Video/Voice Calls in Team Chat (LiveKit WebRTC, in development)

What it is

Status: In-development (gated behind video-calls unreleased feature). Reveal via Settings -> Lab -> Video Calls, or launch with AMC_SHOW_VIDEO_CALLS=1.

Channel-scoped voice and video calls inside Team Chat, powered by LiveKit (a WebRTC SFU). A call is a Firestore document with a status state machine (ringing -> active -> ended); the renderer manages call state through a Zustand store and connects to LiveKit for peer-to-peer media. Up to 50 participants per call.

Where to find it

The call UI lives inside Team Chat — the call button sits in the channel header, and an incoming call arrives as an overlay. Because the feature is still in development, none of it is visible until you reveal it in Settings -> Lab -> Video Calls.

How it behaves

How it works

1. Start a call -- click the call button in the channel header. This creates a Firestore call doc (status ringing) and obtains a LiveKit token + URL.
2. Ring -- other channel members see an incoming call overlay. Declining suppresses re-ring for the session. Ring timeout is 30 seconds.
3. Join -- accepting transitions the call to active and returns a LiveKit token. The LiveKit room connection is renderer-side (no main-process relay).
4. In-call -- presence heartbeats every 30 seconds; participant count updates from Firestore snapshots.
5. End -- sets status to ended, records duration, posts a system message summarizing the call.

In-call features

• Controls toolbar -- mute (M), camera toggle (V), screen share (S), virtual background (B), end call (Escape). All keyboard-accessible with ARIA labels.
• Virtual backgrounds -- blur (light/medium/heavy) or a custom image (JPEG/PNG/WebP). The track processor is lazy-loaded (not in the critical call-join path). Custom images are stored locally in {userData}/video-backgrounds/.
• Participant grid -- LiveKit-powered grid layout for multiple participants.

What's built vs deployment blockers

Built (renderer-side complete):

• Zustand store with full call state machine (single active call, declined call tracking, connection state)
• UI components: CallButton, InCallView, IncomingCallOverlay, LiveKitCallGrid, CallControls, BackgroundPicker
• IPC schemas and channels: TEAM_CHAT_CALL_START, TEAM_CHAT_CALL_JOIN, TEAM_CHAT_CALL_END
• LiveKit room hook with presence heartbeat
• Virtual background processor with blur and custom image support
• Main-process IPC handlers (wired)

Deployment blockers (must be resolved before shipping):

• Cloud Functions not deployed -- callStart, callJoin, callEnd functions are referenced in team-chat-call-relay-client.ts but are NOT deployed to Firebase. These create/join/end call documents and obtain LiveKit tokens.
• LiveKit DPA (Data Processing Agreement) -- pending; required before enabling the feature.
• Server-side call presence cleanup -- stale heartbeat expiry is not yet implemented.

Scope and limits

• Desktop only -- the call UI is a renderer-side feature inside Team Chat.
• One active call at a time -- the store enforces single-call; starting a second ends the first.
• 50-participant cap -- enforced by Zod schema validation on the participants record.
• $0 AI spend -- no Claude tokens used; media is peer-to-peer via LiveKit.

For agents

Architecture (for agents / engineers)

Piece	Location
Zustand store	src/renderer/src/features/team-chat/video-call/call-store.ts
IPC client	src/renderer/src/features/team-chat/video-call/call-client.ts
Firestore call listener	src/renderer/src/features/team-chat/video-call/use-call-listener.ts
LiveKit room + heartbeat	src/renderer/src/features/team-chat/video-call/use-livekit-room.ts
Controls toolbar	src/renderer/src/features/team-chat/video-call/CallControls.tsx
Background picker	src/renderer/src/features/team-chat/video-call/BackgroundPicker.tsx
Background processor	src/renderer/src/features/team-chat/video-call/video-bg-processor.ts
Background storage	src/main/services/team-chat/video-backgrounds.ts
In-call view	src/renderer/src/features/team-chat/video-call/InCallView.tsx
Incoming call overlay	src/renderer/src/features/team-chat/video-call/IncomingCallOverlay.tsx
Participant grid	src/renderer/src/features/team-chat/video-call/LiveKitCallGrid.tsx
Call button	src/renderer/src/features/team-chat/video-call/CallButton.tsx
Zod schemas + constants	src/shared/ipc-schemas/team-chat-calls.ts

Related

• team-chat.md -- the Team Chat feature that hosts calls
• Contract: team-chat-video-call-contract.md

| Zod schemas + constants | src/shared/ipc-schemas/team-chat-calls.ts |

Piece	Location
Zustand store	src/renderer/src/features/team-chat/video-call/call-store.ts
IPC client	src/renderer/src/features/team-chat/video-call/call-client.ts
Firestore call listener	src/renderer/src/features/team-chat/video-call/use-call-listener.ts
LiveKit room + heartbeat	src/renderer/src/features/team-chat/video-call/use-livekit-room.ts
Controls toolbar	src/renderer/src/features/team-chat/video-call/CallControls.tsx
Background picker	src/renderer/src/features/team-chat/video-call/BackgroundPicker.tsx
Background processor	src/renderer/src/features/team-chat/video-call/video-bg-processor.ts
Background storage	src/main/services/team-chat/video-backgrounds.ts
In-call view	src/renderer/src/features/team-chat/video-call/InCallView.tsx
Incoming call overlay	src/renderer/src/features/team-chat/video-call/IncomingCallOverlay.tsx
Participant grid	src/renderer/src/features/team-chat/video-call/LiveKitCallGrid.tsx
Call button	src/renderer/src/features/team-chat/video-call/CallButton.tsx
Zod schemas + constants	src/shared/ipc-schemas/team-chat-calls.ts