Accepts the Twitch username of a live channel as input, resolves the highest quality .m3u8 URL available for it via `streamlink`, open said URL as streaming media with VLC.

twitch_vlc.sh

#!/bin/bash

# Check if a username was provided
if [ -z "$1" ]; then
    echo "Usage: $0 <twitch_username>"
    exit 1
fi

USERNAME=$1

echo "Checking for live stream for user: $USERNAME..."

# Retrieve the highest quality .m3u8 URL using streamlink
# --stream-url prints the URL instead of playing it directly
# 2>&1 redirects stderr to stdout so we can hide 'error' messages if offline
STREAM_URL=$(streamlink --stream-url "twitch.tv/$USERNAME" best 2>/dev/null)

# Check if we got a valid URL back (Streamlink returns nothing or an error msg if offline)
if [[ "$STREAM_URL" == http* ]]; then
    echo "Stream found! Opening in VLC..."
    echo "URL: $STREAM_URL"
    
    # Open the retrieved URL in VLC
    # --meta-title sets the window title to the Twitch username
    vlc "$STREAM_URL" --meta-title "Twitch: $USERNAME" 2>/dev/null &
else
    echo "Error: Channel is likely offline or does not exist."
fi

Paired with @Chatterino, this widdle script has the potential to enable reliable, pleasant, even efficient Twitch consumption. Incredible.