This guide walks you through creating a simple appointment booking assistant that can handle both voice calls and text messages.
1

Create a conversational agent

Sign up for an Operator account and create your first agent
2

Add calendar integration

Connect Google Calendar to enable appointment scheduling, add the new tools to the agent.
3

Test and deploy

Test your agent with a preview call and deploy it to the real world.

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Step 1: Sign up for Operator

To get started, sign up for an Operator using your email or sign in with your Google or GitHub account.

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Step 2: Create your agent

Once logged in, create your first conversational agent. This agent will power your booking system. The agent configuration page contains three tabs:
  • Basic: Set up your agent’s internal name, description, and core instructions
  • Advanced: Configure personas, dynamic prompt variables, and language settings
  • Tools: Add integrations and external APIs to extend your agent’s capabilities
For this tutorial, we’ll focus on the Basic tab first, then move to Tools in the next step. The Advanced tab contains additional customization options that we won’t need for this simple appointment booking setup. On the Basic tab, fill out:
  • Name: Something like “Appointment Booking Assistant” (only you will see this)
  • Description: “Handles customer calls and messages to schedule appointments”
  • Prompt: Your agent’s instructions, such as “You are a friendly appointment booking assistant for Sam. Help customers schedule meetings by asking for their preferred date and time, then check calendar availability and confirm the appointment.”

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Step 3: Add Google Calendar

To enable scheduling, we’ll integrate your Google Calendar.
  1. Connect your Google account: Go to the Integrations page, find Google Calendar, click Connect and authorize Operator to access the Google account whose calendar you want to use for appointments.
  2. Enable calendar tools for your agent: Once the integration is connected, return to your agent’s configuration page and navigate to the Tools tab. You’ll now see Google Calendar tools available to add to your agent. We follow a principle of explicit granting - your agent will only have access to the tools and data you specifically authorize.
  3. Select the necessary tools: For appointment booking, you’ll primarily need:
    • List events: Allows the agent to check calendar availability
    • Modify/add events: Enables the agent to create new appointments
You can enable all tools or just the ones you need.

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Step 4: Test your agent

Before going live, test your agent using the preview features in the dashboard. You can make test web calls or chat directly with your agent. Try going through a few different scenarios to ensure the agent can handle appointment requests and calendar scheduling. Our platform includes version control that saves all previous agent versions, letting you experiment without risk. You can easily roll back changes and track your agent’s development history.

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Step 5: Deploy to phone number

Once you’re satisfied with your agent’s performance during testing, it’s time to connect it to a phone number so customers can reach it via calls and SMS. For quick deployment, we provide an easy way to add a US phone number (backed by Twilio) directly through the platform. Add a new phone number and set its inbound agent to your agent.

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Step 6: Release your changes

When you’re ready to make your agent live, use the explicit Release button to publish your changes. With your agent now deployed and connected to a phone number, customers can call or text to schedule appointments through your calendar-integrated booking system.

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Programmatic API access

All functionality available in the Operator web dashboard can also be accessed programmatically through our comprehensive APIs. This allows you to seamlessly integrate agent creation, configuration, and management into your existing workflows and applications. You can automate agent deployment, dynamically update configurations, or build custom interfaces on top of Operator’s functionality—our APIs provide complete programmatic access to all platform features. To begin with API integration, visit our API setup guide which covers authentication, usage patterns, and examples to help you start building with Operator’s REST API.