Import agents from another platform

Bring agents, tools, and knowledge bases over from Vapi, Retell, ElevenLabs Agents, or Bland with an API key or a JSON export, review the mapping, and import.

If your agents live on Vapi, Retell, ElevenLabs Agents, or Bland, the importer fetches them, maps every field onto ThunderPhone, and shows you the result before anything is created.

Start an import#

1. Open Agents and choose Import (or Import from Vapi, Retell, ElevenLabs, or Bland on an empty agents page).
2. Pick the platform.
3. Follow the numbered steps in the dialog to create a key on that platform (they open the right settings page for you), paste it, or switch to Paste exported JSON and paste one or more agent objects from that platform's dashboard or API.
4. Choose Fetch my agents. Fetching and mapping usually takes under a minute; you can leave the page and come back through the task tray.

Review the plan#

Each agent shows the name, matched voice (with how confident the match is), intelligence tier, the tools and knowledge bases it brings, and notes about anything that changed in translation. Expand a row to read the prompt:

• Rewritten — one coherent prompt in the style of the prompting guide, with every phone number, URL, tool name, and placeholder from the source preserved.
• Structured — the source config laid out under headings, exactly as extracted. Used automatically when the rewrite cannot be verified, or when the rewrite came out much shorter than the source.

An agent imported from a flow shows Shared instructions instead of the prompt, followed by its steps: each step's name, what it tells the agent to do, and where it goes next. Show as one prompt shows the same agent as a single prompt, which is what it runs wherever steps are not available. Agents with handoffs list the agents they hand the caller to; if you untick one of those, the review says that handoff will not be set up.

Every agent starts selected except empty ones and default starter agents the platform created for you. Untick agents you do not want, edit names, voices, tiers, or the prompt choice, then Import. Created agents open in the builder with their API connections and knowledge attached.

Flows, Squads and agent transfers#

Multi-step agents keep their structure. See Agent steps for how steps and handoffs run on a call.

• Flows become steps. Retell multi-prompt states and conversation flows, Bland pathways and ElevenLabs workflows import as the agent's steps. The source's global prompt becomes the shared instructions.
  • Each node's instructions, fixed line, values to collect and tools carry over.
  • Edge conditions written in words become transitions the agent decides. A single comparison on a collected value or a webhook response (age >= 18) becomes a transition that is checked exactly.
  • Webhook and function nodes run their tool as the step starts. Global nodes can be reached from any step; one with no ways forward of its own hands the call back to the step it interrupted.
  • Transfer and end nodes become last steps that transfer or end the call. A Retell transfer node keeps its way out for when the transfer does not go through.
  • A branch node that only picks the next step is merged into the step before it when it can be. Otherwise it stays a step of its own, with a note.
  • A flow that is too large for steps, or that ThunderPhone cannot represent as steps, is imported as one prompt that lists every step, with a note.
• Squads, agent transfers and agent swaps become handoffs. Each member of a Vapi Squad is imported as its own agent, named after the member and the Squad. The first member answers the Squad's calls and the others are reached by handoff. ElevenLabs transfers to another agent and Retell agent swaps become handoffs too. The caller stays on the line and the conversation so far carries over.
  • A call reached by handoff keeps the call settings of the agent that answered it: voicemail, call limits, languages and recording. The agent it hands off to brings its own prompt, steps, tools and voice.
  • A handoff can only point at an agent imported in the same run. If the other agent is not in the import, or you untick it, the note says so and you can add the handoff later in the agent's settings.

