Osprey

Government hold-line automation — AI for the tasks the system made hard on purpose.

Status: Early Prototype / Not Production-Ready The FTB (California Franchise Tax Board) dialer is built and functional in a local environment. The project is currently blocked on Twilio account approval. Do not attempt to use this in production.

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The problem

Government phone lines are not slow by accident. Multi-hour hold queues, IVR (interactive voice response) trees designed to exhaust callers before reaching a human, and no callback option are standard features of systems built to discourage use. For people navigating taxes, benefits, immigration, or the DMV, a single phone call can consume an entire workday. For neurodivergent users and others for whom phone calls carry high executive-function cost, the barrier is not just inconvenient — it can be disqualifying.

What Osprey does

• Dials the government phone line on your behalf
• Navigates IVR menus automatically using configurable DTMF (dual-tone multi-frequency) sequences
• Waits on hold so you do not have to
• Bridges the call to your phone number when a human agent answers
• Retries automatically if the line is busy or the call is dropped
• Keeps your call data local — nothing is routed through a third-party service beyond Twilio's voice infrastructure

LLM support is optional. The dialer and hold automation work without any LLM configured.

Current status

Built:

• FTB hold-line dialer prototype (app/dialers/ftb.py)
  • Calls FTB main line (800-852-5711) via Twilio Voice API
  • Navigates configurable DTMF IVR sequence (OSPREY_IVR_SEQUENCE)
  • Bridges to user's number when a human answers (OSPREY_BRIDGE_NUMBER)
  • Retries on rejection up to OSPREY_MAX_RETRIES times
• FastAPI backend (api/)
  • POST /transcribe — raw audio to faster-whisper transcription
  • POST /transcribe/recording — Twilio <Record> webhook handler

Blocked:

• Twilio account pending approval — required before any live calls can be placed
• FTB IVR digit sequence not yet confirmed against a live call

Tracking: Circuit-Forge/osprey#1

Roadmap

Phase	Target agency	Notes
1	FTB (California Franchise Tax Board)	Prototype built, blocked on Twilio
2	IRS (Internal Revenue Service)	Federal tax line
3	SSA (Social Security Administration)	Benefits and disability
4	DMV (Department of Motor Vehicles)	State-by-state variation
5	USCIS (U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services)	Immigration appointments and status

Quick start

Installation instructions will be published once the Twilio blocker is resolved and the dialer has been validated against a live call. Watch Circuit-Forge/osprey#1 for updates.

When ready, the service runs on port 8520.

./manage.sh start    # Start the service
./manage.sh stop     # Stop the service
./manage.sh status   # Check running status
./manage.sh logs     # Tail service logs

Stack

• Python — core runtime
• FastAPI — HTTP backend and Twilio webhook handler
• Twilio Voice API — PSTN (public switched telephone network) dialing, DTMF navigation, call bridging
• faster-whisper — local audio transcription (no cloud dependency)
• circuitforge-core — shared Circuit Forge scaffold

Twilio requirement

Osprey requires a Twilio account with Voice API access. Twilio performs manual account review for new signups using telephony automation — this is the current blocker. Once approved:

1. Set TWILIO_ACCOUNT_SID and TWILIO_AUTH_TOKEN in your environment
2. Configure OSPREY_BRIDGE_NUMBER with the phone number to bridge calls to
3. Set OSPREY_IVR_SEQUENCE with the DTMF digits for the target agency

Privacy

Osprey is local-first. Your call configuration and transcription stay on your machine. Twilio handles the PSTN connection (unavoidable for telephony), but no call data is routed through Circuit Forge servers.

Documentation

Full docs (when available): docs.circuitforge.tech/osprey

Forgejo-primary

Osprey is developed and maintained on Forgejo at git.opensourcesolarpunk.com/Circuit-Forge/osprey. GitHub and Codeberg are read-only mirrors.

License

Business Source License 1.1 — free for personal non-commercial self-hosting. Commercial use and SaaS re-hosting require a paid license. Converts to MIT after 4 years.

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