TEMPLATE.md

Overview

In order for client apps to connect to LiveKit rooms, they need to present an Access Token with the appropriate permission grants. For web applications, the process of generating tokens can often be easily incorporated into your existing web server. For other targets like mobile and desktop applications, you will need a server with an endpoint to generate these tokens.

This template implements a minimal token server using Node.js, TypeScript, Express, and the LiveKit Server SDK.

Sandbox

When running this token server as a sandbox app, LiveKit hosts a public endpoint you can use to generate tokens. To generate a token, simply make a POST request to https://cloud-api.livekit.io/api/sandbox/connection-details with the following request format:

Request format
Method	POST
URL	https://cloud-api.livekit.io/api/sandbox/connection-details
Optional Parameters	roomName	(your room name)
	participantName	(your participant name)
Headers	X-Sandbox-ID	(your Sandbox ID)
	Content-Type	application/json

Generated tokens will have a default TTL of 15 minutes. Optional parameters not included in the request will be generated by the token server.

Installation

To use this template locally, clone the repo or use the LiveKit CLI:

lk app create --template token-server-node my-server

You can also bootstrap a minimal token server yourself with the following code:

import express from 'express';
import { AccessToken } from 'livekit-server-sdk';

async function createToken({ roomName, participantName }) {
  const at = new AccessToken('my-key', 'my-secret', {
    identity: participantName,
    ttl: '10m',
  });
  at.addGrant({
    roomJoin: true,
    room: roomName,
    canUpdateOwnMetadata: true,
  });
  return at.toJwt();
}

const app = express();
const port = 3000;

app.post('/token', async (req, res) => {
  const { roomName = 'demo-room', participantName = 'demo-user' } = req.body || {};
  const token = await createToken({ roomName, participantName });
  res.send(token);
});

app.listen(port, () => {
  console.log(`Server listening on port ${port}`);
});

For more information on tokens, see our documentation on generating tokens.