Tool

Deploy AI voice agents on Asterisk phone systems

Open-source modular AI voice agent for Asterisk/FreePBX, mixing STT/LLM/TTS providers with six validated production baselines.

Works with asteriskfreepbxopenaigoogledeepgram

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Updated 10 days ago
Source checked Sep 10, 2026
Version 7.5.6

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Why it matters

Enable enterprises to add conversational AI voice capabilities to their existing Asterisk or FreePBX phone infrastructure, handling inbound and outbound calls with natural language understanding, speech-to-text, text-to-speech, and custom actions through a modular pipeline architecture.

Outcomes

What it gets done

01

Route incoming calls to AI agents that understand and respond to customer inquiries in real-time

02

Mix and match STT, LLM, and TTS providers through 6 production-ready baseline configurations

03

Manage AI voice agents through a web-based admin UI with setup wizard and health monitoring

04

Integrate with Asterisk dialplans using AudioSocket or ExternalMedia RTP transports

Source

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Overview

AVA-AI-Voice-Agent-for-Asterisk

AVA is an open-source, modular AI voice agent for Asterisk and FreePBX that mixes and matches STT, LLM, and TTS providers per call, with six validated production baselines and a Docker-based Admin UI for setup. Use it when adding a flexible, provider-agnostic AI voice agent to an existing Asterisk/FreePBX system; restrict the Admin UI's network access and rotate its default password before production use.

What it does

AVA is an open-source AI voice agent for Asterisk/FreePBX phone systems, built as a modular pipeline that lets you mix and match speech-to-text, LLM, and text-to-speech providers, with six production-ready "golden baseline" configurations validated for enterprise deployment.

When to use - and when NOT to

Use it when you want to add an AI voice agent to an existing Asterisk or FreePBX phone system - answering calls, running configured actions, routing to a specific agent by slug - and want the flexibility to swap STT, LLM, and TTS providers per call rather than being locked into one vendor stack. For managing many PBXs or customer installations at once, a commercial layer called AVA Operator exists as an early-access preview on top of the same core, but the MIT-licensed AVA Core itself remains free and fully functional standalone.

Inputs and outputs

Setup starts with a required preflight check (sudo ./preflight.sh --apply-fixes), which creates the .env file and generates a JWT_SECRET, then docker compose ... up -d --build --force-recreate admin_ui starts the Admin UI on port 3003, where a one-time admin password is printed to the container logs and must be changed at first login. A Setup Wizard configures STT/LLM/TTS providers and generates the Asterisk dialplan needed to route calls into the agent, using a Stasis(asterisk-ai-voice-agent) dialplan entry where Set(AI_AGENT=sales-agent) selects an operator-managed agent by slug and an optional AI_PROVIDER override picks a specific provider or pipeline per call. The ai_engine service exposes a health endpoint (curl http://localhost:15000/health) reporting healthy or degraded status for monitoring.

Integrations

Asterisk/FreePBX for telephony and dialplan integration, Docker Compose for deployment, with a GPU compose overlay for local NVIDIA-accelerated inference, and a modular pipeline architecture accepting pluggable STT, LLM, and TTS providers rather than one fixed vendor stack. An interactive or scripted CLI (agent setup, plus legacy hidden aliases like agent init/agent doctor) supports headless installs alongside the browser-based Admin UI and Setup Wizard. Each Agent can be scoped to only the transfer destinations, Google/Microsoft calendars, and voicemail mailboxes it should use, and outbound campaigns support CSV/Excel lead import with scheduling and AMD (answering-machine detection). A VICIdial Remote Agent integration lets VICIdial stay authoritative for campaigns, dispositions, and DNC/callback handling while AAVA supplies the mapped AI agent, and an opt-in 16 kHz wideband audio path improves call quality over the default 8 kHz telephony profile on supported Asterisk versions.

Who it's for

Telephony and IT teams running Asterisk or FreePBX who want to add a flexible, provider-agnostic AI voice agent to handle calls - with a validated path to production via the golden baselines - without being locked into a single STT/LLM/TTS vendor, and who need enough security discipline, password rotation, network restriction of the Admin UI, to run it safely in production.

Both GUI-driven and CLI-driven setup paths exist side by side, so a team can choose the Setup Wizard for a guided first install and fall back to the interactive or scripted CLI (agent setup, or the manual docker compose route with a hand-edited .env file) for headless provisioning, automated deployments, or environments where a browser-based wizard isn't practical. The documentation set is deliberately split by concern - a dedicated Installation Guide, a Transport Compatibility matrix, and a separate WebSocket Transport Setup guide for the opt-in authenticated transport - so a team can pick the right combination of provider, codec, and topology for their specific PBX before wiring the dialplan, rather than discovering an incompatible combination only after a test call fails.

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AVA - AI Voice Agent for Asterisk - Open-source AI voice agent for any phone system | Product Hunt

The most powerful, flexible open-source AI voice agent for Asterisk/FreePBX. Featuring a modular pipeline architecture that lets you mix and match STT, LLM, and TTS providers, plus 6 production-ready golden baselines validated for enterprise deployment.

Managing multiple PBXs or customer installations? Explore AVA Operator - the commercial multi-installation management layer built around AVA Core, currently available as an early-access preview. AVA Core remains MIT-licensed, free, and fully functional on its own.

Quick StartFeaturesRoadmapDemoDocsCommunity


📖 Table of Contents


🚀 Quick Start

Get the Admin UI running in 2 minutes.

For a complete first successful call walkthrough (dialplan + transport selection + verification), see:

1. Run Pre-flight Check (Required)

# Clone repository
git clone https://github.com/hkjarral/AVA-AI-Voice-Agent-for-Asterisk.git
cd AVA-AI-Voice-Agent-for-Asterisk

# Run preflight with auto-fix (creates .env, generates JWT_SECRET)
sudo ./preflight.sh --apply-fixes

Important: Preflight creates your .env file and generates a secure JWT_SECRET. Always run this first!

