I’m having trouble with the Twitch API search functionality. When I make requests to find specific streamers, the API keeps giving me wrong results.
For example, when I search for “loltyler1” the response shows broadcaster_login: "loltyler1dotcomdiscoalpha" which is completely different. Same thing happens with other usernames like “imkaicenat” returning “imkaidenbtw” instead.
Here’s my bot code that handles the API calls:
bot.on("messageCreate", (message) => {
const commandArgs = message.content.split(" ");
if (message.author.bot) return;
if (message.content.startsWith(`${cmdPrefix}check`)) {
fetch(`https://api.twitch.tv/helix/search/channels?query=${commandArgs[1]}`, {
headers: {
"Client-ID": process.env.TWITCH_APP_ID,
"Authorization": `Bearer ${process.env.TWITCH_TOKEN}`
}
})
.then(response => response.json())
.then(data => {
const streamData = data.data[0];
if (streamData.is_live) {
message.reply(`${streamData.broadcaster_login} is currently streaming ${streamData.game_name}! Link: https://twitch.tv/${streamData.broadcaster_login}`);
} else {
message.reply(`${streamData.broadcaster_login} is offline right now`);
}
})
.catch(error => console.error(error));
}
});
This is for a Discord bot I’m building. Is there something wrong with how I’m calling the API or is this expected behavior?
yeah, thats how the search endpoint works - it doesnt do exact matches. u’re grabbing data[0] which is just the first result, not necessarily the right streamer. use /helix/users with the login parameter instead if u need exact username lookups.
This tripped me up when I started using Twitch’s API two years ago. The search endpoint works like Google, not a username lookup. Search for ‘loltyler1’ and you’ll get channels with similar names ranked by relevance and popularity. The first result isn’t always an exact match - that’s why you’re seeing random usernames. I wasted hours debugging this thinking the API was broken. Here’s the fix: treat search and user lookup as different things. Use search when users type partial names for discovery features. Use the users endpoint when you need specific channel info for known usernames.
The search endpoint is working as designed - it’s meant for discovery, not exact username matching. You’re getting channels that relate to your search term, but they won’t be exact matches. For precise username lookups, use the users endpoint: https://api.twitch.tv/helix/users?login=${username}. This gives you exact user data for that login name. Then use the user_id from that response to check their stream status with the streams endpoint. I ran into this same problem building my stream notification bot last year. The search endpoint kept returning popular channels or similar names instead of the specific streamer I wanted. Switching to the users endpoint fixed it since it does exact matching on the login parameter.
Your code’s broken because you’re grabbing the wrong search result. The search endpoint doesn’t return results by accuracy - it’s sorted by relevance. When you just take data[0], you’re betting the first result is what you wanted, but it’s usually not. I made this same mistake with a bot that kept announcing random streamers going live. Search is meant for fuzzy matching and discovery, so searching “loltyler1” might give you channels with similar keywords or just popular streamers instead of the actual username. You’ve got two options: filter through the results to find an exact match, or use the users endpoint for precise lookups. And throw in some error handling for when the search comes back empty.