Why Unmute Core

LiveKit and Pipecat move audio, run the models and call your tools. They do not decide how a good phone call behaves. Every team learns that from its first real calls. unmute-core holds what we learned, so your agent starts from it. You keep your framework, your plugins and your pipeline. The library adds one piece or all of them.

One call, two ways

A caller phones a salon to book a haircut. Here is what goes wrong on a plain agent, and what the library does instead.

The call	A plain agent	With unmute-core
The caller dials in and talks while the agent sets up.	That audio mixes into the first turn.	Caller audio waits until the greeting starts.
”My number is six one two, three four five…”	The model saves `612345` and books with it.	The save is refused because the number is not valid. The model asks again.
The caller pauses, then goes on.	The reply plays over them.	The reply is dropped. The next one answers everything they said.
”Yes” while the agent reads the times.	The agent stops mid-sentence.	The agent finishes, then answers the “yes”.
The model says “Noted, thank you.”	The step waits for a finish that never comes.	The library asks the model directly: finished, or not yet?
The booking tool takes 3 seconds.	Silence.	”One moment, let me check.”
The model calls the booking tool.	It books what the model guessed.	Code asks “Shall I book Friday, October 16?” and books only what the caller heard.
The booking API answers with half a record.	The model tells the caller it is booked.	The answer is checked against the tool’s model. The model reads which field is missing and does not claim success.
The caller is handed to billing.	Billing hands the call straight back.	Billing speaks first. Handoff tools wait for the caller.
The model provider fails.	Silence, then the line drops.	The next model answers. If none can, a short apology plays.
The call ends.	Each framework gives a different reason, and its own trace shape.	One reason and one trace on both frameworks.

Each row is a few lines of code to fix, once you know it happens. Most teams find out on a live call, one row at a time.

Three reasons to use it

One agent on both frameworks. State, tasks, tools, prompts and traces behave the same on LiveKit and Pipecat. 90 shared test scenarios check it on every change. You can switch frameworks without rewriting the agent.
The model cannot break your data. Each value has a type. A save that does not fit is refused with a reason the model can act on. Values the caller has not confirmed stay out of the prompt.
What real calls taught us, built in. Pauses, interruptions, idle callers, slow tools, failing providers, transfers and handoffs. Each feature page starts with what it fixes.

Where each part helps

You want to	Read
Collect values the caller gives, and trust them	State
Walk the caller through steps that cannot get stuck	Tasks
Call your code and APIs safely during a call	Tools
Pass the call between agents	Handoffs
Open, fail and end a call well	Call lifecycle
Know the caller before the first word	Prefetch
Get pauses, interruptions and quiet callers right	Turn taking
Change prompts, requests and tool calls in one place	Hooks
Answer from your documents	Knowledge
Keep answering when a model fails	Model call
Transfer to a person, dial out, handle voicemail	Telephony
See every call in Langfuse, Coval, Logfire or Datadog	Telemetry
Spend fewer tokens, and say the same words on every call	Type the path
See whole agents built this way	Example agents

When you don’t need it

One agent on one framework, with a few tools and no values to collect.
You already built and tested your own answers to the rows above.

Even then, you can take one piece, like tools or telemetry, and add more when a call shows you need it.

Get started

Build a salon agent

On your framework

Guides

Example agents

Models

Phone calls

Run and observe

Reference

Why Unmute Core

One call, two ways

Three reasons to use it

Where each part helps

When you don’t need it

​One call, two ways

​Three reasons to use it

​Where each part helps

​When you don’t need it

One call, two ways

Three reasons to use it

Where each part helps

When you don’t need it