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Send and receive SMS messages programmatically via API

Capabilities

Once connected, your agent can send and manage SMS messages.
  • Send SMS to any phone number worldwide
  • Receive and read incoming SMS messages
  • Check message delivery status
  • View message history and logs
  • Support for long messages (auto-segmented)
  • E.164 phone number format support

Setup Guide

Follow these steps to connect Twilio to your instances.

1. Create a Twilio account

Go to twilio.com/try-twilio and create a free trial account. You’ll get some free credits to start.

2. Get a Twilio phone number

Go to Phone Numbers → Manage → Buy a number and purchase a phone number with SMS capability. This is required—you cannot use your personal number.
Important: For trial accounts, you can only send SMS to verified phone numbers. Verify destination numbers at Verified Caller IDs.

3. Get your Account SID and Auth Token

Go to Twilio Console and find your Account SID and Auth Token on the dashboard. You’ll need both.

4. Store credentials in Environment

Go to Environment and create these variables:
  • Name: TWILIO_ACCOUNT_SID Value: Your Account SID (starts with AC)
  • Name: TWILIO_AUTH_TOKEN Value: Your Auth Token (keep this secret!)
  • Name: TWILIO_PHONE_NUMBER Value: Your Twilio phone number in E.164 format (e.g., +14155551234)

5. Grant access to instances

Choose how instances should access the credentials:
  • Option A: Global Access (All instances) — Toggle “Make globally accessible” when creating each secret.
  • Option B: Instance-Specific (Selective access) — In Environment, open each secret and grant the specific instance access.

6. Enable international SMS (optional)

If sending to international numbers, enable geographic permissions at Messaging → Settings → Geo Permissions and enable the countries you need.

Usage Examples

Ask your agent to send messages using natural language. Send an SMS
“Send a text message to +14155551234 saying ‘Your order has been shipped!’”
List recent messages
“Show me the last 10 SMS messages I’ve sent”
Check message status
“What’s the delivery status of message SM1234567890?”