This guide provides a complete, working example of joining a Zoom Video SDK session on Linux, including JWT generation, session configuration, event handling, and cleanup.

Prerequisites

# System dependencies
sudo apt update
sudo apt install -y build-essential gcc cmake libglib2.0-dev liblzma-dev \
    libxcb-image0 libxcb-keysyms1 libxcb-xfixes0 libxcb-xkb1 libxcb-shape0 \
    libxcb-shm0 libxcb-randr0 libxcb-xtest0 libgbm1 libxtst6 libgl1 libnss3 \
    libasound2 libpulse0

# For headless Linux
sudo apt install -y pulseaudio
mkdir -p ~/.config
echo "[General]" > ~/.config/zoomus.conf
echo "system.audio.type=default" >> ~/.config/zoomus.conf

# Create log directory
mkdir -p ~/.zoom/logs

JWT Token Generation

CRITICAL: You need a JWT token to join sessions. Generate from your SDK credentials.

Using Python

import jwt
import time

def generate_video_sdk_jwt(sdk_key, sdk_secret, session_name, role_type=1, session_key="", user_identity=""):
    iat = int(time.time()) - 30
    exp = iat + 60 * 60 * 2  # 2 hours
    
    payload = {
        "app_key": sdk_key,
        "iat": iat,
        "exp": exp,
        "tpc": session_name,
        "role_type": role_type,  # 0=participant, 1=host
    }
    
    if session_key:
        payload["session_key"] = session_key
    if user_identity:
        payload["user_identity"] = user_identity
    
    token = jwt.encode(payload, sdk_secret, algorithm="HS256")
    return token

# Usage
SDK_KEY = "YOUR_SDK_KEY"
SDK_SECRET = "YOUR_SDK_SECRET"
SESSION_NAME = "my-test-session"

jwt_token = generate_video_sdk_jwt(SDK_KEY, SDK_SECRET, SESSION_NAME, role_type=1)
print(f"JWT Token: {jwt_token}")

Using Node.js

const jwt = require('jsonwebtoken');

function generateVideoSDKJWT(sdkKey, sdkSecret, sessionName, roleType = 1) {
    const iat = Math.floor(Date.now() / 1000) - 30;
    const exp = iat + 60 * 60 * 2; // 2 hours
    
    const payload = {
        app_key: sdkKey,
        iat: iat,
        exp: exp,
        tpc: sessionName,
        role_type: roleType // 0=participant, 1=host
    };
    
    return jwt.sign(payload, sdkSecret);
}

const SDK_KEY = "YOUR_SDK_KEY";
const SDK_SECRET = "YOUR_SDK_SECRET";
const SESSION_NAME = "my-test-session";

const jwtToken = generateVideoSDKJWT(SDK_KEY, SDK_SECRET, SESSION_NAME, 1);
console.log(`JWT Token: ${jwtToken}`);

Complete C++ Implementation

Header File: BotDelegate.h

#ifndef BOT_DELEGATE_H
#define BOT_DELEGATE_H

#include "zoom_video_sdk_api.h"
#include "zoom_video_sdk_interface.h"
#include "zoom_video_sdk_delegate_interface.h"
#include <stdio.h>
#include <atomic>

USING_ZOOM_VIDEO_SDK_NAMESPACE

class BotDelegate : public IZoomVideoSDKDelegate {
public:
    BotDelegate() : running_(true) {}
    
    bool isRunning() const

Implementation File: BotDelegate.cpp

#include "BotDelegate.h"

void BotDelegate::onSessionJoin() {
    printf("[EVENT] Session joined successfully!\n");
    
    // Get session info
    IZoomVideoSDKSession* session = video_sdk_obj->getSessionInfo();
    if (session) {
        printf("  Session Name: %s\n", session->getSessionName());
        printf("  Session ID: %s\n"

IMPORTANT: The SDK internally uses Qt/GLib for event dispatching. You MUST use a GLib main loop — a while (running) { sleep(); } loop will NOT dispatch SDK events, and callbacks like onSessionJoin will never fire. See Common Issues for details.

