up twice. The first run lists the **Wait** step as **waiting**, with the time it resumes (in UTC). When the wait ends, a second run starts with the same **Wait** step, marked **resumed** (for example, “waited 5 min (from the run at 14:22 UTC)”) and followed by the steps after it. If the wait was cancelled, the second run shows **abandoned** and says why.

**Test fire** doesn’t wait. The test run lists the **Wait** step as “would wait 5 min” and goes straight on to the next step, so you can check the whole path at once.

## Duplicate a flow

Duplicate copies a flow you want several of, such as eight Stream Deck keys that differ only in their picture and what they say, so you change what's different instead of building each one from scratch.

1. Open **Flows**, select the three-dot icon (**More**) on the flow's row and choose **Duplicate**. In the editor, select the duplicate icon (**Duplicate**) in the top bar; save your changes first, because the copy is made from the saved flow.
2. The copy opens in the editor, named after the original with “(copy)” on the end, for example “Death +1 (copy)”. A second copy is “(copy 2)”.
3. Rename it, change what makes it different, save it, and turn it on when it's ready.

What to expect:

- **It starts paused**, so a copied command never answers twice. The original keeps running as it was.
- **It is your own flow.** It counts toward your plan's flows, even when the original came from a pack. Pack updates never change it, and it has no **Reset to built-in**. When your plan's flows are full, Duplicate says so and makes nothing.
- **It uses the same things as the original**: the same variables, alert designs, rewards, groups and files. Nothing is copied twice, so changing an alert design changes it for both flows.
- **Keys and webhooks stay with the original.** To press the copy from your deck, point a key at it: in the Stream Deck plugin, pick the copy under **My flows** ([put a Bloop Flow key on your deck](https://bloopbot.com/docs/stream-deck-plugin#assign)). A copied webhook gets its own private URL, so the original's URL keeps running the original.

![The paused Death +1 flow in its pack, with its More menu open showing Export, Duplicate and Delete.](https://bloopbot.com/docs/screenshots/flow-duplicate.jpg)

_Duplicate in the menu of a flow row's three-dot icon (**More**), beside Export._

## Test before enabling

Save your changes, then use **Test fire**. Expand the **Run log** to see which nodes ran, which checks stopped the path and which actions were simulated. A dry run helps check wiring; a real Twitch event is still needed to confirm the live connection and permissions.

The **dry run** marker identifies a Test fire result. A run from a real event or **Run** has no dry-run marker and can change your channel. **Live** beside **Run log** shows whether updates are connected.

A flow that starts on a Twitch event — a goal, a poll, a raid, a sub and the rest — test-fires with a realistic made-up example of that event, so conditions that check its details (such as whether a goal was reached, or which choice a poll picked) take a real path instead of failing on empty values. The result shows which example was used. When a trigger can fire at more than one moment — a poll starting, getting votes or ending; a goal in progress or reached — a small picker next to **Test fire** lets you choose which one to simulate.

> **Loops have two jobs**
>
> A For each node repeats its item branch for each item. Put work that should happen once after the loop on its completion branch, such as opening one giveaway after rewarding all gift recipients.

## Run a flow on demand

Some flows shouldn’t wait for a chat command, a timer or a Twitch event — you just want to set them off yourself, whenever you like, with whatever details apply that time. Start one of these with the **Run button** trigger instead of any of the usual ones.

1. In **Add a node**, search for “run” and add **Run button** as the flow’s trigger.
2. Give it any inputs the rest of the flow needs — a song name, a number, an on/off switch. Each one gets a name, a type and an optional default, and the flow reads it as `$(input.<name>)` anywhere after the trigger.
3. Connect the **Run button** to the rest of the flow and save it.
4. Turn the flow on, then select **Run** (the play icon and the word) in the top bar.
5. Fill in the prompt — it starts from each input’s default — and select **Run** again.

![The Run prompt for a flow that starts with a Run button trigger, showing a text field for its declared "song" input filled in with Bohemian Rhapsody, a Cancel button and a Run button.](https://bloopbot.com/docs/screenshots/flow-run-prompt.jpg)

_The Run prompt for a flow with a Run button trigger, showing its "song" input filled in._

**This is not a simulation.** Unlike Test fire, a Run really sends chat messages, awards points and does anything else the flow does — the same as a real trigger firing. The prompt shows the run’s result once it finishes, or its run id while it is still going.

Running the same flow again while it is still going is limited the same way a Stream Deck key press is: the new run queues and starts as soon as the first one finishes, but a third one arriving before either is done is turned away, so a flow’s own side effects — like a chat message or a point award — never run twice at once for the same button mashed too fast.

