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Once the basic conversation and tools work, check how the session handles a pause and a caller speaking over the assistant. Start with the default detector before changing thresholds.

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Try the defaults

Use the same server and browser playground:
  1. Say a complete question and pause. The assistant should take its turn.
  2. Start a phrase, pause briefly, then finish it. Listen for a premature answer.
  3. While the assistant speaks, ask a different question. Playback should stop and the next turn should respond to your new words.
  4. Repeat with a short acknowledgement such as “yes” and with a longer request.
An interruption cancels the current reply and clears queued playback. Conversation memory is adjusted to the portion the caller is estimated or known to have heard. A cancelled tool may already have performed work; stopping speech does not undo external side effects. Greetings have their own interruptible setting, which defaults to false; see Greetings.

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How the boundary is chosen

Voice activity detection (VAD) identifies speech and silence. End-of-utterance detection decides whether a pause ends a thought. The server uses local audio detection when its dependencies are installed, otherwise lexical detection. The local path combines Smart Turn audio scoring, Namo text scoring, and Silero VAD endpointing. Inspect session_started for the resolved detector and endpointing settings. A requested mode can be changed by the server: STT adapters with native utterance boundaries, currently Flux and Munsit, use provider mode and disable local VAD endpointing.

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Choose another mode

For a controlled comparison, add to the dict-based config:
Available modes are:
  • local: combines audio and text evidence and can hold an unfinished thought. Install the voice extra; explicitly choosing this mode without its dependencies loses audio detection.
  • lexical: uses punctuation and unfinished phrases to decide whether to hold a committed transcript.
  • provider: trusts the provider’s committed transcript as the boundary.
  • heuristic: lightweight text filtering without holding unfinished thoughts.
  • raw: accepts committed transcripts with minimal policy; useful for debugging.
vad_endpointing=None enables the local fast path when supported. Set it to False to disable it. A Python declaration may also supply a TurnDetector instance or zero-argument factory; clients may send supported mode names, and sessions own detector clones.

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Custom clients

WebSocket clients must report cumulative milliseconds of audio actually played and discard queued audio on interrupted. Reporting received bytes as played can preserve words the caller never heard. WebRTC and LiveKit use the server’s paced media clock. See Transports for the wire contract and Events and usage for interruption metrics. Continue to Silence and timeouts.