Review

aid: liveblocks:asyncapi-review
name: Liveblocks WebSocket Protocol — AsyncAPI Review
description: >-
  Review of whether the Liveblocks realtime WebSocket protocol can be modeled
  as a documented AsyncAPI specification. Conclusion: the wire-level protocol
  is private/undocumented. Only the high-level @liveblocks/client SDK surface
  (room subscribe topics and methods) is publicly documented. Operation codes,
  message envelopes, frame types, the actual WebSocket endpoint URL,
  storage op formats (LiveObject/LiveList/LiveMap), and presence/broadcast
  wire shapes are NOT published.
created: '2026-05-29'
modified: '2026-05-29'
status: not-publishable
reason: >-
  Per the API Evangelist "no fabrication" rule, an AsyncAPI specification was
  not produced. Liveblocks documents the SDK abstraction (the client library
  built on top of WebSockets), not the underlying wire protocol. Without an
  official protocol reference (op codes, message envelopes, channel
  parameters), any AsyncAPI document would require fabricating message
  schemas and is therefore out of scope.
findings:
  - heading: Documented (SDK surface only)
    items:
      - >-
        Connection status values exposed by the SDK: "initial", "connecting",
        "connected", "reconnecting", "disconnected"
      - >-
        Storage sync status values: "not-loaded", "loading", "synchronizing",
        "synchronized"
      - >-
        room.subscribe topics: "my-presence", "others", "event", "status",
        "storage-status", "lost-connection", "error", "history"
      - >-
        Lost-connection event values: "lost", "restored", "failed"
      - >-
        Others event types: "enter", "leave", "update", "reset"
      - >-
        Core methods: room.updatePresence(patch, options),
        room.broadcastEvent(event, options), room.getStorage()
      - >-
        Storage primitives: LiveObject, LiveList, LiveMap
      - >-
        Default presence update throttle is 100ms (configurable 16-1000ms)
      - >-
        Default lostConnectionTimeout is 5000ms
      - >-
        Liveblocks edge runs on Cloudflare Workers; reconnection,
        offline handling, and edge cases are managed by the SDK
  - heading: NOT documented (required for an AsyncAPI spec)
    items:
      - WebSocket endpoint URL (host, path, version segment)
      - URL parameters or headers used to attach the auth token
      - Room identifier parameter on the WebSocket URL
      - Message envelope structure (frame type, op code field, payload shape)
      - Op codes for presence updates (UpdatePresence / UpdatePresenceAck)
      - Op codes and payload format for storage operations on LiveObject,
        LiveList, and LiveMap (CreateObject, UpdateObject, DeleteObject,
        SetParentKey, etc.)
      - Op codes for broadcast events
      - History / acknowledgement frames
      - joinRoom / leaveRoom control frames
      - Heartbeat / keep-alive behaviour over the wire
      - Server-to-client initial state payload (InitialState / RoomState)
      - Error codes returned over the socket
sources:
  - type: Documentation
    name: Liveblocks Docs (index)
    url: https://liveblocks.io/docs
  - type: Documentation
    name: WebSocket infrastructure overview
    url: https://liveblocks.io/docs/platform/websocket-infrastructure
  - type: Documentation
    name: Authentication
    url: https://liveblocks.io/docs/authentication
  - type: Documentation
    name: '@liveblocks/client API reference'
    url: https://liveblocks.io/docs/api-reference/liveblocks-client
  - type: Documentation
    name: Sync engine overview
    url: https://liveblocks.io/docs/collaboration-features/multiplayer/sync-engine
  - type: Documentation
    name: Liveblocks Storage (LiveObject / LiveList / LiveMap)
    url: >-
      https://liveblocks.io/docs/collaboration-features/multiplayer/sync-engine/liveblocks-storage
  - type: Blog
    name: Open-sourcing the Liveblocks sync engine and dev server
    url: >-
      https://liveblocks.io/blog/open-sourcing-the-liveblocks-sync-engine-and-dev-server
  - type: LLMsTxt
    name: Liveblocks llms.txt index
    url: https://liveblocks.io/llms.txt
recommendation: >-
  If a protocol model is required, source it from the open-sourced sync engine
  on GitHub (the wire format is implementation-defined there) and treat the
  resulting document as derived from source code rather than from official
  documentation. That work is out of scope for this docs-only pass.