Improved agent behavior for handling interruptions and acknowledgements

[antharya05]

In this task, I worked on improving how the LiveKit agent handles user inputs during conversation.

The main focus was to make the agent behave more naturally by distinguishing between passive acknowledgements (like "yeah", "ok", "hmm") and actual interruptions (like "stop", "wait").

Key improvements:

• When the agent is speaking, it ignores passive acknowledgements and continues smoothly without stopping.
• If the user gives a clear command like "stop" or "wait", the agent immediately interrupts.
• Mixed inputs such as "yeah wait" are treated as interruptions since they contain intent.
• When the agent is not speaking, even short inputs like "yeah" are treated as valid responses.

Approach:
I implemented a logic layer on top of the LiveKit event system to track whether the agent is currently speaking or not. Based on this state, user input is classified into ignore, interrupt, or respond categories.

The solution ensures smooth conversational flow and avoids unnecessary interruptions caused by backchanneling.

I have also included a short demo showing:

• The agent ignoring "yeah/ok" while speaking
• The agent responding when silent
• Immediate interruption on "stop"
• Handling of mixed inputs like "yeah wait"