openmeet-terminal

A terminal-based client for OpenMeet — join video conferencing rooms right from your terminal with real-time audio chat and text messaging over WebRTC.

No browser needed. Just your terminal, a mic, and speakers.

╭──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────╮
│ OpenMeet v0.1.2 | Room: 123 | 3p                                                            ↑66k ↓27k | RTT:0ms Loss:0% | ● │
│──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────│
│ Participants:                                                                                                        │
│  ○ 🥝 (you)                                                                                     ░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░ │
│  ○ > 🥸 [muted]                                                                vol:100% ↓64k ~45ms ░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░ │
│  ○   👽                                                                        vol:100% ↓32k ~38ms ░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░ │
│──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────│
│                                                           │ Room Log                                    in room: 13s │
│                                                           │                                                          │
│                                                           │                                                          │
│                                                           │                                                          │
│                                                           │                                                          │
│                                                           │                                                          │
│                                                           │                                                          │
│                                                           │                                                          │
│                                                           │ [23:52:14] · You joined the room                         │
│                                                           │ [23:52:14] · 🥸 is in the room                           │
│ [23:52] 🥝: Hi!                                           │ [23:52:14] · 👽 is in the room                           │
│──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────│
│ > Type message...                                                                                                    │
│──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────│
│ [Esc] Leave [Tab] Chat [m] mute [d] Devices [↑↓] Select [[-]/[+]] Vol                                    ● Connected │
╰──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────╯

Features

• Real-time audio chat — full-duplex audio via WebRTC with 128kbps Opus encoding
• Text messaging — send and receive chat messages alongside audio
• Device selection — pick your mic and speakers, with a built-in audio test step
• Per-participant volume — adjust volume for each remote peer independently
• Speaking indicators — see who's talking with live VU meters
• Connection stats — real-time bitrate, RTT, packet loss, and estimated per-peer latency display
• Room management — create new rooms or join existing ones by room code
• Emoji identities — auto-assigned persistent emoji username (e.g., 🐶, 🦊, 🐸)
• Cross-platform — works on macOS and Linux

Prerequisites

• Node.js 22+ — download
• sox — audio capture and playback engine

Install sox:

# macOS
brew install sox

# Ubuntu / Debian
sudo apt install sox

# Fedora
sudo dnf install sox

# Arch
sudo pacman -S sox

Install

npm install -g openmeet-terminal

Or with the one-liner installer (checks prerequisites for you):

curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/manuvega/openmeet/main/packages/terminal/install.sh | bash

Usage

# Launch and create or join a room interactively
openmeet

# Join a specific room directly
openmeet --room abc123

# Connect to a self-hosted server
openmeet --server wss://your-server.com/ws

# Skip the device picker with explicit devices
openmeet --input-device "MacBook Pro Microphone" --output-device "MacBook Pro Speakers"

Options

| Flag | Description | Default | |------|-------------|---------| | --server <url> | WebSocket server URL | wss://openmeet.mvega.pro/ws | | --room <id> | Room ID to join directly | (interactive) | | --input-device <name> | Audio input device name | (device picker) | | --output-device <name> | Audio output device name | (device picker) | | -h, --help | Show help | |

Keyboard shortcuts

Once inside a room:

| Key | Action | |-----|--------| | Tab | Toggle focus between participant list and chat input | | m | Toggle mute (when participant list is focused) | | d | Open device picker | | Up / Down | Select participant | | [ / ] or - / + | Adjust selected peer's volume | | Enter | Send chat message (when chat input is focused) | | Esc | Leave room |

How it works

Terminal ──sox rec──▶ WebRTC Audio ──▶ Remote Peers
                                            │
Remote Peers ──▶ WebRTC Audio ──sox play──▶ Terminal
                                            │
Terminal ◀────────── WebSocket ──────────▶ Server
                   (signaling + chat)

1. Audio capture: sox rec records from your mic at 48kHz/16-bit mono and feeds 10ms PCM frames into a WebRTC audio track
2. Audio playback: incoming WebRTC audio is piped to sox play for each remote peer, with per-peer volume control
3. Signaling: WebSocket connection to the OpenMeet server handles SDP/ICE exchange, chat messages, and room state
4. WebRTC: peer-to-peer connections using @roamhq/wrtc (native WebRTC bindings for Node.js)

Self-hosted server

If you're running your own OpenMeet server, point the CLI at it:

openmeet --server wss://your-server.com/ws

For local development:

openmeet --server ws://localhost:3001/ws

Troubleshooting

"sox is required but not found"

Install sox using your package manager (see Prerequisites).

"Microphone access denied" (macOS)

Your terminal app needs microphone permission:

1. Open System Settings > Privacy & Security > Microphone
2. Enable the toggle for your terminal app (Terminal, iTerm2, Warp, etc.)
3. Restart the terminal and try again

No audio from remote peers

Make sure your output device is set correctly. Press d inside a room to open the device picker, select your output device, and test it with the built-in test tone.

Connection issues behind NAT/firewall

OpenMeet uses Google STUN servers for NAT traversal. If you're behind a restrictive firewall or symmetric NAT, peer-to-peer connections may fail. A TURN server is not currently included.

License

MIT