***

title: Create an Agent
subtitle: Build your first agent in a few minutes.
slug: create-an-agent
description: Create voice or chat agents in the Synthflow dashboard, or via the API. Choose Flow Designer or Prompt Builder, templates, or JSON import.
---------------------

For a complete page index, fetch https://docs.synthflow.ai/llms.txt. For full documentation content, fetch https://docs.synthflow.ai/llms-full.txt.

To create a new agent, go to the **Agents** tab and click **+ New Agent**. You'll see the following options:

![](https://files.buildwithfern.com/synthflow.docs.buildwithfern.com/79deff5b05dadbb2e310890dd315c43343898a7f3325eafff31295b7e4aa9ee2/docs/assets/screenshots/quickstart_1.png)

## Voice Agent

Select **Voice Agent** to create an agent for phone calls and voice interactions. You'll be prompted to choose a sub-type:

* **Inbound** — handles incoming calls. Ideal for customer support, order tracking, and call routing.
* **Outbound** — initiates outgoing calls. Great for lead generation, appointment reminders, and surveys.
* **Voice Widget** — an embeddable voice agent for your websites and apps. Perfect for live voice support and lead qualification directly on your pages.

After choosing a sub-type, you'll select a [prompt configuration](#prompt-configuration) to define how your agent conducts conversations.

## Chat Agent

**Chat agents** enable you to deliver conversational AI experiences through text-based interfaces, such as web chat widgets, support portals, or custom applications.

[Launching a chat agent](/launch-chat-agents) works through the **API**, an **embeddable widget**, **WhatsApp**, or **SMS**.

For **WhatsApp** and **SMS**, the requirements are:

* Your own [**Twilio account**](/integrate-twilio)
* A workspace in a [US-region](/customer-region) cluster

## Prompt configuration

Whether you're building a voice or chat agent, Synthflow offers two ways to configure how your agent handles conversations:

* **Flow Designer** is best for structured, multi-step conversations with explicit branching, reusable logic, and predictable paths.
* **Prompt Builder** is best for lightweight setups where one prompt can define the agent's behavior.

<CardGroup cols={2}>
  <Card title="Flow Designer" icon="fa-regular fa-chart-diagram" href="/flow-designer">
    Design structured dialogue paths using nodes and conditions. Best for complex, multi-step conversations where you need precise control over every branch.
  </Card>

  <Card title="Prompt Builder" icon="fa-regular fa-comment-dots" href="/about-prompting">
    Write a single prompt to define your agent's behavior. Best for straightforward use cases where you want to get up and running quickly.
  </Card>
</CardGroup>

## Browse Templates

Select **Browse Templates** to start from a prebuilt configuration. Templates come ready with prompts, voice settings, and many include [actions](/actions-overview) that expand what your agent can do right away. Filter by industry and call type to find the right fit for your use case.

Choose templates when you want a working baseline you can adapt instead of starting from a blank configuration.

## Import from JSON

For advanced users, select **Import from JSON** to upload a JSON agent configuration file directly.

Import from JSON is best when you already manage agent configurations as files, want to duplicate an existing setup, or need a repeatable handoff between workspaces.

## FAQ

<AccordionGroup>
  <Accordion title="Should I create a voice or a chat agent?" defaultOpen={true}>
    Choose **Voice Agent** for phone calls and the **Voice Widget** for spoken interactions on the web. Choose **Chat Agent** for text: widgets, portals, API-driven messaging, and (with Twilio) SMS or WhatsApp. You pick the type when you create the agent.
  </Accordion>

  <Accordion title="What is the difference between Flow Designer and Prompt Builder?">
    **Flow Designer** uses nodes and branches for structured, multi-step flows. **Prompt Builder** uses one main prompt for simpler setups. Both work for voice and chat—see [Prompt configuration](#prompt-configuration) above and the [Flow Designer](/flow-designer) and [Single-Prompt Agents](/about-prompting) guides for detail.
  </Accordion>

  <Accordion title="When should I use Browse Templates or Import from JSON?">
    **Browse Templates** when you want a ready-made agent (prompts, voice, and often [actions](/actions-overview)) you can tweak. **Import from JSON** when you are copying a configuration from another workspace, restoring a backup, or managing agents as files.
  </Accordion>

  <Accordion title="Can I create agents with the API?">
    Yes. Use the [**Create an agent**](/api-reference/platform-api/agents/create-assistant) endpoint and the request schema for your agent type. You can also [update an agent](/api-reference/platform-api/agents/update-assistant) via the API reference.
  </Accordion>

  <Accordion title="What is pricing for chat?">
    Every five messages Synthflow sends count as one billable minute at your plan's per-minute rate. SMS or WhatsApp through Twilio add Twilio's messaging fees on top.
  </Accordion>

  <Accordion title="Does chat work for both Prompt Builder and Flow Designer?">
    Yes. You can use either a single prompt or a Flow Designer flow for a chat agent.
  </Accordion>

  <Accordion title="Can I connect my chat agent to SMS or WhatsApp?">
    Yes. Connect Twilio, configure a WhatsApp sender or SMS-capable number, then deploy. Follow [Launch Chat Agents](/launch-chat-agents) for steps.
  </Accordion>

  <Accordion title="How do I monitor chat agent performance?">
    Chat analytics in the main analytics experience are coming soon.
  </Accordion>
</AccordionGroup>

Ready to build? Explore the [BELL framework](/getting-started), our Build–Evaluate–Launch–Learn loop that keeps quality high and makes your agents easy to scale with confidence.