amber-voice-assistant

name	amber-voice-assistant
title	Amber — Phone-Capable Voice Agent
description	AI phone assistant and virtual receptionist for OpenClaw. Answers inbound phone calls, screens callers, makes outbound phone calls, and books appointments — all over Twilio + OpenAI Realtime voice. Full telephone workflow: phone call screening, live call transcripts, CRM contact memory, calendar integration. Ideal for anyone who wants an AI to answer their phone, handle call screening, or make phone calls autonomously. Includes interactive setup wizard, live call dashboard, and human-in-the-loop escalation. Also ships as a Claude Desktop MCP plugin — dial phone numbers, check call history, query CRM, and manage calendar directly from Claude Desktop.
homepage	https://github.com/batthis/amber-openclaw-voice-agent
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Amber — AI Phone Assistant & Virtual Receptionist

Overview

Amber gives any OpenClaw deployment a phone-capable AI voice assistant. It ships with a production-ready Twilio + OpenAI Realtime bridge (runtime/) that handles inbound phone call screening, outbound phone calls, appointment booking, and live OpenClaw knowledge lookups — all via natural voice conversation over a real telephone number.

✨ New in v5.4.0: Amber now ships as a Claude Desktop MCP plugin with 9 tools — make outbound calls by name, check call history, query CRM contacts, manage calendar, and control call screening, all from Claude Desktop or Claude Cowork. Includes Apple Contacts integration and a call confirmation safeguard to prevent wrong-number dials.

✨ Also: Interactive setup wizard (npm run setup) validates credentials in real-time and generates a working .env file — no manual configuration needed!

See it in action

▶️ Watch the interactive demo on asciinema.org (copyable text, adjustable speed)

The interactive wizard validates credentials, detects ngrok, and generates a complete .env file in minutes.

What's included

• Runtime bridge (runtime/) — a complete Node.js server that connects Twilio phone calls to OpenAI Realtime with OpenClaw brain-in-the-loop
• Amber Skills (amber-skills/) — modular mid-call capabilities (CRM, calendar, log & forward message) with a spec for building your own
• Built-in CRM — local SQLite contact database; Amber greets callers by name and references personal context naturally on every call
• Call log dashboard (dashboard/) — browse call history, transcripts, and captured messages; includes manual Sync button to pull new calls on demand
• Setup & validation scripts — preflight checks, env templates, quickstart runner
• Architecture docs & troubleshooting — call flow diagrams, common failure runbooks
• Safety guardrails — approval patterns for outbound calls, payment escalation, consent boundaries

🔌 Amber Skills — Extensible by Design

Amber ships with a growing library of Amber Skills — modular capabilities that plug directly into live voice conversations. Each skill exposes a structured function that Amber can call mid-call, letting you compose powerful voice workflows without touching the bridge code.

👤 CRM — Contact Memory (v5.3.0)

Amber remembers every caller across calls and uses that memory to personalize every conversation.

• Runtime-managed — lookup and logging happen automatically; Amber never has to "remember" to call CRM
• Personalized greeting — known callers are greeted by name; personal context (pets, recent events, preferences) is referenced warmly on the first sentence
• Two-pass enrichment — auto-log captures the call immediately; a post-call LLM extraction pass reads the full transcript to extract name, email, and context_notes
• Symmetric — works identically for inbound and outbound calls
• Local SQLite — stored at ~/.config/amber/crm.sqlite; no cloud, no data leaves your machine
• Native dependency — requires better-sqlite3 (native build). macOS: sudo xcodebuild -license accept before npm install. Linux: build-essential + python3.

📅 Calendar

Query the operator's calendar for availability or schedule a new event — all during a live call.

• Availability lookups — free/busy slots for today, tomorrow, this week, or any specific date
• Event creation — book appointments directly into the operator's calendar from a phone conversation
• Privacy by default — callers are only told whether the operator is free or busy; event titles, names, and locations are never disclosed
• Powered by ical-query — local-only, zero network latency

📬 Log & Forward Message

Let callers leave a message that is automatically saved and forwarded to the operator.

• Captures the caller's message, name, and optional callback number
• Always saves to the call log first (audit trail), then delivers via the operator's configured messaging channel
• Confirmation-gated — Amber confirms with the caller before sending
• Delivery destination is operator-configured — callers cannot redirect messages

Build Your Own Skills

Amber's skill system is designed to grow. Each skill is a self-contained directory with a SKILL.md (metadata + function schema) and a handler.js. You can:

• Customize the included skills to fit your own setup
• Build new skills for your use case — CRM lookups, inventory checks, custom notifications, anything callable mid-call
• Share skills with the OpenClaw community via ClawHub

See amber-skills/ for examples and the full specification to get started.

Note: Each skill's handler.js is reviewed against its declared permissions. When building or installing third-party skills, review the handler source as you would any Node.js module.

Call log dashboard

cd dashboard && node scripts/serve.js   # → http://localhost:8787

• ⬇ Sync button (green) — immediately pulls new calls from runtime/logs/ and refreshes the dashboard. Use this right after a call ends rather than waiting for the background watcher.
• ↻ Refresh button (blue) — reloads existing data from disk without re-processing logs.
• Background watcher (node scripts/watch.js) auto-syncs every 30 seconds when running.

