LobbyStack

npx add-mcp 'https://app.lobbystack.com/api/mcp'

Why teams use LobbyStack

Most AI receptionist tools are closed, expensive, and difficult to adapt to real business workflows. LobbyStack is different.

• Open source by default. Inspect the code, self-host it, extend it, and keep control of your data.
• Built for real phone calls. Handle natural voice conversations, interruptions, live transfers, and messages for your team.
• Calls and texts in one place. Review calls, recordings, transcripts, and incoming texts from the same dashboard.
• Scheduling built in. Book, reschedule, and cancel appointments through Google Calendar.
• Designed for small businesses. Guided setup, transparent pricing, and no enterprise-only feature gatekeeping.
• Human fallback. Transfer calls or escalate messages when the AI should not handle something alone.

Core features

☎️ AI phone receptionist

LobbyStack answers inbound calls with a natural voice agent trained on your business information. It can answer common questions, collect caller details, take messages, qualify requests, offer appointment slots, and transfer to a human when required.

💬 Text messages

LobbyStack saves texts sent to your business number and alerts your team. You read the thread and reply by hand from the dashboard. The AI doesn't answer texts; STOP and HELP get fixed replies.

📅 Appointment scheduling

LobbyStack connects to Google Calendar, Cal.com or Calendly, checks availability, offers time slots, books appointments, and sends a confirmation text and one reminder text 24 hours before, if the caller agrees. Callers can also reschedule or cancel during a later call.

📚 Knowledge base

Upload business information, FAQs, services, pricing, policies, and internal notes. The AI uses this knowledge to answer accurately and consistently.

🧑‍💼 Human handoff

LobbyStack can transfer a live call, take a message, or notify the team by email or opt-in SMS when a person needs to respond.

📥 Shared inbox

Review calls, SMS threads, transcripts, recordings, appointments, and customer details from one dashboard.

🔌 Integrations

LobbyStack books into Google Calendar, Cal.com or Calendly. A REST API, signed webhooks, Zapier and an MCP server connect it to your other tools. It doesn't sync with CRMs or practice-management software yet.

Use cases

LobbyStack can be adapted for many local business workflows:

• Clinics and healthcare offices
• Salons, spas, and barbershops
• Auto repair shops
• Home service companies
• Restaurants
• Dental offices
• Law firms and professional services
• Property managers
• Any business that receives appointment, pricing, hours, or availability questions by phone

Product areas

Area	What it gives you
Voice reception	Inbound phone and browser calls answered by OpenAI GPT-Live, with phone numbers from Twilio or Telnyx.
Business knowledge	Answers from structured business facts, text entries, documents, and imported website pages.
Booking	Service-aware scheduling with availability checks and calendar handoff.
Appointment changes	Safer cancellation and rescheduling flows with appointment lookup and verification.
Human handoff	Live transfer and follow-up tasks for calls that need staff attention.
Messages	Incoming texts with manual replies, connected to customer history.
Website widget	Embeddable chat, lead capture, and browser calls with per-site access controls. Restricted: new widget keys are off unless you set WIDGET_KEY_ISSUANCE_ENABLED=true.
MCP server	A Model Context Protocol server at /api/mcp that lets Claude, ChatGPT and other assistants read calls and book appointments.
Dashboard	Calls, messages, contacts, appointments, recordings, transcripts, follow-ups, and analytics together.
Usage and billing	Hosted plans, voice usage, alert SMS, transfer attempts, storage, and spending caps.
Bring your own API keys	Self-hosted deployments can use your own Twilio or Telnyx, OpenAI-compatible AI, calendar, email, analytics, and billing provider credentials.

MCP server

LobbyStack runs a Model Context Protocol server, so you can connect Claude, ChatGPT, Claude Code, Cursor, VS Code or any other MCP client to a business and ask in plain language: "Who called yesterday and didn't book?" or "Book Dana Whitfield for a cleaning on Tuesday morning."

Setting	Value
Server URL	https://app.lobbystack.com/api/mcp (self-hosted: https://<your-domain>/api/mcp)
Transport	Streamable HTTP
Authentication	Sign in with LobbyStack (OAuth), or Authorization: Bearer <API key>
Registry name	io.github.lobbystack/lobbystack in the official MCP Registry

Add it to Claude Code:

claude mcp add --transport http lobbystack https://app.lobbystack.com/api/mcp

The server exposes 18 tools for one business. Each tool needs a scope, and every change lands in the business's audit log.

Tools	Scope
get_business, list_services, list_staff	business:read
update_business_hours	business:write
list_calls, get_call	calls:read
search_contacts, get_contact	contacts:read
create_contact, update_contact	contacts:write
list_appointments, get_appointment, check_availability	appointments:read
book_appointment, cancel_appointment, reschedule_appointment	appointments:write
list_messages	messages:read
add_knowledge	knowledge:write

Read-only tools carry readOnlyHint, and tools that cancel, move or replace data carry destructiveHint. White Label partners get extra tools for running their partner console.

