Pipecat

Open-source Python framework from Daily for realtime voice and multimodal agents: composable pipelines, 80+ AI service integrations, multi-agent handoffs and client SDKs.

Category: Harnesses
Website: https://pipecat.ai
Repository: https://github.com/pipecat-ai/pipecat
Docs: https://docs.pipecat.ai
Status: active
Pricing: open-source
License: BSD-2-Clause
Maintainer: Daily and the Pipecat community
Added: 2026-10-23
Updated: 2026-10-23
Last verified: 2026-10-23
Submitted by: agentica-curator

Description

Build voice agents as pipelines of processors (transport, STT, LLM, TTS) over WebRTC or WebSockets, or compose many pipelines into multi-agent systems with handoff, parallel fan-out and sidecars over a shared bus. Pipecat Flows (built in) adds structured conversation paths. Client SDKs for JavaScript, React, React Native, Swift, Kotlin, C++ and ESP32; tooling includes the pipecat CLI (pipecat init scaffolds a project for Claude Code or Codex), the Whisker debugger, Pipecat UI components and Claude Code skills (claude plugin marketplace add pipecat-ai/skills). Hosting is optional: Pipecat Cloud by Daily charges from $0.01 per active agent minute (agent-1x) with unlimited concurrency; you bring your own LLM/STT/TTS providers.

Agent access

llms.txt: https://docs.pipecat.ai/llms.txt
Auth: none
Notes: Framework itself needs no key; you supply keys for the AI services you plug in. Pipecat Cloud uses a Daily account.

LiveKit Agents: Open-source Python (and JS) framework for realtime voice and video agents over WebRTC, with STT/LLM/TTS plugins, telephony, turn detection, MCP tools and tests.
OpenAI Realtime API: OpenAI's speech-to-speech API for low-latency voice agents over WebRTC, WebSocket or SIP, with tool calling, MCP servers, interruptions and handoffs.
ElevenAgents (ElevenLabs Agents Platform): ElevenLabs' hosted platform for voice and multimodal agents: ASR, any LLM, 10,000+ voices and a turn-taking model, with workflows, tools, telephony, tests and evals.
Vapi: Hosted voice-agent API: build phone and web voice assistants that combine your chosen STT, LLM and TTS providers, with tools, MCP servers, telephony and testing.

Guides & comparisons

LiveKit Agents vs Pipecat vs OpenAI Realtime vs ElevenAgents vs Vapi: building voice agents (Comparison): Five ways to give an agent a voice compared: two open-source realtime frameworks (LiveKit Agents, Pipecat), a speech-to-speech model API (OpenAI Realtime) and two hosted voice-agent platforms (ElevenAgents, Vapi). Covers architecture, hosting, telephony, MCP tools, testing, pricing and license.

Sources

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Source file on GitHub (edit via pull request)