How to detect if the user is idle and disconnect the room

LiveKit-Community · January 21, 2026, 1:32pm

This question originally came up in our Slack community and the thread has been consolidated here for long-term reference.

How can I detect if the agent is idle and disconnect the room if the user doesn’t speak for 5 minutes?

LiveKit-Community · January 21, 2026, 1:32pm

We have an example specifically for this use case:

github.com/livekit/agents

examples/voice_agents/inactive_user.py

main

import asyncio
import logging

from dotenv import load_dotenv

from livekit.agents import (
    Agent,
    AgentServer,
    AgentSession,
    JobContext,
    UserStateChangedEvent,
    cli,
    inference,
)
from livekit.plugins import silero

logger = logging.getLogger("get-email-agent")

load_dotenv()

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This example shows how to track user inactivity and take action (like disconnecting) after a timeout period.

Note: Calling session.shutdown() disconnects the audio stream but doesn’t delete the room. If you need to fully close the room, use the Room API to delete it.

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How to detect if the user is idle and disconnect the room

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