LiveKit Agents

LiveKit Agents is an open source framework for building realtime voice, video, and physical AI agents in Python or Node.js.

LiveKit Agents is a realtime framework that lets developers add Python or Node.js programs into LiveKit rooms as active participants. It acts as a stateful bridge between AI models and users, handling streaming audio through STT-LLM-TTS pipelines, reliable turn detection, and LLM orchestration. Designed for developers building voice assistants, customer service bots, and telehealth applications, the framework supports plugins for major AI providers and integrates with LiveKit Cloud for managed deployment and observability. It uses WebRTC to ensure smooth communication over unstable mobile networks and includes support for telephony. The entire ecosystem is open source under the Apache 2.0 license.

LiveKit Agents at a glance

Best for: Software engineer
Runs on: Web, iOS, Android, API, self-hosted, open source
Pricing: Free
Released: October 2023
Category: AI audio tool
Website: docs.livekit.io

Key features

Process voice, video, and text modalities
Define LLM-compatible tools and forward tool calls
Execute multi-agent handoffs for complex workflows
Integrate with major AI providers for models
Utilize custom turn detection for conversation flow
Orchestrate agent servers with Kubernetes compatibility

Use it for

Multimodal assistant for talk, text, or screen share
Telehealth consultations with or without humans
Inbound and outbound customer service call center
Realtime translation of live conversations
Cloud-connected robotics and lifelike NPCs

Alternatives to LiveKit Agents

Pipecat — Builds real-time voice and multimodal agents with frame-level control.
PhoneClaw — It executes AI agent tasks and system tool calls entirely on-device.
LiveAgent — It operates your local file system, runs commands, and manages scheduled background tasks.
Genkit — Provides unified APIs and local developer tools for AI application workflows.
Vision Agents — It enables building low-latency AI agents with support for any model.
Liveblocks — Automatically resolves data conflicts between humans and AI agents in real time.
ChatBotKit — Launch production-ready AI agents from ready-made solutions with built-in security.
Agent Squad — Runs multi-agent orchestration in Python, TypeScript, and locally on Apple devices.
TEN Framework — Offers a modular framework for creating real-time voice and video assistants.
Rakazo — Complete ownership of data, models, and execution environment.
OpenAI Agents SDK — Provider-agnostic multi-agent framework with built-in guardrails and tracing.
OpenAI Agents SDK JS — Builds multi-agent workflows and voice agents with native handoffs.

All LiveKit Agents alternatives