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This walks you from an empty dashboard to a published agent you can reach over the API or a phone call.
1

Create an agent

In the dashboard, open Agents and create a new one. The builder opens on a starter node labelled Start, the graph’s entrypoint, where every conversation begins.A node is one prompt step: a stable key, a model binding, a system prompt, and a list of tools. Edit the entrypoint’s system prompt to describe how the agent greets a caller and what it can help with.
2

Add a second node and a handoff

Use Add node to create a second prompt node, one that handles a specific task, like a lookup or a booking. Write its system prompt.Then wire a handoff from the entrypoint to it. A handoff is an agent_swap tool on the source node that names another node as its target. When the model calls it, control moves to that node. If the handoff is not present as a tool, the agent cannot take that path.You now have a two-node topology: the entrypoint greets and routes, the second node does the work.
3

Test it in the dashboard

Open the builder’s Conversation panel and send a message. This starts a fresh chat against your draft, so you can exercise the handoff and iterate on prompts before shipping anything. Edits to nodes and prompts land on the draft immediately, so you can refine and re-run until it behaves.
4

Publish version 1

When the draft behaves, select Publish. Publishing copies the reachable draft into version 1, an immutable snapshot. Later edits to the draft cannot change a version that is already serving traffic. Published versions are listed under the agent’s Deployments tab.
API callers and phone numbers resolve to a published version. The version segment must be a published integer, never draft.
5

Reach your agent

Your agent now answers over both the API and voice. Both run the exact same published graph.
Send the user’s message as plain text to the published invoke endpoint. The <agent-uuid> is the agent’s id (it appears in the agent’s dashboard URL), and versions/1 is the version you just published.
The response is a JSON object with the agent’s output. See Invoke a published agent for the full contract, and Authentication for your GRADIENT_API_KEY.

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Next steps

Build agents

Go deeper on nodes, handoffs, and tools.

Versions

How draft and published versions work.

Voice

Connect phone numbers and tune voice.

Invoke API

Call published agents from your code.