# Bloopbot terms, explained

A quick reference for triggers, nodes, packs, source URLs and dry runs.

Updated 9 October 2026

## Building behaviour

| Term | Meaning |
| --- | --- |
| Flow | An automation made of connected steps. |
| Node | One step on the canvas: a trigger, condition, action or control. |
| Trigger | The event that starts a flow, such as a chat command or a raid. |
| Condition | A check that decides whether a path should continue. |
| Action | A step that does something, such as sending a message. |
| Template | A reusable starting flow that installs as your own copy. |
| Pack | A group of related flows installed together. |
| Group | A set of steps saved once and used as one card in any flow, with named ways in and exits — see [reuse a set of nodes as a group](https://bloopbot.com/docs/group-nodes). Not the same as the Flows list grouping a pack’s flows. |
| Dry run | A simulated execution. Test fire records what would happen without live actions. |

## AI features

| Term | Meaning |
| --- | --- |
| AI judge | Answers a plain-English question about a chat message with a probability, a pick from a short list, or a position on a scale — never generated text. |
| AI feature | One AI capability, included or not per channel — see [Your plan](https://bloopbot.com/docs/what-your-plan-includes). |
| Locked | An AI feature your channel doesn’t currently include. The step stays visible in the library but can’t be added. |
| Confidence / threshold | How sure the judge has to be before a flow acts on its answer. Higher catches less but is more certain. |
| Watch-only flow | An AI flow whose branches only log what it thought, so you can tune it before letting it act. |
| Fails open | When the AI judge is unavailable, an AI feature falls back to ordinary, non-AI behaviour rather than blocking anything. |

## Remembering and reusing data

| Term | Meaning |
| --- | --- |
| Variable | A named value you declare, such as a death counter. |
| Channel scope | One shared value for the channel. |
| Viewer scope | A separate value for each viewer. |
| Channel data | Information the bot keeps up to date on its own, such as the last raid or the songs waiting in the queue. |
| Insert… | The editor menu for choosing data to use in a field. |
| Port | A small dot in the tray under a card: a value the step hands on, or a field that reads one. |
| Data wire | The dashed line from one step’s value to the field that uses it — see [connect values with data wires](https://bloopbot.com/docs/data-wires). |
| Cooldown | A time limit on how often a path can run. |

## Putting it on screen

| Term | Meaning |
| --- | --- |
| Overlay | A page Bloopbot hosts for OBS as a Browser Source: alerts, chat, goals and the rest, designed and kept under **Overlays**. |
| Alert layer | The place on an overlay where one alert design draws. Every alert type — follow, sub, raid and the rest — is its own layer. See [Show alerts on stream](https://bloopbot.com/docs/alerts). |
| Alert design | The look, text, picture and sound of one alert. It belongs to your channel, so every overlay that shows it changes together. |
| Alert queue | The one line every alert and media file waits in, so they play one at a time. The Live page’s Alerts card and the Alert queue step skip, pause, resume, replay and clear it. |
| Custom overlay | Your own named HTML overlay connected to Bloopbot with its own private URL and selected data access. |
| Custom widget | A widget you wrote, or added from the Marketplace, kept once on the **Widgets** page. Every overlay that shows it changes when you edit it and publish — see [Reuse your widgets in every overlay](https://bloopbot.com/docs/your-widgets). |
| Layer | One placement of a widget on an overlay, with its own position, size and settings. |
| Browser Source | The OBS source type that displays a webpage or widget. |
| Read token / widget key | A private value in a connection URL that allows access to that output. |
| Remote trigger (webhook) | A flow’s private URL that an external button or service can call to trigger it — see [start a flow from a URL](https://bloopbot.com/docs/webhooks). |
| Editor | Someone the owner has allowed to manage the channel in Bloopbot. |