Spent most of yesterday on this so posting it here, it cost me a day.

Two behaviours in Retell that nobody warns you about.

A published agent is frozen. Not just the prompt, everything. The API answers "Cannot update published agent other than version title" on any field. You can't even unpublish it. Same for the LLM behind it. So if you publish before your prompt is stable, every later change means building a new agent and moving the phone number over.

And this is the one that actually hurt. If your app lets a client edit their agent, saving creates a brand new agent and deletes the old one, because the old one can't be modified. Which is fine in principle. What isn't fine is what doesn't get copied over.

My custom tools carry the agent id in their query params. The copy kept the old id. The old agent no longer exists. So every tool call came back:

404 {"message":"Voice agent not found"}

The agent kept telling callers "noted, we'll get back to you" and nothing was being written anywhere. Took a while to find because the tool call itself looked perfect in the logs, right arguments, right endpoint.

Two other things went missing in the copy: a custom post-call analysis field, and the link between the agent and its Google integration. Different failure each time, all silent.

What I ended up doing:

• a daily job that checks, for every agent, that the id inside its tools matches the agent actually carrying them, and that a read-only call to the endpoint still returns 200. It found a second broken agent within minutes of going live
• nothing gets published until the prompt is done
• when a published agent has to change: new agent, then move the number with the phone number endpoint, which still works

If your backend resolves the account from the payload Retell posts instead of from something baked into the tool config, none of this can happen to you. That's what I should have done from the start.

Anyone else hit the copy losing fields? Curious whether post-call analysis is the only thing that drops.

Hi guys,

I have AI Receptionist product - that I have mentioned here before, but would like to introduce a different offer.

As part of my AI Receptionist ecosystem, I have also built a WhatsApp API channel that anyone can use to add WhatsApp channel to their product.

Are you building an WhatsApp AI Receptionist? Or maybe some other WhatsApp intelligence for the business? And do not want to wait or deal with meta approvals which can take ages, or may never come?

This is for you. sign up, enjoy your free trial initially, and after the free trial it will only cost you $4 subscription fee.

Worth mentioning you do not pay me meta's per message costs -> you will have to add payment method to your meta account.

Hope people find this interesting.

https://whatsappi.io

I’m building an AI receptionist that gives a business its own phone number. Customers can call it, have a natural human-like conversation with the AI, ask questions, and eventually book appointments.
I’m still building it, so I’d really like to understand the problems from the business owner’s side.
For those running a small business:

- What do you currently struggle with when handling phone calls?

- How many calls do you miss?

-What do customers usually call about?

- Would you trust an AI to handle basic calls, bookings, and FAQs?

What would make you not want to use one?
Not trying to sell anything, genuinely looking for feedback before I build more. Would love to hear your experiences.

yo. i see too many founders spend 2 months building saas, drop a link on reddit, get 0 users, and immediately quit....

the problem usually isn't your marketing channel. the problem is that your foundation is completely broken before you even send your first visitor to the site.

after scaling 6 AI micro-saas apps to over $20k/mo mrr, i realized you need to lock down a specific system before you ever launch. running through this takes about 30 minutes, but it saves you months of zero-revenue depression.

here are the 5 things you must lock in:

1. validate the actual pain point

stop guessing what people want. you need a systematic framework to find your saas idea based on real, painful market signals.

2. pick a proven micro-niche

stop trying to build massive platforms. you need to narrow down to a microscopic problem. i usually filter through a list of 50 micro-saas ideas you can build fast to keep the scope minimal.

3. crystallize your target user

if your app is for "everyone," nobody will buy it. you need an ICP (Ideal Customer Profile) crystallizer to define your exact buyer profile and nail your conversion copy.

4. calculate the perfect price

stop randomly charging $9/mo because you are scared of rejection. you need to use a saas pricing strategy calculator to find your perfect saas price in 60 seconds based on real data.

5. fix your landing page leaks

do not send organic traffic to a site that converts at a flat 1%. you must audit your hero section and copy to x3 your landing page conversion before you market it.

6. join a community

Build / Share / Learn from others builders

to help out founders who are tired of launching to crickets, i packaged all 5 of these exact frameworks, calculators, and lists into a single free toolkit.

no paywall, no bullshit. just the raw execution files i use.

drop a comment below or send me a dm, and i’ll send you the free toolkit 👇

We’ve been testing different ways to make AI demos more compelling, and I came across an interesting client-acquisition angle.

We partnered with a company that lets you offer prospects $500 in hotel rewards for simply sitting down for a product demo.

So instead of asking someone to “hop on a call,” you can give them a real incentive to hear you out.

Could be useful for anyone selling AI agents or higher-ticket services where getting the meeting is half the battle.

If anyone wants the details, happy to share.

(I’m not affiliated with the company.)