What the OBS Studio action does
The OBS Studio action controls a running OBS Studio instance over its WebSocket API — start or stop recording, switch scenes, toggle a source, or manage your stream, all from a Stream Deck button instead of alt-tabbing out of your game or presentation.
By default it connects to OBS at ws://127.0.0.1:4455 — OBS running on the same computer as the Stream Deck plugin, with no password. OBS Studio 28.0 and later include the WebSocket server built in (turn it on under Tools, then WebSocket Server Settings); earlier versions need the community obs-websocket plugin.
Available actions
Start Recording, Stop Recording, and Toggle Recording control OBS's recorder; Start Streaming, Stop Streaming, and Toggle Streaming do the same for your stream. Toggle checks OBS's current state first, so one button can act as a start/stop pair.
Switch Scene needs the exact Scene Name as it appears in OBS. Toggle Source flips a source's visibility by Source Name — set Scene Name too if the source lives in a scene other than the one OBS currently has live.
- Advanced: WebSocket Command sends any raw OBS WebSocket request type (such as SetCurrentProgramScene or TriggerHotkeyByName) with your own JSON parameters, for anything the built-in actions do not cover.
Connections and recovery
The plugin opens the connection to OBS the first time an OBS action runs and keeps it open for later button presses. If OBS is not running, or the connection drops, the step fails with an OBS error, the plugin discards the stale connection, and the next OBS action reconnects on its own — you do not need to restart the plugin.
OBS actions run one at a time on the plugin, even if several fire close together, so a burst of scene changes cannot race each other. If a button does nothing when pressed, check the activity log for the OBS error first, then confirm OBS is open and its WebSocket server is turned on before retrying.