Live Streaming (SSE & WebSocket)

Voicebip exposes three live-streaming endpoints. They serve different use cases:

Authentication

All endpoints accept Authorization: Bearer pk_live_xxx as a request header — preferred for server-to-server consumers.

For browser clients that cannot set custom headers, the ?token=pk_live_xxx query parameter is supported on two of the three paths:

Call Transcript (SSE)

Stream the per-turn transcript of a live call as it’s spoken. Each frame is one user or agent turn.

const es = new EventSource(
  `https://api.voicebip.com/v1/calls/${callId}/transcript/stream?token=${apiKey}`
);
es.onmessage = (frame) => {
  const turn = JSON.parse(frame.data);
  // turn.role:    "user" | "agent"
  // turn.text:    "What time do you open?"
  // turn.is_final: true (partial turns also arrive with is_final: false)
  // turn.turn_id: "trn_xyz"
  // turn.ts:      "2026-05-15T14:32:01.123Z"
};
es.addEventListener('error', (frame) => {
  // event: error frames carry a terminal {error_code, message}
  console.error(JSON.parse(frame.data));
});

Frame format

The stream closes when the call ends or the client disconnects. Reconnect logic is your responsibility — the platform does not buffer beyond the in-flight turn.

Conversation Stream (SSE)

Stream messaging activity (SMS or WhatsApp) for a single conversation.

This endpoint requires the Authorization header and is intended for server-to-server consumers (it does not support the ?token= query parameter). Use a server-side SSE client library or a custom fetch-based reader:

// Node.js / server-side example using fetch (streaming)
const response = await fetch(
  `https://api.voicebip.com/v1/conversations/${conversationId}/stream`,
  { headers: { Authorization: `Bearer ${apiKey}` } }
);
const reader = response.body.getReader();
const decoder = new TextDecoder();
while (true) {
  const { done, value } = await reader.read();
  if (done) break;
  const text = decoder.decode(value);
  // Parse SSE frames from `text` — each data line is one event
  for (const line of text.split("\n")) {
    if (line.startsWith("data: ")) {
      const event = JSON.parse(line.slice(6));
      // event.event_type:      "message.received" | "message.delivered" | "message.read" | "message.failed" | "conversation.mode_changed"
      // event.conversation_id: "conv_abc"
      // event.timestamp:       "2026-05-15T14:32:01.123Z"
      // event.payload:         event-specific fields nested verbatim from the NATS envelope
      console.log(event);
    }
  }
}

The payload shape varies by event_type — message.* events carry { message_id, direction, text, status, ... }, while conversation.mode_changed carries { from_mode, to_mode, actor_user_id }. The dashboard dispatches on event.event_type rather than discriminating by URL path. The same events surface (with different transport guarantees) through the webhook system — see Webhooks.

Call Event Stream (WebSocket)

Bidirectional channel for any consumer that needs low-latency call events: barge-ins, idle silences, quality degradation, and (eventually) raw audio frames for in-browser monitoring.

const ws = new WebSocket(
  `wss://api.voicebip.com/v1/calls/${callId}/stream?token=${apiKey}`
);
ws.onmessage = (frame) => {
  const event = JSON.parse(frame.data);
  // event.event_type: "call.transcription" | "call.quality_degraded" | "call.completed" | ...
  // event.payload:    channel-specific data
};

The platform issues a 101 Switching Protocols upgrade on a successful auth. After upgrade, frames are JSON envelopes matching the webhook payload format.

Choosing Between SSE and WebSocket

If you’re building a dashboard view that only consumes events, choose SSE — fewer moving parts. If you’re building real-time control surfaces (e.g. injecting DTMF mid-call), choose WebSocket.

Operational Notes

• Connection limits. The gateway disables its 10-second write timeout on these three paths only, so long-lived streams work. Other /v1 routes will kill SSE connections after 10s — don’t try to repurpose them.
• Workspace isolation. Streams are RLS-scoped — you can only subscribe to call_id / conversation_id values owned by your workspace. Cross-workspace IDs return 404, not 401, to prevent enumeration.
• Heartbeats. SSE streams send a comment line every 30 seconds. Most HTTP libraries handle this transparently; if you’re parsing the wire format manually, ignore lines starting with :.
• Backpressure. Each stream has a bounded in-process frame buffer (64 frames). If your consumer falls behind, the server drops the next frame rather than blocking the NATS subscriber. Treat the stream as best-effort live view — for authoritative event delivery use webhooks, which retry independently for 24 hours.