An AI Assistant You Can Call on the Phone
Call your Carly number from your own phone and you get your own assistant. “Hi Josh, what can I do?” Then ask it to move a meeting, read you the client emails, text the team or call someone back, and it does it while you drive.
Most AI agents only take texts. Tab, the texting agent, places calls to businesses but takes none, and 1-800-CHATGPT will chat with you but can’t touch your email or calendar. Carly answers your call, knows it’s you, and works inside your real accounts.
Set it up
- Copy this prompt into ChatGPT or Claude. It sets up Carly and gets you a phone number.
- Save your Carly number in your contacts. Call it.
That’s it.
Carly business setup prompt
Copy this into ChatGPT or Claude. It sets everything up, phone number included.
Help me connect Carly Teams so I can work with my organization's business texts, phone calls, voicemail and voice/text agents from this chat. I'll add it to you myself: tell me exactly what to click for the app you are, one step at a time, and wait for me to confirm before moving on. If a step doesn't match what I see, ask me what's on my screen. If you can do the setup yourself (Claude Code, Codex, Muse, Grok Bot), go ahead, and ask me for any key in your secure credential prompt, never in the chat. Don't tell me it's connected until list_phone_lines works, and if I have several teams, ask which to use. Before sending a text or making a call, confirm the team, recipient and message or task with me. The steps are below.
# Connect Carly Teams to an AI app
> Carly Teams works a team's business phone lines through the team's AI agents: business texts, phone calls, voicemail, the voice and text agents, and the team's CRM.
MCP server: https://carlyassistant.com/team/mcp (streamable HTTP, OAuth)
## Setup
Carly Teams isn't in any plugin or connector directory yet, so it's added as a custom connection by URL.
1. Add Carly Teams:
- ChatGPT: open https://chatgpt.com/plugins, click Add, and choose Create MCP App (not Create plugin or Upload plugin archive). If Create MCP App isn't on the menu, turn on Developer mode first in Settings > Security and login. Name it "Carly Teams" with the description "Work with my team's business texts, calls, voicemail and voice/text agents," paste https://carlyassistant.com/team/mcp as the server URL, choose OAuth, create it, and sign in. Then in the message box open the + menu, choose Developer mode, and pick Carly Teams. No plugin needs to be built, packaged or uploaded.
- Claude (claude.ai, Claude Desktop, or Cowork): Customize > Connectors > Add custom connector, name it Carly Teams, paste https://carlyassistant.com/team/mcp, and sign in.
- Claude Code: `claude mcp add --transport http --scope user carly-teams https://carlyassistant.com/team/mcp`, then /mcp, pick carly-teams, and authenticate.
- Codex: `codex mcp add carly-teams --url https://carlyassistant.com/team/mcp`, then `codex mcp login carly-teams`.
- Cursor: add {"mcpServers": {"carly-teams": {"url": "https://carlyassistant.com/team/mcp"}}} to ~/.cursor/mcp.json, then sign in to carly-teams from Customize.
- Muse: a custom connector to https://carlyassistant.com/team/mcp with a Carly API key as its bearer token. The key comes from carlyassistant.com/integrations (Advanced > API Keys > Create a new key, with Owner set to the team and all scopes selected) and goes in Muse's connector settings, not in a chat message.
- Grok: grok.com/connectors > New Connector > Custom, paste https://carlyassistant.com/team/mcp, and sign in.
- Grok Bot: a custom remote MCP server named carly-teams at https://carlyassistant.com/team/mcp. Approve it and sign in.
- Perplexity: Plugins in the sidebar (or Customize > Connectors), then Add custom > Connector > Add MCP connector. Choose Remote, name it Carly Teams, paste https://carlyassistant.com/team/mcp, pick OAuth, check the box and click Add, then click the Carly Teams card to sign in.
- Anything else: a remote MCP server (streamable HTTP) named carly-teams at https://carlyassistant.com/team/mcp. It signs in with OAuth.
Sign in with the Carly account that belongs to the organization.
2. Once it's added, the Carly Teams tools show up in the chat, including list_phone_lines. If they don't, turn Carly Teams on for the chat or start a new chat.
3. To check it worked, call list_phone_lines: it returns the teams and phone lines the account can reach. A team with no phone line yet can get one with find_numbers (optionally by area code) and get_number, which may return a checkout link to finish.
4. Something to try first: "Review our missed calls and voicemail and help me reply to customers." Carly Teams also reads and answers business texts, has the team's agent make calls, and edits the voice and text agents. Texts and calls go out at once from the agent's number and can't be taken back. Team permissions apply.
## Email, calendars and workflows
Email, calendars, files, booking pages and workflows are the regular Carly connector, added separately. It's listed in ChatGPT's plugin directory (https://chatgpt.com/plugins/plugin_asdk_app_6a67a26316b88191860222f918d4ec54) and Claude's connector directory (https://claude.ai/directory/carly), and connects anywhere else at https://carlyassistant.com/mcp/. Its setup is https://carlyassistant.com/mcp.txt.Things to ask when you call
- “What’s on my calendar this afternoon?”
- “Move my 2pm with Emily to Thursday and let her know.”
- “Read me anything from clients since this morning.”
- “Reply to Michael that the contract is fine and I’ll sign tonight.”
- “Text the team I’m 15 minutes late.”
- “Call Claire back and book her for next week.”
- “Call me every weekday at 8am with my day.” (an AI assistant that calls you)
Carly reaches every Gmail and Outlook account and calendar you connect, your CRM, and thousands of other apps.
How Carly knows it’s you
Carly recognizes your phone number, and only acts for you when your carrier verifies the call really comes from it. A spoofed number gets treated like any other caller.
You choose who else gets through. Set someone as trusted, say your business partner or your EA, and when they call they reach your Carly with only the access you allow. Block a number and Carly ignores it. Everyone else reaches your receptionist.
The same number answers your customers
The line you call is also your business line. When customers ring, Carly:
- Answers 24/7, or only when you don’t pick up, in English or Spanish.
- Greets the people you know by name and pulls up their record.
- Books them on your real calendar during the call.
- Texts back every missed call within seconds.
- Logs every call, transcript and text to the person’s record.
And from ChatGPT or Claude you can place calls on the same line and steer them live (tutorial).
Free Zapier-style workflows; AI agents from $35/month. Get started.
FAQ
Is there an AI assistant I can call?
Yes. Call your Carly number from your own phone and talk to your assistant. It handles your email, calendar, texts and calls.
What’s the difference from 1-800-CHATGPT?
1-800-CHATGPT is a free voice chat with ChatGPT, 30 minutes a month in the US and Canada. It doesn’t reach your accounts. Carly does. See ChatGPT phone number.
Can other people call my AI assistant?
Customers who call reach your receptionist. People you mark as trusted reach your Carly, limited to what you allow.
Can I text it too?
Yes, the same number takes texts. See how to use Carly over text.
Ready to automate your busywork?
Carly schedules, researches, and briefs you—so you can focus on what matters.
See what people say
"Before Carly, I relied on a Calendly link, but the whole process felt impersonal and not very professional. Carly changed that by handling all the back-and-forth, so I'm no longer stuck in endless email threads trying to line up schedules.
Now Carly reaches out to candidates, shares my real-time availability, lets them pick a slot, then sends a Zoom link and drops it straight into my calendar. She sends reminders to both of us before each call, which has significantly reduced no-shows and last-minute confusion.
On top of scheduling, Carly acts like a full executive assistant, sending me my schedule the night before so I can prepare for each call. It reminds me of the old x.ai assistant, but Carly is noticeably smarter, faster, and better suited to my healthcare recruitment business."
