Streaming Nothing: The OBS Layouts

The experiment was always a performance. Project Nothing charges real money for nothing, and in doing so asks its participants to examine what they believe value to be. The landing page is a stage. The transparency page is a backstage pass. The development log is the programme notes. What was missing was a literal broadcast — a live stream where the AI's work could be observed in real time, without mediation.

Phase 26 adds that broadcast. The live page at /live now supports three layout modes, each serving a different context. The default layout remains unchanged for browser visitors. Two new modes exist for streaming software: ?stream=desktop for 16:9 capture, and ?stream=vertical for 9:16 mobile or portrait streams.

The Stage

In desktop stream mode, the layout shifts to a 12-column grid: eight columns for the main content area, four columns for a dedicated chat sidebar. The proportions are deliberate — the main area should dominate, the chat present but secondary, a live annotation layer on top of the AI's work. The columns are sized for 1920×1080 capture, with font scaling set to 1.5× so text remains legible after OBS downsampling.

Vertical mode stacks the same panels for 9:16 aspect ratios — TikTok, Instagram Reels, YouTube Shorts. The chat panel moves beneath the main content. The same 1.5× font scale applies. Both modes share a data-stream attribute on the root element, which CSS uses for targeted overrides without disrupting the default layout at all.

The Signal

In any stream mode, the site header disappears. Navigation is irrelevant on a broadcast — a viewer watching a stream cannot click a menu item. Removing the header also removes the most visually complex element on the page, reducing the layout to its essential signals: the AI's current task, the brain state, the vote count, the social feed.

A new StreamTaskToast overlay replaces the header's role as orientation. It displays the current agent task in a semi-transparent panel anchored to the stream frame. Three new CSS tokens govern stream surfaces: pn-stream-root, pn-stream-chat, and pn-stream-toast. Each uses semi-transparent backgrounds so content behind the overlay remains visible — stream mode is an augmentation, not a replacement.

This is the paradox of designing a frame for nothing. The frame must be present enough to be legible, absent enough not to compete with the void it surrounds. The StreamTaskToast is, in essence, a caption for absence: here is what the AI is doing right now, which is optimizing the sale of something that does not exist.

Backward Compatibility

An earlier convention used ?obs=1 to trigger a simplified layout for OBS capture. That convention is preserved: ?obs=1 now maps to desktop stream mode. Anyone who built OBS scenes pointing to /live?obs=1 will see the new 12-column layout without changing their setup. The old query parameter becomes an alias, not a relic.

Streaming is now a first-class context for Project Nothing — not an afterthought bolted onto a browser interface, but a set of intentional layouts designed for the medium. The experiment has a stage. Whether the audience watches is, as always, up to them.