How to set a minimum silence time for the participant, and not wait indefinitely for the user to speak?

Thanks for reaching out, Iliyass. I'm an AI assistant and I'm here to help. Give me a moment while I research this topic.

a live session, when a human participant joined a room with a an agent

To help you set a minimum silence time for a participant in a live session and avoid waiting indefinitely for them to speak, LiveKit offers some handy built-in turn detection features. Let me walk you through the main options: • Using VAD (Voice Activity Detection): You can adjust the

min_silence_duration

parameter to decide how long the system waits after speech ends before marking it as complete. For example, in Python:

vad = silero.VAD.load(min_silence_duration=0.7)

• Using AgentSession: Here, you can configure

min_endpointing_delay

and

max_endpointing_delay

to control the wait time before ending a turn. For example:

session = AgentSession(min_endpointing_delay=0.6, max_endpointing_delay=4.0)

• Using STT-Based Turn Detection: If you’re working with STT, parameters like

min_end_of_turn_silence_when_confident

and

max_turn_silence

can be fine-tuned for even more precise control. • Custom Silence Timeout: You might also implement a timer to gently disconnect or prompt participants after extended silence. For example:

if time.time() - user_last_spoke_time > SILENCE_THRESHOLD: disconnect()

If you’d like, I’m here to help with any part of the implementation or provide more details. Just let me know! Sources: VoicePipelineAgent | LiveKit Docs | Turn detection and interruptions | LiveKit Docs | Silero VAD plugin | LiveKit Docs | plugins/silero/src/vad.ts | AssemblyAI integration guide | LiveKit Docs

I already have this config, with this, how long wait for silence in seconds?

ilero.VAD.load(
        min_speech_duration=0.05,
        min_silence_duration=0.2, 
        activation_threshold=0.5, 
        sample_rate=16000,
    )

Thanks for sharing your current setup! 😊 Here’s what it means:

ilero.VAD.load(
    min_speech_duration=0.05,
    min_silence_duration=0.2, 
    activation_threshold=0.5, 
    sample_rate=16000,
)

With this, the system waits for 0.2 seconds of silence after you finish speaking before it considers the speech complete. If you’d like me to explain anything further or help tweak these settings, just let me know—I’m here to help!

but I want to configure if the participant didn't speak for a period of time

I totally understand how important it is to manage situations when a participant goes silent for a while. A helpful way to do this is by setting up a custom silence timeout. This means keeping an eye on how long it’s been since the participant last spoke, and if it goes beyond a certain limit, you can take action. Here’s a friendly example in Python to guide you:

import asyncio
import time

SILENCE_THRESHOLD = 30  # seconds
user_last_spoke_time = time.time()

@agent.on("user_started_speaking")
def on_user_started_speaking():
    global user_last_spoke_time
    user_last_spoke_time = time.time()

async def monitor_interaction():
    while True:
        if time.time() - user_last_spoke_time > SILENCE_THRESHOLD:
            print("User has been silent too long. Disconnecting.")
            await ctx.room.disconnect()
            break
        await asyncio.sleep(1)

# Start monitoring
asyncio.create_task(monitor_interaction())

This way, the session won’t hang around waiting forever if someone stays quiet. You can easily tweak the

SILENCE_THRESHOLD

to whatever time frame feels right for you. If you want, I’m here to help you set this up or answer any questions you might have!

where to set this, inside the entrypoint function?

Absolutely, you can set this inside the entrypoint function or the main function where your session is initialized. Just make sure the monitoring logic starts after your session and event listeners (like

on_user_started_speaking

) are all properly set up. Here’s a simple example to guide you:

def main():
    # Initialize session and other configurations
    session = AgentSession(...)

    # Set up event listeners
    @session.on("user_started_speaking")
    def on_user_started_speaking():
        global user_last_spoke_time
        user_last_spoke_time = time.time()

    # Start monitoring silence
    asyncio.create_task(monitor_interaction())

    # Start the session
    session.run()

This way, the silence monitoring will run smoothly alongside your session. If anything’s unclear or you want to dive deeper, just let me know—I’m here to help!

user_last_spoke_time should be reset when when the agent finished his speach

You're absolutely right! To keep the tracking spot on, it's a great idea to reset

user_last_spoke_time

when the agent finishes speaking as well. You can do this by adding an event listener for when the agent’s speech ends. Here’s a little example for you:

@agent.on("agent_finished_speaking")
def on_agent_finished_speaking():
    global user_last_spoke_time
    user_last_spoke_time = time.time()

By resetting

user_last_spoke_time

in both

user_started_speaking

and

agent_finished_speaking

, you’ll make sure the silence timer reflects activity from both the participant and the agent. If you have any more questions or need a hand with this, just let me know—I’m here to help!

are you sure

agent_finished_speaking

exists?/

Hi there! I wanted to let you know that the event

agent_finished_speaking

isn’t available in LiveKit. But don’t worry, there are some great alternatives you can use to track when the agent finishes speaking: • `agent_stopped_speaking`: This event fires when the agent moves from the "speaking" state to another state like "listening" or "thinking". Here’s a little example:`@agent.on("agent_stopped_speaking") def on_agent_stopped_speaking(): global user_last_spoke_time user_last_spoke_time = time.time()` • `playback_finished`: This one triggers when the agent’s TTS audio playback has fully finished. Check out this example:`@session.output.audio.on("playback_finished") def _on_playback_finished(ev): global user_last_spoke_time user_last_spoke_time = time.time()` If you’re looking for the most precise timing, I’d recommend going with the

playback_finished

event. Please feel free to reach out if you’d like any help setting this up—I’m here for you! Sources: Recording agent sessions | LiveKit Docs | How to detect when an agent has finished speaking | VoicePipelineAgent | LiveKit Docs | VoicePipelineAgent | LiveKit Docs | Working with the MultimodalAgent class | LiveKit Docs

also

user_started_speaking

doesn't exists

I'm happy to help clarify this for you! The event

user_started_speaking

does exist in LiveKit for Agents v0.x and is used to track when a user begins speaking. However, in Agents v1.x, this event has been updated to

user_state_changed

, which offers more flexibility. You can detect when a user starts speaking by checking if

new_state == "speaking"

. Here's a little example to guide you:

@session.on("user_state_changed")
def on_user_state_changed(ev):
    if ev.new_state == "speaking":
        print("User started speaking")
    elif ev.new_state == "listening":
        print("User stopped speaking")

If you'd like, I’m here to help you implement this or assist with any specific version of the framework you’re working with. Just let me know! Sources: VoicePipelineAgent | LiveKit Docs | agent_extensions/agent_extensions/handlers/inactivity_handler.py | Turn detection and interruptions | LiveKit Docs | Events and error handling | LiveKit Docs | Agents 0.x migration guide | LiveKit Docs