📹🎙️🐍 Python SDK for LiveKit

Use this SDK to add realtime video, audio and data features to your Python app. By connecting to LiveKit Cloud or a self-hosted server, you can quickly build applications such as multi-modal AI, live streaming, or video calls with just a few lines of code.

This repo contains two packages

• livekit: Real-time SDK for connecting to LiveKit as a participant
• livekit-api: Access token generation and server APIs

Using Server API

$ pip install livekit-api

Generating an access token

from livekit import api
import os

# will automatically use the LIVEKIT_API_KEY and LIVEKIT_API_SECRET env vars
token = api.AccessToken() \
    .with_identity("python-bot") \
    .with_name("Python Bot") \
    .with_grants(api.VideoGrants(
        room_join=True,
        room="my-room",
    )).to_jwt()

Creating a room

RoomService uses asyncio and aiohttp to make API calls. It needs to be used with an event loop.

from livekit import api
import asyncio

async def main():
    lkapi = api.LiveKitAPI("https://my-project.livekit.cloud")
    room_info = await lkapi.room.create_room(
        api.CreateRoomRequest(name="my-room"),
    )
    print(room_info)
    results = await lkapi.room.list_rooms(api.ListRoomsRequest())
    print(results)
    await lkapi.aclose()

asyncio.run(main())

Using other APIs

Services can be accessed via the LiveKitAPI object.

lkapi = api.LiveKitAPI("https://my-project.livekit.cloud")

# Room Service
room_svc = lkapi.room

# Egress Service
egress_svc = lkapi.egress

# Ingress Service
ingress_svc = lkapi.ingress

# Sip Service
sip_svc = lkapi.sip

# Agent Dispatch
dispatch_svc = lkapi.agent_dispatch

Using Real-time SDK

$ pip install livekit

Connecting to a room

see room_example for full example

from livekit import rtc

async def main():
    room = rtc.Room()

    @room.on("participant_connected")
    def on_participant_connected(participant: rtc.RemoteParticipant):
        logging.info(
            "participant connected: %s %s", participant.sid, participant.identity)

    async def receive_frames(stream: rtc.VideoStream):
        async for frame in stream:
            # received a video frame from the track, process it here
            pass

    # track_subscribed is emitted whenever the local participant is subscribed to a new track
    @room.on("track_subscribed")
    def on_track_subscribed(track: rtc.Track, publication: rtc.RemoteTrackPublication, participant: rtc.RemoteParticipant):
        logging.info("track subscribed: %s", publication.sid)
        if track.kind == rtc.TrackKind.KIND_VIDEO:
            video_stream = rtc.VideoStream(track)
            asyncio.ensure_future(receive_frames(video_stream))

    # By default, autosubscribe is enabled. The participant will be subscribed to
    # all published tracks in the room
    await room.connect(URL, TOKEN)
    logging.info("connected to room %s", room.name)

    # participants and tracks that are already available in the room
    # participant_connected and track_published events will *not* be emitted for them
    for identity, participant in room.remote_participants.items():
        print(f"identity: {identity}")
        print(f"participant: {participant}")
        for tid, publication in participant.track_publications.items():
            print(f"\ttrack id: {publication}")

RPC

Perform your own predefined method calls from one participant to another.

This feature is especially powerful when used with Agents, for instance to forward LLM function calls to your client application.

Registering an RPC method

The participant who implements the method and will receive its calls must first register support:

@room.local_participant.register_rpc_method("greet")
async def handle_greet(data: RpcInvocationData):
    print(f"Received greeting from {data.caller_identity}: {data.payload}")
    return f"Hello, {data.caller_identity}!"

In addition to the payload, your handler will also receive response_timeout, which informs you the maximum time available to return a response. If you are unable to respond in time, the call will result in an error on the caller's side.

