Nutshell | ElevenLabs Documentation

Your receptionist can recognize callers who are already in Nutshell, and add new callers as people with a lead for your team to follow up. Looking up callers uses a webhook tool. Adding people and leads goes through Zapier, because Nutshell’s API needs lists and nested values to create records, which webhook tools can’t send.

Look up callers

Create an API key

In Nutshell, select Settings in the lower-left corner, then API keys under Connections. Select Add API key and choose API + user impersonation, which Zapier needs too. Copy the key.

Build the authorization header

Nutshell’s API uses your Nutshell email address as the username and the API key as the password. Encode them in a terminal, replacing both values and keeping the colon between them:

printf 'YOUR_EMAIL:YOUR_API_KEY' | base64

The header value is Basic followed by the output.

Don’t paste your API key into an online encoder. Anyone with the key or the encoded header can read and change your Nutshell data.

Create the webhook tool

Go to Integrations, select Add integration, and choose Webhook Tool.

Field	Value
Name	`find_nutshell_person`
Description	”Find the caller in our CRM by phone number, name, or email. Use it at the start of a call to check whether they’re an existing client.”
Method	GET
URL	`https://app.nutshell.com/rest/contacts`
Request Headers	`Authorization`: `Basic` followed by the encoded value
Query Parameters	`q` (string, required): “The caller’s phone number, full name, or email address.”
Assign to agents	Receptionist

Select Enable.

Add people and leads

Connect Zapier

If you haven’t yet, connect Zapier in Reception.ai.

Add the Nutshell actions

In your Zapier MCP server at mcp.zapier.com, connect your Nutshell account with the API key and add these actions:

Create Person: let the AI fill in the caller’s name, phone number, and email address.
Create Lead: set the source, pipeline, and assignee as fixed values, and let the AI fill in a description of what the caller wants and the person it’s for.

To record the call on the person’s timeline, also add Log Activity and let the AI fill in a short summary.

Assign the tools

In Reception.ai, open the Zapier integration’s Tools tab, select Refresh tools, and assign the Nutshell actions to the Client (receptionist).

Test it

Test your receptionist with a call from a number saved on a Nutshell person, then as a new caller who wants a quote. The new person and their lead appear in Nutshell.

Limitations

Zapier’s Nutshell app has no action to create a follow-up task. The lead’s assignee sees new leads in Nutshell instead.
Zapier’s Nutshell app can’t check anyone’s availability, so your receptionist can’t book meetings in Nutshell. Use Reception’s own booking with Google Calendar.
Each Zapier action your receptionist runs uses tasks from your Zapier plan. Zapier currently counts two tasks per successful call; failed calls aren’t counted. When the plan runs out, the actions stop until it resets.

Troubleshooting

Problem	What to check
401 from Nutshell	Encode your Nutshell email address, a colon, and the key, and start the header value with `Basic` .
Known callers aren’t found	Try a test call from a number saved on a person in Nutshell, or ask the caller for their name instead.
The receptionist creates duplicate people	Tell it in the lookup tool’s description to add a person only when the caller wasn’t found.
A Nutshell action doesn’t appear in Reception.ai	Select Refresh tools on the Zapier integration after adding actions in Zapier.
Zapier can’t connect to Nutshell	Use an API key with API + user impersonation.