## Check which Twitch features your channel can use

Your channel can have subscriptions, Bits and Channel Points before it becomes Affiliate. Twitch makes these features, along with polls, predictions and hype trains, available to eligible streamers who complete monetization onboarding. Affiliate or Partner status is still needed for cash payouts. [Twitch’s monetization announcement](https://blog.twitch.tv/en/2026/05/13/monetization-for-all/) explains the change.

Before setting up a flow that uses one of these features:

1. Open Twitch’s **Creator Dashboard** and check your monetization onboarding. Complete any remaining steps, then check that the feature you want is available there.
2. Open Bloopbot’s **Connections**. If Twitch shows **Update available**, choose **Re-authorize** to grant missing permissions. Reconnecting does not unlock a feature Twitch has not made available to your channel.
3. Build and **Test fire** your flow, then check it with a real Twitch event or action. Test fire checks the wiring with made-up events; it does not prove Twitch will deliver a real event or accept an action.

For example, a channel with subscriptions available can set up a **New subscriber** flow without being Affiliate. Bloopbot asks Twitch for the events it has permission to receive. Some features available in Twitch’s own dashboard may still be unavailable to other apps; if Twitch refuses an action, the **Run log** carries its answer. Check the feature’s availability separately from permissions.

**Needs Twitch Affiliate** applies to Twitch ads: **Run a commercial**, **Snooze the next ad** and the **Ad break starts** trigger. You can still add these steps before becoming Affiliate. On Kick, **Run a commercial** follows Kick’s own ad rules instead ([ads on Kick](https://bloopbot.com/docs/bloopbot-on-kick#ads)). Bloopbot checks your channel’s Affiliate or Partner status again about once an hour while your dashboard is open, and **Needs attention** lists switched-on flows waiting for that status.

![Run a commercial in the node library with a Needs Twitch Affiliate badge on a non-Affiliate channel.](https://bloopbot.com/docs/screenshots/flow-node-affiliate-badge.jpg)

_The node library marks Run a commercial as needing Twitch Affiliate._

Follows, raids and chat do not need monetization onboarding. Follower goals are available to every channel; other goal types depend on what Twitch offers your channel. Cards that a flow draws on your overlay — polls, predictions, hype trains and ad breaks — need no Twitch status, because the flow can supply their content itself.

## Flows paused until your bot is a moderator

Some steps only work when your bot is a moderator in your Twitch chat: **Time out**, **Delete the message**, **Announcement**, **Warn a viewer**, **Chat settings**, **Shout out a streamer** with Twitch's shoutout on, **Pick at random** when it picks someone in chat, and **Set a variable** for everyone in chat.

When Twitch says your bot is not a moderator, every flow that uses one of these steps is paused. It stays switched on, and nothing about it changes. The **Flows** page shows a bar like this, and the flow's row under **Needs attention** names the step:

![The Flows page bar: 2 flows are paused until the bot is a moderator in your chat, with the /mod command and its copy button](https://bloopbot.com/docs/screenshots/flows-paused-bot-mod.jpg)

_Two flows paused until the bot is a moderator, with the /mod command and its copy button_

If you are the channel owner, the command is on that bar, on the **Not a mod** bar across the top of every dashboard page, on the **Loyalty** page's notice and on a paused flow's own page:

1. Copy the command from the bar. It is `/mod` followed by your bot's account name.
2. Send it in your own Twitch chat, signed in as the channel owner.
3. Refresh your dashboard so Bloopbot checks the bot's moderator status again.

If you go live before making your bot a moderator, Bloopbot posts a reminder in your Twitch chat with the exact command to send. It also reminds you if a moderation action fails and Twitch confirms the bot is not a moderator. These reminders share a limit of one every 24 hours for your channel, including stream restarts. If chat blocks the reminder, use the command in your dashboard instead.

Editors see the paused line without the command, because the channel owner needs to make the bot a moderator.

The paused flows start running again by themselves as soon as Twitch lists the bot as a moderator. While the bot is not a moderator, loyalty payouts for watching are paused too, and the **Loyalty** page says so.

## Chat replies during a busy stream

Twitch limits how quickly your bot can post. When several commands or timers
reply at once, Bloopbot waits for room before sending the next message, so
replies can arrive later during a burst. If channels share the same bot
account, their replies share its Twitch allowance too.

Use a **Cooldown** on a frequently used command and keep timer messages
spaced out. Making the bot a moderator lets Twitch allow more replies;
authorizing it to join your chat alone does not. **Test fire** simulates chat
messages, so it does not show a live Twitch delay. If a message still fails,
expand that run in the **Run log** to read the reason Twitch gave.

## Switch other flows

Add **Turn flows on or off** to pause or resume several selected flows in one step, or **Turn a pack on or off** for a pack whose membership can change. Test fire simulates both without changing anything. [Switch packs and selected flows](https://bloopbot.com/docs/create-packs#switch) explains the pickers, the limits and how to keep a mode’s resume button available.