#include "BotDelegate.h"
#include <glib.h>
#include <thread>
#include <chrono>
#include <signal.h>

IZoomVideoSDK* video_sdk_obj = nullptr;
BotDelegate* delegate = nullptr;
static GMainLoop* g_loop = nullptr;

// GLib timeout callback - checks if bot should stop
static gboolean glib_timeout_callback(gpointer data

CMakeLists.txt

cmake_minimum_required(VERSION 3.14)
project(ZoomVideoSDKBot VERSION 1.0.0 LANGUAGES CXX)

set(CMAKE_CXX_STANDARD 17)
set(CMAKE_CXX_STANDARD_REQUIRED ON)

find_package(PkgConfig REQUIRED)
pkg_check_modules(GLIB REQUIRED glib-2.0)

# SDK paths
include_directories(
    ${CMAKE_SOURCE_DIR}/include
    ${CMAKE_SOURCE_DIR}/include/zoom_video_sdk
    ${GLIB_INCLUDE_DIRS}
)

link_directories(${CMAKE_SOURCE_DIR}/lib/zoom_video_sdk)

# Source files
set(SOURCES 
    src/main.cpp
    src/BotDelegate.cpp
)

add_executable(${PROJECT_NAME} ${SOURCES})

target_link_libraries(${PROJECT_NAME}
    videosdk
    ${GLIB_LIBRARIES}
    pthread
)

set_target_properties(${PROJECT_NAME} PROPERTIES
    BUILD_RPATH "${CMAKE_SOURCE_DIR}/lib/zoom_video_sdk"
    INSTALL_RPATH "${CMAKE_SOURCE_DIR}/lib/zoom_video_sdk"
    RUNTIME_OUTPUT_DIRECTORY ${CMAKE_SOURCE_DIR}/bin
)

Build and Run

# 1. Extract SDK
tar -xf zoom-video-sdk-linux_x86_64.tar.xz
cd zoom-video-sdk-linux_x86_64

# 2. Copy Qt5 libraries and create symlinks
cp -r samples/qt_libs/Qt/lib/* lib/
cd lib
for lib in libQt5*.so.5; do
    ln -sf $lib ${lib%.5}
done
cd ..

# 3. Build
mkdir build && cd build
cmake ..
make

# 4. Generate JWT token (use Python script above)
JWT_TOKEN="your.jwt.token.here"

# 5. Run
cd ../bin
export LD_LIBRARY_PATH=$LD_LIBRARY_PATH:../lib/zoom_video_sdk
./ZoomVideoSDKBot "test-session" "Linux Bot" "$JWT_TOKEN"

Testing

# Test with password
./ZoomVideoSDKBot "test-session" "Bot" "$JWT_TOKEN" "password123"

# Test as host (role_type=1 in JWT)
./ZoomVideoSDKBot "host-session" "Host Bot" "$HOST_JWT_TOKEN"

# Test as participant (role_type=0 in JWT)
./ZoomVideoSDKBot "join-session" "Participant Bot" "$PARTICIPANT_JWT_TOKEN"

Common Issues

Issue: Callbacks not firing

Solution: You MUST use a GLib main loop (g_main_loop_run). A while/sleep loop does not dispatch SDK events. See the main.cpp example above and Common Issues.

Issue: “Failed to join session”

Causes:

Invalid JWT token
Session name doesn’t match JWT tpc claim
Wrong SDK credentials
Expired token

Solution: Verify JWT payload and regenerate token.

Issue: “Auth failed”

Solution: Check SDK_KEY and SDK_SECRET in JWT generation.

Issue: No audio on headless Linux

Solution: Use virtual audio speaker:

session_context.virtualAudioSpeaker = new VirtualSpeaker();

Session Join Pattern