DiscordPHP Voice

Getting Started

Before you start using this Library, you need to know how PHP works, you need to know how Event Loops and Promises work. This is a fundamental requirement before you start. Without this knowledge, you will only suffer.

Requirements

• DiscordPHP
• PHP 8.3 or higher (latest version recommended)
  • x86 (32-bit) PHP requires ext-gmp enabled.
• ext-json

DAVE (Discord Audio/Video End-to-End Encryption) runtime support

• 📊 Visual DAVE Protocol Guide → — Mermaid diagrams covering architecture, MLS lifecycle, media encryption pipeline, and all DAVE opcodes.
• 🎵 Audio Pipeline Guide → — Mermaid diagrams covering outbound/inbound audio flow, playback state machine, and format chain.
• 📡 Protocol Reference → — Voice gateway opcodes, DAVE opcodes, and close codes reference table.
• DAVE protocol negotiation is now supported at the voice gateway layer.
• Binary DAVE voice opcodes are parsed and routed.
• Required: ext-ffi must be enabled and libdave must be available — the runtime loads libdave session and media APIs and detects the maximum supported DAVE protocol version.
• Use ./scripts/setup-libdave.sh to fetch the published discord/libdave release asset into .cache/libdave without vendoring the binary into git. The script auto-detects your OS and architecture (Linux, macOS, Windows — x64 and ARM64).
• Export DISCORDPHP_DAVE_LIBRARY pointing to the platform library (e.g. .cache/libdave/lib/libdave.so on Linux) to force the runtime to use the repo-local shared library path.
• CI uses the same setup script and enables ext-ffi so native DAVE coverage stays runnable.
• libdave is required for voice connections. Manager::__construct() and the voice WebSocket throw LibDaveNotFoundException immediately when ext-ffi or a working libdave library cannot be loaded — there is currently no automatic fallback to protocol version 0. Discord has required the DAVE E2EE protocol for all voice and video connections since March 1st, 2026.

Local setup

COMPOSER_ROOT_VERSION=dev-main composer install --no-interaction --prefer-dist
./scripts/setup-libdave.sh

# Linux
export DISCORDPHP_DAVE_LIBRARY="$PWD/.cache/libdave/lib/libdave.so"
# macOS
# export DISCORDPHP_DAVE_LIBRARY="$PWD/.cache/libdave/lib/libdave.dylib"
# Windows (Git Bash / PowerShell)
# export DISCORDPHP_DAVE_LIBRARY="$PWD/.cache/libdave/bin/libdave.dll"

./vendor/bin/pest tests/Unit/Dave/RuntimeTest.php

The script auto-detects your OS and architecture (Linux, macOS, Windows — x64 and ARM64). Set DISCORDPHP_DAVE_LIBRARY to the path printed by the script. Use the bundled Pest runner for local validation. composer unit runs the default suite with TestDox output, while composer pest keeps the parallel full-suite command.

Composer Scripts

Basic Example

$discord->on('init', function (Discord $discord) {
    $channel = $discord->getChannel('YOUR_CHANNEL_ID');

    $discord->voice->joinChannel($channel)->then(function (VoiceClient $vc) {
        $vc->on('ready', function () use ($vc) {
            $vc->playFile('/path/to/audio.mp3');
        });

        $vc->on('end', function () use ($vc) {
            $vc->disconnect();
        });
    });
});

Recording

// Raw PCM events — handle audio yourself
$discord->voice->joinChannel($channel)->then(function (VoiceClient $vc) use ($discord) {
    $vc->on('ready', function () use ($vc, $discord) {
        $vc->record();

        // Fires with raw 16-bit stereo 48 kHz PCM for each decoded Opus frame.
        $vc->on('channel-pcm', function (string $pcm) {
            // write $pcm to a file, pipe to an encoder, etc.
        });

        $discord->getLoop()->addTimer(10, function () use ($vc) {
            $vc->stopRecording();
            $vc->disconnect();
        });
    });
});

use Discord\Voice\Recording\RecordingFormat;

// Automatic per-user WAV files — no manual file handling needed
$discord->voice->joinChannel($channel)->then(function (VoiceClient $vc) use ($discord) {
    $vc->on('ready', function () use ($vc, $discord) {
        $vc->record(
            RecordingFormat::WAV,
            fn(string $userId) => "/tmp/recording_{$userId}.wav"
        );

        $discord->getLoop()->addTimer(10, function () use ($vc) {
            $vc->stopRecording(); // finalizes and closes all WAV files
            $vc->disconnect();
        });
    });
});

Recording formats: RecordingFormat::PCM emits raw PCM events (default). RecordingFormat::WAV writes self-contained WAV files per user (pure PHP). RecordingFormat::OGG writes OGG Opus files per user (requires ffmpeg).

See examples folder for full runnable scripts.

Documentation

Documentation for the latest version can be found here. Community contributed tutorials can be found on the wiki.

Troubleshooting

Having issues? See docs/TROUBLESHOOTING.md for solutions to common problems including missing libraries (libdave, ffmpeg, opus, libsodium), permission errors, and playback state issues.

Exceptions

All library exceptions implement the VoiceException marker interface, so you can catch any voice error with a single handler:

use Discord\Voice\Exceptions\VoiceException;

try {
    $manager->joinChannel($channel);
} catch (VoiceException $e) {
    echo "Voice error: " . $e->getMessage();
}

Common exceptions include LibDaveNotFoundException, EnterChannelDeniedException, CantSpeakInChannelException, FFmpegNotFoundException, and LibSodiumNotFoundException.

Contributing

We are open to contributions. However, please make sure you follow our coding standards (PSR-4 autoloading and custom styling). Please run php-cs-fixer before opening a pull request by running composer cs.

See CONTRIBUTING.md for setup, coding standards, and PR guidelines.

See CHANGELOG.md for version history.

License

MIT License, © David Cole and other contributors 2016-present.