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

Dashboard

TypeScript (Server SDK)

Open Assistants

Go to the Vapi Dashboard → Assistants → Create Assistant.

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.

Publish and test

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

2) Add a phone number

Dashboard

TypeScript (Server SDK)

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

3) Make your first calls

Inbound call

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

Outbound call (SDK)

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

Next steps

Add tools: Custom tools
Tune speech: Speech configuration
Structure data: Structured outputs
Move to multi-assistant: Squads

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