For a Python team-presence sidebar, treat a person leaving, a client disconnecting, an agent session ending, and a room being deleted as separate events. In LiveKit, deleting a room disconnects every participant; a single participant departure does not by itself mean the room has been torn down. The five steps below map those distinct lifecycle events to a clearer roster and cleanup policy.
1. Separate participant departure from room teardown
A participant can leave while the room and its other participants remain. LiveKit’s Python Room API documents a participant_disconnected event. By contrast, the RoomService delete_room operation deletes the room and disconnects all participants.
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Model these as different scopes in your backend and sidebar: a participant departure changes one person’s roster state; room deletion changes the state of the whole room. A local client disconnect is also distinct from server-side room deletion, so do not treat every lost connection as proof that the room no longer exists.
2. Drive sidebar presence from lifecycle events
Use participant lifecycle events to remove a person from the active roster or mark them disconnected, and track room connection state separately. LiveKit’s Python Room API documents participant and room connection events; it does not manage your application’s sidebar state for you. Mapping those events into your UI is an application design decision.
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When a disconnect reason is available, use it to distinguish a participant-initiated departure from room deletion or another documented cause. LiveKit lists these reasons in its disconnect-reasons reference. A client-side event alone should not be treated as a guarantee that every remote browser has reconciled its displayed roster.
3. Choose how the agent session shuts down
LiveKit’s agent lifecycle distinguishes graceful background shutdown from an awaited close. Choose between them based on whether pending work should drain and whether the calling coroutine must wait until shutdown completes.
shutdown()starts graceful shutdown in the background, allowing pending work to drain.aclose()is awaited and lets the calling coroutine wait for closure to finish.
These are agent-session operations, not room deletion. The LiveKit Agents lifecycle documentation describes the distinction.
4. Delete the room only when it is no longer needed
After the agent session ends, delete the room only if your application no longer needs it. The server-side delete_room operation ends the room for everyone by disconnecting all participants. LiveKit’s agent lifecycle documentation also describes a room disconnected event when the room is removed.
That makes deletion a whole-room action, not the cleanup mechanism for an individual sidebar entry. If people are still meant to be in the room, update the departing participant’s presence without deleting the room.
Independent reader supportYour contribution helps us test, update, and keep practical guides available for everyone.5. Set an explicit cleanup policy
LiveKit’s Python session option delete_room_on_close is documented with a default of False. If enabled, the room is deleted immediately after the session ends. If it is not enabled, a room can remain open after its last participant leaves according to its configured departure_timeout. The documentation describes a configured timeout, not one universal duration; check the value used by your room or application configuration.
Choose a policy according to what should trigger cleanup and how long the room should remain available:
| Policy choice | Effect |
|---|---|
| Participant leaves | Update that participant’s roster state; the room and other participants can remain. |
Agent session ends with delete_room_on_close enabled |
Delete the room immediately after session end, disconnecting all participants. |
| Last participant leaves without immediate delete-on-close | The room can remain open for its configured departure_timeout. |
Agent shutdown via shutdown() |
Graceful shutdown runs in the background so pending work can drain. |
Agent closure via aclose() |
The caller awaits closure completion. |
These lifecycle and option details are documented in LiveKit’s Python sessions documentation, agent lifecycle documentation, and RoomService reference. For sidebar recovery, reconcile the displayed roster against your application’s authoritative room/participant state after a disconnect; that reconciliation is an application concern, not a guarantee supplied by the lifecycle events.
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