Protocol Overview

rtpbridge is controlled via JSON messages over WebSocket.

Connection Model

Each WebSocket connection is bound to exactly one media session. After session.create or session.attach, all subsequent commands operate on that session — no session_id is needed on most commands.

When a WebSocket connection drops, the session enters an orphaned state. Media continues flowing. A new connection can reclaim the session via session.attach within the configurable timeout (default 30 seconds).

Message Format

Request (client to server)

{
  "id": "req-1",
  "method": "session.create",
  "params": {}
}

• id — Client-generated correlation ID (string). Returned in the response.
• method — Method name (string).
• params — Method parameters (object). Can be omitted or {} for no params.

Success Response

{
  "id": "req-1",
  "result": { "session_id": "550e8400-..." }
}

Error Response

{
  "id": "req-1",
  "error": {
    "code": "SESSION_NOT_FOUND",
    "message": "No session with that ID"
  }
}

Event (server to client, unsolicited)

{
  "event": "dtmf",
  "data": { "endpoint_id": "...", "digit": "5", "duration_ms": 160 }
}

Events are emitted asynchronously and are not correlated to requests.

Event Delivery Semantics

• Asynchronous: Events are emitted independently of request/response pairs. They are not correlated to any specific command.
• Ordering: Events within the same priority tier are delivered in order. Priority events (see below) may be delivered ahead of normal events queued at the same time.
• Delivery guarantee: At-most-once. Under backpressure (slow client), events may be dropped rather than block the media pipeline.
• Drop notification: When events are dropped, the server sends an events.dropped notification with a count field indicating how many events were lost since the last successful delivery.
• Priority events: Critical events (endpoint.state_changed, recording.stopped, endpoint.file.finished, session.idle_timeout) are routed through a separate priority channel and are dropped only when both the priority and normal channels are full.

Error Codes

Code	Description
PARSE_ERROR	Invalid JSON
UNKNOWN_METHOD	Method not recognized
INVALID_PARAMS	Missing or invalid parameters
NO_SESSION	No session bound to this connection
SESSION_ALREADY_BOUND	Connection already has a session
SESSION_NOT_FOUND	Session ID does not exist
SESSION_NOT_ORPHANED	Session exists but is not orphaned
SESSION_GONE	Session task ended unexpectedly
SESSION_UNRESPONSIVE	Session did not respond to command within timeout
SESSION_BUSY	Session command channel is full
SHUTTING_DOWN	Server is shutting down
MAX_SESSIONS_REACHED	Resource limit exceeded
ENDPOINT_ERROR	Endpoint operation failed
RECORDING_ERROR	Recording operation failed
VAD_ERROR	VAD operation failed
STATS_ERROR	Statistics subscribe/unsubscribe failed
INVALID_REQUEST	Request id field is empty or invalid
INTERNAL_ERROR	Internal server error (e.g., serialization failure)

Error Codes by Method

Most methods that require a session can return NO_SESSION (no session bound), SESSION_GONE (session task ended), and SESSION_UNRESPONSIVE (5-second command timeout). These common codes are listed once here and apply to all session-bound methods below.

Method	Additional Error Codes
session.create	SESSION_ALREADY_BOUND, SHUTTING_DOWN, MAX_SESSIONS_REACHED
session.attach	SESSION_ALREADY_BOUND, INVALID_PARAMS, SESSION_NOT_FOUND, SESSION_NOT_ORPHANED, SESSION_BUSY
session.destroy	(none beyond common)
session.info	(none beyond common)
session.list	(always succeeds)
endpoint.create_from_offer	INVALID_PARAMS, ENDPOINT_ERROR
endpoint.create_offer	INVALID_PARAMS, ENDPOINT_ERROR
endpoint.accept_answer	INVALID_PARAMS, ENDPOINT_ERROR
endpoint.remove	INVALID_PARAMS, ENDPOINT_ERROR
endpoint.dtmf.inject	INVALID_PARAMS, ENDPOINT_ERROR
endpoint.create_with_file	INVALID_PARAMS, ENDPOINT_ERROR
endpoint.file.seek	INVALID_PARAMS, ENDPOINT_ERROR
endpoint.file.pause	INVALID_PARAMS, ENDPOINT_ERROR
endpoint.file.resume	INVALID_PARAMS, ENDPOINT_ERROR
endpoint.ice_restart	INVALID_PARAMS, ENDPOINT_ERROR
endpoint.srtp_rekey	INVALID_PARAMS, ENDPOINT_ERROR
recording.start	INVALID_PARAMS, RECORDING_ERROR
recording.stop	INVALID_PARAMS, RECORDING_ERROR
vad.start	INVALID_PARAMS, VAD_ERROR
vad.stop	INVALID_PARAMS, VAD_ERROR
stats.subscribe	INVALID_PARAMS, STATS_ERROR
stats.unsubscribe	STATS_ERROR

Unknown methods return UNKNOWN_METHOD. Invalid JSON returns PARSE_ERROR.

Graceful Shutdown

During graceful shutdown, session.create immediately returns SHUTTING_DOWN. Existing sessions continue operating — media flows and commands work normally until connections close or sessions are explicitly destroyed. If a session task has already exited during shutdown, commands may return SESSION_UNRESPONSIVE.