---
title: "Start a service instance"
method: POST
path: "/{agentName}/start"
---

# Start a service instance

`POST /{agentName}/start`

## Path parameters

- `agentName` string, required

## Request body

- StartRequest
  - `createDailyRoom` boolean — Whether to create a Daily room for the service instance
  - `dailyRoomProperties` object — Optional configuration for the Daily room. Only used when createDailyRoom is true. See [Daily API documentation](https://docs.daily.co/reference/rest-api/rooms/config) for supported properties.
  - `dailyMeetingTokenProperties` object — Optional configuration for the Daily meeting token. Only used when createDailyRoom is true. See [Daily API documentation](https://docs.daily.co/reference/rest-api/meeting-tokens/config) for supported properties.
  - `enableDefaultIceServers` boolean — Whether to use the default STUN/TURN ICE servers provided by Pipecat Cloud.
  - `transport` 'daily' | 'webrtc' | 'websocket' — Explicitly specify which transport the bot should use.
  - `body` object — Arbitrary user data / configuration object to pass to the service instance. Accessible as the first parameter of the `bot` method or custom entry point. Maximum size: 1 MB for `transport: "daily"` or `"webrtc"`, 4 KB for `"websocket"`. For `transport: "websocket"`, the body is returned in the response's `body` field base64-encoded; the service must be deployed with `websocket_auth = "token"` to use this encoding convenience. See the [`Starting Sessions` docs](/pipecat-cloud/fundamentals/active-sessions#passing-data) for details.

## Response `200`

Service started successfully

- StartResponse
  - `token` string — HMAC session token for WebSocket authentication (only when transport is "websocket")
  - `wsUrl` string — WebSocket URL to connect to (only when transport is "websocket")
  - `body` string — Base64-encoded JSON body for the bot (only when transport is "websocket" and the request included a `body`). Append to `wsUrl` as a `?body=` query parameter when connecting.
  - `dailyRoom` string — URL of the created Daily room (if createDailyRoom was set to true)
  - `dailyToken` string — Token to access the Daily room (if createDailyRoom was set to true)
  - `sessionId` string — Session ID for the created session
  - `iceConfig` object — ICE server configuration (only included when enableDefaultIceServers is true)
    - `iceServers` object[]
      - `urls` string[] — Array of STUN/TURN server URLs
      - `username` string — Authentication username for TURN servers
      - `credential` string — Authentication credential for TURN servers

## Other responses

- `400` — Invalid request
- `401` — Invalid or missing API key

---

[API](https://skmtc.dev/pipecat/apis/pipecat-cloud.md) · [All operations](https://skmtc.dev/pipecat/apis/pipecat-cloud/llms.txt) · [OpenAPI document](https://skmtc-service-production.skmtc.workers.dev/v1/apis/pipecat/pipecat-cloud/revisions/acd0f7dfe734/schema)