Red Warden BastionFree tools for OBS Studio
Free tools for OBS, from Red Warden Studios. One installer: tick the tools you want.
Right now the Kit has two: Multistream sends your stream to several platforms at once, and Pre-Flight checks your setup before you go live.
Free. Signed by a real LLC (Red Warden Studios LLC), so Windows shows who made it instead of “Unknown publisher”. Open source (GPL-2.0-or-later).
The Kit
Go live on YouTube, Twitch, Kick, TikTok, Facebook, Rumble, X or any RTMP server at the same time, from OBS's own Start Streaming button.
See Multistream Tool twoA checklist that runs before you go live: mic, scene, stream settings, recording, and whether OBS is keeping up. It tells you in plain words what to fix.
See Pre-FlightThey work on their own, and they work together: Pre-Flight can check that your Multistream destinations are switched on.
Red Warden Multistream
Red Warden Multistream sends your OBS stream to YouTube, Twitch, Kick, TikTok, Facebook, Rumble, X or any RTMP server at the same time. Press Start Streaming in OBS. That's it.
Close OBS, run the installer, open OBS. The dock appears under Docks > Red Warden Multistream.
Click Add destination, pick a platform, paste its server and stream key. OBS keeps streaming to the platform in its own Settings > Stream; add every other platform here. Moving from obs-multi-rtmp or Aitum Multistream? The dock offers to import your destinations.
Every platform you switched on starts with OBS, and stops when OBS stops. Each card shows whether it connected. Flip a platform on or off at any time, even mid-stream.
Multistream features
At a glance
Each platform gets a card: live or not, how much it's sending, and which encoder it uses. The header counts how many are live and how much of your upload the whole stream is using.
It still fits a slim OBS dock.
Light on your PC
By default a platform shares OBS's own encoder: OBS encodes your stream once and every platform gets that same video and audio, so adding a platform adds no encoding work (just a little to send it).
When a platform needs something different (a lower bitrate, a 720p version, a different audio bitrate or track), give it its own encoder. Its audio starts out matching OBS's own bitrate and track.
Upload headroom
Multistreaming sends a full copy of your stream to every platform, so upload adds up fast. The dock adds it up for you against your real upload speed (measure it with the built-in speed test while you're offline, or type it in), and warns you before you run out of headroom: an amber note above 75%, red above 90%.
Platform advice
For platforms OBS lists, the card compares your settings (video bitrate, resolution, frame rate, keyframe interval, audio bitrate) with the values OBS recommends for that platform, and says so in plain words when one doesn't fit. It only covers the mismatches it knows how to advise on, and it never guesses limits for a platform OBS doesn't list.
Account safety
Streaming platforms guard their servers against floods of connections, and they don't publish where the line is. So the plugin gives every destination a hard connection budget, each destination counted on its own:
Every attempt the plugin makes counts: the first connect, reconnects, retries, the Twitch bandwidth test, even you mashing Retry. When the budget is spent, the card says it's pausing to protect your account, and when it will try again.
When OBS reports a rejected stream key or a broken server URL, the plugin stops retrying on its own. Retrying those can only hammer the platform, so the card tells you what's wrong and points you to Edit instead. Other connection failures are retried, always inside the budget.
Auto-reconnect
If a platform drops your connection, the plugin reconnects on its own: after roughly 5 seconds, then 10, 20, 40, then about once a minute, always inside the connection budget (if it still can't get through after ten tries, it keeps trying every couple of minutes). The other platforms keep streaming untouched.
A connection that stays open but stops sending data is noticed and restarted too.
Stream report
When you stop, the dock tells you in one line how the stream went. Open the report for every platform: how long it was live, every drop and recovery with timestamps, and how much it sent.
The last 50 reports are saved, and you can copy one to share.
Twitch
Twitch has a bandwidth-test option meant for exactly this: it isn't meant to go out to viewers. One click in a Twitch destination's settings sends a short test stream of about 20 seconds using that option (bandwidthtest=true) and tells you whether your connection to that Twitch server holds your bitrate.
Switching over
Red Warden Multistream finds destinations saved in obs-multi-rtmp and Aitum Multistream and offers to import them, with their bitrates and encoder where it can read them (check each one's settings before you go live).
Imported destinations start switched off, so nothing goes live until you turn it on. (SRT destinations aren't supported yet; RTMP and RTMPS are.)
Every platform gets its own on/off hotkey in OBS's Settings > Hotkeys, plus "all on" and "all off". Bind them to Stream Deck keys. Streamer.bot, Touch Portal, SAMMI and scripts can list and switch platforms through obs-websocket.
Keys are kept in Windows Credential Manager, never in a settings file. Keep keys out of server URLs and destination names too, because OBS writes those into its log file. (Multistream rejects a server URL that contains a saved key of 8 or more characters, but it can't catch every case.)
Built-in presets, with a hint on each telling you where to find the server and key:
Plus Custom RTMP for anything else that takes an rtmp:// or rtmps:// address (Restream, a self-hosted relay, other platforms). SRT isn't supported yet.
