Quick Start — Your First Agentic Call in 5 Minutes

22 min

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
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: [email protected]

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 → 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 | Exotel Support