LiveKit

By default the radio's audio goes through the SnailyCAD API itself (built in). That needs nothing extra and handles dozens of people on the radio. For large communities, or better audio (Opus, WebRTC), point the radio at a LiveKit server: the audio then goes through LiveKit, while push-to-talk, talking indicators and channel changes still go through the CAD. Switching is one click in CAD Settings → Radio, and back.

	Built in	LiveKit
Install	nothing	a LiveKit server (Docker or a binary)
Audio	16 kHz mu-law over the CAD's connection	Opus over WebRTC
Size	dozens of people talking/listening	hundreds
Ports	the API's port	7880 (signal), 7881 TCP + 50000-50100 UDP (media)

Docker (with the CAD's compose file)

1. Create the LiveKit config next to production.docker-compose.yml:

   cp livekit.example.yaml livekit.yaml

   Change the secret under keys: (snailycad: <at least 32 random characters>).

2. Start LiveKit:

   docker compose -f production.docker-compose.yml --profile livekit up -d livekit

3. Add to the CAD's .env:

   RADIO_LIVEKIT_URL="wss://livekit.example.com"
   RADIO_LIVEKIT_API_KEY="snailycad"
   RADIO_LIVEKIT_API_SECRET="the secret from livekit.yaml"

   and rebuild / restart the API (docker compose -f production.docker-compose.yml up -d --build api).

4. CAD Settings → Radio → LiveKit server.

Without Docker

Download livekit-server from the releases (tested with v1.13.7) and run it with the same config:

./livekit-server --config livekit.yaml

Then steps 3 and 4 above, and restart the CAD (./start.sh or its service).

HTTPS and ports

• Browsers and FiveM need wss://: put LiveKit's port 7880 behind your reverse proxy with a certificate (e.g. livekit.example.com → 127.0.0.1:7880, WebSocket upgrades on), and use that address in RADIO_LIVEKIT_URL.
• Open 7881/tcp and 50000-50100/udp in your firewall (and your host's firewall): that's where the audio flows, directly between players and LiveKit.
• use_external_ip: true in livekit.yaml lets LiveKit find its public IP; set rtc.node_ip yourself if it picks the wrong one.

Checking it works

CAD Settings → Radio shows the LiveKit address when the three RADIO_LIVEKIT_* values are set, and a warning when LiveKit is selected but they're missing (the radio then keeps using the built-in audio). Radios pick up a change of transport when they reconnect (reload the page; in game, reconnect or restart the resource).

Edit on GitHub

This page is generated from docs/radio/livekit.md.