LiveKit Agents 1.8.9 adds decisions through Inference

LiveKit published Agents 1.8.9 on October 24, 2026.

Decisions and tool progress

inference.DecisionModel evaluates named decisions using LiveKit credentials instead of a separate provider key. It batches evaluations and reports a refusal for one decision without discarding the other answers. Access requires a project feature flag; the release does not describe it as universally enabled.

Background tools can now record progress without asking the agent to speak. Their final results can trigger follow-up tool calls. Custom LLM nodes can also attach prompt metadata directly to the provider request's tracing span.

Providers and upgrade cautions

The release introduces a ThunderPhone realtime speech-to-speech plugin and lists additional decision, speech-synthesis and avatar models. Availability remains provider-specific.

There are breaking changes: Rime WebSocket v1 requires an explicit model, and Gradium rejects specifying both voice and voice_id. Inworld connection-pool settings are deprecated and ignored. The notes also list dependency minimums and turn-handling changes, so existing voice applications should review their configured integrations before upgrading.

See the LiveKit Agents hub.