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Local Installation

For the official documentation see the LiveKit Self-Hosting Guide.

Prerequisites​

  • A Linux environment. The WSL is a viable option if your laptop is running on Windows. you can find the installation guide on the official Microsoft WSL documentation.

  • Install Docker on your linux environment (WSL). Since the default one is Ubuntu, you can find the installation guide on the official Docker documetation

  • Install the LiveKit server on you local Linux environment (not on Docker). You can run it with:

livekit-server --dev

Step 1: Install Redis​

LiveKit requires a separate Redis instance to allow concurrent communication between LiveKit and the Egress service.

Install Redis:

sudo apt-get install redis-server

Modify the Redis configuration file:

Edit /etc/redis/redis.conf:

  • Comment out the line starting with bind 127.0.0.1
  • Change protected-mode yes to protected-mode no

Restart the Redis server:

sudo systemctl restart redis-server

Step 2: Run the LiveKit Server​

To enable webhook, create a new file named livekit.yaml:

webhook:
  # The API key to use in order to sign the message
  # This must match one of the keys LiveKit is configured with
  api_key: 'devkey'
  urls:
    - 'http://localhost:3001/webhook'

Start the LiveKit server with the correct parameters:

livekit-server --dev --bind 0.0.0.0 --redis-host YOUR_WSL_IP:6379 --node-ip YOUR_WSL_IP --config <path_to_file>/livekit.yaml

You can find your WSL IP using:

ip addr show eth0

Step 3: Set Up Egress​

Create a directory for the Egress service (e.g., ~/egress-service) and add a config.yaml file:

log_level: debug
api_key: devkey
api_secret: secret
ws_url: ws://YOUR_WSL_IP:7880
insecure: true
redis:
  address: YOUR_WSL_IP:6379

Run the Egress service with:

sudo docker run --rm \
  -e EGRESS_CONFIG_FILE=/etc/egress.yaml \
  -v ~/livekit-backend/recordings:/out \
  -v ~/egress-service/config.yaml:/etc/egress.yaml \
  livekit/egress

~/livekit-backend/recordings is the directory where recordings will be saved. Ensure it has the correct permissions:

sudo chmod 777 ~/livekit-backend/recordings

Step 4: Configure the Backend​

Set the correct LiveKit credentials and host in your backend:

  • LiveKit Key: devkey
  • LiveKit Secret: secret
  • LiveKit Host: http://YOUR_WSL_IP:7880

Step 5: Configure the Frontend​

Update src/main/apiClient:

AUTH_SERVER_URL = http://localhost:3001

(or the port you are using).

Update src/renderer/app/views/LiveKitView.tsx:

const serverUrl = 'ws://YOUR_WSL_IP:7880';

Update src/main/app.ts:

In the Content-Security-Policy, edit the line with // TODO: Only used in local development:

'ws://YOUR_WSL_IP:* http://YOUR_WSL_IP:* ' // TODO: Only used in local development