This guide is compatible with Next.js 13 or later. On an older version? Check out the quickstart for Next.js 12.
Voice AI quickstart
To build your first voice AI app for Next.js, use the following quickstart and the starter app. Otherwise follow the getting started guide below.
Voice AI quickstart
Next.js Voice Assistant
Getting started guide
This guide walks you through the steps to build a video-conferencing application using NextJS. It uses the LiveKit React components library to render the UI and communicate with LiveKit servers via WebRTC. By the end, you will have a basic video-conferencing application you can run with multiple participants.
Create a Next.js app
If you're working with an existing app, skip to the next step.
npx create-next-app <your_app_name>
Change directory into your app directory:
cd <your_app_name>
Install LiveKit SDK
Install both frontend and backend LiveKit SDKs:
yarn add livekit-server-sdk @livekit/components-react @livekit/components-styles
Keys and Configuration
To start, your app needs an LiveKit API key and secret, as well as your LiveKit project URL.
In your project root create the file .env.local
with the following contents. Do not commit this file because it contains your secrets!
LIVEKIT_API_KEY=<your API Key>LIVEKIT_API_SECRET=<your API Secret>LIVEKIT_URL=<your LiveKit server URL>
Create token endpoint
Create a new file at /app/api/token/route.ts
with the following content:
import { NextRequest, NextResponse } from 'next/server';import { AccessToken } from 'livekit-server-sdk';// Do not cache endpoint resultexport const revalidate = 0;export async function GET(req: NextRequest) {const room = req.nextUrl.searchParams.get('room');const username = req.nextUrl.searchParams.get('username');if (!room) {return NextResponse.json({ error: 'Missing "room" query parameter' }, { status: 400 });} else if (!username) {return NextResponse.json({ error: 'Missing "username" query parameter' }, { status: 400 });}const apiKey = process.env.LIVEKIT_API_KEY;const apiSecret = process.env.LIVEKIT_API_SECRET;const wsUrl = process.env.LIVEKIT_URL;if (!apiKey || !apiSecret || !wsUrl) {return NextResponse.json({ error: 'Server misconfigured' }, { status: 500 });}const at = new AccessToken(apiKey, apiSecret, { identity: username });at.addGrant({ room, roomJoin: true, canPublish: true, canSubscribe: true });return NextResponse.json({ token: await at.toJwt() },{ headers: { "Cache-Control": "no-store" } },);}
Make a page in your web app
Make a new file at /app/room/page.tsx
with the following content:
'use client';import {ControlBar,GridLayout,ParticipantTile,RoomAudioRenderer,useTracks,RoomContext,} from '@livekit/components-react';import { Room, Track } from 'livekit-client';import '@livekit/components-styles';import { useEffect, useState } from 'react';export default function Page() {// TODO: get user input for room and nameconst room = 'quickstart-room';const name = 'quickstart-user';const [roomInstance] = useState(() => new Room({// Optimize video quality for each participant's screenadaptiveStream: true,// Enable automatic audio/video quality optimizationdynacast: true,}));useEffect(() => {let mounted = true;(async () => {try {const resp = await fetch(`/api/token?room=${room}&username=${name}`);const data = await resp.json();if (!mounted) return;if (data.token) {await roomInstance.connect(process.env.NEXT_PUBLIC_LIVEKIT_URL, data.token);}} catch (e) {console.error(e);}})();return () => {mounted = false;roomInstance.disconnect();};}, [roomInstance]);if (token === '') {return <div>Getting token...</div>;}return (<RoomContext.Provider value={roomInstance}><div data-lk-theme="default" style={{ height: '100dvh' }}>{/* Your custom component with basic video conferencing functionality. */}<MyVideoConference />{/* The RoomAudioRenderer takes care of room-wide audio for you. */}<RoomAudioRenderer />{/* Controls for the user to start/stop audio, video, and screen share tracks */}<ControlBar /></div></RoomContext.Provider>);}function MyVideoConference() {// `useTracks` returns all camera and screen share tracks. If a user// joins without a published camera track, a placeholder track is returned.const tracks = useTracks([{ source: Track.Source.Camera, withPlaceholder: true },{ source: Track.Source.ScreenShare, withPlaceholder: false },],{ onlySubscribed: false },);return (<GridLayout tracks={tracks} style={{ height: 'calc(100vh - var(--lk-control-bar-height))' }}>{/* The GridLayout accepts zero or one child. The child is usedas a template to render all passed in tracks. */}<ParticipantTile /></GridLayout>);}
Load the page and connect
Start your server with:
yarn dev
And then open localhost:3000/room
in your browser.
Next steps
The following resources are useful for getting started with LiveKit on Next.js.
Generating tokens
Guide to generating authentication tokens for your users.
Realtime media
Complete documentation for live video and audio tracks.
Realtime data
Send and receive realtime data between clients.
JavaScript SDK
LiveKit JavaScript SDK on GitHub.
React components
LiveKit React components on GitHub.
JavaScript SDK reference
LiveKit JavaScript SDK reference docs.
React components reference
LiveKit React components reference docs.