2. Start the Admin UI

# Start the Admin UI container
docker compose -p asterisk-ai-voice-agent up -d --build --force-recreate admin_ui

3. Access the Dashboard

Open in your browser:

  • Local: http://localhost:3003
  • Remote server: http://<server-ip>:3003

First login: On first start, a one-time admin password is printed to the container logs. Retrieve it with:

docker compose -p asterisk-ai-voice-agent logs admin_ui | grep -i password

You must change it at first login. Restrict port 3003 via firewall, VPN, or reverse proxy for production use.

Follow the Setup Wizard to configure your providers and make a test call.

⚠️ Security: The Admin UI is accessible on the network. Restrict port 3003 via firewall, VPN, or reverse proxy for production use.

4. Verify Installation

GPU users: If you have an NVIDIA GPU for local AI inference, see docs/LOCAL_ONLY_SETUP.md for the GPU compose overlay (docker-compose.gpu.yml) before building.

# Start ai_engine (required for health checks)
docker compose -p asterisk-ai-voice-agent up -d --build ai_engine

# Check ai_engine health
curl http://localhost:15000/health
# Expected: {"status":"healthy"} ("degraded" is also possible if a subsystem is unhealthy)

# View logs for any errors
docker compose -p asterisk-ai-voice-agent logs ai_engine | tail -20

5. Connect Asterisk

The wizard will generate the necessary dialplan configuration for your Asterisk server.

Transport selection is configuration-dependent (not strictly “pipelines vs full agents”). Use the validated matrix in:


🔧 Advanced Setup (CLI)

For users who prefer the command line or need headless setup.

Option A: Interactive CLI

./install.sh
agent setup

Note: Legacy commands agent init, agent quickstart, agent doctor, agent troubleshoot, and agent demo remain as hidden compatibility aliases. New workflows should use the visible commands documented in docs/CLI_TOOLS_GUIDE.md.

Option B: Manual Setup

# Configure environment
cp .env.example .env
# Edit .env with your API keys

# Start services
docker compose -p asterisk-ai-voice-agent up -d

Configure Asterisk Dialplan

Add this to your FreePBX (extensions_custom.conf):

[from-ai-agent]
exten => s,1,NoOp(Asterisk AI Voice Agent)
 ; AI_AGENT selects an operator-managed agent by slug.
 same => n,Set(AI_AGENT=sales-agent)
 ; Optional: override that agent's configured provider/pipeline for this call.
 ; same => n,Set(AI_PROVIDER=google_live)
 same => n,Stasis(asterisk-ai-voice-agent)
 same => n,Hangup()

Notes:

  • Use AI_AGENT to select an operator-managed agent. Its configured target is authoritative unless AI_PROVIDER is intentionally set as a per-call override.
  • Generate a current snippet with agent dialplan --agent <slug>.
  • See docs/FreePBX-Integration-Guide.md for channel variable precedence and examples.

Test Your Agent

Health check:

agent check

View logs:

docker compose -p asterisk-ai-voice-agent logs -f ai_engine

🎉 What's New

v7.5.6 - Safer outbound context, Agent hangup policies, and configured summary LLMs

v7.5.6 is an in-place feature and reliability release. It does not migrate
databases, reassign Agents, or change Audio Profiles.

  • Outbound lead context is delivered or the call fails closed - ARI
    origination now uses its documented variables object, restoring routing,
    identity, AudioSocket, AMD/consent, and campaign metadata. Nonempty lead
    custom_vars is bounded, confirmed before provider startup, recovered after
    an engine restart, and redacted from diagnostics
    (#613).
  • Hangup intent markers can be scoped per Agent - each Agent can inherit,
    extend, or replace the global end-of-call phrases. New calls capture an
    immutable policy, and Full Local negotiates call-scoped support so older
    servers and malformed overrides fail closed
    (#619).
  • Post-call summaries can use configured modular LLMs - each webhook can
    select an enabled LLM provider and configure its model readiness, timeout,
    word limit, and prompt. Explicit selections never fall back to another
    provider; summary failures leave {summary} empty while webhook delivery
    continues. Existing webhooks retain the legacy OpenAI behavior until
    configured (#618).
  • Summary prompts stay isolated from the live Agent persona - provider
    adapters receive the webhook's summary instructions as authoritative job
    context, and the default Groq LLM moves to openai/gpt-oss-120b.

See the v7.5.6 changelog,
migration notes, and
validation matrix.

v7.5.5 - Sidebar collapse, post-call webhook variables, and configurable extension availability

v7.5.5 is an in-place feature release. It does not migrate databases, reassign
Agents, or change Audio Profiles.

  • Collapsible Admin UI sidebar - the left navigation can collapse to an
    icon-only rail, with hover tooltips and a persisted preference, reclaiming
    space on smaller displays (#596).
  • Pre-call variables now flow into post-call webhooks - each pre-call
    output variable is exposed as its own placeholder in webhook payload
    templates, matching prompt and in-call tool behavior
    (#608).
  • Configurable extension availability mapping - check_extension_status
    now classifies multiple ARI device states per extension (including
    operator-configured custom states for DND/away) via a configurable
    free/busy/unavailable mapping, with a fail-closed default and new Admin UI
    editors for per-extension and global state mapping
    (#577).
  • check_extension_status reliability fixes - availability fields
    survive JSON sanitization across all tool adapters, live-transfer channel
    activity is cross-checked against stale device state, and an unmapped
    device_state_id can no longer bypass restrict_to_configured_extensions
    (#577).

See the v7.5.5 changelog,
migration notes, and
validation matrix.

v7.5.4 - Privacy-safe diagnostics and provider/update hardening

v7.5.4 is an in-place reliability and privacy release. It does not migrate
databases, reassign Agents, or change Audio Profiles.

