FAQ & troubleshooting
Answers to common questions, plus troubleshooting for the things people hit most often. Can't find it here? Email [email protected] or ask the in-dashboard Co-pilot.
Getting started
Do I need to write code?
No. You build, configure, and test agents entirely from the dashboard. Code is optional — for embedding the chat widget or receiving webhooks (see the API reference).
How much does it cost?
Callable uses a monthly plan plus pay-as-you-go usage. See the Pricing page for current plans, and Plans & billing for how usage is metered.
Voice agent vs chat agent — which do I pick?
Pick Voice if the agent should answer or make phone calls. Pick Chat if it should run on your website. You choose the type when you create the agent. See Agents.
Agents & answers
My agent gives wrong or vague answers.
Two fixes: tighten the system prompt (be specific about what it should and shouldn't say) and add Knowledge Base content (your real hours, services, policies). The agent grounds its answers in both. See Prompt & business info and Knowledge Base.
How do I change the greeting, hours, or services?
On the agent's Agent tab — edit the greeting/first message and the business-info fields (hours, services, FAQs). Changes take effect on the next call or chat.
The agent made up business hours / details.
That usually means the info wasn't set. Fill in the hours/services fields and add authoritative Knowledge Base sources, and instruct the prompt to say it will check rather than guess when unsure.
Phone calls
The call connects but there's silence / the agent doesn't respond.
This should not happen — the platform opens the two-way audio stream the moment the call is answered, so the agent greets you and hears you on every answered call. If you ever do hit silence, it's rare and usually transient: hang up and retry. If it persists, contact [email protected] with the number and rough time so we can pull the call logs. It is not a setting you need to change in the dashboard.
Replies feel slow / delayed.
Replies stream sentence-by-sentence and should begin about a second after you stop talking. If you experience long gaps, check your own network/phone connection first; persistent delays are worth reporting to support.
Can the caller interrupt the agent?
Yes — barge-in is on for inbound calls: if the caller starts talking while the agent is speaking, the agent stops and listens. Outbound campaign calls run in a no-interrupt mode instead — the agent finishes each sentence and is never cut off, but what the person says is still captured and answered on the next turn.
How do I reach the agent to test it (inbound vs outbound)?
- Inbound — just call your agent's phone number (the number shown on the Phone numbers page, e.g. the +1 number you bought/imported). The agent answers and starts talking. This is the number to dial to try the agent yourself.
- Outbound — you don't dial anything; a campaign dials your leads from your agent's number. To test outbound, add a phone you own as a lead and launch the campaign — it will call you.
Do not try to dial the number that shows up as the caller ID on an outbound call — that's just a display label (and on international routes it's often rewritten, see below), not a number that reaches your agent. The only number that reaches your agent is the one on your Phone numbers page.
Phone numbers
How do I get a phone number?
Buy one directly on the Phone numbers page (Telnyx, the built-in provider). To use Twilio or SignalWire, connect your own account in Integrations first. See Phone numbers.
Can I use a number I already own?
Yes — import it on the Phone numbers page (on Telnyx, or via your connected Twilio/SignalWire account), then attach an agent to it.
The person I called saw a different / unfamiliar caller ID (e.g. a random number).
This is almost always an international caller-ID rewrite, not a Callable bug. When your number calls a phone in another country, the carriers in the path frequently substitute the displayed caller ID with one of their own gateway numbers — so a US (+1) number calling a Pakistani or European phone can show up as some other, unfamiliar number. It happens after the call leaves the platform, so no setting on your side controls it.
What to do:
- Calling within the same country (e.g. a US number calling US leads) — your real number displays correctly; there's nothing to fix.
- Calling another country — for a caller ID your leads recognize, use a caller ID local to where you're calling (buy/attach a phone number in that country on the Phone numbers page and use it as the campaign's "from"). Same-country calling is what keeps the caller ID intact.
- If you're just testing by calling your own phone abroad, the odd caller ID is only that test artifact — the platform is sending your correct number.
Campaigns & results
Where do I see call recordings and transcripts?
Open a campaign's Results view and expand any lead: you'll see the status, a recording player with a Download button, and the full transcript. Results appear the moment a call ends. See Results & CRM.
The recording won't download / play.
Recordings are stored durably and served through a signed link. If a specific recording is missing, it may pre-date a deploy; new calls are always saved. Contact support if a recent recording is missing.
Billing, data & security
How is usage metered?
Your LLM and voice usage is metered against your plan's monthly budget and shown on the dashboard usage meter. See Plans & billing.
Is my data private?
Yes. Your workspace data is isolated to your account, integration secrets are stored encrypted, and you can enable two-factor auth. See Security.
Tools, MCP & flows
What is MCP and how does my agent use it?
MCP (Model Context Protocol) is a standard way to connect your agent to external tools — calendars, CRMs, payment systems, databases, automation platforms, and your own APIs. You add an MCP server under your agent's MCPs section (name + URL, plus optional auth headers, timeout, and query params); Callable discovers the tools it exposes and the agent can call them mid-conversation on voice and chat. It turns the agent from "just chatting" into one that books, updates, sends, and looks things up for real. See MCP.
What can I connect through MCP?
Anything that exposes an MCP server — Google Calendar/Gmail/Sheets, Notion, Slack, HubSpot, Salesforce, Stripe, Twilio, WhatsApp, Shopify, Postgres/MongoDB/Supabase, Zapier, n8n, GitHub, and your own internal REST APIs. One protocol instead of a separate integration per service.
Do I have to build a separate integration for every service?
No — that's the point of MCP. Traditional integrations each need their own auth and code; MCP is one standard the agent speaks to everything. Connect a server once and the agent gains every tool it offers. (Callable also has built-in tool types — Transfer, SMS, API Request, Google Calendar/Sheets, Slack, and more — under the agent's Tools section for the common cases.)
How do conversational flows / branches work?
Instead of one giant prompt trying to handle every situation, a Conversational Flow splits the conversation into focused branches. The agent detects the caller's intent ("book an appointment", "billing question", "speak to a human") and follows the matching path — asking the right questions, calling tools, and completing the task. Each branch is smaller, faster, easier to maintain, and can use knowledge, tools, MCP, and hand-offs. Build them visually in the agent's Workflow tab. See Conversational Flows.
Can a branch run an action or hand off to another agent?
Yes. A branch can call a tool or MCP server (e.g. check a calendar, process a refund, send a WhatsApp message), transfer to a human, or hand off to another specialist agent/team — and it keeps the conversation context so the caller never notices the switch.
Getting help
- Email: [email protected]
- In-app: open the Co-pilot in the dashboard — it can answer questions about Callable and about your own account (plan, spend, agents, numbers).