Build voice AI agents that talk with people and work with your application.
Parlora is an Elixir framework for building real-time voice AI agents. It connects speech-to-speech models to your application's services and agent backends, with audio through browsers, phone calls, or local microphones and speakers.
For example, a caller can ask about an order, keep talking while the lookup runs, then correct the order number. Your application's policy interprets the request and correction. Parlora coordinates the backend tasks and filters outdated task results before sending them to the voice provider for a spoken response.
All audio passes through Parlora. Your application controls business rules, authorization, confirmations, and storage.
Why use Parlora?
- Connect conversation to useful work. Run application actions while the voice conversation continues, such as looking up an order or preparing a change for confirmation.
- Handle changing requests. Coordinate follow-ups, task corrections, cancellation requests, and result delivery through your application policy.
- Choose integrations independently. Combine a supported audio channel, voice provider, and backend without tying all three to one vendor or framework.
- Reuse the session runtime. Parlora provides audio queues, playback controls, lifecycle deadlines, cleanup, and events for observing each session.
Built for speech-to-speech conversation
Parlora focuses on full-duplex speech-to-speech providers: models that accept audio and generate spoken responses while caller audio can continue flowing.
Parlora currently integrates these providers directly rather than assembling separate speech recognition, text generation, and speech synthesis services. The integration guide explains these terms in more detail.
Supported integrations
| Audio channels | Voice providers | Backend integrations |
|---|---|---|
| Browser WebRTC, local microphone/speakers, Twilio, Telnyx | OpenAI GPT-Live-1, Gemini 3.8 Live, Grok Voice 3.0 | Jido, Sagents, Legion, or your own Parlora.Backend |
Jido, Sagents, and Legion are optional. Install only the framework you use. The voice provider handles the spoken conversation and delegates application work to the backend, which can run deterministic actions or use a separate text model.
Getting started
Start with your first working session. It walks you through creating a small Mix application, copying the complete example code, supplying one API key from your voice provider, and running a local voice session. You can ask for a demo shop's opening hours and hear the result of a read-only Jido action.
Install Parlora from Hex:
{:parlora, "~> 0.1.0"}You need Elixir 1.18+ (1.x), Erlang/OTP 27+, and the native prerequisites. The tutorial uses your local microphone and speakers, builds only the native bindings needed for local audio, and includes the context policy, event loop, and session cleanup.
Build your own application
Once the first session works, adapt its four components to your application: audio channel, voice provider, backend action, and context policy. The integration guide covers applications that stay running; the Jido guide explains agent and result mapping details.
Explore the OrderDesk example
OrderDesk is a complete application for exploring order lookups, corrections, and draft delivery instructions that require separate confirmation in the browser. It uses fictional records in SQLite and Jido as the default backend.
Its setup guide covers installation, credentials for the example, provider and backend selection, and launch commands for browser, local audio, and incoming phone calls. Use it to explore these workflows after your first working session.
Guides
- Start here: First working session, Use Parlora, requirements and native builds.
- Channels: Browser, Twilio, Telnyx. Local audio options are documented in
Parlora.Channels.LocalAudio. - Providers: OpenAI, Gemini, Grok.
- Backends: Jido, Sagents, Legion.
- Reference: Adapter contracts and data.
Sessions live in memory. Your application persists business state and supplies history/context when starting a fresh session. Cancellation and corrections do not undo external side effects. A provider accepting a result is separate from that result being spoken or heard.
Behind the name
Parlora is a coined name inspired by the Italian parlare ("to speak") and ora ("now"). It evokes "conversation in the moment"—the idea of keeping a conversation flowing while your application gets things done. It is wordplay, rather than a literal Italian translation.
License
Parlora is released under the MIT License.