Introduction

introduction.md

Build AI voice agents for SIP-based inbound call handling.

Leilani answers calls, talks with callers in real time, searches configured knowledge, runs external tools, routes people through your directory, and gives operators a console for live supervision.

What is Leilani?

Leilani is an AI voice orchestration layer for organizations that want inbound calls to be more capable than a static phone tree.

It sits between callers and your SIP environment so an agent can:

Leilani augments your existing telephony stack. It does not require replacing your PBX, queues, extensions, or operational systems.

How Leilani works

Every agent combines five layers.

SIP connection

Registers to your SIP environment so Leilani can receive inbound calls and send transfer actions to destinations your PBX understands.

Live voice handling

Handles speech recognition, model reasoning, spoken responses, turn-taking, DTMF input, and call control during the active call.

Agent configuration

Controls the agent's connection details, voice, greeting, language hint, max call duration, transcript recipient, owner, users, web search allowlist, and operating instructions.

Knowledge and tools

Gives the agent structured ways to retrieve information and take action through uploaded documents, crawled pages, Functions, caches, JSON Web Tokens, MCP tools, and approved web search domains.

Operator console

Shows registration state, live calls, transcripts, manual transfer controls, hangup controls, recent usage, and available funds.

Core building blocks

Quickstart

Create an agent, configure SIP, add first-call behavior, route a test call, and monitor it live.

Agents

Understand the main configuration and resource boundary in Leilani.

Calls

Understand the live call lifecycle, built-in call tools, Dashboard, Inbox, Directory, and transfer behavior.

Knowledge

Add source material through documents, website crawl jobs, and optional web search.

Tools

Connect HTTP webhooks, email, SMS, TEL transfers, MCP servers, caches, and JWT credentials.

Operations

Monitor registration, balance, live calls, usage, and production readiness.

Key capabilities

  • Inbound call automation: answer SIP calls and run conversational callflows without rebuilding your whole phone system
  • Natural intake: collect names, contact details, intent, urgency, identifiers, and workflow-specific fields
  • Directory routing: search caller-facing names and transfer to extensions, queues, IVRs, or outside numbers
  • Warm handoffs: screen transfer targets, brief recipients, and fall back to message capture when configured
  • Knowledge retrieval: answer factual questions from uploaded documents and web-crawled reference material
  • External actions: call HTTP APIs, send email, send SMS, transfer calls, and use MCP tools
  • Credential support: generate JWTs, store values in caches, and substitute cached values into Function calls
  • Operator supervision: monitor live transcripts, transfer manually, hang up, and track registration
  • Usage funding: add and monitor agent funds through Billing & Usage

Choose your path

Set up an agent

Configure SIP, voice, greeting, language, users, transcript email, web search allowlist, and max duration.

Write production instructions

Shape the agent's role, tone, callflow, tool usage, safety, and escalation behavior.

Add routing

Create a directory manually, upload a CSV, or sync from an external URL so callers can ask for people, departments, queues, and roles by name.

Give the agent knowledge

Upload internal reference text or crawl website content for frequently updated public material.

Connect tools

Build Functions for webhooks, email, SMS, transfers, cached lookups, JWT-backed credentials, and MCP-hosted workflows.

Operate live calls

Use the Inbox during launches, supervised workflows, and live-call troubleshooting.

Common use cases

Front desk and reception

Answer common questions, collect caller intent, route to staff or departments, and capture messages when a warm transfer does not complete.

Support intake

Identify the issue, gather required details, search support material, create tickets or follow-up tasks, and route urgent callers.

Appointment and callback workflows

Collect scheduling details, send confirmations, create callback requests, or transfer callers to the right queue.

After-hours coverage

Handle routine calls when staff are unavailable, capture structured messages, send summaries, and escalate only when rules require it.

Sales and qualification

Qualify inbound leads, gather contact and need details, notify the right team, or route high-value calls immediately.

Operational routing

Use synced directories, queues, IVRs, on-call roles, and warm handoffs to keep routing logic modular and caller-friendly.