# LiveKit - Open source, distributed video/audio rooms over WebRTC

LiveKit is an open source project that provides scalable, multi-user conferencing over WebRTC. It's designed to give you everything you need to build real time video/audio capabilities in your applications.

## Features

- Horizontally scalable WebRTC Selective Forwarding Unit (SFU)
- Modern, full-featured [client SDKs](references/client-sdks.md) for JS, iOS, Android
- Built for production - JWT authentication and [server APIs](references/server-apis.md)
- Robust networking & connectivity, over UDP & TCP
- Easy to deploy, a single binary and only three ports to forward.
- Advanced features - simulcasting, selective subscription, moderation APIs.

## Documentation & Guides

Docs & Guides at: https://docs.livekit.io

## SDKs & APIs

Client SDKs:

- [Javascript](https://github.com/livekit/client-sdk-js) ([docs](https://docs.livekit.io/client-sdk-js/))
- [iOS - Swift](https://github.com/livekit/client-sdk-ios) ([docs](https://docs.livekit.io/client-sdk-ios/))
- [Android - Kotlin](https://github.com/livekit/client-sdk-android) ([docs](https://docs.livekit.io/client-sdk-android/))

Server APIs:

- [Javascript](https://github.com/livekit/server-api-js) ([docs](https://docs.livekit.io/server-api-js/))
- [Go](https://github.com/livekit/livekit-sdk-go) ([docs](https://pkg.go.dev/github.com/livekit/livekit-sdk-go))

## Installing

### From source

Ensure Go 1.15+ is installed, and GOPATH/bin is in your PATH.

```shell
git clone https://github.com/livekit/livekit-server
cd livekit-server
./bootstrap.sh
mage
```

### Docker

LiveKit is published to Docker Hub under livekit/livekit-server

## Running

### Creating API keys

LiveKit utilizes JWT based access tokens for authentication to all of its APIs.
Because of this, the server needs a list of valid API keys and secrets to validate the provided tokens. For more, see [Authentication](docs/authentication.md).

Generate API key/secret pairs with:

```shell
./bin/livekit-server generate-keys
```

or

```shell
docker run --rm livekit/livekit-server:v0.9 generate-keys
```

Store the generate keys in a YAML file like:

```yaml
APIwLeah7g4fuLYDYAJeaKsSE: 8nTlwISkb-63DPP7OH4e.nw.J44JjicvZDiz8J59EoQ+
```

### Starting the server

In development mode, LiveKit has no external dependencies. With the key file ready, you can start LiveKit with

```shell
./bin/livekit-server --key-file <path/to/keyfile> --dev
```

or

```shell
docker run --rm -e LIVEKIT_KEYS="<key>: <secret>" livekit/livekit-server:v0.9 --dev
```

the `--dev` flag turns on log verbosity to make it easier for local debugging/development

### Sample client

[client-sdk-js](https://github.com/livekit/client-sdk-js) contains a web sample client that can connect to your server locally.

Clone the repo and run `yarn sample`

### Creating a JWT token

To create a join token for clients, livekit-server provides a convenient subcommand to create a **development** token.
This token has an expiration of a month, which is useful for development & testing, but not appropriate for production use.

```shell
./bin/livekit-server --key-file <path/to/keyfile> create-join-token --room "myroom" --identity "myidentity"
```


## Deploying for production

LiveKit is deployable to any environment that supports docker, including Kubernetes and Amazon ECS.

LiveKit is distributed, and scales by adding nodes. Different server instances coordinate via Redis to ensure clients in the same room are served by the same instance. Redis is the only external dependency for a production deployment.

See documentation at https://docs.livekit.io/guides/deploy

## License

LiveKit server is licensed under AGPL v3.0.

## APIs & Protocol

`livekit-server` provides two primary services, a `Room` service that allows for room management and participant moderation, and `RTC` service to handle WebRTC communications.

Room APIs are defined in [room.proto](proto/room.proto). Room APIs are in HTTP, built with Twirp and follows [its the conventions](https://twitchtv.github.io/twirp/docs/routing.html).

The RTC service provides the signaling and everything else when the client interacts with the room.