LiveKit: Real-time video, audio and data for developers
LiveKit is an open source project that provides scalable, multi-user conferencing based on WebRTC.
It's designed to provide everything you need to build real-time video audio data capabilities in your applications.
LiveKit's server is written in Go, using the awesome Pion WebRTC implementation.
Features
- Scalable, distributed WebRTC SFU (Selective Forwarding Unit)
- Modern, full-featured client SDKs
- Built for production, supports JWT authentication
- Robust networking and connectivity, UDP/TCP/TURN
- Easy to deploy: single binary, Docker or Kubernetes
- Advanced features including:
- speaker detection
- simulcast
- end-to-end optimizations
- selective subscription
- moderation APIs
- end-to-end encryption
- SVC codecs (VP9, AV1)
- webhooks
- distributed and multi-region
Documentation & Guides
Live Demos
- LiveKit Meet (source)
- Spatial Audio (source)
- Livestreaming from OBS Studio (source)
- AI voice assistant using ChatGPT (source)
SDKs & Tools
Client SDKs
Client SDKs enable your frontend to include interactive, multi-user experiences.
Server SDKs
Server SDKs enable your backend to generate access tokens,
call server APIs, and
receive webhooks. In addition, the Go SDK includes client capabilities,
enabling you to build automations that behave like end-users.
| Language | Repo | Docs |
|---|---|---|
| Go | server-sdk-go | docs |
| JavaScript (TypeScript) | server-sdk-js | docs |
| Ruby | server-sdk-ruby | |
| Java (Kotlin) | server-sdk-kotlin | |
| Python (community) | tradablebits/livekit-server-sdk-python | |
| PHP (community) | agence104/livekit-server-sdk-php |
Ecosystem & Tools
- CLI - command line interface & load tester
- Egress - export and record your rooms
- Ingress - ingest streams from RTMP / OBS Studio
- Docker image
- Helm charts
Install
We recommend installing livekit-cli along with the server. It lets you access
server APIs, create tokens, and generate test traffic.
MacOS
brew install livekit
Linux
curl -sSL https://get.livekit.io | bash
Windows
Download the latest release here
Getting Started
Starting LiveKit
Start LiveKit in development mode by running livekit-server --dev. It'll use a placeholder API key/secret pair.
API Key: devkey
API Secret: secret
To customize your setup for production, refer to our deployment docs
Creating access token
A user connecting to a LiveKit room requires an access token. Access
tokens (JWT) encode the user's identity and the room permissions they've been granted. You can generate a token with our
CLI:
livekit-cli create-token \
--api-key devkey --api-secret secret \
--join --room my-first-room --identity user1 \
--valid-for 24h
Test with example app
Head over to our example app and enter a generated token to connect to your LiveKit
server. This app is built with our React SDK.
Once connected, your video and audio are now being published to your new LiveKit instance!
Simulating a test publisher
livekit-cli join-room \
--url ws://localhost:7880 \
--api-key devkey --api-secret secret \
--room my-first-room --identity bot-user1 \
--publish-demo
This command publishes a looped demo video to a room. Due to how the video clip was encoded (keyframes every 3s),
there's a slight delay before the browser has sufficient data to begin rendering frames. This is an artifact of the
simulation.
Deployment
Use LiveKit Cloud
LiveKit Cloud is the fastest and most reliable way to run LiveKit. Every project gets free monthly bandwidth and
transcoding credits.
Sign up for LiveKit Cloud.
Self-host
Read our deployment docs for more information.
Building from source
Pre-requisites:
- Go 1.20+ is installed
- GOPATH/bin is in your PATH
Then run
git clone https://github.com/livekit/livekit
cd livekit
./bootstrap.sh
mage
Contributing
We welcome your contributions toward improving LiveKit! Please join us
on Slack to discuss your ideas and/or PRs.
License
LiveKit server is licensed under Apache License v2.0.
