The Live Stream Object

A live stream is a real-time broadcast you publish into your ShortKit feed. Each stream has its own broadcast endpoint that an external encoder pushes video to, and a playback ID that viewers use to watch. While a stream is active, it appears in the feed as a content item with contentType: "live_stream" and a live viewer count. When the stream ends, its recording becomes available as on-demand video — you can either keep the full recording or generate shorter clips from it.

The live stream object

{
  "id": "5a7b8c9d-e0f1-4234-5678-90abcdef1234",
  "playbackId": "DS00Spx1CV3C00bv7n7CnG02ROsPIxQ100",
  "status": "active",
  "protocol": "hls",
  "title": "Friday morning yoga",
  "latencyMode": "low",
  "reconnectWindow": 60,
  "rtmpUrl": "rtmps://global-live.example/app/<stream-key>",
  "streamKey": "abc123def456...",
  "startedAt": "2026-04-17T14:00:00Z",
  "endedAt": null,
  "createdAt": "2026-04-17T13:55:00Z"
}

Attributes

string

Unique identifier (UUID) for the live stream.

string

Identifier viewers use to play the stream. The SDK plays a live stream the same way it plays on-demand video — pass the playbackId through your custom feed input, or let the feed surface it automatically.

string

Current lifecycle state. See Lifecycle below. One of idle, active, or ended.

string | null

Display title shown in the feed. Max 200 characters.

string

Ingest and delivery protocol. One of hls or webrtc. Set at creation time and cannot be changed. See Choosing a protocol.

string | null

HLS streams only. Glass-to-glass latency target. One of low, reduced, or standard. See Latency mode below. null for WebRTC streams.

integer | null

HLS streams only. Number of seconds the stream will hold the slot if the broadcaster disconnects. After this window expires without a reconnect, the stream automatically transitions to ended. Range 0–1800. Defaults to 60. null for WebRTC streams.

string | null

Ready-to-use RTMPS broadcast URL with credentials embedded. Only returned in the Create Live Stream response. Point your encoder at this URL to start pushing video — no additional configuration needed.Sensitive — treat like an API key. Anyone with this URL can broadcast under your stream. Forward it only to the broadcaster who will publish the stream, never log it, and never expose it to viewers or commit it to source control.

string | null

Broadcaster authentication key, already embedded in rtmpUrl. Only returned in the Create Live Stream response. Provided separately for encoders that require the key as a distinct field. See the warning on rtmpUrl — same handling rules apply.

string | null

ISO 8601 timestamp of when the broadcaster first connected. null while status is idle.

string | null

ISO 8601 timestamp of when the stream ended. null while the stream is idle or active.

string

ISO 8601 creation timestamp.

Lifecycle

A live stream moves through three states:

Status	Description
`idle`	Stream created, no broadcaster connected yet. The slot is reserved but no video is flowing.
`active`	A broadcaster is connected and pushing video. Viewers can watch the stream from your feed.
`ended`	The stream has finished — either explicitly ended via End Live Stream, or (HLS streams only) automatically because the broadcaster disconnected for longer than `reconnectWindow`. The recording becomes available for clipping.

A stream can transition idle → active only once. Once it has gone active and then ended, it cannot be restarted — create a new live stream for the next broadcast.

Latency mode

latencyMode applies to HLS streams only and controls the trade-off between end-to-end delay and playback stability. For sub-second delivery, use protocol: "webrtc" instead — see Choosing a protocol.

Mode	Approximate latency	Best for
`low`	A few seconds	Interactive broadcasts where viewers chat or react in near real-time
`reduced`	Several seconds	Most live content — good balance of latency and resilience to network jitter
`standard`	10+ seconds	Maximum stability for one-way broadcasts where latency doesn’t matter

The default is low. Higher latency modes give the player more time to buffer, which results in smoother playback over poor connections.

Live streams in the feed

When the SDK fetches the feed, active live streams appear as content items with two extra fields:

isLive: true — flags the item as a live broadcast
currentViewers: <number> — the live concurrent viewer count

Once the stream ends, the recording remains in the feed as a regular video. The isLive flag flips to false and currentViewers returns 0. See The Content Object for the full content shape.

Deletion

Deleting a live stream via Delete Live Stream ends the broadcast (if it’s still active) and archives the underlying content item. Recordings and any clips already created from the stream are preserved.

Overview

Reference

The Live Stream Object