Digital Macaroni
Form & Field

Managed voice platform

A voice platform in front, our tools behind.

Form & Field is our retail example. We built it to show how a voice agent can answer product questions, check live stock, reserve items for pickup, look up orders and open support requests. The agent answers as Erica and runs on a managed voice platform, ElevenLabs Agents, which handles the real-time conversation while the catalogue, stock and orders stay on our own server.

Call the Form & Field demoCompare architectures
Built with
  • ElevenLabs
  • Google Gemini
  • Twilio
  • Google Cloud
  • Resend

The architecture

The caller

Rings the demo number from any phone.

Phone line and call service

Twilio streams the call to our service on Google Cloud Run, which pairs it with the live screen.

Managed voice platform
ElevenLabs Agents
HearsScribe Realtime
ThinksGemini 3.7 Flash
SpeaksEleven v4 Turbo
Demo backend
  • Search the catalogue
  • Check product details
  • Reserve for pickup
  • Change a reservation
  • Cancel a reservation
  • and 4 more tools
Tool calls run on our own service, against the demo’s data. Every result is shown on the live screen as it happens, and the confirmation goes out by email.

Businesses this architecture works for

This one answers for a homeware shop, but the same build suits any business whose calls are about products, orders and accounts, especially teams that want to own and run the agent themselves. A few ideas:

  • Retail and boutiques

    Checks stock across locations, holds items for pickup and answers product questions.

  • E-commerce brands

    Handles “where’s my order?”, returns and delivery questions around the clock.

  • Furniture and appliance stores

    Answers stock and delivery-window questions and books deliveries.

  • Auto parts stores

    Checks fitment and stock and holds parts for pickup.

  • Car dealerships

    Answers inventory questions and books test drives and service visits.

  • Equipment and tool rental

    Checks availability, takes reservations and confirms pickup times.

  • Subscription businesses

    Answers account and plan questions and hands billing changes to staff.

  • Garden centres and nurseries

    Answers stock and plant-care questions and reserves items.

  • Wholesale and distributors

    Gives trade customers stock levels and order status by phone.

The stack

HearsElevenLabs Scribe Realtime

Streaming speech recognition, run by the platform.

ThinksGoogle Gemini 3.7 Flash

The reasoning model, chosen by us and run by the platform.

SpeaksElevenLabs Eleven v4 Turbo

A premium, natural voice from the platform’s library.

BackendThe Form & Field demo backend

Catalogue, stock levels, reservations, orders and support requests.

Phone lineTwilio Programmable Voice

Answers the number and streams the call audio both ways in real time.

Call serviceOur own service on Google Cloud Run

Bridges the call to the engine, runs the tools, keeps the records and pairs the call with the live screen.

ConfirmationsResend

Sends the confirmation email from fixed templates, with limits so a public line can’t be misused.

What this architecture does well

The real-time loop is handled

Listening, turn-taking, interruptions and the voice are the platform’s job. That’s the hardest part to get right, and it’s proven at scale.

Pick the brain

The platform runs the reasoning model you choose. Here that’s Gemini 3.7 Flash, and it can be swapped without rebuilding the agent.

Tools run on our side

When Erica needs stock or an order, the platform sends the tool call back to our service over the same connection. The business’s data never has to live on the platform, and the records and dashboard stay ours.

Easy to own and hand over

The agent can sit in the business’s own platform account, and the setup is familiar to other developers. Nobody is locked in.

What the demo shows on a call

  1. 01Finds the right piece

    Searches the catalogue from a description, a budget or a style.

  2. 02Answers the details

    Materials, sizes and prices straight from the product listing.

  3. 03Checks real stock

    Only reserves what the shop actually has.

  4. 04Reserves or looks up

    Holds an item for pickup, or finds an order once its number and email match.

  5. 05Confirms it

    The shop’s screen updates and the reservation can go out by email.

Guardrails in the demo

  • Quotes only prices and stock the catalogue returns
  • Reads every reservation or change back and waits for a yes
  • Discusses an order only after its number and email both match
  • Never takes payment or promises a refund: items are paid in store

Trade-offs

  • The platform charges its own per-minute fee on top of the call.
  • You build within the platform’s features and limits.
  • One more service in the path of every call.

The other two architectures

There’s no single right way to build a voice agent. Each demo shows a different one, and we choose per business. See them side by side.

Northline demoSingle bidirectional model

One model streams audio both ways: it hears, reasons, calls tools and speaks in one live session.

Waypoint Travel demoCascade: hear, think, speak

Three specialist models in a row, with turn-taking and timing handled by our own code.

Building for a different kind of business?

Tell us how your calls go. We’ll recommend an architecture and explain why.

Drop us a note