Performing an RPC request

The caller may then initiate an RPC call like so:

try:
  response = await room.local_participant.perform_rpc(
    destination_identity='recipient-identity',
    method='greet',
    payload='Hello from RPC!'
  )
  print(f"RPC response: {response}")
except Exception as e:
  print(f"RPC call failed: {e}")

You may find it useful to adjust the response_timeout parameter, which indicates the amount of time you will wait for a response. We recommend keeping this value as low as possible while still satisfying the constraints of your application.

Using local media devices

The MediaDevices class provides a high-level interface for working with local audio input (microphone) and output (speakers) devices. It's built on top of the sounddevice library and integrates seamlessly with LiveKit's audio processing features. In order to use MediaDevices, you must have the sounddevice library installed in your local Python environment, if it's not available, MediaDevices will not work.

Capturing microphone input

from livekit import rtc

# Create a MediaDevices instance
devices = rtc.MediaDevices()

# Open the default microphone with audio processing enabled
mic = devices.open_input(
    enable_aec=True,          # Acoustic Echo Cancellation
    noise_suppression=True,   # Noise suppression
    high_pass_filter=True,    # High-pass filter
    auto_gain_control=True    # Automatic gain control
)

# Use the audio source to create a track and publish it
track = rtc.LocalAudioTrack.create_audio_track("microphone", mic.source)
await room.local_participant.publish_track(track)

# Clean up when done
await mic.aclose()

Playing audio to speakers

# Open the default output device
player = devices.open_output()

# Add remote audio tracks to the player (typically in a track_subscribed handler)
@room.on("track_subscribed")
def on_track_subscribed(track: rtc.Track, publication, participant):
    if track.kind == rtc.TrackKind.KIND_AUDIO:
        player.add_track(track)

# Start playback (mixes all added tracks)
await player.start()

# Clean up when done
await player.aclose()

Full duplex audio (microphone + speakers)

For full duplex audio with echo cancellation, open the input device first (with AEC enabled), then open the output device. The output player will automatically feed the APM's reverse stream for effective echo cancellation:

devices = rtc.MediaDevices()

# Open microphone with AEC
mic = devices.open_input(enable_aec=True)

# Open speakers - automatically uses the mic's APM for echo cancellation
player = devices.open_output()

# Publish microphone
track = rtc.LocalAudioTrack.create_audio_track("mic", mic.source)
await room.local_participant.publish_track(track)

# Add remote tracks and start playback
player.add_track(remote_audio_track)
await player.start()

Listing available devices

devices = rtc.MediaDevices()

# List input devices
input_devices = devices.list_input_devices()
for device in input_devices:
    print(f"{device['index']}: {device['name']}")

# List output devices  
output_devices = devices.list_output_devices()
for device in output_devices:
    print(f"{device['index']}: {device['name']}")

# Get default device indices
default_input = devices.default_input_device()
default_output = devices.default_output_device()

See publish_mic.py and full_duplex.py for complete examples.

Errors

LiveKit is a dynamic realtime environment and calls can fail for various reasons.

You may throw errors of the type RpcError with a string message in an RPC method handler and they will be received on the caller's side with the message intact. Other errors will not be transmitted and will instead arrive to the caller as 1500 ("Application Error"). Other built-in errors are detailed in RpcError.

Examples

• Facelandmark: Use mediapipe to detect face landmarks (eyes, nose ...)
• Basic room: Connect to a room
• Publish hue: Publish a rainbow video track
• Publish wave: Publish a sine wave

Getting help / Contributing

Please join us on Slack to get help from our devs / community members. We welcome your contributions(PRs) and details can be discussed there.

LiveKit Ecosystem
LiveKit SDKs	Browser · iOS/macOS/visionOS · Android · Flutter · React Native · Rust · Node.js · Python · Unity · Unity (WebGL) · ESP32
Server APIs	Node.js · Golang · Ruby · Java/Kotlin · Python · Rust · PHP (community) · .NET (community)
UI Components	React · Android Compose · SwiftUI · Flutter
Agents Frameworks	Python · Node.js · Playground
Services	LiveKit server · Egress · Ingress · SIP
Resources	Docs · Example apps · Cloud · Self-hosting · CLI