  • Diagnostics are truly opt-in - disabled playback taps and full-call RCA
    capture perform no per-call conversion, locking, file creation, write, or
    cleanup deletion. Enabled paths reject symlinks, unsafe writable ancestors,
    and foreign ownership before audio is written.
  • ARI silent failures recover promptly - 10-second WebSocket ping and timeout
    defaults make readiness fail in about 20 seconds before normal reconnect logic
    takes over.
  • Deepgram telephony choices are coherent - Flux and Nova receive the right
    language fields, the UI exposes the commonly used telephony models and seven
    end-to-end Aura languages, and incompatible language/model/voice combinations
    fail before a remote session opens.
  • Docker status is accurate again - Docker SDK 7.1 restores Admin UI socket
    compatibility and detection follows rootful, rootless, TCP, and named-pipe
    endpoint configuration.
  • Updates preserve optional Local AI state - absent and unselected Local AI
    stays absent, while an installed stopped service can be refreshed without
    being started, including rollback.
  • Call History privacy is operator-controlled - strict, routing-visible, and
    explicit off modes make the redaction boundary visible without rewriting
    historical records (#589).

See the v7.5.4 changelog,
migration notes, and
validation matrix.

v7.5.3 - One-click audio recovery and safer transfers

v7.5.3 focuses on getting an installation back to a known-good configuration
without undoing the operator's unrelated work.

  • Restore audio defaults in context - Providers, Audio Profiles, and
    modular Pipelines each expose their own restore action in the Admin UI.
    Provider restores keep credentials, models, voices, prompts, enabled state,
    and provider identity; profile restores keep Agent assignments; pipeline
    restores keep STT/LLM/TTS provider selections and non-audio options.
  • Backend-owned baselines - restore values come from the same canonical
    registry used by validation, including the supported OpenAI Realtime GA
    linear16/24 kHz contract. Environment-owned overrides remain visible and
    are never silently rewritten.
  • Explicit apply guidance - each restore reports whether no action, a hot
    reload, or an AI Engine restart is needed before new calls use the baseline.
  • Fail-closed dialplan transfers - extension, queue, and ring-group
    transfers validate known-missing targets, require a confirmed ARI handoff,
    and preserve ownership safely when Asterisk's response is indeterminate.
    FreePBX queues use the standard ext-queues context by default (#577).
  • Query what the agent actually did - completed in-call tools now expose a
    stable tool_call_id, normalized success/failure status, action, and
    reconcilable target_id in Call History and its API without mixing telemetry
    into the transcript (#587).

These recovery actions are intentionally narrow: they do not provide a global
factory reset and do not change secrets or Agent routing.

See the v7.5.3 changelog for implementation and
compatibility details.

v7.5.2 - Opt-in HD Voice over 16 kHz AudioSocket

v7.5.2 adds a call-scoped wideband path without changing existing Agent
profiles or the established 8 kHz compatibility defaults.

  • Native 16 kHz AudioSocket - assign wideband_pcm_16k to an Agent to use
    Asterisk slin16 and rate-specific AudioSocket framing in both directions.
  • Provider and pipeline alignment - Grok, Google Live, Deepgram, OpenAI,
    ElevenLabs, Local Hybrid, and Full Local retain truthful per-call media
    contracts, including retries, tool continuations, interruption, and cleanup.
  • Fail-closed compatibility - wideband requires Asterisk 20.17+, 21.12+,
    22.7+, or 23.1+ and a genuinely wideband endpoint or SIP trunk path such as
    G.722. ExternalMedia RTP and PSTN/G.711 calls remain on an 8 kHz profile.
  • Simple rollback - switch the Agent back to telephony_ulaw_8k or
    telephony_enhanced_8k; no global transport or provider-default change is
    required.

See the v7.5.2 changelog,
v7.5.2 migration notes,
and v7.5.2 validation matrix.

v7.5.1 - Safer Admin apply and complete call history

The v7.5.1 hotfix focuses on recovery and observability without changing audio
profiles, provider transport, or fresh-install defaults.

  • Recoverable Apply Changes - the Admin UI prepares its updater runner
    before touching a live service and restores the previous image and container
    environment if a Compose replacement fails or does not become healthy.
  • Complete realtime transcripts - OpenAI and Grok keep assistant transcript
    state separate from interleaved caller-final events, preventing clipped
    prefixes in Call History and post-call consumers.
  • Apply instead of unnecessary restart - tool-only edits advertise and use
    hot reload for new calls. Provider, environment, and process-level changes
    remain on the restart/recreate path.

No database migration or audio-profile reassignment is required. Existing
stored transcripts are not rewritten.

See the v7.5.1 changelog and
v7.5.1 migration notes.

v7.5.0 - Enhanced telephony audio and VICIdial integration 🎧

v7.5.0 improves narrowband call audio without changing the established
8 kHz Asterisk wire contract, and adds a production-oriented VICIdial Remote
Agent integration.

  • Opt-in enhanced telephony audio - assign telephony_enhanced_8k to an
    Agent to use stateful band-limited downsampling for cleaner G.711 playback.
    Existing profiles keep their compatibility behavior, and switching back to
    telephony_ulaw_8k is the immediate rollback.
  • Consistent provider and pipeline policy - hosted providers and modular TTS
    pipelines inherit the Agent's Audio Profile by default, expose narrow
    troubleshooting overrides, and validate incompatible encoding, rate,
    resampler, overlap, and segmentation combinations before apply.
  • Safer interruption and teardown - resampler state is isolated per call and
    reset across responses, interruptions, and cleanup; replaced streams cannot
    be removed by stale cleanup; and late pipeline output is blocked after call
    teardown takes ownership.
  • VICIdial Remote Agents - VICIdial remains authoritative for campaigns,
    customer channels, reporting, dispositions, DNC, callbacks, and transfers,
    while AAVA supplies the mapped AI Agent with fail-closed ownership checks and
    sanitized lifecycle evidence.
  • More recoverable upgrades - the host recovery script handles mixed Git
    ownership, stale updater images, /root traversal constraints, and tracked
    local edits while preserving bounded backups and exact release targeting.

