LiveKit: High-performance WebRTC
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:
Documentation & Guides
Try it live
Head to our playground and give it a spin. Build a Zoom-like conferencing app in under 100 lines of code!
SDKs & Tools
Client SDKs
Client SDKs enable your frontend to include interactive, multi-user experiences.
Language | Repo | Declarative UI | Links |
---|---|---|---|
JavaScript (TypeScript) | client-sdk-js | React | docs | JS example | React example |
Swift (iOS / MacOS) | client-sdk-swift | Swift UI | docs | example |
Kotlin (Android) | client-sdk-android | Compose | docs | example | Compose example |
Flutter | client-sdk-flutter | native | docs | example |
Unity WebGL | client-sdk-unity-web | docs | |
React Native (beta) | client-sdk-react-native | native |
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
- Egress - export and record your rooms
- CLI - command line interface & load tester
- 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.
Deploying to a server
Read our deployment docs for more information.
Building from source
Pre-requisites:
- Go 1.16+ 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.