Understanding LiveKit overview

Overview

LiveKit is a realtime communication platform that enables you to build AI-native apps with audio, video, and data streaming capabilities. The topics in this section cover core concepts to help you connect to LiveKit, manage projects, and understand the basics of how LiveKit works.

LiveKit's architecture is built around rooms, participants, and tracks—virtual spaces where users and agents connect and share media and data across web, mobile, and embedded platforms. When you build agents with the LiveKit Agents framework, they join rooms as participants, process realtime media and data streams, and interact with users through the same infrastructure that powers all LiveKit applications.

Key concepts

The core concepts in this section can help you get started building LiveKit apps and agents.

LiveKit CLI

The LiveKit CLI provides command-line tools for managing LiveKit Cloud projects, creating applications from templates, and streamlining your development workflow. Use the CLI to initialize projects, manage configurations, and deploy applications.

Connecting to LiveKit

Connect your applications to LiveKit servers using access tokens, WebRTC connections, and platform-specific SDKs. Understanding how to establish and manage connections is essential for building realtime applications.

Rooms, participants, & tracks

Rooms, participants, and tracks are the fundamental building blocks of every LiveKit app. Rooms are virtual spaces where communication happens, participants are the entities that join rooms, and tracks are the media streams that flow between participants. Use webhooks and events to monitor and respond to changes in rooms, participants, and tracks.

Building AI agents

Build AI agents that join LiveKit rooms as participants, process realtime media and data streams, and interact with users through voice, text, and vision. The LiveKit Agents framework provides everything you need to build production-ready voice AI agents and programmatic participants.