livekit/livekit

End-to-end realtime stack for connecting humans and AI

What it solves

LiveKit provides a scalable infrastructure for developers to integrate real-time video, audio, and data communication into their applications without having to build the complex underlying networking from scratch.

How it works

It uses a distributed Selective Forwarding Unit (SFU) based on WebRTC to manage multi-user conferencing. The server is written in Go and utilizes the Pion WebRTC implementation to handle the routing of media streams between participants. Developers use client SDKs to connect users to rooms and server SDKs to manage authentication via JWTs and control room participants through APIs.

Who it’s for

It is designed for software developers building interactive applications that require real-time communication, such as video conferencing tools, spatial audio experiences, or multimodal AI voice assistants.

Highlights

  • Scalable Infrastructure: Supports distributed and multi-region deployments via a single binary, Docker, or Kubernetes.
  • Broad SDK Support: Offers client SDKs for JavaScript/TypeScript, Swift, Kotlin, Flutter, Unity, and Rust, as well as server SDKs in multiple languages.
  • Advanced Media Features: Includes speaker detection, simulcast, selective subscription, and support for SVC codecs (VP9, AV1).
  • AI Integration: Provides an Agents framework to build real-time multimodal AI applications with programmable backend participants.

Related

  • Project
    livekit/python-sdks

    A Python SDK for integrating real-time video, audio, and data features into applications, enabling the creation of multi-modal AI and live streaming tools.

  • Project
    livekit/rust-sdks

    A Rust client SDK for LiveKit that enables the integration of real-time video, audio, and data features into applications, supporting multi-modal AI and live streaming.

  • Project
    mynaparrot/plugNmeet-server

    A scalable, open-source web conferencing system built on LiveKit that provides self-hosted video meetings with AI-powered transcription and summaries.

  • Project
    livekit/agents

    A framework for building real-time, programmable multi-modal AI agents that can see, hear, and speak, featuring integrated job scheduling and telephony support.

  • Project
    livekit/agents-js

    A Node.js framework for building real-time, multi-modal voice AI agents that can see, hear, and understand using a plugin-based architecture for STT, LLM, and TTS.