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Connect your Twilio account

Taki runs on top of your own Twilio account, so you pay Twilio directly for calls and messages at their published rates and Taki never marks usage up.

Why bring your own account

Most phone systems resell carrier minutes to you at a margin. Taki does not touch that money. You keep the Twilio account in your own name, you see every cent of usage on Twilio's own invoice, and if you ever leave Taki your numbers and your call history stay where they are.

That also means one thing you should know up front: you need a Twilio account, and Twilio bills you separately from your Taki subscription.

1. Create the Twilio account

  1. Go to twilio.com and sign up with your work email.
  2. Verify your email address and your mobile number. Twilio requires both.
  3. When Twilio asks what you are building, any answer is fine. It only tunes their onboarding.
  4. Upgrade from the trial to a paid account. Trial accounts can only call verified numbers and prepend a trial message to every call, which will make your flows behave strangely.
Upgrading usually means adding a payment method and a small starting balance. Twilio's minimum top up is low, and unused balance stays on your account.

2. Find your Account SID and Auth Token

  1. Open the Twilio Console.
  2. On the account dashboard, look for Account Info.
  3. Copy the Account SID. It always starts with AC and is 34 characters long.
  4. Reveal and copy the Auth Token. Treat this like a password.

If you manage several Twilio projects, make sure you are copying the SID of the project that will own your phone numbers. The project name is in the top left of the Console.

3. Paste them into Taki

  1. In Taki, open Settings, then Twilio.
  2. Paste the Account SID and Auth Token, and press Connect.
  3. Taki calls Twilio once to confirm the credentials work and to read the friendly name of the account.

Your Auth Token is stored encrypted. Taki uses it to buy numbers on your instruction, to point numbers at your flows, and to place and bridge calls while a flow is running.

4. Let Taki own the webhooks

A Twilio phone number needs to know where to send an incoming call. When you attach a number to a Taki flow, Taki sets that number's voice and messaging webhooks for you.

If you previously pointed a number at TwiML Bins, Studio, or your own server, attaching it to a Taki flow will replace those settings. Nothing is deleted on Twilio's side, so you can point the number back at any time.

Rotating the token later

If you ever need to rotate your Auth Token in the Twilio Console, paste the new one into Taki straight away. Between the rotation and the paste, calls that are already in progress keep working, but new flow actions that need the API will fail.

Troubleshooting

  • Authentication failed: the SID and token belong to different projects, or the token was rotated. Re-copy both from the same Console project.
  • Trial account detected: upgrade the Twilio account. Trial restrictions break waterfall routing because unverified numbers cannot be dialed.
  • Numbers do not appear: the numbers live in another Twilio project or subaccount. Taki reads only the project the credentials belong to.

Next: buy your first number.