What is imported#

What needs a step on ThunderPhone#

The report at the bottom of the review page lists numbers, webhooks, and tools that did not move; each agent's notes cover the rest. Together they show everything that did not move and why:

• Phone numbers. After the import, each source number shows where it lives and what you can do with it:
  • In your own Twilio or Telnyx account (for example a Twilio number you connected to Vapi or ElevenLabs): an admin can move it to an imported agent. If no VoIP connection holds that account yet, connect it first. Before anything changes, a confirm step says that calls to the number will stop going to the old platform. ThunderPhone then points the number at itself in your carrier account (a Twilio number joins ThunderPhone's SIP trunk; a Telnyx number moves to ThunderPhone's SIP connection) and places a short test call to switch it on. To undo it, delete the number on Phone numbers, keeping it in your carrier account, then re-import it on the old platform.
  • On your SIP trunk: connect the trunk as a SIP connection and import the number on Phone numbers.
  • Sold by the platform (Vapi, Retell and Bland numbers bought there): ThunderPhone cannot move it. Port it to a carrier and import it, or get a ThunderPhone number and attach it to the imported agent.
  • Bland does not say whether a number is its own or from your Twilio account, so Bland numbers show both options.
• Per-agent webhooks. ThunderPhone delivers signed webhooks per organization; set one up under Webhooks.
• Vendor-stored credentials. Tool headers that were visible are copied. Credentials the old platform stored by id are flagged; add them to the API connection's headers.
• Built-in integrations. Calendar, CRM, and messaging tools the old platform hosted (for example Cal.com booking) are named with the ThunderPhone integration to connect instead; their credentials do not carry over. The review also flags a prompt that still tells the agent to use a tool that was not imported.
• Text messages. ThunderPhone agents text through your own carrier connection; set up SMS in the agent's settings.
• Tools without an equivalent (platform-specific automations) are listed so nothing is dropped silently.
• Call variables. {{name}} placeholders are kept, with the defaults your platform had. ThunderPhone fills them from the variables passed when a call starts and leaves them blank otherwise; the review lists the ones you need to pass.
• Call limits and recording. The maximum call length is imported. When the source agent never changed it, the platform's own default is set: 10 minutes for Vapi and ElevenLabs, 1 hour for Retell, 30 minutes for Bland. A source value that is not a positive number imports with no maximum, and the review says so. Silence and maximum-duration limits outside ThunderPhone's ranges are adjusted, and the review note names the source value and the imported one. When the source agent had call recording turned off, the agent's review note says whether it is imported with recording off or, where turning recording off is not yet available, with recording on.

What changes when you import#

A few settings your old platform left at its own default take ThunderPhone's default instead. The review lists them in one note per agent, under Show details, only where the two platforms differ. The ThunderPhone figures below are its defaults, which you can change per agent:

A setting you changed on the old platform is imported as you set it, not listed here. The one exception is a silent-call setting of "never hang up": it is listed like a default, and the agent keeps ThunderPhone's check-ins. Change any of these in the agent's settings after import.

Importing without a key#

Choose Paste exported JSON and paste the object(s) your platform's API or dashboard exports, as one object or a JSON list:

• Vapi — an assistant object (GET /assistant/{id}), a Squad object (GET /squad/{id}), or a list of either. Tools attached only by id and knowledge files need a key to resolve. Vapi retired Workflows, so convert a Workflow to a Squad before pasting it.
• Retell — the agent object (GET /get-agent/{id}?version=...) together with its same-version Retell LLM (GET /get-retell-llm/{id}?version=...) or conversation flow object in the same list. The importer links by id and version, prefers a pasted published agent when publication status is present, and imports a standalone LLM or flow under a generated name.
• ElevenLabs — the agent object (GET /v1/convai/agents/{id}). Current exports usually reference webhook tools and knowledge documents only by id. A paste reports those items as unresolved; use an API key for a complete import.
• Bland — a web agent, the /v1/agents response, or a pathway object. Each pasted object imports as its own agent, even when two share an id; tool and knowledge ids that need API access are listed for manual setup instead of being dropped.

Anything referenced only by id and not present in the paste is listed in the notes.

After the import#

1. Open each agent and read its notes.
2. Place a test call from the builder.
3. Move your numbers over, or attach a new one (see Phone numbers above).
4. Test each API connection with the request tester.
5. Check that knowledge documents finished indexing.
6. Set an organization webhook if the old agents used one.

The importer is also available over the REST API.