The difference between using

await session.generate_reply()

and

session.generate_reply()

comes down to asynchronous execution and code flow control: •

session.generate_reply(...)

(without

await

): This starts the speech generation process but does not wait for it to complete. Your code continues running immediately—this is often called a “fire and forget” pattern. Use this if you want the agent to start speaking but don't need to wait for them to finish before continuing with other logic. •

await session.generate_reply(...)

: This pauses execution of your function until the entire speech generation and playback is done. This is useful when you need to make sure the reply is fully delivered before moving to the next step (like ending a session or enabling further user input). Additionally,

generate_reply()

returns a

SpeechHandle

object, which you can optionally await later for fine-grained control (start reply, do some work, then

await handle

). References: Sources: Agent speech | LiveKit Docs | tests/test_agent_session.py