---

name: retellai-reference-architecture description: "Retell AI reference architecture \u2014 AI voice agent and phone call
\ automation.\nUse when working with Retell AI for voice agents, phone calls, or
\ telephony.\nTrigger with phrases like "retell reference architecture", "retellai-reference-architecture"
, "voice agent".\n" allowed-tools: Read, Write, Edit, Bash(npm:), Bash(curl:), Grep version: 1.9.0 license: MIT author: Jeremy Longshore jeremy@intentsolutions.io tags:

• saas
• retellai
• voice
• telephony
• ai-agents compatibility: Designed for Claude Code

---

Retell AI Reference Architecture

Overview

Implementation patterns for Retell AI reference architecture — voice agent and telephony platform.

Prerequisites

• Completed retellai-install-auth setup

Instructions

Step 1: SDK Pattern

import Retell from 'retell-sdk';
const retell = new Retell({ apiKey: process.env.RETELL_API_KEY! });

const agents = await retell.agent.list();
console.log(`Agents: ${agents.length}`);

Output

• Retell AI integration for reference architecture

Error Handling

Error	Cause	Solution
401 Unauthorized	Invalid API key	Check RETELL_API_KEY
429 Rate Limited	Too many requests	Implement backoff
400 Bad Request	Invalid parameters	Check API documentation

Examples

Separate the call path from slow business-system enrichment

Route the voice agent through a stable API boundary that validates inputs and returns a bounded response, while sending slow CRM or analytics enrichment to an asynchronous worker. The agent receives a clear timeout and human-transfer fallback if the business system is unavailable. Exercise this topology with a synthetic outage before launch, then document which component owns retries, audit events, and the rollback to the prior routing configuration.

Resources

• Retell AI Documentation
• retell-sdk npm

Next Steps

See related Retell AI skills for more workflows.