Voice Call

Use Cases

• AI agent calls you when something important happens — deploy failures, urgent emails, security alerts
• Phone-based AI assistant you can call for hands-free help while driving or walking
• Automated outbound notification calls for appointment reminders, status updates, or check-ins
• Voice-based customer support prototype using OpenClaw as the conversational backend
• Accessibility interface for users who prefer voice interaction over text-based chat
• Emergency notification system that calls designated numbers when triggered by monitored events

Tips

• Start with the mock provider to test the call flow locally before connecting to Twilio/Telnyx/Plivo
• Use ElevenLabs for TTS with the voice-call config override for the most natural-sounding phone voice
• Set up Tailscale Funnel for the most reliable and free webhook exposure — no URL rotation like ngrok free tier
• Configure staleCallReaperSeconds (120-300) in production to clean up calls that never receive terminal webhooks
• Use notify mode for one-way announcements (deploy alerts, reminders) and conversation mode for interactive calls
• Override TTS just for calls while keeping a different voice for text channels using the plugin-level tts config
• Enable webhookSecurity.allowedHosts when using a proxy or tunnel in front of the Gateway
• Test inbound calls with a small allowFrom list before opening up broader access

Known Issues & Gotchas

• The plugin runs INSIDE the Gateway process — install and configure on the machine running the Gateway, then restart
• Twilio/Telnyx/Plivo all require a publicly reachable webhook URL — set up ngrok, Cloudflare Tunnel, or Tailscale Funnel first
• Ngrok free tier URLs change on restart — use publicUrl config to set the exact URL, and beware of signature verification failures
• For Telnyx, you must set telnyx.publicKey (or TELNYX_PUBLIC_KEY env var) unless skipSignatureVerification is true (dev only)
• Streaming security has connection limits (maxPendingConnections, maxConnections) that may need tuning for multi-call scenarios
• staleCallReaperSeconds should be higher than maxDurationSeconds — set it to maxDuration + 30-60 seconds
• tunnel.allowNgrokFreeTierLoopbackBypass is for local dev only — never enable in production
• If TTS provider is unavailable during an active Twilio media stream, the call will fail rather than falling back to <Say>

Alternatives

• ElevenLabs Agents
• Deepgram + Telnyx (deepclaw)
• Talk Mode (OpenClaw desktop)

Community Feedback

Believe it or not, users started reporting that their agents were calling them before there was even official support! The agents secretly figured out how to connect to Twilio and TTS providers.

— Medium

Now there's an official OpenClaw plugin for this. It works with Plivo, Twilio, and Telnyx. It's basic, but great for experimenting — kind of like a simple version of what LiveKit or Pipecat pipelines do.

— Medium

It actually worked pretty well for structured actions during a call. Curious if anyone else here has tried something similar.

— Reddit r/AIAgentsStack

OpenClaw is fantastic, but right now, it's mostly hacky and low-level — definitely aimed at tech people.

— Medium

Frequently Asked Questions

Configuration Examples

Twilio Voice Call Setup

plugins:
  entries:
    voice-call:
      enabled: true
      config:
        provider: twilio
        fromNumber: '+15550001234'
        toNumber: '+15550005678'
        twilio:
          accountSid: ${TWILIO_ACCOUNT_SID}
          authToken: ${TWILIO_AUTH_TOKEN}
        serve:
          port: 3334
          path: /voice/webhook
        publicUrl: https://voice.example.com/voice/webhook
        webhookSecurity:
          allowedHosts:
            - voice.example.com
        streaming:
          enabled: true
          streamPath: /voice/stream

Telnyx Provider Configuration

plugins:
  entries:
    voice-call:
      enabled: true
      config:
        provider: telnyx
        fromNumber: '+15550001234'
        toNumber: '+15550005678'
        telnyx:
          apiKey: ${TELNYX_API_KEY}
          connectionId: ${TELNYX_CONNECTION_ID}
          publicKey: ${TELNYX_PUBLIC_KEY}
        serve:
          port: 3334
          path: /voice/webhook

Voice Call with ElevenLabs TTS Override

plugins:
  entries:
    voice-call:
      enabled: true
      config:
        provider: twilio
        fromNumber: '+15550001234'
        twilio:
          accountSid: ${TWILIO_ACCOUNT_SID}
          authToken: ${TWILIO_AUTH_TOKEN}
        tts:
          provider: elevenlabs
          elevenlabs:
            apiKey: ${ELEVENLABS_API_KEY}
            voiceId: pMsXgVXv3BLzUgSXRplE
            modelId: eleven_multilingual_v2
        outbound:
          defaultMode: conversation

Inbound Call Handling

plugins:
  entries:
    voice-call:
      enabled: true
      config:
        provider: twilio
        fromNumber: '+15550001234'
        twilio:
          accountSid: ${TWILIO_ACCOUNT_SID}
          authToken: ${TWILIO_AUTH_TOKEN}
        inboundPolicy: allowlist
        allowFrom:
          - '+15550009999'
        inboundGreeting: 'Hello! How can I help you today?'
        responseTimeoutMs: 30000
        maxDurationSeconds: 300
        staleCallReaperSeconds: 360

Installation

openclaw plugins install @openclaw/voice-call