GPT WORLD / INDEPENDENT CODEX FIELD MANUAL Source review · 2026-07-31

Retrospective edition / REALTIME

Design Realtime as a live distributed system

Transport, session configuration, turn detection, interruption, tools, reconnect, and terminal states jointly define the experience.

01 / DECIDE

Architecture decision

Use it for low-latency speech or multimodal interaction where request-response audio would feel discontinuous.

Transport, session configuration, turn detection, interruption, tools, reconnect, and terminal states jointly define the experience. Map input, output, state, and side effects as one observable path before deciding which layer owns design realtime as a live distributed system.

02 / BUILD

Three-step implementation

  1. 01

    Frame the contract

    Write down the caller, data classification, success condition, timeout, cancellation, and ownership. Use it for low-latency speech or multimodal interaction where request-response audio would feel discontinuous.

  2. 02

    Build one narrow path

    Implement one end-to-end path with request correlation, typed state, and reversible failure handling. Transport, session configuration, turn detection, interruption, tools, reconnect, and terminal states jointly define the experience.

  3. 03

    Prove the outcome

    Turn acceptance into a repeatable fixture, contract test, or browser test. Network tests cover jitter, reconnect, double-talk, device changes, long sessions, late tools, and clean shutdown.

03 / BOUND

Production boundary

Client credentials must be short-lived, interruptions must cancel stale work, and tool results need turn ownership.

04 / PROVE

Acceptance evidence

Network tests cover jitter, reconnect, double-talk, device changes, long sessions, late tools, and clean shutdown.

SOURCE / HTTP

Reproducible source probe

curl -fsSI 'https://developers.openai.com/api/docs/guides/realtime' | sed -n '1,5p'