I understand you’re looking to manage pauses longer than 30 seconds in LiveKit, and I’m here to help! Currently, LiveKit’s built-in turn detection system doesn’t natively support pauses longer than 30 seconds for user speaking initiation. The key setting here is the

max_endpointing_delay

parameter, which is designed to wait up to 6.0 seconds (and while it’s configurable, it’s not officially documented to support values over 30 seconds) when the system thinks the user might continue speaking. But don’t worry! If you want to handle longer pauses, you can create a custom inactivity handler. LiveKit actually provides an example

InactivityHandler

that keeps an eye on silence and can trigger actions—like a friendly prompt—after a timeout you set. You can easily extend this to handle pauses over 30 seconds, like this:

handler = InactivityHandler(timeout_seconds=35, inactivity_message="I'm still here when you're ready.")
handler.start(agent)

This handler listens for

user_started_speaking

events and resets its timer accordingly. If the user stays silent beyond your set threshold, it can send a message or run any custom logic you choose. If you’d like, I’m happy to walk you through setting this up or answer any questions you have—just let me know! Sources: LiveKit turn detector plugin | LiveKit Docs | Turn detection and interruptions | LiveKit Docs | agent_extensions/agent_extensions/handlers/inactivity_handler.py | Silero VAD plugin | LiveKit Docs