Creating Agents

BuildVoiceAI provides two methods for creating agents: a manual form for full control, and an AI-powered builder for faster setup. This page covers the manual form in detail. For the AI builder, see AI Agent Builder.

Opening the Creation Form

1. Navigate to Agents in the left sidebar.
2. Click the New Agent button in the top right corner.
3. The agent creation form opens with all available fields.

Form Fields

Name (required)

A descriptive label for your agent. This name appears throughout the dashboard — in the agents list, call logs, analytics, and client portal.

Tips:

• Use a name that reflects the agent’s role: “Dental Receptionist”, “Sales Qualifier”, “After-Hours Support”
• If you manage agents for multiple clients, include the client name: “Acme Corp — Intake Agent”
• Keep it concise but descriptive enough to distinguish from other agents

Provider (required)

Select which voice provider powers this agent. The dropdown shows all providers you’ve connected during onboarding or in Settings.

Prompt (required)

The instructions that define your agent’s behavior. This is the most important field and determines how the agent handles every conversation. Write it in natural language, as if you were briefing a human employee.

A good prompt includes:

• Role definition — Who the agent is and what organization it represents
• Core responsibilities — What the agent should do (book appointments, answer questions, qualify leads)
• Key information — Business hours, location, services, pricing guidelines
• Conversation style — Tone, formality level, how to handle greetings and closings
• Edge cases — What to do when the caller asks something unexpected

See Prompt Engineering for detailed best practices and examples.

Voice

Choose the voice your agent speaks with. The available options depend on the selected provider:

• Retell AI — Select from a dropdown of voices in your Retell account.
• Vapi — Choose a voice engine provider, then enter a specific voice ID.
• Bland.ai — Select from a dropdown of voices in your Bland account.

See Voice Selection for a detailed guide on choosing voices per provider.

Phone Number (optional)

Assign a phone number from your voice provider to this agent. When assigned:

• Inbound calls to this number are answered by the agent.
• Outbound calls from this agent use this number as the caller ID.

If you haven’t purchased phone numbers from your provider yet, you can skip this and assign one later from the Phone Numbers page.

Client (optional)

Assign the agent to a specific client. This associates the agent with that client’s account, making it visible in their portal and included in their analytics.

Leave this blank for internal or test agents that aren’t tied to a specific client.

Active Toggle

Controls whether the agent is operational:

• Active (on) — The agent can receive inbound calls and make outbound calls.
• Inactive (off) — The agent is paused and will not handle any calls.

New agents default to active. Toggle to inactive if you’re still configuring the agent and don’t want it receiving calls.

Saving the Agent

Click Create Agent to save. BuildVoiceAI will:

1. Validate the required fields.
2. Create the agent record in your BuildVoiceAI account.
3. Sync the configuration to your voice provider via their API.
4. Redirect you to the agent detail page.

What’s Next

After creating your agent:

• Test it with a call to verify it works as expected
• Add a knowledge base for reference material
• Configure the website widget if you want browser-based calls