Voice

Real-time speech-to-text in the chat composer. The user speaks, the runtime transcribes, the agent runs the resulting prompt.

"""Default LangGraph agent — neutral "helpful, concise assistant".This is the fallthrough graph for demos that don't require anything morespecialized. Cells that need tailored behavior (chart viz, weather-only,etc.) should have their own dedicated graph under `src/agents/` andexplicit wiring in the CopilotKit route."""from langchain.agents import create_agentfrom langchain_openai import ChatOpenAIfrom copilotkit import CopilotKitMiddlewaregraph = create_agent(    model=ChatOpenAI(model="gpt-5.4"),    tools=[],    middleware=[CopilotKitMiddleware()],    system_prompt="You are a helpful, concise assistant.",)

You have a working chat surface and you want users to be able to speak instead of type. By the end of this guide, the chat composer will sprout a mic button, recorded audio will be transcribed by the runtime, and the transcript will auto-send to the agent like any other message.

When to use this#

Hands-free or accessibility flows where typing isn't the right input modality.
Mobile or kiosk surfaces where a long voice query is faster than thumb-typing.
Demo and test loops where you want canned audio to drive the chat without a microphone.

If you only need file uploads (audio, images, video, documents), use Multimodal Attachments instead. Voice is specifically about live transcription of recorded speech into chat input.

Frontend#

<CopilotChat /> renders the mic button automatically when the runtime advertises audioFileTranscriptionEnabled: true on its /info endpoint. There's nothing to wire up on the chat surface itself:

page.tsx

import { CopilotKit } from "@copilotkit/react-core/v2";import { VoiceChat } from "./voice-chat";export default function VoiceDemoPage() {  return (    <CopilotKit      runtimeUrl="/api/copilotkit-voice"      agent="voice-demo"      useSingleEndpoint={false}      // The dev-only `<cpk-web-inspector>` overlay (auto-enabled on      // localhost via shouldShowDevConsole) intercepts pointer events      // on top of the voice sample-audio button, so dev/D5 probe runs      // can't click it through Playwright. Production isn't localhost      // so the inspector never mounts there — voice is D5 in prod and      // D4 locally for this reason alone. Disable explicitly here so      // the demo behaves the same in both environments.      enableInspector={false}    >      <VoiceChat />    </CopilotKit>  );}

When the user clicks the mic, the chat captures audio, POSTs it to the runtime's /transcribe endpoint, drops the resulting transcript into the composer, and submits.

Driving the demo without a mic#

For Playwright runs, screenshots, or any flow where prompting for mic permissions is awkward, ship a button that POSTs a bundled audio clip directly to the same /transcribe endpoint:

sample-audio-button.tsx

export function SampleAudioButton({  onTranscribed,  sampleText,}: SampleAudioButtonProps) {  return (    <button      type="button"      data-testid="voice-sample-audio-button"      onClick={() => onTranscribed(sampleText)}      title={`Inserts: "${sampleText}"`}      className="inline-flex w-fit items-center gap-2 rounded-md border border-black/10 bg-white px-3 py-1.5 text-xs font-medium hover:bg-black/5 dark:border-white/10 dark:bg-black/30 dark:hover:bg-white/10"    >      <span aria-hidden>🎙</span>      <span>Try a sample audio</span>    </button>  );}

The caller can drop the resulting text into the composer's textarea (matched via data-testid="copilot-chat-textarea") using the native value setter and a synthetic input event so React's managed state updates correctly.

Backend#

Wire up the V2 runtime with a TranscriptionService. The V1 wrapper drops the transcriptionService option, so use createCopilotRuntimeHandler from @copilotkit/runtime/v2 directly:

