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The BCI Briefing

Signal streaming & synchronization · Streaming

Lab Streaming Layer

A protocol and library for sending time-synchronised data streams across a local network.

  • Mature
  • Widely used
  • Real-time ready
github.com/sccn/liblsl (opens in a new tab)Documentation (opens in a new tab)

What problem does it solve?

Combining an amplifier, a stimulus computer and other sensors requires a shared clock. LSL provides it.

Who is it for?

Anyone combining more than one data source in an experiment

At a glance

Primary use
Signal streaming & synchronization
Licence
MIT · permissive
Language
C++ core; bindings for Python, MATLAB and others
Current release
v1.17.7, published 22 Apr 2026
Development activity
Last commit 21 Sep 2026 · repository created 28 Feb 2018
Maintainers
Swartz Center for Computational Neuroscience and community
GitHub stars
179 as of 3 Oct 2026
Standards
XDF

Repository facts are a snapshot read from the GitHub API on 3 Oct 2026; they are reported as found, not scored.

Supported modalities and use

Modalities

Real-time capability

Designed for or usable in real-time loops

Common use cases

  • Multi-device synchronisation
  • Marker and event streams
  • Recording to XDF

How it fits into a BCI stack

  1. Hardware

    2 tools

  2. Acquisition

    3 tools

  3. Streaming

    Lab Streaming Layer

  4. Processing

    6 tools

  5. Decoding

    4 tools

  6. Applications

    2 tools

  7. Data & standards

    3 tools

Getting started

Install liblsl and the pylsl bindings, start any LSL-enabled acquisition app, and record with LabRecorder.

Official documentation (opens in a new tab)

Sources

  1. 01

    github.com/sccn/liblsl (opens in a new tab)

    Open-source repositoryGitHubChecked against source 3 Oct 2026

    Repository metadata read from the GitHub API.