# Call preview

> Ask your AI assistant to show exactly what your AI agent would say and do on a call, without placing one.

- Section: Using the MCP (AI assistant) › AI agent setup
- Web page: https://docs.biglysales.com/mcp/call-context-preview
- Manual (in-app) equivalent: [Test calls](https://docs.biglysales.com/manual/test-calls.md)
- Video: placeholder — "Previewing a call before it goes live" (not yet recorded)

A **call preview** shows you the complete script your AI agent would get for a call: the final prompt with every placeholder filled in, the opening sentences, the qualifying questions, and the voice, model and tool setup. Nothing is dialed, nobody is called, and nothing is charged.

Use it after any change to your [voice prompt](https://docs.biglysales.com/mcp/voice-prompt.md), [intros](https://docs.biglysales.com/mcp/intros.md), [prompt variables](https://docs.biglysales.com/mcp/prompt-variables.md) or [tools](https://docs.biglysales.com/mcp/tools-configuration.md), to check the result before real leads hear it. This is a read-only tool: it never changes anything.

> **Example request to your AI assistant:** "Preview an outbound call using the Solar intro, for a lead named Maria."
> "Preview an inbound call and check that every placeholder is filled in."
> "Preview a web call from our website widget."
> "Does the assembled prompt give the agent the transfer tool?"

## Before you start

- [Connect your AI assistant](https://docs.biglysales.com/mcp/connect.md) to Bigly.
- You need the **call preview** permission. Account owners and admins have it by default.
- Your account needs a voice prompt. If none exists yet, the preview fails and the assistant tells you to set one up in [Voice prompt](https://docs.biglysales.com/mcp/voice-prompt.md) first.

## What you can ask for

| Option | What it means | Default |
|---|---|---|
| Call type | A **phone** call, or a **web** call from your website widget. | Phone |
| Direction | **Outbound** (you call the lead) or **inbound** (the lead calls you). | Outbound |
| Intro | Which [intro](https://docs.biglysales.com/mcp/intros.md) to use. Name it and the assistant finds it. | None, unless it's a web call |
| Test name | A first name to put into `{name}`, so you can read the script as a lead would hear it. | None |
| Contact | One real contact whose details fill in the placeholders. The assistant can't search your contacts, so give it the contact's ID. | None |
| Phone provider | Which phone carrier setup to preview. | Your default |

## What the preview shows

- **The final prompt**, with your intro, prompt variables, working hours and contact details filled in.
- **The opening sentences** the agent will say.
- **The qualifying questions** from the intro.
- **The call setup**: language model, voice, speech recognition and the tools the agent will receive.
- **How it was built**: the call type, direction and intro used, and where that intro came from.

Ask the assistant to point out anything still in curly braces, such as `{offer}`. That means a placeholder didn't resolve, usually because of a typo or a missing [prompt variable](https://docs.biglysales.com/mcp/prompt-variables.md).

> [Screenshot placeholder: Call preview summary — A Claude conversation summarising a Bigly outbound call preview: the first and second opening sentences with the lead name filled in, three qualifying questions, the selected voice and model, and a note that one placeholder did not resolve.]

## Web call previews

When you ask for a web call preview:

- It always uses your **outbound** prompt and opening sentences. Inbound settings don't apply to web calls, and asking for an inbound web call is rejected.
- If you don't name an intro, it uses the intro set in [Web calling](https://docs.biglysales.com/mcp/web-call.md), then your default follow-up intro. The preview says which one it used.
- Phone and carrier settings are ignored, because a web call has no phone line.

## Privacy

The only way the preview reads a contact's details is if you ask for a specific contact. Otherwise it uses no contact data at all. Use a test name when you just want to read the script.

## What you can't do here

- **Place a call.** The MCP can't start a phone call or a web call. To hear the agent, place a [test call in the app](https://docs.biglysales.com/manual/test-calls.md).
- **See past calls.** Recordings and transcripts aren't available through the MCP. See [Call recordings](https://docs.biglysales.com/manual/call-recordings.md).
- **Change anything.** The preview only reads. Make changes with the other AI agent setup tools.

## Related

- [Test calls in the app](https://docs.biglysales.com/manual/test-calls.md)
- [Voice prompt](https://docs.biglysales.com/mcp/voice-prompt.md)
- [Intros](https://docs.biglysales.com/mcp/intros.md)
- [Troubleshooting](https://docs.biglysales.com/mcp/troubleshooting.md)

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All documentation pages: https://docs.biglysales.com/llms.txt