Glossary
RTC / LiveKit / Agora concept mapping: channel, uid, token, track, egress, ingress, RTLS and more.
Version v1.1.0 · Updated 2026-10-26 · revision 1
This page defines the terms that recur throughout the documentation so that the same concept does not mean different things on different pages.
Core concepts#
| Term | Meaning |
|---|
| Channel | The container for one call or live session; the same channel name means the same room |
| Participant | One connection inside a channel |
| UID | Numeric user identifier inside a project, 1..2147483647 |
| userId | IM user id (string), linked to the uid through a mapping table |
| host / audience | The role determines privilege bits; see Roles and live streaming |
| Track | One audio or video stream; on the web you publish track objects |
| publish | Push a local track to the media server |
| subscribe | Pull a remote track |
| DataChannel | Reliable messaging channel on the connection |
| Token | Access credential with an nrt1. envelope; see AccessToken2 semantics |
| App ID / App Certificate | Project identifier + signing secret |
Server-side jobs#
| Term | Meaning |
|---|
| Cloud Recording | Record a channel into files; composite / individual / web modes |
| Media Push (stream to a CDN) | Push channel content to an RTMP address |
| Media Pull / input online media stream | Pull an external stream into a channel |
| Media Gateway / RTMP gateway | Bring an external OBS stream into a channel |
| Cloud Transcoding | Produce multi-bitrate ABR outputs |
| Crystal Ball | Real-time monitoring, call investigation, data insights and alerts |
| Webhook / callback | Event notification signed with Agora-Signature |
| Kicking rule | Ban joining or publishing by channel/uid/privilege |
Metrics and billing#
| Term | Definition | Where it appears |
|---|
| Video freeze rate | Total video freeze time / total video time (each freeze > 200 ms counts) | Analytics |
| Audio freeze rate | Total audio freeze time / total audio time | Same |
| Network latency rate | Time with end-to-end latency > 400 ms / total audio-video time | Same |
| Join success rate | Successful joins / attempts (5-second success tracked separately) | Same |
| Minutes | Accumulated participant online time (float, sums rounded to 2 decimals) | Pricing |
| pexp | Privilege expiry time, always ≤ exp | AccessToken2 semantics |
| sdkCode | Agora client error number (negative); REST error definitions store the positive absolute value | Error codes |
Easily confused terms#
| Easy to confuse | Difference |
|---|
setEnabled(false) vs setMuted(true) | Agora 4.x uses setEnabled; setMuted belongs to older or other vendors' shapes |
| Channel name vs channel id | ni-meet has only a channel name (channelName), no separate id |
resourceId vs sid | In cloud recording, resourceId is a lease (30 s TTL) and sid is the session; both are required |
| converter vs entry point | A converter is the current Media Push resource; an entry point is the retired legacy form |
| player vs online-stream | A player is a pulled-in stream (Media Pull); an online-stream is a pushed-in stream (Media Gateway) |
| Ban vs kick | A ban rule blocks future joins; a kick disconnects the current connection (and can be combined with a rule to prevent reconnection) |