Quick Start — Your First Agentic Call in 5 Minutes

imagine typing "call priya and ask her if the onboarding report is ready" claude calls priya, has the conversation, and comes back with "priya says the report will be ready by 3pm she's waiting on one number from finance " that's what exotel mcp enables this guide gets you there in under 5 minutes what you'll need requirement details ai client any mcp compatible client — claude desktop, cursor, codex, etc this guide uses claude desktop as the example node js v18 or later — nodejs org https //nodejs org exotel account active account with api credentials step 1 — install mcp remote open your terminal and run npm install g mcp remote verify npm list g mcp remote \# should show mcp remote\@x x x step 2 — get your exotel credentials you need three things from your exotel dashboard 1\ api key and secret → your token log into my exotel com https //my exotel com → settings → api settings \[screenshot api settings page showing api key and api secret fields] copy your api key and api secret , then run this in your terminal to create your token echo n "your api key\ your api secret" | base64 save the output that's your token 2\ account sid still on the api settings page — copy your account sid 3\ your exotel number go to numbers in the sidebar pick any active india number — this is what people will see when they receive your call \[screenshot numbers page showing registered phone numbers] step 3 — configure claude desktop open claude desktop settings mac claude menu → settings → developer → edit config windows file → settings → developer → edit config add the exotel server inside mcpservers { "mcpservers" { "exotel" { "command" "npx", "args" \[ "mcp remote", "https //mcp exotel com/mcp", " header", "authorization ${auth header}" ], "env" { "auth header" "{\\"token\\" \\"your base64 token\\",\\"from number\\" \\"your exotel number\\",\\"caller id\\" \\"your exotel number\\",\\"account sid\\" \\"your account sid\\",\\"api domain\\" \\"https //api in exotel com\\",\\"exotel portal url\\" \\"https //my exotel com\\"}" } } } } replace placeholder replace with your base64 token the base64 string from step 2 your exotel number your number from the numbers page (e g 08046800979 ) your account sid your account sid from api settings globally hosted accounts if your exotel dashboard is at my exotel com (not my in exotel com ), use https //api exotel com as api domain \[screenshot claude desktop developer settings with the exotel config pasted in] save the file step 4 — restart claude desktop quit claude desktop completely and reopen it once connected, you'll see a 🔧 tools icon in the chat input click it — you should see exotel tools listed \[screenshot claude desktop showing the tools icon expanded with exotel tools listed — voice call initiate, voicebot place call, etc ] step 5 — make your first agentic call type this in claude call +91xxxxxxxxxx and ask them if they're available for a quick catch up tomorrow claude will ask permission to use the exotel tool — click allow dial the number using your exotel caller id the voicebot will identify itself as calling on your behalf and deliver the message when the call ends, claude returns with what the person said \[screenshot claude chat showing the result — "they said tomorrow works, preferably after 11am "] you can also use a name instead of a number call priya and ask her if the onboarding report is ready claude will look up priya's number from your contacts and make the call what just happened when you asked claude to make that call, it identified the intent and selected the right exotel tool passed your credentials securely from the auth header to the exotel mcp server the mcp server placed an outbound call using your exotel number a voicebot conducted the conversation — identifying itself, asking your question, listening to the response the transcript came back to claude, which distilled the answer and reported it to you no code no api calls just natural language — and a real conversation happened more things to try call +91xxxxxxxxxx and tell them the meeting is shifted to 4pm call the team lead and check if yesterday's deployment went through send an sms to +91xxxxxxxxxx saying "running 10 minutes late" check the status of my last call what's next available tools → # — full list voice calls, sms, voicebot management, conversation analytics credentials guide → # — step by step screenshots for every credential troubleshooting → # — top errors and how to fix them troubleshooting tools icon not showing after restart run npm list g mcp remote to confirm installation validate your json config — no trailing commas, all quotes properly escaped update claude desktop to the latest version "authentication failed" error regenerate your base64 token echo n "api key\ api secret" | base64 confirm there is no space or newline in the token check your account sid matches what's in api settings call placed but no answer from bot verify your exotel number has outbound calling enabled (dashboard → numbers) check your account has sufficient balance ensure the destination number is in international format ( +91xxxxxxxxxx ) questions? developer exotel com/api/exotel mcp server https //developer exotel com/api/exotel mcp server | exotel support https //support exotel com