Why Amber

• Ship a voice assistant in minutes — npm install, configure .env, npm start
• Full inbound screening: greeting, message-taking, appointment booking with calendar integration
• Outbound calls with structured call plans (reservations, inquiries, follow-ups)
• ask_openclaw tool (least-privilege) — voice agent consults your OpenClaw gateway only for call-critical needs (calendar checks, booking, required factual lookups), not for unrelated tasks
• VAD tuning + verbal fillers to keep conversations natural (no dead air during lookups)
• Fully configurable: assistant name, operator info, org name, calendar, screening style — all via env vars
• Operator safety guardrails for approvals/escalation/payment handling

Personalization requirements

Before deploying, users must personalize:

• assistant name/voice and greeting text,
• own Twilio number and account credentials,
• own OpenAI project + webhook secret,
• own OpenClaw gateway/session endpoint,
• own call safety policy (approval, escalation, payment handling).

Do not reuse example values from another operator.

5-minute quickstart

Option A: Interactive Setup Wizard (recommended) ✨

The easiest way to get started:

1. cd runtime
2. npm run setup
3. Follow the interactive prompts — the wizard will:
   • Validate your Twilio and OpenAI credentials in real-time
   • Auto-detect and configure ngrok if available
   • Generate a working .env file
   • Optionally install dependencies and build the project
4. Configure your Twilio webhook (wizard shows you the exact URL)
5. Start the server: npm start
6. Call your Twilio number — your voice assistant answers!

Benefits:

• Real-time credential validation (catch errors before you start)
• No manual .env editing
• Automatic ngrok detection and setup
• Step-by-step guidance with helpful links

Option B: Manual setup

1. cd runtime && npm install
2. Copy ../references/env.example to runtime/.env and fill in your values.
3. npm run build && npm start
4. Point your Twilio voice webhook to https://<your-domain>/twilio/inbound
5. Call your Twilio number — your voice assistant answers!

Option C: Validation-only (existing setup)

1. Copy references/env.example to your own .env and replace placeholders.
2. Export required variables (TWILIO_ACCOUNT_SID, TWILIO_AUTH_TOKEN, TWILIO_CALLER_ID, OPENAI_API_KEY, OPENAI_PROJECT_ID, OPENAI_WEBHOOK_SECRET, PUBLIC_BASE_URL).
3. Run quick setup: scripts/setup_quickstart.sh
4. If preflight passes, run one inbound and one outbound smoke test.
5. Only then move to production usage.

Credential scope (recommended hardening)

Use least-privilege credentials for every provider:

• Twilio: use a dedicated subaccount for Amber and rotate auth tokens regularly.
• OpenAI: use a dedicated project API key for this runtime only; avoid reusing keys from unrelated apps.
• OpenClaw Gateway token: only set OPENCLAW_GATEWAY_TOKEN if you need brain-in-the-loop lookups; keep token scope minimal.
• Secrets in logs: never print full credentials in scripts, setup output, or call transcripts.
• Setup wizard validation scope: credential checks call only official Twilio/OpenAI API endpoints over HTTPS for auth verification; no arbitrary exfiltration endpoints are used.

These controls reduce blast radius if a host or config file is exposed.

Safe defaults

• Require explicit approval before outbound calls. Note on confirmation enforcement: For MCP-initiated outbound calls (make_call), confirmation is enforced at the MCP server layer in code (the tool returns a preview and requires confirmed=true on a second call before dialing) — this is not LLM-only instruction. The LLM instruction layer provides an additional reminder, but the code gate is the primary enforcement mechanism.
• If payment/deposit is requested, stop and escalate to the human operator.
• Keep greeting short and clear.
• Use timeout + graceful fallback when ask_openclaw is slow/unavailable.

Workflow

1. Confirm scope for V1

   • Include only stable behavior: call flow, bridge behavior, fallback behavior, and setup steps.
   • Exclude machine-specific secrets and private paths.

2. Document architecture + limits

   • Read references/architecture.md.
   • Keep claims realistic (latency varies; memory lookups are best-effort).

3. Run release checklist

   • Read references/release-checklist.md.
   • Validate config placeholders, safety guardrails, and failure handling.

4. Smoke-check runtime assumptions

   • Run scripts/validate_voice_env.sh on the target host.
   • Fix missing env/config before publishing.

5. Publish

   • Publish to ClawHub (example):
     clawhub publish <skill-folder> --slug amber-voice-assistant --name "Amber Voice Assistant" --version 1.0.0 --tags latest --changelog "Initial public release"
   • Optional: run your local skill validator/packager before publishing.

6. Ship updates

   • Publish new semver versions (1.0.1, 1.1.0, 2.0.0) with changelogs.
   • Keep latest on the recommended version.

Troubleshooting (common)

• "Missing env vars" → re-check .env values and re-run scripts/validate_voice_env.sh.
• "Call connects but assistant is silent" → verify TTS model setting and provider auth.
• "ask_openclaw timeout" → verify gateway URL/token and increase timeout conservatively.
• "Webhook unreachable" → verify tunnel/domain and Twilio webhook target.

Guardrails for public release

• Never publish secrets, tokens, phone numbers, webhook URLs with credentials, or personal data.
• Include explicit safety rules for outbound calls, payments, and escalation.
• Mark V1 as beta if conversational quality/latency tuning is ongoing.

Install safety notes

• Amber does not execute arbitrary install-time scripts from this repository.
• Runtime install uses standard Node dependency installation in runtime/.
• CRM uses better-sqlite3 (native module), which compiles locally on your machine.
• Review runtime/package.json dependencies before deployment in regulated environments.

Resources

• Runtime bridge: runtime/ (full source + README)
• Architecture and behavior notes: references/architecture.md
• Release gate: references/release-checklist.md
• Env template: references/env.example
• Quick setup runner: scripts/setup_quickstart.sh
• Env/config validator: scripts/validate_voice_env.sh