Personal assistant over SMS
Text Carly anything — "move my 3pm to Thursday", "what's on tomorrow", "draft a reply to Jamie" — she handles Gmail, Calendar, and Drive over a single SMS thread.
Outlook Calendar The workflow at a glance
Tool How this workflow works, step by step
- 1 Trigger SMS to Carly
When you text Carly, this workflow fires. The message body becomes the input the rest of the steps can read.
- 2 LLM Understand intent
An LLM step does the thinking: understand intent. Carly picks the right model for the job and you can swap models per step if you need to.
- 3 Tool Calendar
Carly pulls live data from Google Calendar or Outlook Calendar — "Calendar." Whatever's needed for the next step is fetched fresh, not cached.
- 4 Tool Inbox
Carly pulls live data from Gmail or Outlook — "Inbox." Whatever's needed for the next step is fetched fresh, not cached.
- 5 Tool Drive
Carly pulls live data from Google Drive — "Drive." Whatever's needed for the next step is fetched fresh, not cached.
- 6 Action Text back
Carly texts you the result over SMS. You can reply back and the conversation continues.
When to use this template
- You want this work to happen consistently without anyone remembering to do it.
- You're already using Google Calendar and Outlook Calendar, and the manual version of this is eating real minutes a week.
- You want a visible canvas you can audit and edit — not a black-box agent doing things you can't see.
When not to use it
- This task only happens once or twice a month — the setup cost won't pay back.
- The decision in the middle of the flow needs human judgment every single time, not just on edge cases.
- Your stack doesn't include any of the apps above and you don't want to wire a generic HTTP step.
Build it in 10 minutes — copy this prompt
Paste this in an email to and Carly will build the workflow for you.
Hey Carly — please build me this workflow. Name: Personal assistant over SMS What it should do: Text Carly anything — "move my 3pm to Thursday", "what's on tomorrow", "draft a reply to Jamie" — she handles Gmail, Calendar, and Drive over a single SMS thread. Steps: 1. Trigger: SMS to Carly (SMS) 2. LLM: Understand intent 3. Tool: Calendar 4. Tool: Inbox 5. Tool: Drive 6. Action: Text back (SMS) Tools to wire up: Google Calendar, Outlook Calendar, Gmail, Outlook, Google Drive Set it live once you've got it working. Thanks!
Apps you'll connect
Carly authenticates these for you over OAuth when she sets up the workflow.
Outlook Calendar Questions teams ask before building this
How long does this workflow take to set up?
Most teams have "Personal assistant over SMS" running in under 10 minutes. Copy the prompt on this page into an email to carly@usecarly.com and Carly wires the workflow together for you, including authenticating Google Calendar.
Can I edit this template after Carly builds it?
Yes. Every workflow lives on the Carly canvas where you can rename steps, change conditions, swap LLM models, add filters, and re-route branches. Templates are starting points, not locked recipes.
What if I use a different tool than the ones in this template?
Carly connects to 200+ tools, plus a generic HTTP node for any API that doesn't have a native integration. Tell Carly your stack when you send the prompt and she'll pick the right connectors.
Does this run automatically once it's built?
Yes. The trigger at the start of the workflow fires automatically — on a schedule, on an inbound email, on a webhook, on a calendar event, whatever this template specifies. Carly handles the listening; you only step in when a step is gated on you.
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