reflector/docsv2/migrate-daily-to-livekit.md

Migrating from Daily.co to LiveKit

This guide covers running LiveKit alongside Daily.co or fully replacing it.

Both Platforms Run Simultaneously

LiveKit and Daily.co coexist — the platform is selected per room. You don't need to migrate all rooms at once.

• Existing Daily rooms continue to work as-is
• New rooms can use LiveKit
• Each room's platform field determines which video service is used
• Transcripts, topics, summaries work identically regardless of platform

Step 1: Enable LiveKit

Add --livekit to your setup command:

# If currently running:
./scripts/setup-selfhosted.sh --gpu --ollama-gpu --garage --caddy

# Add --livekit:
./scripts/setup-selfhosted.sh --gpu --ollama-gpu --livekit --garage --caddy

This starts livekit-server + livekit-egress containers alongside your existing stack.

Step 2: Set Default Platform

The setup script automatically sets DEFAULT_VIDEO_PLATFORM=livekit in server/.env. This means new rooms default to LiveKit. Existing rooms keep their current platform.

To keep Daily as the default for new rooms:

# In server/.env, change:
DEFAULT_VIDEO_PLATFORM=daily

Step 3: Switch Individual Rooms

In the Rooms admin page, edit any room and change the Platform dropdown from "Daily" to "LiveKit". The next meeting in that room will use LiveKit.

Previously recorded Daily transcripts for that room are unaffected.

Step 4: (Optional) Remove Daily.co

Once all rooms use LiveKit and you no longer need Daily.co:

1. Remove DAILY_API_KEY and related Daily settings from server/.env
2. Re-run the setup script — it won't activate the dailyco profile
3. Hatchet workers are shared between Daily and LiveKit, so they continue running

Daily-specific services that stop:

• hatchet-worker-cpu with dailyco profile (but continues if livekit profile is active)
• Daily webhook polling tasks (poll_daily_recordings, etc.)

What Changes for Users

Feature	Daily.co	LiveKit
Video/audio quality	Daily.co SFU	LiveKit SFU (comparable)
Pre-join screen	Daily's built-in iframe	LiveKit PreJoin component (name + device selection)
Recording	Starts via REST API from frontend	Auto Track Egress (automatic, no user action)
Multitrack audio	Per-participant WebM tracks	Per-participant OGG tracks
Transcript quality	Same pipeline	Same pipeline
Self-hosted	No (SaaS only)	Yes (fully self-hosted)

Database Changes

None required. The platform field on rooms and meetings already supports "livekit". LiveKit recordings use recording IDs prefixed with lk- to distinguish them from Daily recordings.

Rollback

To revert a room back to Daily, just change the Platform dropdown back to "Daily" in the Rooms admin page. No data migration needed.