> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://docs.vapi.ai/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.
# Inbound Calling
> Quickstart handling inbound calls with Vapi.
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An inbound call is a phone call that comes **"in"** towards a phone number, & in our case, our AI assistant will be there to pick up the phone call.
There are **4 steps** we will cover to handle our first inbound phone call:
1. **Create an Assistant:** we will create an [assistant](/assistants) & instruct it on how to conduct the call
2. **Get a Phone Number:** we can either import existing numbers we own, or purchase one through Vapi
3. **Attach Our Assistant:** we will put our assistant behind the phone number to pick up calls
4. **Call the Number:** we can then call the number & talk to our assistant
## Vapi’s Pizzeria
We will be implementing a simple order-taking assistant that receives customer calls at a pizza shop called “Vapi’s Pizzeria”.
Vapi’s has 3 types of menu items: `pizza`, `side`s, & `drink`s. Customers will be ordering 1 of each.
## Assistant Setup
First we're going to set up our assistant in the dashboard. Once our assistant’s **transcriber**, **model**, & **voice** are set up, we can call it to place our order.
You can visit your dashboard by going to
[dashboard.vapi.ai](https://dashboard.vapi.ai)
If you haven't already signed-up, you're going to need an account before you can use the web dashboard. When you visit [dashboard.vapi.ai](https://dashboard.vapi.ai) you may see something like this:
Sign-up for an account (or log-in to your existing account) — you will then find yourself inside the web dashboard. It will look something like this:
Now that you're in your dashboard, we're going to create an [assistant](/assistants).
Assistants are at the heart of how Vapi models AI voice agents — we will be setting certain properties on a new assistant to model an order-taking agent.
Once in the "Assistants" dashboard tab (you should be in it by-default after log-in), you will see a button to create a new assistant.
After clicking the create new assistant button, you will see a pop-up modal that asks you to pick a starter template. For our example we will start from a blank slate so choose the `Blank Template` option.
You will then be able to name your assistant — you can name it whatever you'd like (`Vapi’s Pizza Front Desk`, for example):
This name is only for internal labeling use. It is not an identifier, nor will the assistant be
aware of this name.
Once you have named your assistant, you can hit "Create" to create it. You will then see something like this:
This is the assistant overview view — it gives you the ability to edit different attributes about your assistant, as well as see **cost** & **latency** projection information for each portion of it’s voice pipeline (this is very important data to have handy when building out your assistants).
Now we’re going to set the "brains" of the assistant, the large language model. We're going to be using `GPT-4` (from [OpenAI](https://openai.com/)) for this demo (though you're free to use `GPT-3.5`, or any one of your favorite LLMs).
Before we proceed, we can set our [provider key](customization/provider-keys) for OpenAI (this is just your OpenAI secret key).
You can see all of your provider keys in the "Provider Keys" dashboard tab. You can also go
directly to [dashboard.vapi.ai/keys](https://dashboard.vapi.ai/keys).
Vapi uses [provider keys](customization/provider-keys) you provide to communicate with LLM, TTS, & STT vendors on your behalf. It is most ideal that we set keys for the vendors we intend to use ahead of time.
While we're here it'd be ideal for you to go & set up provider keys for other providers you're familiar with & intend to use later.
Assistants can **optionally** be configured with a `First Message`. This first message will be spoken by your assistant when either:
* **A Web Call Connects:** when a web call is started with your assistant
* **An Inbound Call is Picked-up:** an [inbound call](/glossary#inbound-call) is picked-up & answered by your assistant
* **An Outbound Call is Dialed & Picked-up:** an [outbound call](/glossary#outbound-call) is dialed by your assistant & a person picks up
Note that this first message cannot be interrupted & is guaranteed to be spoken. Certain use cases
need a first message, while others do not.
For our use case, we will want a first message. It would be ideal for us to have a first message like this:
```text
Vappy’s Pizzeria speaking, how can I help you?
```
Some text-to-speech voices may struggle to pronounce 'Vapi' correctly, compartmentalizing it to be
spoken letter by letter "V. A. P. I."
Some aspects of configuring your voice pipeline will require tweaks like this to get the target
behaviour you want.
This will be spoken by the assistant when a web or inbound phone call is received.
We will now set the `System Prompt` for our assistant. If you're familiar with OpenAI's API, this is the first prompt in the message list that we feed our LLM (learn more about prompt engineering on the [OpenAI docs](https://platform.openai.com/docs/guides/prompt-engineering)).
The system prompt can be used to configure the context, role, personality, instructions and so on for the assistant. In our case, a system prompt like this will give us the behaviour we want:
```text
You are a voice assistant for Vappy’s Pizzeria,
a pizza shop located on the Internet.
Your job is to take the order of customers calling in. The menu has only 3 types
of items: pizza, sides, and drinks. There are no other types of items on the menu.
1) There are 3 kinds of pizza: cheese pizza, pepperoni pizza, and vegetarian pizza
(often called "veggie" pizza).
2) There are 3 kinds of sides: french fries, garlic bread, and chicken wings.
