To ensure that local developers use the local worker and avoid agent dispatch to other workers in the room, you have two main options: • Use a Separate Project for Local Development: Set up different LiveKit project credentials for local development. This ensures that your local worker operates independently from production workers. Configure your environment variables as follows: This approach isolates your local development environment from production, preventing real users from being connected to your local worker. ◦ `LIVEKIT_URL`: Pointing to your local or development LiveKit server ◦ `LIVEKIT_API_KEY`: From your development project ◦ `LIVEKIT_API_SECRET`: From your development project • Use Explicit Agent Dispatch: Set the

agent_name

field in your

WorkerOptions

to enable explicit dispatch. For example:

opts = WorkerOptions(
    ...
    agent_name="local-dev-agent",
)

When

agent_name

is set, automatic dispatch is disabled. You can then: ◦ Dispatch jobs via API when needed for testing ◦ Configure participant tokens to automatically dispatch your named agent when participants connect ◦ Control exactly which agent handles which rooms The recommended approach is to use separate project credentials for local development, as it provides complete isolation between your development and production environments while maintaining simplicity for local testing. Sources: Deployment and scaling | LiveKit Docs | Agent dispatch | LiveKit Docs | livekit-agents/livekit/agents/worker.py