A raid brings viewers from another Twitch channel to yours. A short alert can welcome them, credit the streamer, and leave you room to introduce yourself. It does not need to take over the screen.

How raids and alerts connect

Twitch controls the raid itself and your incoming-raid settings. Your alert service receives the supported event and plays the media you assigned to it. See Twitch's raid guide for the current controls.

AlertForge creates the animation. Upload its transparent WebM to the raid event in your connected alert widget. Keep the raiding channel name and viewer count as dynamic widget text instead of fixed text inside the video.

How to set up a raid alert in OBS

Create or choose your raid animation and download the transparent WebM.
Connect your Twitch channel to an alert provider that supports raids and custom media.
Upload the WebM to the raid event. Check any variation rules or minimum-viewer filters.
Match the display duration to the full clip, including its exit.
Copy the widget's overlay URL and add it to OBS as a Browser Source.
Place the source above gameplay and run the provider's raid test.
Inspect an OBS recording for transparency, readability, timing, and audio.

For the complete setup, see our OBS guide.

Browser Source versus Media Source

A Browser Source displays the connected widget. That widget handles the event and decides when to play the animation. This is the straightforward choice for automatic raid alerts.

A Media Source plays a local video file. You can use it for a preview or manually trigger it with a hotkey. It does not listen for incoming Twitch raids on its own. A separate event integration is needed if you want automatic local-file playback.

OBS documents Media Source playback settings and Browser Sources separately. A transparent WebM can be used in either workflow.

Design a welcome, not an interruption

Keep the animation clear at the size it will appear on stream. Leave space for a long channel name. Use the same colours and character as your other alerts, then test the widget text on top of the video.

A short "welcome raiders" message is enough. Thank the streamer aloud and briefly explain what you are doing. An alert cannot guarantee follows or retention; the welcome continues after the animation ends.

An AlertForge pack can use one style sheet to guide your scenes and alerts. Review the generated pieces together before exporting, especially lettering, character details, and the first and last frames.

Troubleshooting

The raid happens but nothing appears: check the widget's channel connection, raid rules, and source visibility in your active scene.
The animation loops: check the widget's playback settings. For manual Media Source playback, turn Loop off.
There is a black box: use the original transparent WebM and remove unnecessary colour-key filters.
The ending gets cut off: increase the widget duration to fit the clip.
It works in one scene only: add the same alert source to the scenes where you want it to appear.
Alerts stop after switching scenes: check whether OBS shuts the Browser Source down when it is not visible. Keep it active when the widget needs to stay connected.

Use provider test events before going live. A successful preview proves the visual setup; real event delivery still depends on the channel connection and provider.