Overview

Vonage (formerly Nexmo) is a cloud communications platform that provides global voice, messaging, and video capabilities. EESI AI’s Vonage integration enables high-quality voice interactions with your agents using Vonage’s robust infrastructure.

Prerequisites

Before setting up Vonage integration, you’ll need:
  • A Vonage account
  • Vonage Application with Voice capability enabled
  • Application ID and Private Key from your Vonage Dashboard
  • API Key and API Secret from your Vonage Dashboard
  • Signature Secret from your Vonage Dashboard
  • At least one Vonage phone number linked to the application
  • EESI AI instance running and accessible

Configuration

Step 1: Create Vonage Application

  1. Log in to your Vonage Dashboard
  2. Navigate to ApplicationsCreate a new application
  3. Enable Voice capability
  4. Generate a private key (save this securely - you’ll need it)
  5. Note your Application ID

Step 2: Get API Credentials

  1. Find your API Key and API Secret in the dashboard under API Settings
  2. Copy your Signature Secret from the same Vonage account. EESI uses it to verify Vonage signed webhooks.
  3. Navigate to NumbersYour Numbers
  4. Copy your phone number(s)
  5. Link each inbound number to your Voice application

Step 3: Configure in EESI AI

  1. Navigate to /telephony-configurations and click Add configuration
  2. Select Vonage as your provider
  3. Enter your credentials:
    • Application ID
    • Private Key (entire key including BEGIN/END lines)
    • API Key
    • API Secret
    • Signature Secret
  4. Click Save Configuration
  5. Open the configuration you just created and add at least one phone number (without + prefix, e.g. 14155551234). The default caller ID is used for outbound calls.

Step 4: Test Your Configuration

  1. Create a test workflow
  2. Click “Call” to verify connection
  3. Check call logs for successful connection

Inbound Calling Setup

Vonage routes inbound Voice API calls through a Voice application. The application owns the Answer URL and Event URL, and the phone number must be linked to that application. EESI routes the call to the right agent based on the called number’s inbound workflow assignment inside EESI. When you save an inbound workflow on a phone number, EESI updates the configured Vonage application’s Voice webhooks and enables signed callbacks, provided the API Key, API Secret, and Application ID are correct and a Signature Secret is configured.
Linking the phone number to the Voice application is required. If the number is not linked, Vonage will not call EESI’s Answer URL, and you may hear a busy or disconnected tone without seeing any EESI application logs.
  1. Open the Vonage Dashboard
  2. Go to NumbersYour Numbers
  3. Open each number you want to use for inbound calls
  4. Set the number’s Voice application to the same Vonage Application whose ID you configured in EESI
Vonage’s Numbers API describes this as the number’s app_id: the application that handles inbound traffic to that number. See the Numbers API reference.

Step 2: Assign an Inbound Workflow to the Phone Number in EESI

  1. Go to /telephony-configurations and open your Vonage configuration
  2. In the Phone numbers section, edit the number that should receive inbound calls
  3. Set its Inbound workflow to the agent that should answer
  4. Save

Step 3: Verify the Answer URL on the Vonage Application

  1. Open your Vonage Application in the Vonage Dashboard
  2. Under CapabilitiesVoice, confirm:
    • Answer URL is set to: https://<your-backend-domain>/v1/telephony/inbound/run
    • HTTP Method is POST
    • Event URL is set to: https://<your-backend-domain>/v1/telephony/vonage/events
    • Event Method is POST
    • Signed callbacks are enabled
    EESI pushes these settings automatically when you save the inbound workflow in Step 2. If the fields are empty, show a different URL, or EESI surfaced a sync warning on save, check the API Key, API Secret, Application ID, and Signature Secret in EESI, then save the inbound workflow again. On self-hosted EESI, the backend domain must be publicly reachable by Vonage.

Step 4: Verify Setup

  • Ensure your EESI AI instance is publicly accessible
  • Verify your public backend URL is reachable from the internet
  • Use the Vonage logs or Voice Inspector to confirm Vonage is sending the Answer webhook to EESI

Test Inbound Calling

  1. Call your configured Vonage phone number from another phone
  2. Verify your EESI AI voice agent answers and responds
  3. Check call logs in both EESI AI dashboard and Vonage Dashboard

Audio Quality Optimization

Vonage uses higher quality audio (16kHz) which provides:
  • Clearer voice reproduction
  • Better speech recognition accuracy
  • More natural-sounding TTS output
  • Reduced transcription errors

Troubleshooting

  • Ensure “Voice” is enabled in your Vonage application
  • Verify the application ID matches your configuration
  • Check that your phone numbers are linked to the application
  • Verify your private key is complete (including BEGIN/END lines)
  • Check the Application ID is correct
  • Ensure the private key hasn’t been regenerated in Vonage Dashboard
  • Verify the Signature Secret in EESI matches the Vonage account’s signature secret
  • Ensure signed callbacks are enabled on the Vonage Voice application
  • Check that the webhook request includes an Authorization header
  • Confirm the application belongs to the same API Key saved in EESI
  • Remove the ’+’ prefix for Vonage (use 14155551234 not +14155551234)
  • Ensure numbers are in E.164 format (country code + number, no spaces or dashes) without the ’+’
  • Verify numbers are active in your Vonage account
  • Verify WebSocket connection is established
  • Check audio pipeline is configured for 16kHz PCM
  • Monitor WebSocket for binary audio frames
  • Review VAD (Voice Activity Detection) behavior — this is what detects when the caller starts and stops speaking
  • Check WebSocket heartbeat/ping-pong frames
  • Verify no timeout in load balancer/proxy
  • Monitor for audio pipeline errors
  • Review max call duration settings
  • Verify the Vonage application’s Answer URL is set to https://<your-backend-domain>/v1/telephony/inbound/run
  • Ensure the Answer URL is publicly accessible
  • Confirm the called number is linked to the correct Vonage application
  • Confirm the called number exists in your EESI telephony configuration and has an Inbound workflow assigned
  • Confirm the Vonage number is linked to the Voice application configured in EESI
  • Confirm the Voice application has the EESI Answer URL set with method POST
  • Confirm your backend domain is public; Vonage cannot call localhost
  • Check Vonage logs for Answer URL delivery errors before debugging EESI
  • Confirm the phone number has an Inbound workflow assigned in /telephony-configurations
  • Verify API Key matches the one stored in your EESI telephony configuration (used to identify the org from the inbound webhook)
  • Verify WebSocket connection establishes successfully
  • Review call logs for error messages

Best Practices

  • Security: Private keys are stored securely in the database
  • Signed callbacks: Keep Vonage signed callbacks enabled and keep the Signature Secret in EESI up to date
  • Testing: Use Vonage Voice Inspector for debugging call issues
  • Numbers: Configure multiple numbers for redundancy
  • Monitoring: Set up alerts in Vonage Dashboard for failures
  • Cost Management: Monitor usage to control costs

Cost Considerations

Vonage pricing includes:
  • Per-minute charges for calls
  • Phone number rental fees
  • Optional features (recording, transcription)
Check Vonage pricing for current rates.

Next Steps

  • Test your Vonage integration with a simple workflow
  • Review VAD and interruption behavior for your workflow’s nodes
  • Set up monitoring and alerts
  • Explore advanced features like call recording