How Studio works
Studio is the chat-based builder for creating, testing, and publishing voice agents. You describe the agent, talk to it, and publish, without writing code. This page walks through every panel and the path from idea to a live call. Prefer to work from code? The same agent is available over the API.
1. Start an agent
From the welcome screen you have three paths:
- Describe what you want in plain English and let AI draft the config.
- Pick a template (sales, support, booking, etc.) as a starting point.
- Import a saved JSON config if you're cloning a previous agent.
First-time users go through a short onboarding that asks for role, tone, and an opening line.
2. Three panels: chat, config, top bar
Inside an agent you see:
- Chat (left) is your conversation with the AI builder.
- Config editor (right) is a live, scrollable view of every field on the agent (name, role, language, voice, model, settings).
- Top bar holds the agent name, Test and Publish buttons, a status pill (dirty / saving / saved), the agent's per-minute rate, and the attached phone number.
Edit in either panel and the other updates.
3. Build by talking to the AI
Tell the AI what you want, like "make the greeting friendlier" or "add a step to confirm the email", and it proposes a change card you can approve or reject. Approve a change and it lands in the draft.
The AI also asks inline setup questions when something important is missing.
4. Setup questions block publish
Critical fields (role, success criteria, opening line) appear as setup cards. You must answer or skip them before publishing. Each card has a "draft this for me" shortcut if you want AI to fill it in.
5. Test in the browser before going live
Click Test to call the agent from your laptop mic. You hear the opening line, the agent transcribes you in real time, and the transcript shows below.
Browser test calls:
- Are capped at five minutes
- Don't need a phone number attached
- Are free, with no charge against your credits
6. Publish, then attach a number
Publishing pushes the draft to production. If anything is missing, the publish modal shows blockers and lets you fix them inline.
Published agents still need a phone number attached under Numbers before real calls route to them. See the Telephony guide for the BYOC flow.
7. Drafts vs. live: no rollback
Changes after publish create a new draft. Hitting Publish again overwrites the live config, and there is no version history. If you need a backup, clone the agent from the agent list before making big changes.
8. Slash commands and JSON edit
In chat, try:
| Command | What it does |
|---|---|
/voice | Show and change the voice |
/model | Pick a different LLM |
/test-call | Open the test panel |
/publish | Trigger the publish flow |
/help | List all available shortcuts |
The top bar also has a JSON editor for compact configs. Use it to paste a saved config or export the current one for sharing or backup. For the full response shape, see the Agents API reference.
What's next
- Pick the right model and voice
- Get a phone number live
- Quickstart for the short, code-first version
- FAQ for common gotchas