route.ts

import type { NextRequest } from "next/server";import {  CopilotRuntime,  TranscriptionService,  createCopilotRuntimeHandler,} from "@copilotkit/runtime/v2";import type { TranscribeFileOptions } from "@copilotkit/runtime/v2";import { LangGraphAgent } from "@copilotkit/runtime/langgraph";import { TranscriptionServiceOpenAI } from "@copilotkit/voice";import OpenAI from "openai";const LANGGRAPH_URL =  process.env.LANGGRAPH_DEPLOYMENT_URL || "http://localhost:8123";const voiceDemoAgent = new LangGraphAgent({  deploymentUrl: LANGGRAPH_URL,  graphId: "sample_agent",});/** * Transcription service wrapper that reports a clean, typed auth error when * OPENAI_API_KEY is not configured. When the key is present we delegate to * the real OpenAI-backed service; any upstream Whisper error keeps its * natural categorization. * * Note: We pin `baseURL` to real OpenAI (or `OPENAI_TRANSCRIPTION_BASE_URL` * when explicitly set) instead of falling through to `OPENAI_BASE_URL`. In * local docker / Railway preview environments `OPENAI_BASE_URL` points at * aimock so LLM completions stay deterministic, but aimock has a catchall * `endpoint: "transcription"` fixture that would otherwise intercept every * real mic recording and return the canned "What is the weather in Tokyo?" * phrase regardless of what the user actually said. The sample-audio button * is the deterministic affordance (synchronous text injection); the mic is * the only path that should exercise real Whisper. */class GuardedOpenAITranscriptionService extends TranscriptionService {  private delegate: TranscriptionServiceOpenAI | null;  constructor() {    super();    const apiKey = process.env.OPENAI_API_KEY;    const baseURL =      process.env.OPENAI_TRANSCRIPTION_BASE_URL ?? "https://api.openai.com/v1";    this.delegate = apiKey      ? new TranscriptionServiceOpenAI({          openai: new OpenAI({ apiKey, baseURL }),        })      : null;  }  async transcribeFile(options: TranscribeFileOptions): Promise<string> {    if (!this.delegate) {      // "api key" substring → handleTranscribe maps to AUTH_FAILED → 401.      throw new Error(        "OPENAI_API_KEY not configured for this deployment (api key missing). " +          "Set OPENAI_API_KEY to enable voice transcription.",      );    }    return this.delegate.transcribeFile(options);  }}// Cache the runtime + handler across invocations so the transcription service// is constructed once per Node process instead of per request. The guarded// service reads OPENAI_API_KEY lazily in its transcribeFile call path, so// deferring construction past module load is not required for cold-start// safety under missing-key conditions.let cachedHandler: ((req: Request) => Promise<Response>) | null = null;function getHandler(): (req: Request) => Promise<Response> {  if (cachedHandler) return cachedHandler;  const runtime = new CopilotRuntime({    // @ts-ignore -- Published CopilotRuntime agents type wraps Record in    // MaybePromise<NonEmptyRecord<...>> which rejects plain Records; fixed in    // source, pending release.    agents: {      // The page mounts <CopilotKit agent="voice-demo">; resolve that to      // the neutral sample_agent graph.      "voice-demo": voiceDemoAgent,      // useAgent() with no args defaults to "default"; alias so any internal      // default-agent lookups resolve against the same graph.      default: voiceDemoAgent,    },    transcriptionService: new GuardedOpenAITranscriptionService(),  });  cachedHandler = createCopilotRuntimeHandler({    runtime,    basePath: "/api/copilotkit-voice",  });  return cachedHandler;}// Next.js App Router bindings. This file lives at// `src/app/api/copilotkit-voice/[[...slug]]/route.ts` — the catchall slug// pattern forwards every sub-path (`/info`, `/agent/:id/run`,// `/transcribe`, ...) to the V2 handler so its URL router can dispatch.export const POST = (req: NextRequest) => getHandler()(req);export const GET = (req: NextRequest) => getHandler()(req);export const PUT = (req: NextRequest) => getHandler()(req);export const DELETE = (req: NextRequest) => getHandler()(req);

With transcriptionService set, the runtime advertises audioFileTranscriptionEnabled: true on /info (which is what tells the chat to render the mic button) and routes POST /transcribe to the service.

Custom transcription backends#

TranscriptionService from @copilotkit/runtime/v2 is an abstract class. Subclass it to plug in any transcription provider — Whisper, AssemblyAI, Deepgram, your own model. The library ships TranscriptionServiceOpenAI as the canonical reference implementation.

A useful pattern is wrapping your service in a guard that returns a clean 4xx when credentials aren't configured, instead of an opaque 5xx from the underlying SDK: