pipecat/examples/quickstart

Pipecat Quickstart

Run your first Pipecat bot in under 5 minutes. This example creates a voice AI bot that you can talk to in your browser.

Prerequisites

Python 3.10+

Pipecat requires Python 3.10 or newer. Check your version:

python --version

If you need to upgrade Python, we recommend using a version manager like uv or pyenv.

AI Service API keys

Pipecat orchestrates different AI services in a pipeline, ensuring low latency communication. In this quickstart example, we'll use:

• Deepgram for Speech-to-Text transcriptions
• OpenAI for LLM inference
• Cartesia for Text-to-Speech audio generation

Have your API keys ready. We'll add them to your .env shortly.

Setup

1. Set up a virtual environment

From the examples/quickstart directory, run:

python -m venv .venv
source .venv/bin/activate  # On Windows: .venv\Scripts\activate

Using uv? Create your venv using: uv venv && source .venv/bin/activate.

2. Install dependencies

pip install -r requirements.txt

Using uv? Install requirements using: uv pip install -r requirements.txt.

3. Configure environment variables

Create a .env file:

cp env.example .env

Then, add your API keys:

DEEPGRAM_API_KEY=your_deepgram_api_key
OPENAI_API_KEY=your_openai_api_key
CARTESIA_API_KEY=your_cartesia_api_key

4. Run the example

Run your bot using:

python bot.py

Using uv? Run your bot using: uv run bot.py.

Open http://localhost:7860 in your browser and click Connect to start talking to your bot.

💡 First run note: The initial startup may take ~10 seconds as Pipecat downloads required models, like the Silero VAD model.

Troubleshooting

• Browser permissions: Make sure to allow microphone access when prompted by your browser.
• Connection issues: If the WebRTC connection fails, first try a different browser. If that fails, make sure you don't have a VPN or firewall rules blocking traffic. WebRTC uses UDP to communicate.
• Audio issues: Check that your microphone and speakers are working and not muted.

Next Steps

• Read the docs: Check out Pipecat's docs for guides and reference information.
• Join Discord: Join Pipecat's Discord server to get help and learn about what others are building.