Platforms and Sources for Social Alerts

This article adds the per-platform details to Social Alerts: what you enter as the source and how Kage queries it. The flow of checking, template and limits is the same for all platforms.

Overview

YouTube

• Source: the feed URL of your channel. Every YouTube channel has a public feed: https://www.youtube.com/feeds/videos.xml?channel_id=YOUR_CHANNEL_ID.
• Display name: you enter it by hand, because the feed URL only contains an unreadable channel ID.
• Kage reports: the newest video with title and link. The Streamer detection detects livestreams on YouTube, for new videos you need this entry.

Twitch

• Source: the Twitch username, such as ninja, or the link twitch.tv/ninja. 2 to 25 letters, digits and underscores are allowed.
• Kage reports: as soon as the channel is live, with the stream title and the link to the channel. Every new stream triggers a new announcement, the same running stream only one.
• The display name comes from the username.

Kick

• Source: the channel name, such as mychannel, or the link kick.com/mychannel. 2 to 25 letters, digits, hyphens and underscores are allowed.
• Kage reports: as soon as the channel is live, with stream title and link.
• Quirk: Kick offers no open interface that could be used without approval. Kage reads the publicly available channel data. If Kick changes that, announcements can temporarily stop.

Bluesky

• Source: the handle, with or without @, or the profile link bsky.app/profile/….
• Kage reports: the newest own post. Replies to other posts and reposts do not count. The post text serves as the title, shortened to 280 characters.
• Kage needs no account and no key for this.

Reddit

• Source: the feed URL of the subreddit, for example https://www.reddit.com/r/NAME/.rss.
• Display name: If the URL contains the subreddit (reddit.com/r/NAME), Kage takes r/NAME. Otherwise the entry is called "Unbenannt".
• Kage reports: the newest post of the subreddit.

RSS and podcast

• Source: the address of an RSS 2.0 or Atom feed. Podcasts are technically RSS feeds, so both work the same.
• Display name: you enter it by hand.
• Kage reports: the first entry of the feed. Kage assumes the feed delivers the newest entry first, as most do.
• The feed must be reachable at the address and deliver valid XML. Otherwise Kage reports nothing.

Not available yet

TikTok, Instagram and X appear in the dashboard with Coming soon. There is no connection for them yet, and their settings cannot be used. X has offered no free interface since February 2026, TikTok and Instagram need a connection of their own with developer access. As soon as there is a stable way, they will be added.

Notes for all platforms

• Kage only queries public data. The creator does not have to be on your server or approve anything.
• Kage does not notice an invalid source when you add it, but because nothing is ever announced. If in doubt, check it in the browser.
• If a platform cannot be reached, Kage skips the creator in that pass and tries again later.

Checking the result

1. Add: Add a creator who publishes or streams often.
2. Check: Run /social test. Kage checks immediately and announces anything new. /social list then shows the time of the last check.

Troubleshooting

Nothing arrives for Kick

Check the channel name (only letters, digits, hyphen and underscore). Kick's channel data is not officially documented. If announcements stay away although the channel is live, that can be the reason.

Nothing arrives for Twitch

Check the username. If the stream is already running when you add the creator, it is not announced. The next stream will be.

A YouTube link does not work

Enter the feed URL, not the address of the channel page or a video.

An RSS feed reports nothing

Open the address in the browser. A feed must appear. Kage cannot watch pages that offer no feed.

Further reading

Flow, template and limits: Social Alerts. Detect livestreams automatically: Streamer detection.