See the v7.5.0 changelog,
Audio Profiles, and
VICIdial Remote Agent setup for details.

v7.4.1 - Reliable, simpler outbound calling 📞

Outbound campaigns are easier to prepare, safer to schedule, and much easier
to troubleshoot from the Admin UI.

  • Simpler lead intake - import validated CSV or Excel .xlsx files, or add
    individual leads manually. Samples and new campaigns use the canonical
    AI_AGENT/agent routing model while legacy AI_CONTEXT/context inputs
    remain compatible.
  • Safer campaign scheduling - scheduled calls consistently receive the lead's
    called number, malformed timezone or calling-window settings fail closed,
    campaign concurrency is counted correctly, and stale attempts recover through
    one validated timeout policy.
  • More reliable human handling - human-first AMD defaults reduce false
    voicemail classification, and terminal farewell/hangup handling prevents new
    caller input from reviving a call that is already ending.
  • Better HTTP-tool workflows - pre-call, in-call, and post-call HTTP tools
    enforce method/body compatibility; pre-call output variables remain available
    for enriched greetings; and bounded, sanitized tool responses and diagnostics
    are visible in Call History and Scheduling.
  • Safer upgrades - updater recovery now handles older Git installations,
    Docker Compose access after privilege drops, and mixed-ownership checkouts more
    predictably without sacrificing local tracked changes.

See the Outbound Calling guide and
v7.4.1 changelog for details.

v7.4.0 - Agent-scoped tools and Agent-only routing 🧰

Each Agent can now receive only the transfer destinations, calendars, and
voicemail mailboxes it should be allowed to use.

  • Per-Agent resource access - configure the global inventory on Tools, then
    choose Inherit, Selected, or None under Agents → Edit Agent → Tools
    for the transfer family, Google Calendar, Microsoft Calendar, and voicemail.
  • One enforced call snapshot - provider schemas, prompt guidance, execution,
    deferred transfers, and audit metadata all use the same effective resource set.
    Empty or stale selections fail closed, and a globally disabled tool always wins.
  • Restart-free tool updates - Tools → Save & Apply validates and publishes a
    new tool generation for new calls. Active calls keep the generation they started
    with; a failed build leaves the previous generation running.
  • Contexts retired - runtime persona routing now reads Agents from agents.db.
    Legacy YAML Contexts are imported atomically on upgrade, and AI_CONTEXT remains
    a deprecated compatibility alias while dialplans move to AI_AGENT.
  • Cleaner first run - empty installations start with Receptionist, Sales, and
    Support instead of a collection of demonstration Contexts.
  • Call History compatibility - tool names remain google_calendar,
    microsoft_calendar, and leave_voicemail, so existing filters and reports keep
    working.

Before upgrading-especially from v7.3.0-v7.3.3-read the
current upgrade procedure
and Contexts → Agents migration guide.

v7.3.5 - Caller connection ringback 📞

Callers no longer wait through silent provider or pipeline startup.

  • Per-agent ringback control - enable Play ringback while connecting in
    the Agents UI; tone:ring is supplied as the default repeating Asterisk tone.
  • One implementation for every call path - full-agent providers and modular
    pipelines share the same caller-only lifecycle, without sending setup audio to
    the AI provider.
  • Clean audio handoff - ringback stops on the first provider or pipeline
    greeting audio and is also cleared on no-greeting readiness, startup failure,
    disconnect, or call cleanup.
  • Safe and opt-in - existing agents remain unchanged until the setting is
    enabled. YAML/API users may configure an Asterisk-local tone:, sound:, or
    recording: media URI.

See Connection Audio / Ringback
and the v7.3.5 changelog.

v7.3.3 - Local AI stabilization 🧠

v7.3.3 is a Local-AI-only stabilization release. It adds no providers and keeps
the cloud-provider call paths unchanged.

  • Calls are isolated by session - agent prompts and conversation state no
    longer mutate shared Local AI Server configuration or leak across reused
    WebSocket connections. AI Engine and Local AI Server should be upgraded
    together; the legacy unscoped switch remains temporarily compatible.
  • Barge-in abandons interrupted output - late LLM/TTS work is quarantined,
    the interrupted exchange is removed from weak-model history, and the
    replacement turn stays focused on what the caller just said.
  • Farewells finish exactly once - Local hangup_call speaks the selected
    Kokoro/Piper/etc. farewell without a second LLM rewrite, drains partial
    AudioSocket or RTP tails, records agent_hangup, and then disconnects.
  • CPU/GPU deployment is safer - dependency pins, CUDA/cuDNN validation,
    optional llama.cpp architecture targeting, and idempotent preflight checks
    reduce first-build and rerun failures.
  • Community GPU evidence - Tesla V100S testing passed Faster-Whisper CUDA
    float16, Llama 3.1 8B Q4_K_M, Kokoro, AudioSocket, ExternalMedia, barge-in,
    terminal hangup, concurrent session isolation, and restart recovery.

See the Local AI community test matrix and the
Unreleased changelog for the complete scope.

v7.3.2 - stabilization release 🛡️

v7.3.2 is a stabilization-only patch release built from the supervised
AudioSocket and ExternalMedia validation cycle.

  • No new providers - scope is limited to reliability, deployment safety,
    documentation, and contributor-facing CI.
  • Grok ExternalMedia repaired - clean barge-in, cancelled-output quarantine,
    named-instance runtime inheritance, complete replacement turns, and exact
    inactivity announcements through xAI force_message.
  • AudioSocket and modular pipelines hardened - terminal playback, pipeline
    producer ownership, talk-detect echo, and inactivity-grace regressions are
    covered by focused tests and supervised calls.
  • Updater and provider-failure recovery hardened - safer ownership,
    rollback/stash handling, readiness validation, and an opt-in dialplan redirect.
  • PR quality gates expanded - Admin backend/frontend checks and CLI
    cross-compilation now run before merge.