The implementation lives in apps/admin/src/lib/mcp/: server.ts builds the McpServer and registers the tools from tools.ts and partner-tools.ts, and apps/admin/app/api/mcp/route.ts serves it. The MCP server guide covers scopes, errors and limits.

Technology

Layer	Main components
App	Next.js, React, Tailwind CSS, shadcn/ui
Backend	PostgreSQL, Drizzle ORM, Redis, BullMQ
Voice	OpenAI GPT-Live over SIP and WebRTC, through Twilio Elastic SIP Trunking or Telnyx SIP connections
Agent	Vercel AI SDK, gpt-6-luna or any OpenAI-compatible model
MCP	@modelcontextprotocol/server over Streamable HTTP, with OAuth or API keys

Hosted and open source

LobbyStack is open source with a hosted cloud service.

Use LobbyStack Cloud when you want the product managed for you. You still control the receptionist behavior, knowledge, services, rules, numbers, integrations, and team workflow from the app.

Self-host when your team wants to run the stack on your own infrastructure, bring your own API keys, and use your own PostgreSQL, Twilio or Telnyx, OpenAI-compatible AI, calendar, analytics, billing, and email provider accounts.

To self-host on Railway, deploy the LobbyStack template. Railway generates every secret and database password, and you enter an OpenAI API key and your Twilio credentials.

After deploying, set a few variables in Railway:

• Email: SMTP_* and EMAIL_FROM on the worker. Password resets, verification codes, and invites fail without them.
• Phone calls: an OpenAI webhook to https://your_admin_domain/api/webhooks/openai/live, its secret as OPENAI_WEBHOOK_SECRET on the admin, and your Twilio Elastic SIP trunk as TWILIO_SIP_TRUNK_SID on the worker. See docs/voice/runtime.md. To use Telnyx for some countries or all of them, follow Use Telnyx.
• Optional: FIRECRAWL_API_KEY on the worker for website import, and GOOGLE_CLIENT_ID and GOOGLE_CLIENT_SECRET on the admin for Google Calendar.
• Custom domain: APP_BASE_URL on the admin. The other URL variables reference it.

The self-hosting guide has each step.

Full product control in the hosted app. Infrastructure ownership when you self-host. Same open-source core either way.

Architecture for contributors

LobbyStack is a TypeScript monorepo with PostgreSQL as the durable source of truth. OpenAI hosts call audio; the admin app starts each call and the worker runs it.

apps/
  admin/           Next.js dashboard and HTTP API
  worker/          asynchronous jobs, outbox dispatch, and live calls
packages/embed/    Vite bundle for the embeddable website widget loader
packages/          database, domain, agent core, jobs, providers, telemetry, and shared contracts
mintlify/          public documentation source
docs/              architecture notes, ADRs, provider docs, and validation notes

Read the self-hosting overview for the provider map and deployment expectations, or use the Docker Compose guide for the official single-host baseline.

Get started

Use the hosted app

1. Create a LobbyStack account.
2. Verify your mobile number.
3. Import website knowledge, or skip and add knowledge manually later.
4. Choose a plan.
5. Claim a business number on Starter or Pro.
6. Configure AI settings, services, knowledge, and rules before sending live calls.

The full hosted walkthrough lives in the setup guide.

Run local development

cp .env.example .env
pnpm install
docker compose up -d postgres redis
pnpm db:migrate
pnpm dev

Local development stores recordings and uploads under .lobbystack/storage. Set STORAGE_PROVIDER=s3 when you need to test an S3-compatible service.

Mock providers are part of the default development path, so contributors can exercise flows without live Twilio, AI, calendar, or email credentials. Provider setup notes live in the docs.

Deploy with Docker Compose

git clone https://github.com/lobbystack/lobbystack.git
cd lobbystack
pnpm install
cp .env.example .env
# Replace every placeholder before exposing the stack.
docker compose --env-file .env up -d --build

The stack uses stdout logs and health endpoints without running monitoring containers. Set OTEL_EXPORTER_OTLP_ENDPOINT and OTEL_EXPORTER_OTLP_HEADERS to send server telemetry to PostHog or another OTLP-compatible backend.

For prerequisites, local smoke vs production go-live, helper scripts, and troubleshooting, see the Docker Compose self-hosting guide.

Contributing

Contributions are welcome. Start with CONTRIBUTING.md, keep durable business logic in the domain and database layers, and put the receptionist's tools in the agent core.

Before opening a PR, run:

pnpm typecheck
pnpm build
pnpm test

License

LobbyStack is licensed under the MIT License.