Your first voice agent
Build a voice agent on the canvas, talk to it in your browser, and put it on a phone number, without writing code.
What you'll build
A voice agent that answers a phone number. You build it in the flow builder, try it in the Playground by voice or text, then attach a number and call it from your phone.
There are three ways to build an agent. This tutorial uses the first:
| Path | You write | Read more |
|---|---|---|
| Flow builder | Nothing: you drag and connect steps | Flow builder |
| Voice agent SDK | One TypeScript file | Voice agent SDK |
| Brain connector | Nothing new: you reuse the LLM app you already have | Brain connectors |
All three land in the same Agents list, and the Playground, Numbers and Conversations pages work the same for each.
Prerequisites
- A VoiceLayer account. Sign in at https://vlayers.ai/dashboard.
- A phone, for the last step.
Step 1: Create a flow
A flow is the agent's conversation, drawn as steps.
- Open Dashboard → Flows and choose New. You get a canvas with a Start step.
- Drag a Say step from the palette and connect Start to it. Type a greeting, such as "Hi, thanks for calling. How can I help?"
- Drag an AI reply step after it, so the model answers what the caller says.
- Choose Save.
You now have a draft. Nothing runs yet.
Step 2: Publish and go live
Publishing freezes a version and checks the graph for problems, such as steps nothing leads to.
Choose Go live. It saves, publishes and points the shared runtime at this version in one step. The agent now appears under Dashboard → Agents.
Step 3: Talk to it in the Playground
The Playground runs the agent from your browser, so you can try it before it has a number.
Open Dashboard → Playground, pick your agent, and talk to it by voice or type to it. Interrupt it, pause mid-sentence and ask something off-topic to see how it behaves.
You hear the greeting, then answers to what you say.
Step 4: Attach a phone number
- Open Dashboard → Numbers and choose Buy a number. Search by country and area code, pick one and confirm.
- In the number's Agent column, choose your agent.
The number now routes inbound calls to the agent. No other setup is needed.
Test it
Call the number from your phone. The agent answers with your greeting and replies to what you say.
Every call then appears under Dashboard → Conversations with its transcript, recording, cost and latency.
Common problems
| Problem | Fix |
|---|---|
| The number rings with nothing behind it | Check the number's Agent column names your agent. |
| Your latest edits are not live | Saving keeps a draft. Choose Go live again to publish and point the agent at the new version. |
| The agent talks over you or waits too long | Tune turn-taking. See Voice and turn-taking. |
More in Limits and troubleshooting.