Red Warden Pre-Flight
The checklist
Pre-Flight is a dock in OBS with a short checklist. Each line is a green tick, an amber warning or a red problem, with one plain sentence telling you what to fix. Is your mic muted? Is the right scene up? Is there room on your disk? Check them in a few seconds instead of finding out ten minutes into a stream.
The first time, the dock shows a Set up Pre-Flight card instead of checks. Settings asks:
Pre-Flight remembers your mic, audio and scene by the source itself, so renaming one in OBS doesn't break it. If one gets deleted, the check turns amber and asks you to pick again.
| Check | What it looks at | Green / amber / red |
|---|---|---|
| Mic unmuted | Whether your chosen mic is muted in OBS. | Green when it's on. Red if it's muted, missing, or not an audio source. Amber until you choose a mic. |
| Mic test | You press Test mic and say something. Pre-Flight listens for 5 seconds. | Green if your mic gave a strong enough signal above its background level during the test (it measures loudness, not speech). Amber if you haven't tested yet, or the mic is very quiet (move closer or turn up its gain). Red if no sound came from the mic, or it was muted during the test. |
| Desktop audio | Whether your desktop / game audio source is muted. Only shown if you chose one. | Green when it's on. Red if muted. Amber if the source is gone and needs picking again. |
| Starting scene | Whether the scene you picked is the one live in OBS right now (in Studio Mode, the one on the program output). | Green when it is. Red if a different scene is live. Amber if you haven't chosen one, or it was deleted. |
| Main stream | Whether OBS's own stream (Settings > Stream) has a server and a key. Only shown if you stream with OBS's normal button. | Green when OBS reports the stream as set up (that doesn't prove the server will accept it). Amber if the key looks empty (some servers carry it in the address). Red if no server is set or the service isn't fully set up. For stream services Pre-Flight can't judge, it says so rather than guess. |
| Multistream | Asks Red Warden Multistream which destinations are switched on. Only shown if you stream with Multistream. | Green when at least one destination is switched on, naming them (it doesn't test the connection or key). Red if none are on. Amber if Multistream isn't found. |
| Recording | Only if you said you record. Checks that OBS will start recording with your stream, that your recording folder exists and OBS can write to it, and how much space is left. | Amber if OBS isn't set to record automatically when you stream (it tells you how to turn that on) or if under 20 GB is free. Red if the folder is missing or not writable, or under 5 GB is free. If recordings go to a web address, Pre-Flight says it can't check that. |
| OBS keeping up | Whether OBS is dropping frames. It watches for 30 seconds. Before you're live it looks at rendering; while you're live it also watches encoding and your network. | Green while losses are small. Amber above 0.5% of frames, red above 2%, with a hint (close other programs, lower your bitrate, use a wired connection). |
| Your checklist | Your own items, ticked by hand. | Green when every item is ticked. Red while any is not, listing which. |
Your checklist is for the things only you know: "Phone on Do Not Disturb", "Chat window open", "Water by the desk". Ticks start over when your stream ends, so you go through them again next time.
A pass on Mic test is cleared when your stream stops, so you test again before the next one.
Check & Go Live runs through the list:
Amber warnings never stop anything. They're a nudge.
Pre-Flight does not block OBS's own Start Streaming button, and it never stops a stream that has started. If you press OBS's button while something is red, the stream starts as normal and a short banner in the Pre-Flight dock tells you what was wrong ("You went live with problems: ..."), which you can dismiss.
Use either one on its own, or both. With both installed and "Both" or "Red Warden Multistream" chosen in Pre-Flight's settings, Pre-Flight checks that at least one Multistream destination is switched on before you go live. Pre-Flight and Multistream are separate docks and keep their own settings.
Download
Includes Red Warden Multistream 1.0.2 and Red Warden Pre-Flight 1.0.1.
The installer lets you tick the tools you want; both are ticked by default. The zip has one folder per tool (rws-multistream, rws-preflight).
Compare these with the result of Get-FileHash <file> in PowerShell.
RedWardenStreamKit-1.0.1-Setup.exed2993417451a2a0094e380a796cd4ca0d80c1adcb69c0d0d1c9ccdcce1a40646
RedWardenStreamKit-1.0.1.zip2429c192074a32277beca3fb545595b97a884281c6410bc8cb770cde14e0f0fe
Install: close OBS (the installer asks if it sees OBS still running), run the installer, choose your tools, finish, open OBS. Look in the Docks menu for Red Warden Multistream and Red Warden Pre-Flight. Windows will ask for permission, because the plugins install into the folder OBS shares between all users. The publisher shows as Red Warden Studios LLC.
Already have the standalone Multistream installer? Just run the Kit installer. It removes the old Multistream for you first and keeps your destinations and stream keys. (If the old one can't be removed, the installer says so and asks you to remove it from Windows Settings > Apps, then run it again.)
Update: run a newer Kit installer the same way. Your settings and stream keys are kept.
