Gemini Phone Bots

A telephone-based conversational agent built with Pipecat, powered by Google's Gemini APIs and Twilio. This bot plays "Two Truths and a Lie". The bot will provide three statements and you have to guess which one is false.

Learn how to run and deploy these bots on Pipecat Cloud.

Try it! 📞

Call 1-970-LIVE-API (1-970-548-3274) to talk to a Gemini Live Pipecat bot over the phone.

Prerequisites

Environment

• Python 3.10 or later
• uv package manager installed

Service API keys

You'll need API keys for the following services:

• Gemini LLMs: Live API and Text completions
• Google STT & TTS for Speech-to-Text and Text-to-Speech
• Twilio for phone calling

💡 Tip: Sign up these services. You'll need them for both local and cloud deployment.

Setup

1. Clone this repository

   git clone https://github.com/daily-co/pcc-gemini-twilio.git
   cd pcc-gemini-twilio

2. Configure your API keys:

   Create a .env file:

   cp env.example .env

   Then, add your API keys:

   GOOGLE_API_KEY=
   GOOGLE_CREDENTIALS_PATH=./credentials.json
   TWILIO_ACCOUNT_SID=
   TWILIO_AUTH_TOKEN=

   If you're running bot-cascade.py, you'll need to add a credentials.json file containing your Google Service Account credentials.

3. Set up a virtual environment and install dependencies

   uv sync

Run your bot locally

For local development, we'll use Pipecat's P2P WebRTC transport, SmallWebRTCTransport. This transports is free to run and allows for faster iteration for development and testing.

Run the bot using:

uv run bot.py

Open http://localhost:7860 in your browser and click Connect to start talking to your bot.

💡 First run note: The initial startup may take ~20 seconds as Pipecat downloads required models and imports.

Deploy to Production

Transform your local bot into a production-ready service. Pipecat Cloud handles scaling, monitoring, and global deployment.

Prerequisites

1. Sign up for Pipecat Cloud.

2. Set up Docker for building your bot image:

   • Install Docker on your system

   • Create a Docker Hub account

   • Login to Docker Hub:

     docker login

3. Log in with the pipecatcloud CLI (installed with the project) is used to manage your deployment and secrets.

   uv run pcc auth login

   Tip: Use the CLI with the pcc command alias.

Configure Twilio

1. Purchase a phone number from Twilio, if you haven't already. Ensure the number has voice capabilities.

2. Retrieve your Pipecat Cloud organization name using the pipecatcloud CLI. This information is required when creating the TwiML configuration.

   pcc organizations list

3. Create a TwiML Bin with the following configuration:

   <?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
   <Response>
   <Connect>
      <Stream url="wss://api.pipecat.daily.co/ws/twilio">
         <Parameter name="_pipecatCloudServiceHost"
            value="AGENT_NAME.ORGANIZATION_NAME"/>
      </Stream>
   </Connect>
   </Response>

   Replace the placeholder values:

   • AGENT_NAME with your deployed bot’s name (e.g., my-first-agent)
   • ORGANIZATION_NAME with your organization name from step 2

   For example, if your agent is named “pcc-gemini-twilio” and your organization is “industrious-purple-cat-123”, your value would be: pcc-gemini-twilio.industrious-purple-cat-123

4. Assign the TwiML Bin to your Twilio phone number:

   • Navigate to the "Phone Numbers" section in your Twilio dashboard (Phone Numbers > Manage > Active numbers)
   • Select your phone number from the list
   • In the "Configure" tab, under “Voice Configuration” section, find “A call comes in”
     • Set this dropdown to “TwiML Bin”
     • Select the "TwiML Bin" you created in step 3
   • Click Save to apply your changes

Configure your deployment

The pcc-deploy.toml file tells Pipecat Cloud how to run your bot. Update the image field with your Docker Hub username by editing pcc-deploy.toml.

agent_name = "pcc-gemini-twilio"
image = "YOUR_DOCKERHUB_USERNAME/pcc-gemini-twilio:0.1" # 👈 Update this line
secret_set = "pcc-gemini-twilio-secrets"

[scaling]
	min_agents = 1

Understanding the TOML file settings:

• agent_name: Your bot's name in Pipecat Cloud
• image: The Docker image to deploy (format: username/image:version)
• secret_set: Where your API keys are stored securely
• min_agents: Number of bot instances to keep ready (1 = instant start)

💡 Tip: Set up image_credentials in your TOML file for authenticated image pulls

Configure secrets

Upload your API keys to Pipecat Cloud's secure storage:

uv run pcc secrets set pcc-gemini-twilio-secrets --file .env

This creates a secret set called pcc-gemini-twilio-secrets (matching your TOML file) and uploads all your API keys from .env.

Build and deploy

Build your Docker image and push to Docker Hub:

uv run pcc docker build-push

Deploy to Pipecat Cloud:

uv run pcc deploy

Call your bot

Call the Twilio number you set up earlier to speak with your bot! 🚀

What's Next?

• 🔧 Customize your bot: Modify bot.py to change personality, add functions, or integrate with your data
• 📚 Learn more: Check out Pipecat's docs for advanced features
• ⚙️ Provide custom data: Learn how to provide custom data to your bot at run time
• 💬 Get help: Join Pipecat's Discord to connect with the community