How do I make my AI agent book appointments on my calendar, and why can't it book?

An agent cannot book appointments or check your real schedule until it is connected to a calendar or bookable with a booking tool. If it is not connected, it can take the caller's details but cannot book the appointment.

The simplest setup is the prompt only (system prompt) mode with the Bookable service tool, instead of building the booking in a flow:

1. Create a bookable in Calendars, then Bookables: the service name, the appointment lengths (for example 30 or 60 minutes), the staff and their availability (for example Monday to Friday, 9 to 5 Eastern), and the time zone.
2. Open your AI agent, add the Bookable service tool, pick that bookable and save.
3. In the agent prompt, write a line such as: anytime someone wants to book an appointment, find an available date and time and complete the booking using this tool. Type @ and tag the Bookable service tool, then save.
4. If the agent has a flow with triggers or nodes you do not need, disable them, and remove a knowledge base you do not use.
5. Save and test by talking to the agent. It should offer the next available times and book the appointment.

If your agent books from a booking step in its flow, select a calendar or bookable in that step. If you do not have one yet, create one under Calendars, Bookables. Creating a new bookable from the step opens it in a new tab.

If the agent still cannot book, check the bookable:

1. The staff member who takes the bookings exists on the calendar (you may need to list yourself as staff).
2. The staff member's availability is set.
3. The appointment lengths you want are set.
4. The staff member is assigned to the bookable and its appointment types.

Then test the agent again.

The times the agent offers come from the bookable's staff availability, hours and time zone, so set those on the bookable. Do not tell the agent to make up times, or it will offer times that are not on your calendar. Do not tell it its goal is role playing, or it will not actually book: say it is booking appointments.

After a booking, the customer gets a booking confirmation email and the account owner can get a new lead alert email. By default the bookable also sends email reminders 24 hours and 1 hour before the appointment. You can see and change these in the bookable's notifications.

A voice agent can also transfer a call to a person when you set that up with a Call forwarding step.