Why Bureau of Chat · free, for Twitch

Every channel
is a country

Viewers carry one passport from chat to chat, and every channel they visit stamps it, live on stream. Streamers get the overlay that draws it, a chat bot and a desk to run the show from. It is free, and it asks Twitch for no permissions at all.

Free forever No Twitch permissions One Browser Source About a minute to set up Your mods can run it Nothing to install
I watch streams I run a channel
A viewer's passport landing on a stream overlay
A passport on stream. Somebody types !passport and their document lands on the overlay in about four seconds, printed the way their country prints it.
For viewers · one passport, every channel

Type it once. Collect everywhere.

There is no form to fill in and no password to remember.

1

Say the word

Type !passport in any Bureau channel.

2

Watch it land

The stamp slams onto your document live on stream. Chat sees the whole thing.

3

Go collect

Next channel, next stamp. The document follows you everywhere you watch.

Make the document yours

Every stamp is a channel you showed up for, struck in that streamer's own shape and colour, and it lands harder the longer you have been going there.

  • Climb the ladder: first flight, frequent flyer, diplomat.
  • Earn miles: fifty for every new channel that stamps you, ten for every visit.
  • Spend them in each channel's Duty Free shop on document styles, titles, and sounds or pictures sent to the stream.
  • Your passport page is a poster with your name, stamps and document, made to paste into Discord.
The holder record: stamps collected, miles and the viewer's document
Your holder record. Stamps collected, miles, flowers and the document as it appears on stream.
Several passports side by side, each in a different country's style
Forty-two countries. Every country prints its passport its own way, and you can pick from twenty-three finishes for yours.
For streamers · OBS ready

Run your own port.

One Browser Source carries everything your viewers see, dressed in your channel's country. The bot joins your chat when you go live and leaves when you stop.

The overlay

Every moment, on one source

  • Raids: a departure board for every raid in and out.
  • Bits, subs and gift bombs: a board with their face on it, and an effect you choose.
  • Shoutouts: their name, picture and game, with one of their clips or their trailer.
  • Countdowns and polls on the departure board. Chat votes with !vote.
The bot

Commands your chat already expects

  • Your own commands, like !discord or !schedule. Write the reply once; it fills in who asked.
  • Timed messages that post only while you are live.
  • Mod commands for shoutouts, raids, polls and timers: !so !raid !board !timer.
  • It reads Twitch badges, so modding someone is all it takes.
Dispatch

A desk for the whole show

  • The Telestrator: draw, caption, point and put images or clips on your stream live.
  • Saved screens you can bring back with one click or !scene.
  • A dock inside OBS with the things you reach for mid-stream.
  • Mods you pick can work it from their own computer.
Things to do with chat

More than alerts

  • The Inspection Booth: chat queues up with papers and you catch the forgeries.
  • A lottery where every channel that has stamped a viewer adds to their chances.
  • A garden: a plant your chat grows together with !water.
  • Your own Duty Free shop, where viewers spend miles they earned watching.
A thank-you board for a viewer who cheered 5,000 bits
Bits, subs and gifts. The person who did it, what they did and the number beside it.
A card celebrating a viewer's 50th visit, with confetti
Your regulars, noticed. A card for somebody's 50th visit or their anniversary at your channel, if you switch it on.
Running in OBS · straight from the desk

This is what it looks like.

Straight from OBS: the overlay in the preview, the Bureau's dock on the right, and the bot talking in chat.

OBS with the Inspection Booth on the stream preview, the Bureau dock's booth controls on the right, and the bot announcing the booth in chat
The Inspection Booth. A game for your chat: they bring papers, you check them against the rulebook and stamp ADMITTED or REFUSED from the dock, while the room votes with !admit and !deny.
OBS with a departure board poll and a countdown over a game, the dock's departure board panel on the right, and the bot's message in chat
A poll and a countdown, over the game. Type the question and the options in the dock, press Open, and chat votes with !vote 1-3.
Dispatch with the Telestrator open: a toolbar of drawing tools, the layers and the stage
Dispatch and the Telestrator. The full desk in your browser: one toolbar for drawing and adding things, the layers down the side, and the stage in the middle.
The Port of Entry at Document style, where a streamer picks the country their passport starts from
The Port of Entry. Pick the country your passport starts from, design your stamp, and choose what is switched on.
Set up in about a minute
  1. Connect with Twitch. We ask for no permissions at all, so all we learn is which account you are.
  2. Design your stamp: shape, four characters, colour. The defaults are fine for now.
  3. Add one Browser Source in OBS at 1920 × 1080, pointed at your overlay address.
  4. Mod the bot if you like, so its messages skip your filters.
  5. Type !passport in your own chat. It should land inside a second.
Register a channel Read the handbook
Questions

The short answers.

What does it cost?

Nothing, for viewers or streamers, and nothing is locked. It runs on one small server out of pocket; Friends of the Bureau help with the upkeep if they want to.

What does it ask Twitch for?

No permissions. Signing in only tells us which account you are, which is how nobody can register a channel that is not theirs.

Will it send my viewers to other streams?

The bot names no other channel in your chat unless you switch that on yourself. It is off for every channel to begin with.

What does it record?

Only people who asked for a passport: which channels they were seen in, how they stand there, and their stamps. Never their messages. See the privacy notice.

I already have a bot. Does that clash?

They sit side by side. If your other bot already answers !help, tell chat to use !bureau for this one.

Do I need to download anything?

No. The overlay is a Browser Source and everything else is on this site. Buying and spending happen here too, never in your chat.

Get your papers.

Claim your passport, or open a port on your own channel.

Claim my passport Register a channel