What it is

go2rtc is a camera streaming application written in Go and released under the MIT license. It runs as a zero-dependency binary on Windows, macOS, Linux, and FreeBSD, and it also ships as a Docker image, a Home Assistant add-on, and a Home Assistant integration. The project lives in the smart home and media server ecosystem, with topics spanning Home Assistant, HomeKit, ONVIF, RTSP, RTMP, HLS, MJPEG, MP4, and FFmpeg. It can be embedded into another project through its HTTP API or run as a standalone application with a web interface at http://localhost:1984/.

The concrete problem it solves is protocol and codec fragmentation across cameras and clients. Cameras speak many input formats, browsers and smart home platforms accept only a narrow set of output formats, and the two rarely line up. go2rtc ingests streams from dozens of formats and protocols, republishes them in all popular output formats, and auto-matches the streaming format and codec that a given client supports. It also handles two-way audio, mixes tracks from different sources into a single stream, and applies on-the-fly transcoding through FFmpeg only when necessary, which keeps latency low for the protocols that support it.

Key capabilities

• Streaming input from dozens of formats and protocols, with output in all popular formats and ingest in a number of popular formats.
• Zero-delay streaming for many supported protocols, targeting the lowest possible latency.
• On-the-fly transcoding via FFmpeg, applied only when necessary.
• Two-way audio support across many formats, including streaming audio back to cameras that support it.
• Mixing tracks from different sources into a single stream.
• Auto-match of client-supported streaming formats and codecs.
• Streaming stats for all active connections, plus publishing any source to services such as YouTube and Telegram.

Who uses it and how

• Home Assistant users install it as an add-on or integration to bring camera streams into their smart home platform.
• Self-hosters run the standalone binary or Docker image and add streams through the configuration file, then view them in the built-in web interface.
• Developers integrate the HTTP API into a smart home platform or another project rather than running go2rtc on its own.
• Operators publish an existing source to popular streaming services such as YouTube and Telegram.
• Users with two-way audio cameras stream audio to the camera and receive audio back through the same pipeline.

Getting started

Download the binary for the target OS from the latest release, or use the Docker image, the Home Assistant add-on, or the Home Assistant integration. After starting it, open http://localhost:1984/ and add streams to the configuration.

When to use it — and when not to

go2rtc is a strong fit when a self-hoster needs one process to bridge many camera protocols and client formats without a paid streaming product, and it stays small because it is a zero-dependency binary. A self-hoster still has to operate the host, write the stream configuration, and provide FFmpeg where transcoding is required. The open issue count is high relative to the project's age, so users should expect active but busy maintenance.