Release evidence and remaining gates are tracked in the
v7.3.2 validation matrix.

v7.3.1 - Silence watchdog & safe call endings ☎️

AVA now protects silent calls and finishes every terminal message before disconnecting.

  • 30-second inbound inactivity protection by default - AVA asks “Are you still there?”, waits 15 seconds for a reply, then speaks a configurable final warning and ends the call. Outbound agents remain opt-in.
  • The agent keeps its configured voice - check-ins and final warnings are synthesized by the active Google Live, OpenAI Realtime, Grok, Deepgram, ElevenLabs, local full-agent, or pipeline voice.
  • Transport-safe hangup - watchdog and hangup_call farewells drain AudioSocket or ExternalMedia/RTP streaming buffers and ARI file playback before ARI disconnects the caller. Fixed sleeps no longer clip long final sentences.
  • Deepgram and ElevenLabs lifecycle fixes - Deepgram control frames no longer split greetings, and ElevenLabs response-completion plus hosted-silence handling keeps AVA's watchdog authoritative.
  • Global and per-agent controls - configure defaults under Advanced Settings → Voice Activity Detection → Caller Inactivity, then optionally override them per agent. Call History labels watchdog endings as No input timeout.

See Caller inactivity configuration, ElevenLabs setup, and the full v7.3.1 changelog.

v7.3.0 - Per-agent voices 🎙️

Voice now belongs to agents. Configure one provider, create multiple agents that share it - each with its own voice.

  • Provider-aware voice picker in the Agent form: a dropdown of OpenAI's 10 GA voices, suggestions + custom clone IDs for Grok, Google Live's 30 prebuilt voices, Deepgram's Aura models - the control adapts to the agent's selected AI Engine.
  • Provider-specific safety - the provider-level voice becomes the default voice; agents without one behave exactly as before. OpenAI and Google log and fall back for unknown values. Deepgram preserves a configured Aura value for review but fails the call before connection when the voice is unknown or its language does not match the Deepgram Agent language.
  • Observable - every call logs the resolved voice and its source, and Call History shows "Voice: marin (from agent)" per call.
  • Agent voice changes apply instantly - no engine restart.

Thanks @foytech for seeding this feature (#497). Full guide: docs/VOICE_SELECTION.md.

v7.2.0 - Live-status dashboard 📡

Real-time system status for the Admin UI - pushed, not polled.

  • Live-status hub - a single /api/live-status snapshot endpoint plus an SSE stream (/api/live-status/stream) aggregates AI Engine health, Local AI connectivity, active sessions, audio directories, platform checks, and Asterisk ARI into one normalized status feed.
  • Push-first - ai_engine and local_ai_server push their own readiness to the Admin UI (POST /api/live-status/publish, authenticated with LIVE_STATUS_PUSH_TOKEN), so the dashboard converges in sub-second time after a restart instead of waiting on staggered polls. Legacy /api/system/* probes remain as fallback/enrichment.
  • Configurable - LIVE_STATUS_POLL_INTERVAL_SECONDS (default 30 s, min 2 s) and LIVE_STATUS_INITIAL_PROBE_TIMEOUT_SECONDS (default 2 s), read live from .env.

Full notes in CHANGELOG.md.

v7.1.1 - Dashboard reliability & Admin UI polish 🛠️

A focused quality release across the Admin UI - no call-path changes.

  • Dashboard reliability - the Asterisk status pill no longer flaps on a transient ARI blip: it reads the engine's authoritative, reconnect-supervised ARI state and applies hysteresis. The system endpoints the Dashboard polls every 5s no longer block the admin event loop, the heaviest is TTL-cached, polling backs off on errors, failed polls surface in the error banner, and a single bad poll no longer flashes cards to "Loading…".
  • No more "Loading configuration…" flash - ~11 config pages now seed from a shared stale-while-revalidate cache of the config document, so revisiting a settings page is instant.
  • Accessibility (WCAG AA) - form labels programmatically associated with inputs, a focus-trapping modal, a navigation landmark + "skip to content" link, accessible names on icon-only buttons, non-colour status cues on the topology, a visible dark-mode toggle on-state, and light-mode contrast fixes. Debug console.logs (including one that leaked the auth token to the browser console) were removed.
  • Prompt editor - configured tool names are colour-coded by their in-call status (enabled / global / not-enabled) as you type.
  • Fix (#436) - a canonical google_live: { type: full } provider can be edited and saved again.

Full notes in CHANGELOG.md.

v7.0.0 - the Agents release 🎯

The biggest release yet: manage your AI agents from the Admin UI, not a config file.

  • 🤖 Agents tab - create, edit, and manage agents in the UI. Start from a template (receptionist, after-hours, appointment booker, and more), set the prompt and provider, and copy a ready-to-paste dialplan snippet.
  • 📊 Multi-agent dashboard - live KPIs (active agents, active calls, calls routed, transfers), per-agent stats, and routing breakdowns at a glance.
  • ☎️ New AI_AGENT dialplan variable - route a call to an agent by name. Your existing AI_CONTEXT dialplans keep working unchanged.
  • 🔄 Automatic migration - your existing contexts move into a local agents database on first start. Back up agents.db before later major-version upgrades; see the operator migration guide for rollback boundaries.
  • 🔒 Security hardening - no more admin/admin: a one-time admin password is generated and must be changed at first login. Config exports no longer bundle your .env by default.

