Announce when a creator goes live or posts. Watch your own channels or your favorite creators: Packet just watches public feeds. It posts a rich card to the channel you pick, exactly once per stream or post (no spam, no duplicates). (Configure → Social alerts.)
Platforms you can watch (what to put in the Creator box):
| Platform | What it announces | Creator field |
|---|---|---|
| Twitch | Goes live | Twitch username, like shroud |
| Kick | Goes live | Kick username, like xqc |
| YouTube | New upload, or going live, or both | Channel ID, UC… (not the @handle) |
| New post (until 13 November 2026) | r/subreddit or u/username | |
| GitHub | New release | owner/repo, like facebook/react (or owner/repo/commits) |
| Steam | Game update | App ID, the number in the store URL, like 346110 |
| Bluesky | New post | Handle, like name.bsky.social |
| Mastodon | New post | @user@instance.social |
| RSS / Atom | New item | Any feed URL. Covers blogs, podcasts, Substack, Medium, and more |
Reddit stops its feeds on 13 November 2026, after which Packet can no longer post Reddit alerts, and subreddit moderators can use Reddit's own Discord Relay app.
Setup: open Configure → Social alerts, + Add alert, pick a platform, paste the creator, and choose the channel to post in. Twitch and Kick need a one-time setup on Packet's side, and every other platform works out of the box. Hit Send test alert to preview the card. It uses the creator's most recent post (or current stream), so you can see a real alert without waiting, even for someone who rarely posts.
YouTube. A YouTube alert has a What to announce choice: New videos, Going live or Both. A live stream is posted once, as going live, usually within a few minutes of starting.
Post style. Each alert is one of two styles. Pick it per alert: new alerts start on the recommended one for that platform, and you can switch any time.
- Link preview (recommended for posts and videos: YouTube, GitHub, Steam, RSS, Bluesky, Mastodon): Packet posts your message with the link, and Discord builds the rich preview, with the image, title, and summary pulled straight from the page, exactly like when you paste the link yourself. This is usually the best look, and it's what you want if a manual link post shows more than a Packet card.
- Packet card (recommended for live streams: Twitch, Kick): Packet builds its own embed (with the stream title, game, and viewer count). Use this when you want full control of the card, or for streams (which aren't a web page Discord can preview).
Make it yours. Each alert can also have:
- a custom message (with variables, see below), and, in Packet card style, a custom embed; leave them blank for Packet's built-in defaults;
- a ping role (pairs perfectly with a self-serve role from the Role Caller, so members opt into "stream pings" themselves);
- filters, so it only alerts when a stream is playing certain games, or when a title contains certain keywords;
- a cooldown so a flaky stream can't spam the channel;
- a live role (Twitch, Kick, and YouTube when it announces going live): give a member a "🔴 Live" role while they're streaming, removed automatically when they go offline.
Alert variables (for the message + embed): {creator}, {title}, {url},
{game}, {viewers}, {platform}, {thumbnail} (the post's own image), and
{mention} (the ping role). Plus {server} and {memberCount}. For example:
{mention} **{creator}** is live playing {game}! {url}
TikTok, X, Instagram, Facebook, Threads, Telegram and others. These sites don't offer a free way to watch any creator, so Packet has no built-in alert for them. Many of those creators cross-post to a platform above, so you can watch them there. You can also use the RSS / Atom alert with a feed made by a free, open bridge tool such as RSS-Bridge or RSSHub. Paste the feed address the bridge gives you into the Creator box. Before you do:
- Packet does not run a bridge. Run your own copy, or use a shared one that someone else runs. Shared ones limit how often they answer.
- A bridge reads the site itself, so a feed can stop working when the site changes or blocks it.
- A bridge for X or Instagram may need its own account logged in. The site can restrict that account, so don't use one you rely on.
- Whoever runs the bridge is responsible for following the site's rules.
- Packet can only reach a feed on a public https address, so a bridge on your home network won't work. The address can't contain a username or password.
- A key in the address is saved in your server's setup. Keep it private.