pipecat-examples vs agent-starter-node
Two of the top projects in Voice and realtime, side by side: who leads on each score part and who each one suits, then setup, license, activity and what each review found.
pipecat-examples
Runnable Pipecat voice agent examples for phone, web and deployment
agent-starter-node
Node.js voice AI agent starter for LiveKit Agents
Verdict
pipecat-examples ranks higher, 57 to 54. Of the 4 score parts we measure for both, pipecat-examples leads on 2, agent-starter-node on 1 and 1 is even.
- Adoptionpipecat-examples leads by 12 points, 29 to 17.
- FreshnessEven at 100.
- Maintenancepipecat-examples leads by 20 points, 60 to 40: a wide gap.
- Agent-readyagent-starter-node leads by 70 points, 70 to 0: a wide gap.
Pick pipecat-examples if you are
Pipecat developers needing telephony or client patterns
- Telephony examples for Twilio, Telnyx, Plivo, Exotel and Daily SIP
- simple-chatbot ships React, Swift, Kotlin and React Native clients
Pick agent-starter-node if you are
Node.js developers building voice agents on LiveKit
- Models via LiveKit Inference need no separate provider API keys, including realtime models
- Turn detector covers 14 languages; adaptive interruption handling and noise cancellation included
| What we compare | pipecat-examples | agent-starter-node |
|---|---|---|
| Score parts, out of 100 | ||
| Adoption | 29, niche | 17, niche |
| Freshness | 100, active | 100, active |
| Maintenance | 60, fair | 40, patchy |
| Agent-ready | 0, none | 70, partly |
| Facts from GitHub and the README | ||
| Stars | 403 | 115 |
| License | BSD-2-Clause (permissive) | MIT (permissive) |
| Last commit | Oct 2026 | Oct 2026 |
| Last release | None published | None published |
| Language | Python | TypeScript |
| Docker | Yes | Yes |
| GPU | Not needed | Not needed |
| arm64 or Apple Silicon | Not stated | Not stated |
pipecat-examples
Pipecat apps in Python 3.11+, one directory each: phone bots for Twilio, Telnyx, Plivo, Exotel and Daily SIP, a simple-chatbot with React, Swift, Kotlin and React Native clients, websocket and p2p WebRTC transports, Gemini Live, local smart-turn, OpenTelemetry tracing and deploy recipes for Pipecat Cloud, Fly.io, Modal and Cerebrium. For teams on Pipecat who want a working pattern to copy.
Who it is for: Pipecat developers needing telephony or client patterns
Strengths
- Telephony examples for Twilio, Telnyx, Plivo, Exotel and Daily SIP
- simple-chatbot ships React, Swift, Kotlin and React Native clients
- Deployment and OpenTelemetry (Langfuse, LangSmith, Jaeger) examples
Weaknesses
- Each example has its own setup; no single app to fork
- Needs API keys for STT, LLM and TTS services (OpenAI, Deepgram, Cartesia)
- Beginner examples live in the main Pipecat repo, not here
- Issues are tracked in the main Pipecat repo
- Python, Pipecat service plugins (OpenAI, Deepgram, Cartesia, Gemini Live)
- Needs OpenAI, Deepgram, Cartesia or similar API keys, Daily or a telephony provider for phone examples
- Docker
agent-starter-node
TypeScript starter for a voice AI assistant built on LiveKit Agents for Node.js. It wires up a speech pipeline through LiveKit Inference (default LLM Gemma 4 31B, default TTS Fish Audio S2.1 Pro), with turn detection, interruption handling and noise cancellation. It also includes simulation tests that run in CI and a Dockerfile for LiveKit Cloud deployment.
Who it is for: Node.js developers building voice agents on LiveKit
Strengths
- Models via LiveKit Inference need no separate provider API keys, including realtime models
- Turn detector covers 14 languages; adaptive interruption handling and noise cancellation included
- Simulation scenarios in scenarios.yaml run in GitHub Actions on every merge to main
- Ships AGENTS.md, a CLI debugger and a Dockerfile; pairs with React, Swift, Flutter, Android starters
Weaknesses
- Defaults assume a LiveKit Cloud account; self-hosting means swapping in model plugins
- Noise cancellation plugin is LiveKit Cloud only and must be removed when self-hosting
- Simulations use real inference on LiveKit Cloud, so CI runs cost money
- No frontend included; web or mobile client lives in a separate repo
- TypeScript, Gemma 4 31B, Fish Audio S2.1 Pro, OpenAI, Cartesia
- Needs LiveKit Cloud, LiveKit CLI 2.18.8+, pnpm
- GitHub template
- Docker
- env example file
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