⚠️ Major release - please read the Upgrade Notes before upgrading from 6.x.

v6.5.4 (2026-05-25) - OpenAI Realtime GA cleanup across every code path

Follow-up to the v6.5.3 hotfix. v6.5.3 only flipped config/ai-agent.yaml; v6.5.4 brings the rest of the codebase in line:

  • Pydantic defaults in src/config.py now default to api_version: ga + model: gpt-realtime (so fresh wizard installs are correct).
  • Admin UI "Add Provider" template for OpenAI Realtime no longer seeds the sunset preview model.
  • Model dropdown removes the 5 sunset preview options and adds 3 new GA models - gpt-realtime-1.5 (best audio-in/audio-out quality), gpt-realtime-2 (reasoning voice model, GPT-5-class), and gpt-realtime-mini (cost-optimized) - alongside the existing gpt-realtime.
  • Legacy preview values in operator YAML now render in a "Custom (legacy - will not connect)" optgroup with a yellow warning banner above the form so the broken state is visible without silently swapping the operator's config.
  • Engine emits a one-shot warning when api_version: beta is detected in config (exactly once per provider lifetime, not per reconnect attempt).
  • Docs: full rewrite of docs/Provider-OpenAI-Setup.md model section + fix to docs/TROUBLESHOOTING_GUIDE.md.
v6.5.3 hotfix (2026-05-25) - OpenAI Realtime restored

OpenAI sunset the Realtime Beta API on 2026-05-12 and removed the gpt-4o-realtime-preview-2024-12-17 model on 2026-05-07. Shipped config/ai-agent.yaml still pinned api_version: beta + that preview model, so every operator using OpenAI Realtime hit error.code: beta_api_shape_disabled and the WebSocket closed immediately. Two-line config flip - no code change required. The provider's GA wire-protocol path has shipped since v6.0.0; v6.5.3 just makes it the default everyone gets:

  • api_version: ga (was beta)
  • model: gpt-realtime (was gpt-4o-realtime-preview-2024-12-17)

If you have an ai-agent.local.yaml that explicitly pins api_version: beta, remove the override or change it to ga. Refs: OpenAI deprecations, gpt-realtime.

v6.5.2 (2026-05-24) - xAI Grok + multi-instance full-agent providers

🆕 xAI Grok Voice Agent realtime provider (NEW, v6.5.2)

  • Fifth full-agent realtime provider - structurally parallel to OpenAI Realtime and Google Live, built on a multi-instance foundation from day one
  • μ-law @ 8 kHz caller input with no input resampling; observed xAI output is PCM16 @ 24 kHz and AAVA converts it to the configured Asterisk transport format
  • Five named voices (eve, ara, rex, sal, leo) plus custom voice ID free-text for cloned voices
  • Custom function-tools identical to OpenAI Realtime; xAI-native tools (web_search, x_search, file_search, mcp) accepted via YAML extra_tools escape hatch
  • Conservative long-session warning at 28 minutes for compatibility with older xAI limits; xAI's current Voice Agent model page lists a 120-minute maximum session
  • Setup guide: docs/Provider-Grok-Setup.md

🏢 Multi-instance full-agent providers (NEW, v6.5.2)

  • Run multiple instances of the same full-agent provider type with isolated credentials (e.g. acme_google_live + globex_google_live both using type: google_live)
  • Per-instance credential files at /app/project/secrets/providers/<provider_key>/{api-key,agent-id,vertex-json} - the new per-provider Vertex upload path does NOT mutate .env
  • Route via AI_PROVIDER, an Agent's provider selection plus AI_AGENT, or DID-based dispatch with Asterisk Gosub
  • Setup guide: docs/Multi-Instance-Full-Agent-Providers.md
  • Breaking for multi-instance setups: short aliases AI_PROVIDER=openai, AI_PROVIDER=google, provider: deepgram_agent now fail validation - use exact provider instance keys instead. Single-instance setups using the canonical block names are unaffected.

🎛 Admin UI polish (v6.5.2)

  • Uniform per-instance credentials paste-style uploader across all full-agent provider forms (Grok, OpenAI Realtime, Deepgram, Google Live, ElevenLabs Agent)
  • EnvPage adds a new "Per-Instance Provider Credentials" status section so operators can audit credential file presence without SSH
  • Dashboard System Topology rebuilt: tri-state per-component health with 2-strike debounce (transient probe blips no longer flip dots red), responsive provider grid, multi-instance sub-rows grouped by provider type, Asterisk + AI Engine cards stretched to match Providers height
  • Backend probe timeouts bumped (ai_engine 1.5s → 5s; local_ai_server 2.5s → 5s) to stop legitimate localhost probes timing out under load
  • ~260 inline help tooltips backfilled across provider forms, Setup Wizard, and System pages - new HelpTooltip is viewport-aware (flips placement to keep popovers visible in scrolled modals)

📞 Call recordings (v6.5.2)

  • Browser playback for compact .ulaw recordings (Asterisk's 8 kHz μ-law output, ~10× smaller than PCM WAV) via server-side audioop.ulaw2lin WAV wrapping - no transcode dependency
  • Uppercase .WAV, compressed WAV, and .gsm recordings transcode via sox; AAVA_RECORDING_TRANSCODE_TIMEOUT_SEC env var (default 120s) governs the timeout

Previously in v6.5.1

  • 💻 CPU-demo profile end-to-end - Faster-Whisper tiny.en + Piper + Qwen 0.5B wired through the Admin UI; runtime Device/Compute selectors with CPU/float16 gating; Filler Audio and LLM/TTS Overlap runtime toggles
  • 🛡️ Local provider hot-path hardening - send_audio() no longer blocks on per-frame reconnect; asyncio.Lock serializes _reconnect() against _send_loop's on-ConnectionClosed path
  • 🎨 Faster-Whisper verify path tolerates the runtime CUDA→CPU fallback so working CPU/int8 configurations no longer get rolled back as "verification failed"

Previously in v6.5.0

  • 🔧 Local LLM tool-gated response (#368) - new WS protocol message types tool_context / tool_result v2; per-WebSocket fail-closed sync prevents cross-call ACL/policy/prompt leakage on reused connections
  • ☁️ Gemini 3.1 Flash Live verified compatible (no engine changes); Vertex AI mode is the production answer for #351 barge-in
  • 🎤 Deepgram Flux v2 + nova-3 default flip; Admin UI surfaces "Flux Turn-Detection Tuning" panel for flux-* models
  • 🩺 Admin UI HTTP-tool-test guard now reads .env first so Environment-page edits to AAVA_HTTP_TOOL_TEST_* take effect without a container restart (#370)

For older releases, expand Previous Versions below. Full release notes in CHANGELOG.md.

