The bot lifecycle is the ordered set of states a meeting bot moves through, from creation to exit.
Each state arrives as a webhook event: scheduled, joining, in the waiting room, in the meeting, recording.
Exactly one terminal state says how the bot left.
After the call, processing reports each artefact as it is ready.
The states, in order
Five moves, each one a named webhook event at your endpoint.
The webhooks guide lists each name.
How a run ends
One terminal event closes every run. Five are possible.
| Terminal event | Meaning | Status code |
|---|---|---|
| bot.stopped | Clean exit: meeting ended, timeout, API stop, host ended | 200 |
| bot.kicked | The host or a participant removed the bot | 200 |
| bot.denied | The host declined the join request | 500 |
| bot.notallowed | Waiting-room timeout | 500 |
| bot.failed | The run ended early; start a new bot | 500 |
On Zoom, two extra events sit between admission and recording.
They carry the host answer to Zoom's recording consent prompt, so your app knows the exact moment capture is cleared to begin.
The Zoom bot API page covers the rest of Zoom's rules.
After the terminal event
Four more events land as the artefacts become ready.
A later event tells you when media expires or is cleared from storage.
Streaming engines deliver the live transcript during the call.
Those runs finish at the audio event.
While the artefacts are still being prepared, a polled status reads as media processing.
The webhooks guide carries every event name and payload.
Frequently asked questions
How many terminal events does a bot send?
Exactly one, always.
Why does the status read Stopped after a kick?
The polled status reads Stopped for a clean exit and for a kick. The event name tells the two apart.
Can I track the lifecycle by polling?
Yes. Poll the bot status endpoint, or watch events live from the command line tool.
What ends a bot automatically?
Timeouts end it.
The waiting room, an empty room, silence, the recording cap, and a room left with only other notetakers all close the bot cleanly.
Put the vocabulary to work
One API to join, record, stream and transcribe meetings across Zoom, Google Meet and Microsoft Teams.