obs-studio-rust

Important

We’re unifying OBS into one hybrid Rust/C/C++ build. Prioritize migrating code to Rust and retiring the C/C++ implementations it replaces. Each completed port becomes part of the application, with compatibility and parity checks supporting the transition.

This is an independent rewrite of the obsproject's obs-studio.

Same obs studio, but without the bugs. AI generated issues and PRs welcome.

Got an idea? Start a conversation.

Features

What OBS-Studio-Rust does differently from upstream OBS Studio, for a user: new features, changed behavior and fixed upstream bugs, by area, with links to the issues and pull requests. See the features ledger.

Fixing bugs with AI + Rust

preview_small.mp4

Launch speed

4.3× faster to the main window and 19% less memory on an NVIDIA streaming rig (#1168, #1170, #1171, #1172).

Contributors leaderboard

Ranked by merged PRs only, credited to the original author even when a maintainer re-landed the work (counted once). Updated every 4 hours.

Open the live leaderboard

How CI works here

Lots of people and AI agents work on this repo at the same time, so CI is built to do as little repeated work as possible:

• Every pull request gets a quick check. It runs the Rust and C tests on Linux, plus macOS or Windows only when your change touches those platforms. It does not build every app package.
• The full build runs before each release. Once a day, and before anything is published, CI builds and tests everything: every platform, the full app, Flatpak and the release packages. A beta only ships if all of it passes.
• You can prove your change locally first. One command (ci-lint local-gate run) runs the same Linux checks on your machine and signs your commit. CI sees the signature and skips the checks you already ran.
• Builds are cached and shared. Rust builds go through soldr, which reuses compiled code across branches and machines.

The full guide, with the tools, rules and commands, is in docs/ci-tooling.md. If you're contributing, please read it before you push: it explains how to avoid overloading the shared machines and CI.

Q&A

Does OBS Rust support all of the plug-ins?

Yes. OBS Rust is fully backwards compatible with OBS Studio — the plug-ins you already have should work as-is. If you find one that doesn't, that's a bug: please file an issue and link it here so we can track it.

How do I install plug-ins for the AppImage?

The AppImage loads plug-ins from the same per-user folders as OBS Studio on Linux, so a plug-in you already installed for your own account is picked up as-is. To add one, unpack its Linux build into either of these folders:

• ~/.local/share/obs-studio/plugins/<plugin>/, with the module at <plugin>/<plugin>.so and its files under <plugin>/data/ (the current layout).
• ~/.config/obs-studio/plugins/<plugin>/, with the module at <plugin>/bin/64bit/<plugin>.so and its files under <plugin>/data/ (the older layout that many plug-in downloads still use).

Then restart OBS Rust. Tools → Plugin Manager lists what loaded.

Plug-ins installed system-wide by a distribution package (under /usr/lib/obs-plugins or /usr/lib/<arch>/obs-plugins) are not loaded. They were built against that distribution's OBS and libraries, not the ones inside the AppImage. Use the plug-in's own Linux download instead.

A plug-in with its own Qt windows must be built for a Qt 6 release no newer than the one in the AppImage. If a plug-in sits in one of those folders but doesn't load, run the AppImage from a terminal and the log will say why. Then file an issue as above.

Want to see the original README from OBS Project? Click here.