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Overview

Bots transition through various states during their lifecycle, from creation to completion. Understanding these states helps you monitor bot behavior and handle different scenarios in your application.

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Bot States

Here are all the possible states a bot can be in:

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Pre-Meeting States

Initial state when bot is created. The bot is ready to join the meeting but hasn’t started the join process yet.
Bot is scheduled to join at a future time. This state is used when you schedule a bot to join a meeting later.
Bot resources are allocated and ready to join at the scheduled time. The bot is prepared and waiting for the scheduled join time.

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Joining States

Bot is attempting to join the meeting. This is the active connection phase where the bot is establishing its presence in the meeting.
Bot is in the meeting’s waiting room, waiting to be admitted by a host or organizer.

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Active Meeting States

Bot has successfully joined the meeting but isn’t recording yet. This might occur if recording hasn’t been started or is configured to start manually.
Bot has joined and is actively recording the meeting. This is the primary operational state for most use cases.
Bot has joined and recording is temporarily paused. Recording can be resumed without the bot leaving the meeting.
Bot has joined but doesn’t have permission to record. This can occur in meetings where recording permissions are restricted.

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Breakout Room States

Bot is moving to a breakout room within the main meeting.
Bot is leaving a breakout room and returning to the main meeting.

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Exit States

Bot is in the process of leaving the meeting. This is the active disconnection phase.
Bot has left the meeting and is processing recordings and transcripts. This includes finalizing recordings, generating transcripts, and preparing data for download.

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Terminal States

Bot has completed all tasks, and recordings and transcripts are available for download. This is the successful completion state.
Bot encountered an unrecoverable error and could not complete its tasks. Check bot events for error details.
Bot data has been permanently deleted, including recordings, transcripts, and participant information. Only metadata is retained for audit purposes.

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App Session States

For advanced use cases using app sessions (Zoom RTMS, Google Meet Media API):
  • Connecting - App session is establishing connection
  • Connected - App session is successfully connected
  • Disconnecting - App session is disconnecting
App sessions provide an alternative connection method to traditional bot participants for specific platform features.

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State Transitions

Bots typically follow these transition patterns:

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Standard Flow

Ready → Joining → Joined - Recording → Leaving → Post Processing → Ended

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Scheduled Bot Flow

Scheduled → Staged → Joining → Joined - Recording → Leaving → Post Processing → Ended

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Waiting Room Flow

Ready → Joining → Waiting Room → Joined - Recording → Leaving → Post Processing → Ended

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Breakout Room Flow

Joined - Recording → Joining Breakout Room → Joined - Recording → Leaving Breakout Room → Joined - Recording

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Error Flow

Ready → Joining → Fatal Error
Monitor bot state changes via webhooks to receive real-time notifications and handle state transitions in your application.

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Best Practices

  1. Monitor state changes - Use webhooks to track bot state transitions in real-time
  2. Handle errors gracefully - Check for fatal_error state and implement retry logic if needed
  3. Wait for completion - Don’t attempt to retrieve recordings until the bot reaches the ended state
  4. Respect waiting rooms - If a bot is in the waiting_room state, ensure someone admits it to the meeting
  5. Clean up data - Use the data deletion API when recordings are no longer needed to manage storage

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