Build a hotline

This walks through everything needed to get a real phone number ringing into a working agent.

1. Organization and project

Create (or pick) an organization, then create a project. Leave the project type as hotline (the default) — see Organizations & Projects.

2. Knowledge bases first (if you need them)

If your agent needs to answer questions from your own content, set up a knowledge base before building the flow — ingestion runs asynchronously, so starting it early means it’s ready by the time you attach it.

3. Build the flow

Start with a Simple Flow if your needs are FAQ + a few intake questions. Move to a Graph Flow once you need branching logic, pre/post-call automation (CRM lookups, calendar checks, webhooks), or global tools like callback/forward.

4. Agent profile

Every flow runs under an agent profile — the model, voice, and language configuration. Set this in the flow’s Setup stage (graph flows) or the profile picker (simple flows). Realtime (speech-to-speech) and pipeline (STT → LLM → TTS) profiles are both supported; pick based on the latency/voice-quality tradeoff you need.

5. Connect integrations (optional)

If the flow needs to look up or write to a CRM/calendar, connect the integration first from the project’s Integrations page, then reference it from a pre/post-hook — see Integrations & the marketplace.

6. Attach a phone number

Allocate or configure a number and assign this flow’s active version to it — see Phone numbers.

7. Test before you go live

Use the flow editor’s Test stage to place a simulated test call (or a real test call if you prefer), and consider running a simulation batch across a handful of personas before pointing real traffic at the number.

8. Watch it run

Once live, use Call History and Analytics to see transcripts, drop-off points, and (if enabled) survey feedback.