FiveM radio

Push-to-talk radio for FiveM that shares its channels with SnailyCAD. Players talk on their handheld, and dispatchers answer from the CAD in any web browser: no FiveM, TeamSpeak or anything else needed on the dispatch side.

• One radio network: players in game, dispatchers and admins in the CAD (the radio dock on any page, its pop-out window, or the full-screen /radio page) and other integrations all hear each other. Units talk in game with this resource.
• Works with any voice script: radio audio goes through SnailyCAD, next to your proximity voice (pma-voice, SaltyChat, TokoVOIP, mumble-voip or none). The voice script's own radio is switched off so nobody ends up with two radios.
• 3D: a handheld in the character's hand with a talk animation (shoulder mic in vehicles), and positional audio: players standing next to someone hear their radio, quieter with distance and from the right side, unless that person wears an earpiece.
• Dispatch control: when dispatch sets a unit's radio channel in the CAD, the player's radio switches; dispatchers can talk over anyone (priority) and send alert / panic tones.
• Access: ESX, QBCore and Qbox jobs, ACE permissions or everyone; jobs map to CAD departments so department-only channels work in game too.

Requirements

• SnailyCAD (MySQL / MariaDB edition) with the Radio feature turned on and at least one channel (CAD Settings → Radio).
• The CAD's API must be on HTTPS (https://cad-api.example.com/v1). FiveM's in-game browser only connects to secure (wss://) radio servers. Set up a domain and a reverse proxy as in the CAD docs.
• The CAD API token turned on (CAD Settings → API Token).

Install

Step-by-step guide

First time? Follow Install the radio: it walks you through the CAD side and the FiveM side with a check after each step. Below is the short version.

1. Copy the snailycad-radio folder into your server's resources folder and add ensure snailycad-radio to server.cfg. The folder is integrations/fivem/snailycad-radio in the repository (on a one-line install also in /opt/snailycad/app/integrations/fivem/). It is ready to use: no build needed.

2. Connect it to the CAD: you need the CAD's API address (e.g. https://cad-api.example.com/v1) and the CAD API token (CAD Settings → API Token, turned on). Pick one way:

   • In game (easiest): join as a server admin. The setup pops up by itself while the radio isn't set up; later open it with /radiosetup or F4. Enter both, press Test, then Save: radios connect right away, no restart.

   • Server console / txAdmin Live Console:

     snailyradio_setup https://cad-api.example.com/v1 YOUR_CAD_API_TOKEN

     (snailyradio_setup clear removes the saved settings.)

   • server.cfg (wins over the two above):

     set snailycad_radio_api_url "https://cad-api.example.com/v1"
     set snailycad_radio_api_token "YOUR_CAD_API_TOKEN"

     Use set, not setr: the token must stay on the server. server.cfg is only read when the server starts; to apply it now, type the two set lines in the console and restart snailycad-radio.

3. Check: snailyradio_check in the server console prints OK and your channels.

4. Check config.lua: which jobs get a radio (Config.Jobs) and their CAD departments, keys, positional audio, the prop. Admins for the setup are Config.AdminAces (command = server admins) plus ESX admin / superadmin groups and QBCore admin / god.

Using it in game

Units use the radio in game. (The radio in the CAD's browser pages is for dispatchers and admins.)

Action	Default
Push to talk	Caps Lock (hold)
Open the handheld (channels, volume, earpiece, power)	/radio
Change channel	/radiochannel <name, frequency or number>, or the arrows on the handheld
Earpiece in / out	/earpiece

Players can rebind every key in Settings → Key Bindings → FiveM ("Radio: …").

Voice scripts

Full list including megaphones, HUDs, radio scripts and phones: Supported scripts and phones.

Voice script	What the resource does	Your settings
pma-voice	turns pma-voice's radio off (radioEnabled), proximity voice stays	nothing, or setr voice_enableRadios 0
SaltyChat	nothing to turn off (SaltyChat has no radio until a script sets one)	nothing
TokoVOIP	removes the player from TokoVOIP radio channels	remove other TokoVOIP radio scripts
mumble-voip	turns mumble-voip's radio off (radioEnabled)	nothing
none

Prefer to keep your voice script's own radio audio? Set Config.VoiceSync = true: the voice script's radio is moved to the same channel number as the CAD radio (the channel's frequency, its position in the CAD, or Config.VoiceSyncChannels). Dispatchers in the browser only hear what goes through the SnailyCAD radio, so the regular mode is recommended.

Voice HUDs (esx_hud, qb-hud, ps-hud and others) show radio talking: while a player talks on the radio, the resource sends the same signals as pma-voice's radio (the pma-voice:radioActive event and the radioActive state bag). Turn it off with Config.HudEvents = false.

Other radio scripts such as rp-radio give players a second radio: remove them. The resource prints a warning in the F8 console and in snailyradio_check when rp-radio is running.

For script developers

Client exports (exports["snailycad-radio"]:…):

Export
HasRadio() / IsRadioOn()	does the player have a radio / is it on
IsTalking()	transmitting right now
GetChannel()	channel id, channel name
GetChannels()	{ id, name, frequency, canTransmit }[]
SetChannel(value)	by id, name, frequency or number
HasEarpiece() / SetEarpiece(on)
SetPower(on) / OpenRadio()
StartTalking() / StopTalking()	push-to-talk from your own script (e.g. a car radio button)

Client events: snailycad-radio:channelChanged (id, name), snailycad-radio:talking (on, channel), snailycad-radio:received (name, on, channel) (someone else talks on your channel).

Server exports: GetPlayerChannel(src), IsPlayerTalking(src), HasEarpiece(src), SetPlayerChannel(src, value), SetPlayerRadioPower(src, on), PlayTone(src, tone), RefreshPlayer(src) (after you changed someone's job), GetChannels(), GetPlayersOnChannel(id).

Every player's radio is also in the state bag Player(src).state.snailyRadio ({ on, channel, earpiece, talking }).

Rebuilding the UI

The in-game UI (html/app.js) is built from web/src/app.ts and the CAD's radio library. You only need this if you change the TypeScript:

pnpm --filter @snailycad/radio build
node integrations/fivem/build.mjs

Troubleshooting

• snailyradio_check says 401: the API token is wrong, or the API token is turned off in the CAD.
• Says the CAD refused (400): turn on the Radio feature in CAD Settings → Features.
• No channels: add channels in CAD Settings → Radio and leave "Allow FiveM and other radios" on (or give the job's departments access).
• Players connect but hear nothing / can't talk: the CAD API must be HTTPS. Open the in-game console (F8) and look for [snailycad-radio] errors; set Config.Debug = true for more.
• "You don't have a radio": the player's job isn't in Config.Jobs (or off duty), and they don't have the snailycad.radio ACE permission.

Edit on GitHub

This page is generated from integrations/fivem/snailycad-radio/README.md.