What You'll Set Up
By the end of this guide, your AI agent will be able to work with your Twilio account — sending SMS and MMS messages, initiating phone calls, managing phone numbers, and handling messaging workflows. The entire setup takes about five minutes.
Once connected, your agent can handle tasks like "Send an appointment reminder to the customer" or "How many messages did we send today?" using your Twilio account directly.
Before You Begin
Make sure you have:
- A Twilio account — Sign up for free if you don't have one. Twilio gives you a trial balance to test with.
- A Pipeworks workspace — Sign up at pipeworks.ai if you haven't already
Twilio's free trial account includes a small balance for testing. Trial accounts can send messages to verified phone numbers. Upgrade to a paid account when you are ready to send to any number.
Steps
Get your Account SID and Auth Token
Log into the Twilio Console at console.twilio.com. Your Account SID and Auth Token are displayed right on the main dashboard under Account Info.
Your Account SID starts with AC followed by a long string of letters and numbers. Click Show next to the Auth Token to reveal it, then copy both values.
Make sure you have a phone number
To send messages or make calls, you need at least one Twilio phone number. If you do not have one yet, go to Phone Numbers > Manage > Buy a Number in the left sidebar and purchase a number with SMS and voice capabilities. Trial accounts get one free number.
Open your Pipeworks console
Log into your Pipeworks workspace and go to the Integrations page. Find Twilio in the list and click on it.
Enter your credentials
Fill in the two credential fields:
- Account SID — The identifier starting with
ACfrom your Twilio Console dashboard - Auth Token — The secret token from your Twilio Console dashboard
Click Connect to save your credentials. Pipeworks encrypts both values with AES-256-GCM before storing them. The plaintext is never saved to disk.
Start the integration
Click Start to launch the Twilio integration container. Once the status shows Running, your agent is ready to send messages and manage your Twilio account.
Test the connection
Use the Test button to verify everything works. This sends a request to the Twilio API to confirm your credentials are valid and your account is accessible.
What Your Agent Can Do
Once connected, your AI agent has access to Twilio tools for:
- SMS and MMS — Send text messages and picture messages to any phone number
- Phone calls — Initiate outbound calls and manage call settings
- Phone numbers — List and manage your Twilio phone numbers and their configurations
- Message history — Look up sent and received messages, check delivery status
- Messaging workflows — Configure messaging services for higher-volume sending
- Account usage — Check usage records and account balance
Use tool profiles to control what your agent can do. Set the profile to read-only if you want your agent to check message history and account usage without sending any messages or making calls.
Connecting from Your AI Agent
Add the Pipeworks tools endpoint to your agent's configuration. Here's an example for Claude Desktop:
{
"mcpServers": {
"pipeworks-twilio": {
"command": "npx",
"args": ["-y", "mcp-remote", "https://app.pipeworks.ai/tools/twilio"]
}
}
}
Claude Desktop will prompt you to sign in through Pipeworks when you first connect. No access key needed.
Troubleshooting
Connection test fails? Make sure you copied both the Account SID and Auth Token correctly from the Twilio Console dashboard. The Account SID should start with AC and the Auth Token is case-sensitive.
Messages not being delivered? On a trial account, you can only send messages to phone numbers you have verified. Go to Phone Numbers > Manage > Verified Caller IDs in the Twilio Console to add numbers you want to text. Upgrade to a paid account to send to any number.
No phone number available? Your Twilio account needs at least one phone number to send messages from. Purchase one from Phone Numbers > Manage > Buy a Number in the Twilio Console.
Agent can't find tools? Verify your Pipeworks session is authenticated and that the integration status shows "Running" in your Pipeworks console.