Previous Versions
v6.4.2 - Microsoft Calendar V1 + Google Calendar overhaul
  • 🗓️ Microsoft Calendar - Outlook / Microsoft 365 integration via device-code OAuth, Graph free/busy, legacy per-context account binding, Tools UI Connect/Verify/Disconnect (migrated to per-Agent resource access in v7.4)
  • 📅 Google Calendar - multi-account / legacy per-context binding (#338), JSON upload + auto-discover, Domain-Wide Delegation, native free/busy mode (migrated to per-Agent resource access in v7.4)
  • 🎯 Reschedule reliability - server-side event_id resolution + 400/404 fallback eliminates LLM-id-hallucination duplicate bookings
  • 🔧 Date/time prompt placeholders ({today}, {current_date}, etc.) so models stop reasoning with stale years
  • OpenAI Realtime duplicate-events fix (per-response_id async-event gating); per-context tool_overrides now actually take effect on OpenAI Realtime / Deepgram / Google Live; Google Live 30-voice catalog (#349)
v6.4.1 - CPU Latency Optimization
  • ⚡ Streaming LLM→TTS overlap - sentence-boundary token streaming, sub-2s perceived latency on pipelines
  • Pipeline filler audio (instant "One moment please" acknowledgment) configurable via Admin UI
  • Qwen 2.5-1.5B Instruct recommended for CPU; ~15-30 tok/s vs Phi-3's ~0.8 tok/s
  • Direct PCM→µ-law conversion in all 5 TTS backends (10-50ms saved per response)
  • Preflight hardening - Buildx detection, RAM/disk/network checks, GPU install gated behind --apply-fixes
v6.4.0 - Attended Transfer & Russian Speech
  • 📞 Attended transfer with three screening modes: basic_tts, ai_briefing, caller_recording
  • ExternalMedia RTP streaming delivery; provider-agnostic transfer-target tool guidance
  • 🗣️ Russian speech backends: Sherpa Offline STT (VAD-gated), T-one STT, Silero TTS (multi-language)
  • 🎧 Admin UI: fullscreen dashboard panels, per-message conversation timestamps, JSONPath [*] HTTP-tool wildcards
v6.3.2 - Azure Speech & MiniMax LLM
  • Microsoft Azure Speech Service STT & TTS pipeline adapters (REST batch, WebSocket streaming, SSML)
  • MiniMax LLM M2.7 via OpenAI-compatible API with tool-calling
  • Call Recording Playback in Admin UI Call Details modal
  • Azure SSRF prevention, PII logging discipline, input validation hardening
v6.3.1 - Local AI Server & Guardrails
  • Backend enable/rebuild flow, model lifecycle UX, GPU ergonomics, CPU-first onboarding
  • Structured local tool gateway, hangup guardrails, tool-call parsing robustness
  • agent check --local / --remote CLI verification
v6.1.1 - Operator Config & Live Agent Transfer
  • Operator config overrides (ai-agent.local.yaml), live agent transfer tool
  • Experimental ViciDial community-tested configuration notes, Asterisk config discovery in Admin UI
  • OpenAI Realtime GA API, Email system overhaul, NAT/GPU support
v5.3.1 - Phase Tools & Stability
  • Pre-call HTTP lookups, in-call HTTP tools, and post-call webhooks (Milestone 24)
  • Deepgram Voice Agent language configuration
  • ExternalMedia RTP greeting cutoff fix
v4.4.3 - Cross-Platform Support
  • 🌍 Pre-flight Script: System compatibility checker with auto-fix mode.
  • 🔧 Admin UI Fixes: Models page, providers page, dashboard improvements.
  • 🛠️ Developer Experience: Code splitting, ESLint + Prettier.
v4.4.2 - Local AI Enhancements
  • 🎤 New STT Backends: Kroko ASR, Sherpa-ONNX.
  • 🔊 Kokoro TTS: High-quality neural TTS.
  • 🔄 Model Management: Dynamic backend switching from Dashboard.
  • 📚 Documentation: LOCAL_ONLY_SETUP.md guide.
v4.4.1 - Admin UI
  • 🖥️ Admin UI: Modern web interface (http://localhost:3003).
  • 🎙️ ElevenLabs Conversational AI: Premium voice quality provider.
  • 🎵 Background Music: Ambient music during AI calls.
v4.3 - Complete Tool Support & Documentation
  • 🔧 Complete Tool Support: Works across ALL pipeline types.
  • 📚 Documentation Overhaul: Reorganized structure.
  • 💬 Discord Community: Official server integration.
v4.2 - Google Live API & Enhanced Setup
  • 🤖 Google Live API: Gemini 2.0 Flash integration.
  • 🚀 Interactive Setup: agent init wizard (agent quickstart remains available for backward compatibility).
v4.1 - Tool Calling & Agent CLI
  • 🔧 Tool Calling System: Transfer calls, send emails.
  • 🩺 Agent CLI Tools: doctor, troubleshoot, demo.

🌟 Why Asterisk AI Voice Agent?

Feature Benefit
Asterisk-Native Works directly with your existing Asterisk/FreePBX - no external telephony providers required.
Truly Open Source MIT licensed with complete transparency and control.
Modular Architecture Choose cloud, local, or hybrid - mix providers as needed.
Production-Ready Battle-tested baselines with Call History-first debugging.
Cost-Effective Local Hybrid costs ~$0.001-0.003/minute (LLM only).
Privacy-First Keep audio local while using cloud intelligence.

