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 [s] share [w] watch [e] screen [↑↓] Select [[-]/[+]] Vol                            │
╰──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────╯

Features

• Real-time audio chat — full-duplex stereo audio via WebRTC with 256kbps Opus encoding
• Video support — send and receive webcam video (1080p) via ffmpeg/ffplay
• Screen sharing — share your screen at 1080p@30fps, view remote screen shares
• Text messaging — send and receive chat messages alongside audio
• Device selection — pick your mic, speakers, camera, and screen capture device
• 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
• Connection recovery — automatic retry with exponential backoff on connection failure
• Room management — create new rooms or join existing ones by room code
• Emoji identities — auto-assigned persistent emoji username (e.g., 🐶, 🦊, 🐸)
• Debug logging — optional file-based debug log at ~/.config/openmeet/debug.log
• Cross-platform — works on macOS and Linux

Prerequisites

• Node.js 22+ — download
• sox — audio capture and playback engine
• ffmpeg (optional) — required for video and screen sharing

Install dependencies:

# macOS
brew install sox ffmpeg

# Ubuntu / Debian
sudo apt install sox ffmpeg

# Fedora
sudo dnf install sox ffmpeg

# Arch
sudo pacman -S sox ffmpeg

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) | | --no-video | Disable video (audio-only mode) | | | --video-device <id> | Video capture device (e.g., "0") | | | --no-overlay | Disable video overlay | | | --test-camera | Test camera capture (opens ffplay preview) | | | --test-screen | Test screen capture (lists screens, opens ffplay preview) | | | --debug | Enable debug logging (writes to ~/.config/openmeet/debug.log) | | | -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) | | v | Toggle camera on/off (requires --video-device or video enabled) | | s | Toggle screen sharing (shows screen picker on first use) | | w | Open/close selected peer's webcam (only when peer has camera on) | | e | Open/close selected peer's screen share (only when peer is sharing) | | o | Toggle video overlay (name, resolution info on video windows) | | 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
Terminal ──ffmpeg──▶ WebRTC Video ──▶ Remote Peers (webcam + screen)
                                            │
Remote Peers ──▶ WebRTC Audio ──sox play──▶ Terminal
Remote Peers ──▶ WebRTC Video ──ffplay────▶ Terminal (separate windows)
                                            │
Terminal ◀────────── WebSocket ──────────▶ Server
                   (signaling + chat)

1. Audio capture: sox rec records from your mic at 48kHz/16-bit stereo and feeds 10ms PCM frames into a WebRTC audio track (256kbps Opus)
2. Audio playback: incoming WebRTC audio is piped to sox play via FIFOs for each remote peer, with per-peer volume control
3. Video capture: ffmpeg captures webcam (1080p) or screen (1080p@30fps) and feeds raw I420 frames into WebRTC video tracks
4. Video display: ffplay opens separate windows for remote webcam and screen share streams, with aspect-ratio-preserving letterboxing
5. Signaling: WebSocket connection to the OpenMeet server handles SDP/ICE exchange, chat messages, and room state
6. WebRTC: peer-to-peer connections using @roamhq/wrtc (native WebRTC bindings for Node.js) with 3 transceivers per connection (audio, webcam, screen)

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

Screen sharing doesn't work (macOS)

Screen capture requires Screen Recording permission and a compatible ffmpeg build:

1. Open System Settings > Privacy & Security > Screen Recording
2. Enable the toggle for your terminal app
3. Restart the terminal

On macOS 15 (Sequoia), ffmpeg must be built with ScreenCaptureKit support. If screen capture hangs, try brew reinstall ffmpeg. Test with openmeet --test-screen.

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