Assistants

Assistants quickstart

Build your first assistant and make a phone call in minutes

Overview

Create a voice assistant with a simple prompt, attach a phone number, and make your first call. You’ll also learn how to add tools to take real actions.

In this quickstart, you’ll:

  • Create an assistant (Dashboard or SDK)
  • Attach a phone number
  • Make inbound and outbound calls

Prerequisites

  • A Vapi account and API key

1) Create an assistant

By default, when you create an assistant, the transcriber, model, and voice are set to the Balanced preset.

1

Open Assistants

Go to the Vapi Dashboard → Assistants → Create Assistant.

2

Add a system prompt

System Prompt
You are a friendly phone support assistant. Greet the caller and offer help. Keep responses under 30 words. If a transfer is requested, confirm reason first.
3

Publish and test

Click Publish and then “Talk to Assistant” to validate behavior.

2) Add a phone number

In the Dashboard, go to Phone Numbers → Create Phone Number → assign your assistant.

3) Make your first calls

1

Inbound call

Call the phone number you created. Your assistant will answer with the first message.

2

Outbound call (SDK)

1await vapi.calls.create({
2  assistantId: assistant.id,
3  customer: { number: "+1234567890" }
4});

Next steps