✨ Features

7 Golden Baseline Configurations

  1. OpenAI Realtime (Recommended for Quick Start)

    • Modern cloud AI with natural conversations (<2s response).
    • Config: config/ai-agent.golden-openai.yaml
    • Best for: Enterprise deployments, quick setup.
  2. Deepgram Voice Agent (Enterprise Cloud)

    • Advanced Deepgram-managed Think stage for complex reasoning (<3s response); requires only a Deepgram API key.
    • Config: config/ai-agent.golden-deepgram.yaml
    • Best for: Deepgram ecosystem, advanced features.
  3. Google Live API (Multimodal AI)

    • Gemini Live (Flash) with multimodal capabilities (<2s response).
    • Config: config/ai-agent.golden-google-live.yaml
    • Best for: Google ecosystem, advanced AI features.
  4. ElevenLabs Agent (Premium Voice Quality)

    • ElevenLabs Conversational AI with premium voices (<2s response).
    • Config: config/ai-agent.golden-elevenlabs.yaml
    • Best for: Voice quality priority, natural conversations.
  5. Local Hybrid (Privacy-Focused)

    • Local STT/TTS + Cloud LLM (OpenAI). Audio stays on-premises.
    • Config: config/ai-agent.golden-local-hybrid.yaml
    • Best for: Audio privacy, cost control, compliance.
  6. Telnyx AI Inference (Cost-Effective Multi-Model)

    • Local STT/TTS + Telnyx LLM with 53+ models (GPT-4o, Claude, Llama).
    • OpenAI-compatible API with competitive pricing.
    • Config: config/ai-agent.golden-telnyx.yaml
    • Best for: Model flexibility, cost optimization, multi-provider access.
  7. xAI Grok Voice Agent (Realtime Voice)

    • xAI realtime voice with five named voices (eve/ara/rex/sal/leo) or a custom cloned voice; μ-law @ 8 kHz caller input and observed PCM16 @ 24 kHz output converted for Asterisk.
    • Config: config/ai-agent.golden-grok.yaml
    • Best for: xAI ecosystem, telephony-native low-latency audio.

Additional LLM Providers

  • MiniMax LLM (High-Performance Cost-Effective)
    • Local STT/TTS + MiniMax M3 LLM with enhanced reasoning and coding.
    • OpenAI-compatible API with tool-calling support.
    • Models: MiniMax-M3 (default, latest flagship), MiniMax-M2.7 (previous flagship), MiniMax-M2.7-highspeed (low-latency).
    • Activate: set MINIMAX_API_KEY in .env, then configure providers.minimax_llm in config/ai-agent.yaml (see the minimax_llm section with enabled: true).
    • Best for: Long-context conversations, cost-effective high-performance LLM.

Fully Local (Optional)

AVA also supports a Fully Local mode (100% on-premises, no cloud APIs). Three topologies are supported:

Topology Latency Best For
CPU-Only 5-15s/turn Privacy, testing
GPU (same box) 0.5-2s/turn Production local
Split-Server (remote GPU) 1-3s/turn PBX on VPS + GPU box

GPU setup uses docker-compose.gpu.yml overlay with CUDA-enabled llama.cpp. Community-validated: RTX 4090 achieves ~1.0s E2E.

🏠 Self-Hosted LLM with Ollama (No API Key Required)

Run your own local LLM using Ollama - perfect for privacy-focused deployments:

# In ai-agent.yaml
active_pipeline: local_hybrid
pipelines:
  local_hybrid:
    stt: local_stt
    llm: ollama_llm
    tts: local_tts

Features:

  • No API key required - fully self-hosted on your network
  • Tool calling support with compatible models (Llama 3.2, Mistral, Qwen)
  • Local Vosk STT + Your Ollama LLM + Local Piper TTS
  • Complete privacy - all processing stays on-premises

Requirements:

  • Mac Mini, gaming PC, or server with Ollama installed
  • 8GB+ RAM (16GB+ recommended for larger models)
  • See docs/OLLAMA_SETUP.md for setup guide

Recommended Models:

Model Size Tool Calling
llama3.2 2GB ✅ Yes
mistral 4GB ✅ Yes
qwen2.5 4.7GB ✅ Yes

Technical Features

  • Tool Calling System: AI-powered actions (transfers, emails) work with any provider.
  • Agent CLI Tools: setup, check, rca, update, version commands (legacy aliases: init, doctor, troubleshoot).
  • Modular Pipeline System: Independent STT, LLM, and TTS provider selection.
  • Multiple Transports: AudioSocket (default in config/ai-agent.yaml), ExternalMedia RTP, and opt-in, version-gated Asterisk Media WebSocket (see the transport matrix).
  • Per-Agent Audio Profiles: Stable and enhanced 8 kHz telephony profiles, plus opt-in 16 kHz AudioSocket with provider-native PCM conversion on supported Asterisk versions and G.722/wideband endpoint or trunk legs. ExternalMedia RTP remains on the supported 8 kHz profiles; G.711/PSTN Agents remain on an 8 kHz profile.
  • Streaming-First Downstream: Streaming playback when possible, with automatic fallback to file playback for robustness.
  • High-Performance Architecture: Separate ai_engine and local_ai_server containers.
  • Observability: Built-in Call History for per-call debugging + optional /metrics scraping.
  • State Management: SessionStore for centralized, typed call state.
  • Barge-In Support: Interrupt handling with configurable gating.

🖥️ Admin UI

Modern web interface for configuration and system management.

Quick Start:

docker compose -p asterisk-ai-voice-agent up -d --build --force-recreate admin_ui
# Access at: http://localhost:3003
# Retrieve one-time password: docker compose -p asterisk-ai-voice-agent logs admin_ui | grep -i password

Key Features:

  • Setup Wizard: Visual provider configuration.
  • Dashboard: Real-time system metrics, container status, and Asterisk connection indicator.
  • Asterisk Setup: Live ARI status, module checklist, config audit with guided fix commands.
  • Live Logs: WebSocket-based log streaming.
  • YAML Editor: Monaco-based editor with validation.

🎥 Demo

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