3) There are 2 kinds of drinks: soda, and water. (if a customer asks for a
brand name like "coca cola", just let them know that we only offer "soda")
Customers can only order 1 of each item. If a customer tries to order more
than 1 item within each category, politely inform them that only 1 item per
category may be ordered.
Customers must order 1 item from at least 1 category to have a complete order.
They can order just a pizza, or just a side, or just a drink.
Be sure to introduce the menu items, don't assume that the caller knows what
is on the menu (most appropriate at the start of the conversation).
If the customer goes off-topic or off-track and talks about anything but the
process of ordering, politely steer the conversation back to collecting their order.
Once you have all the information you need pertaining to their order, you can
end the conversation. You can say something like "Awesome, we'll have that ready
for you in 10-20 minutes." to naturally let the customer know the order has been
fully communicated.
It is important that you collect the order in an efficient manner (succinct replies
& direct questions). You only have 1 task here, and it is to collect the customers
order, then end the conversation.
- Be sure to be kind of funny and witty!
- Keep all your responses short and simple. Use casual language, phrases like "Umm...", "Well...", and "I mean" are preferred.
- This is a voice conversation, so keep your responses short, like in a real conversation. Don't ramble for too long.
```
You can copy & paste the above prompt into the `System Prompt` field. Now the model configuration for your assistant should look something like this:
The transcriber is what turns user speech into processable text for our LLM. This is the first step in the end-to-end voice pipeline.
We will be using [Deepgram](https://deepgram.com) (which provides blazing-fast & accurate Speech-to-Text) as our STT provider.
We will set our provider key for them in "Provider Keys":
We will set the model to `Nova 2` & the language to `en` for English. Now your assistant's transcriber configuration should look something like this:
The final portion of the voice pipeline is turning LLM output-text into speech. This process is called "Text-to-speech" (or TTS for short).
We will be using a voice provider called [PlayHT](https://play.ht) (they have very conversational voices), & a voice provided by them labeled `Jennifer` (`female`, `en-US`).
You are free to use your favorite TTS voice platform here. [ElevenLabs](https://elevenlabs.io/) is
another alternative — by now you should get the flow of plugging in vendors into Vapi (add
provider key + pick provider in assistant config).
You can skip the next step(s) if you don't intend to use PlayHT.
If you haven't already, sign up for an account with PlayHT at [play.ht](https://play.ht). Since their flows are liable to change — you can just grab your `API Key` & `User ID` from them.
You will want to select `playht` in the "provider" field, & `Jennifer` in the "voice" field. We will leave all of the other settings untouched.
## Get a Phone Number
Now that we've configured how our assistant will behave, we want to figure out how to call it. We will need a phone number that we can make phone calls to.
There are **2 ways** we can get a phone number into our Vapi account:
1. **Purchase a Number Through Vapi:** we can directly purchase phone numbers through Vapi.
* Vapi will provision the phone number for us via Twilio
* This can be done in the dashboard, or via the API (we will use the dashboard)
2. **Import from Twilio or Vonage:** if we already have a phone number with an external telephony provider (like Twilio or Vonage), we can import them into our Vapi account.
The quickest way to secure a phone number for your assistant is to purchase a phone number directly through Vapi.
Ensure you have a card on file that Vapi can bill before proceeding, you can add your billing
information in your dashboard at [dashboard.vapi.ai/billing](https://dashboard.vapi.ai/billing)
Navigate to the "Phone Numbers" section & click the "Buy number" button:
We will use the area code `415` for our phone number (these are area codes domestic to the US & Canada).
Currently, only US & Canada phone numbers can be directly purchased through Vapi. Phone numbers in
other regions must be imported, see our [phone calling](/phone-calling) guide.
Click "Buy", after purchasing a phone number you should see something like this:
The phone number is now ready to be used (either for inbound or outbound calling).
We can also import an existing phone number we already own with either Twilio or Vonage.
For example's sake, we will proceed with [**Twilio**](https://twilio.com) (though the steps are the same for Vonage as
well).
If you don't already have a number in Twilio, you can purchase one by going to your Twilio console's "Buy a number" section:
Once you've purchased a number, it will immediately be ready for import into Vapi.
To complete the import on Vapi's side, we will need to grab our Twilio **"Account SID"** & **"Auth Token"**.
You should see a section for "API keys & tokens", the credentials we will need for the import will live here.
Once we are in our "API keys & tokens" section, we will grab the Account SID & Auth Token:
We will use both of these credentials in the next step of importing via the Dashboard.
Navigate to the “Phone Numbers” section & click the “Import” button:
There you will input your phone number, as well as the credentials you retrieved in the previous step:
Hit "Import" & you will come to the phone number detail page:
Your number is now ready to be attached to an assistant for inbound or outbound phone calling.
## Attach Your Assistant
Now that we have a configured assistant & a phone number, we will put our assistant behind the phone number to pick up incoming phone calls.
In the `Inbound` area of the phone number detail view, select your assistant in the dropdown under `Assistant`.
## Call the Number
You can now make a phone call to the number. Your assistant will pick up the phone & manage the order-taking conversation. Happy ordering!
Your assistant won't yet be able to hang-up the phone at the end of the call.
We will learn more about configuring call end behaviour in later guides.