Build an AI Shipment Agent with SMS, Voice, and Telnyx Inference

Most package tracking flows make the customer do the work. You get a tracking number. You open a page. You refresh it. Maybe you get a generic text that says the package is out for delivery. If you need to ask a real question, you usually end up somewhere else entirely. I wanted to build the opposite shape: what if the package itself had an agent? The shipment-agent example is a Python and Flask app that treats a shipment as a durable AI entity. It can send proactive SMS updates, understand customer replies with Telnyx AI Inference, and answer inbound calls with shipment context. Code: https://github.com/team-telnyx/telnyx-code-examples/tree/main/shipment-agent What it builds The app centers around a ShipmentAgent . The agent owns: shipment status carrier and tracking context customer phone number interaction history messaging and voice behavior Instead of a stateless chatbot waiting in a web page, the agent lives alongside the shipment lifecycle. Carrier update -> Flask webhook -> ShipmentAgent updates state -> SMS customer Customer SMS reply -> Telnyx Messaging webhook -> AI Inference response -> SMS reply Customer phone call -> Telnyx Call Control -> ShipmentAgent answers with context Why this is useful Shipment status is not just data. It is a customer communication problem. People want to know: Is my package delayed? Can I leave delivery instructions? Did it already arrive? Who do I call if something looks wrong? Traditional tracking pages are good at showing status, but not at handling conversation. This example shows how to turn the shipment into a small communications agent that can respond across SMS and voice. The main flow When a carrier status changes, the app receives a webhook. For example: out_for_delivery delayed delivered The ShipmentAgent updates its internal state and sends a message to the customer through Telnyx Messaging. If the customer replies, the app passes the message and shipment context to Telnyx AI Inference. That lets the response incl