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Quickstart

This walkthrough builds a first agent from a plain description and publishes it. The example is a receptionist for ACME Clinics that answers calls and moves appointments, built as a Frontline agent. A Background agent follows the same four steps, with text in place of calls. Each step links to the page that covers it in full.

Before You Start​

  • You need the Admin or Organisation Admin role.
  • The organisation needs at least one environment. If Agentic opens on a landing page, follow Getting Started first.
  • Work in a Sandbox or UAT environment for a first agent, so nothing reaches customers while it is being tried out. See Environments.
  • Twilio is not needed for steps 1 to 4. It is only needed for the optional phone number at the end.

Step 1: Describe Your Agent​

  1. Open Agents in the Agentic sub navigation.

  2. Select New agent. In an environment with no agents yet, the page asks "What should your first agent do?" instead, so select the Frontline agent card ("Answers inbound calls on its own number").

  3. In the builder, check that Answer calls is selected above the text box.

  4. Describe the calls the agent should answer, then press Enter. A good description says who calls, what they want, and what the agent may and may not do. For example:

    Answer calls for ACME Clinics. Callers want to book, move or cancel an appointment, or ask about opening hours and parking. Check the caller's booking reference before changing anything, offer two time slots when moving a booking, and send an SMS confirmation. Never give medical advice.

    The suggestion chips under the box, such as "A receptionist that answers calls and books appointments", are a starting point when you are not sure where to begin.

IQ writes the first draft from the description: its name, instructions, greeting and the tools it thinks the agent needs. To fill in every field yourself instead, select Set it up by hand, or Configure manually on an empty Agents page. See Building with IQ.

Step 2: Fine-tune​

IQ reads the draft and asks a few questions to fill the gaps, for example how far ahead bookings can be made. Answer each one, and IQ updates the draft as you go.

Where the agent needs to reach one of your systems, such as the booking system, IQ asks you to connect it now or skip it for later. A skipped tool stays in the draft, but the agent cannot be published until the tool is set up. When the questions are done, review what IQ filled in and change anything that looks off.

The draft is saved as you work. Leaving the builder shows "Saved as a draft. You can continue it from Agents.", and the agent appears on the Agents page as a draft. See Tools and Knowledge for what a tool needs.

Step 3: Test It Out​

This step is called Test It Out for a Frontline agent and Try It Out for a Background agent. Under How to test, choose one of two modes:

  • IQ calls it: pick a caller scenario, select Start call, and listen while IQ plays the caller.
  • You call it: call the agent from the browser and talk to it as a customer would. The browser asks for microphone access first.

For a Background agent the choices are IQ tries it, where IQ writes test scenarios and runs them, and You try it, where you send it a sample message or data.

When the test ends, IQ review lists anything worth changing, each finding marked Needs fixing, Worth checking or Note. Select Apply fix on a finding to change the draft, then test again to hear the difference. Every test is recorded as an Evaluate session, so it never mixes with real traffic. See Playground.

Step 4: Publish​

The Publish step shows Before It Is Published, a short checklist of what the draft still needs.

  1. Check that Instructions Written is ticked. A Frontline agent also needs a greeting.
  2. Check whether the agent is Tested. Publishing without a test is allowed, but a short test catches most problems.
  3. For a Frontline agent, choose whether to Record calls, which keeps a recording of each call.
  4. Leave Phone Number (Optional) empty for now, or pick a number if Twilio is already connected.
  5. Press and hold Hold to Publish until it completes.

Publishing makes the draft the live version. Without a phone number, the agent is published and can be reached by its agent ID from your own telephony or applications. If anything blocks publishing, the step lists it in plain terms. See Publishing and Versions.

Step 5 (Optional): Give It a Phone Number​

A Frontline agent can answer calls on a phone number from the organisation's Twilio account. Connecting Twilio is an Organisation Admin task, covered in Twilio. An Admin can send the settings page to an Organisation Admin with Copy link for admin in the Getting started checklist.

Once Twilio is connected:

  1. On the publish confirmation, or later from the agent's page, select Give It a Phone Number.
  2. Under Which Number Should Callers Dial?, choose a number. A number already used by another agent can be moved to this one.
  3. Select Save Number.

Calls to the number reach the agent as soon as the number is saved. If the agent has unpublished changes, the dialog warns This Also Publishes Your Draft: saving the number publishes those changes too. Each agent has one number. See Phone Numbers and Deployment.

What Happens Next​

The agent now appears on the Agents page as live. Calls, or runs for a Background agent, show up under the agent's Sessions tab as they happen, and its Metrics tab shows how it is performing over time. Changes made from here on are saved to the draft and only reach callers when they are published.