Add or remove a tool later: run the installer again and change the ticks. A tool you untick that was installed is removed.
Uninstall: Windows Settings > Apps > Installed apps > Red Warden Stream Kit (OBS plugins). Your destinations, settings and stream keys are left in place, so reinstalling picks them back up. (Removing one platform inside the Multistream dock is different: that also deletes its saved stream key.)
No installer? Close OBS and copy the rws-multistream and rws-preflight folders from the zip into C:\ProgramData\obs-studio\plugins\ (or into a portable OBS's plugins folder).
Updates & privacy
With update checks on (the default), the Kit checks once, shortly after OBS finishes loading, whether a newer version exists. If there is one, you see one notice for the whole Kit (not one per tool), with a Download link that opens this page. Nothing is downloaded or installed automatically. You can switch the check off in either tool's settings; that turns it off for the whole Kit and stops future checks (one already under way may finish).
If you only have Pre-Flight, the notice appears in Pre-Flight. If you have Multistream, it appears in Multistream. Never both.
People on an older OBS than the new version needs are told to update OBS first, instead of being offered a version that won't load.
No account and no analytics. The Kit only connects to:
speed.cloudflare.com), only when you run Multistream's upload test (it sends throwaway test data), and Twitch, only when you run the optional bandwidth test;Pre-Flight itself makes no network connections apart from that update check.
FAQ
Yes. No paid version, no watermark, no limits, no account.
So you can see exactly what runs inside your OBS, and so it can't quietly change. Both tools are licensed GPL-2.0-or-later, and the source is published with every release.
No account and no analytics. Your stream goes only to the servers you add, and the optional upload and Twitch tests talk to their own servers. Our website hears from the Kit in one way: once each time OBS starts (with update checks on), the Kit asks for a small file saying what the newest version is. That's a plain HTTPS GET request for https://redwardenstudios.com/updates/stream-kit.json, sent with a User-Agent of RedWardenStreamKit/<version> (for example RedWardenStreamKit/1.0.1), so it includes the Kit version, and our server sees your IP address like any website does. It sends no account or stream information. Turn the check off in either tool's settings to stop future checks.
Most free streaming tools are unsigned: Windows calls the publisher "Unknown", and you have no way to know who made the file or whether it was changed. The installer is signed by Red Warden Studios LLC, so Windows shows exactly who published it, and the signature breaks if anyone tampers with the file. (A brand-new download can still get a SmartScreen "not commonly downloaded" notice for its first days while it builds reputation; the publisher name is how you know it's the real one.)
Not noticeably. In Multistream, platforms share the encoder OBS is already running by default, so adding one costs upload bandwidth and a little sending work, not another encode. Only a platform you give its own encoder adds encoding work. Pre-Flight only reads state from OBS.
Every Multistream platform gets its own full copy of the stream. OBS's own stream plus three more platforms at 6 Mbps each need about 24 Mbps of upload. The Multistream dock adds this up for you and warns before you run out.
Exactly where it always did: the platform in OBS's Settings > Stream. Add your other platforms in the Multistream dock. They all start and stop with OBS's Start Streaming button.
Only that one is affected. Multistream reconnects it by itself, and the others keep streaming.
That's what the connection budget is for. Each destination is limited to 12 connection attempts in 10 minutes and 40 in an hour, and when OBS reports a rejected key it stops retrying.
No. OBS's own Start Streaming button always works. Check & Go Live asks you to confirm if something is red, and you can always choose Go live anyway.
Yes: with its switch in the Multistream dock, a hotkey, a Stream Deck key, or an obs-websocket tool like Streamer.bot.
Not yet: Windows only for now.
Multistream offers to import your destinations. Once you've switched, remove them from the old plugin: it keeps stream keys in a plain-text settings file.
Yes, it's GPL. The names "Red Warden", "Red Warden Studios", "Red Warden Stream Kit", "Red Warden Multistream", "Red Warden Pre-Flight" and the Red Warden logos and emblems are trademarks of Red Warden Studios LLC and aren't covered by the GPL, so a modified version needs its own name and logo.
Email support@redwardenstudios.com. For Multistream problems, its stream report (Copy report button) is the most useful thing to include.
Who made this
The Red Warden Stream Kit comes from Red Warden Studios, a small independent studio that builds software, writes fiction, makes music and streams. If the Kit earned a minute of your time, the rest of the place might too.
The Commander's channels. Twitch and Kick, the same stream at the same time.
Meet the Commander SoftwareThe division that built the Kit, and LLypses, a room full of minds.
Enter the Bastion ReadingTakes on tech, games and the tools we use, from the Athenaeum.
Read the latest GamesFree browser games with public leaderboards. Good for a break between streams.
Play a round
A free account takes an email address, and there's no password, ever. Follow the Stream Kit, and anything else here, with the shield, and the Beacon lets you know when there's news. More tools for streamers are in the works. Everything on this site works without an account; it just remembers you.
Your download is on its way. While it finishes: Red Warden Studios makes more than these plugins, and more streaming tools are in the works.