Coding agent support and tools

Overview

LiveKit is built for coding agents like Claude Code, Cursor, Codex, and Gemini CLI. Use the resources in this guide to give them direct access to the latest docs and best practices so they build the right thing every time.

For optimal performance, your coding agent needs two types of resources:

1. Docs and code access — With the LiveKit CLI or Docs MCP server, your coding agent can browse and search the LiveKit documentation and SDK code to find up-to-date information and advice.
2. Best practices in-context — With Agent Skills and AGENTS.md files, your coding agent always knows to consult the latest documentation when building with LiveKit.

This guide covers both of these areas in detail. The LiveKit starter projects come with these resources built-in, including a robust AGENTS.md file:

Python starter project

Includes an AGENTS.md file optimized for building agents in Python.

livekit-examples/agent-starter-python

Node.js starter project

Includes an AGENTS.md file optimized for building agents in Node.js.

livekit-examples/agent-starter-node

Docs search

Docs search is available in both the LiveKit CLI and the LiveKit Docs MCP server. Both have the exact same capabilities — choose the one that works best for your agent. All documentation files are also available in raw Markdown and via LLMs.txt.

LiveKit CLI

The LiveKit CLI includes a docs subcommand that gives any coding agent full access to LiveKit documentation from the terminal. It works with any agent that can execute shell commands — browse the table of contents, search docs, read full pages, and search code across LiveKit repositories.

Add the following to your AGENTS.md to ensure your agent always consults the docs:

LiveKit is a fast-evolving project. Always refer to the latest documentation. Run `lk docs --help` to see available commands. Key commands: `lk docs overview`, `lk docs search`, `lk docs get-page`, `lk docs code-search`, `lk docs changelog`. Run `lk docs <command> --help` before using a command for the first time. Prefer browsing (`overview`, `get-page`) over search, and `search` over `code-search`, as docs pages provide better context than raw code.

MCP server

For coding agents that support Model Context Protocol (MCP), LiveKit provides a free MCP server with tools for browsing and searching the docs site. The server supports the same capabilities as the CLI with deeper IDE integration.

CursorClaude CodeVS CodeCodex

Add this to your MCP configuration:

{"livekit-docs": {"url": "https://docs.livekit.io/mcp"}}

Or click this button:

claude mcp add --transport http livekit-docs https://docs.livekit.io/mcp

code --add-mcp '{"name":"livekit-docs","type":"http","url":"https://docs.livekit.io/mcp"}'

codex mcp add --url https://docs.livekit.io/mcp livekit-docs

Add the following to your AGENTS.md to ensure your agent always consults the docs:

LiveKit is a fast-evolving project. Always refer to the latest documentation. LiveKit provides an MCP server at `https://docs.livekit.io/mcp` with tools for browsing and searching docs. Key tools: `get_docs_overview`, `get_pages`, `docs_search`, `code_search`, `get_changelog`. Prefer browsing (`get_docs_overview`, `get_pages`) over search, and `docs_search` over `code_search`, as docs pages provide better context than raw code.

Markdown docs and LLMs.txt

Each page on the LiveKit docs site is available in Markdown format, which is useful for pasting into AI assistants when MCP and the CLI aren't available.

To access the Markdown version of any page, append .md to the end of the URL. For example, this page is available at https://docs.livekit.io/intro/coding-agents.md. You can also use the "Copy page" button on the top right of any docs page.

A complete Markdown-based index of the docs site is available at https://docs.livekit.io/llms.txt. This file includes a table of contents along with brief page descriptions. An expanded version is available at https://docs.livekit.io/llms-full.txt, but this file is quite large and may not be suitable for all use cases. For more information about LLMs.txt, see llmstxt.org.

Agent Skills

LiveKit publishes skills for coding agents that provide additional architectural guidance and best practices for building voice AI applications, covering workflow design, handoffs, tasks, and testing practices. Combined with the docs CLI or MCP server, skills give agents deep expertise about building with the LiveKit SDKs.

Run the following command to install it with skills.sh:

npx skills add livekit/agent-skills --skill livekit-agents

For other installation methods, see the repo:

Once installed, the skill activates automatically for relevant tasks. It can also be manually invoked with /livekit-agents.

Best practices

To construct your own AGENTS.md file or agent skills, consider the following best practices to help your coding agent get the most out of LiveKit's tools:

• Begin with a starter project. The Python and Node.js starters include working agents, tests, and an optimized AGENTS.md.
• Read the docs like a human: browse the table of contents first (lk docs overview), search docs second (lk docs search), and search code third (lk docs code-search). Browsing gives full context — search only gives fragments.
• Always check the docs before writing LiveKit code. The APIs change frequently and training data goes stale.
• Use code search to answer detailed questions about a class or method that isn't present in the docs.
• If the docs don't match the package installed or something breaks after an upgrade, check the changelog (lk docs changelog).
• Search results only show excerpts — always fetch the full page with lk docs get-page to see prerequisites and related options.
• Practice TDD with the agents testing framework in the Python and Node.js Agents SDKs. The testing guide also has advice on CI setup.