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This takes you from nothing to a ranked list of problems in your own agent. You need a Retell account with at least one agent, and permission to copy an API key from Retell.
No Retell account yet? New workspaces open on Northwind Dental, a read-only demo agent built from synthetic calls across two versions. A banner says so, and its Connect your agent button takes you to step 2. Nothing you do there writes to it.
1

Sign up and choose a workspace

Open app.signalmd.dev and use the sign-up link on Sign in to create your account with your work email.A workspace holds your agents, calls and issues. You start in a personal workspace. To work with teammates, create an organization from the switcher at the top of the sidebar, then invite people from the Organization page. Everyone in an organization sees the same agents.
An agent belongs to the workspace it was connected in and cannot be moved. If you will share the agent, create the organization and switch to it before you connect.
Paid plans are billed per organization, and a personal workspace stays on the free plan. See Pricing.
2

Connect a Retell agent

Open Agent config in the sidebar. On a workspace with no agents of its own the page is titled Get started, with a progress bar for Connect, Import calls, Review brief and See issues.In the Connect your agent panel:
  1. Paste your Retell API key (it starts with key_) into Retell key. Optionally give it a Name.
  2. Wait for “Key accepted.” SignalMD asks Retell which agents the key can see.
  3. Choose the agent from Agent. If the key can see only one unconnected agent, it is chosen for you.
  4. Select Connect.
SignalMD reads the agent’s configuration, then asks what to import, covered in the next step. Keys, webhooks and more than one agent are covered in Connect Retell.
3

Import calls

The Import calls step reads “Choose what to import”. In the Choose what to import panel:
  • How far back: 7, 30 or 90 days. Your plan can limit how far back an import reaches.
  • At most: the most calls to bring in, newest first. 500 unless you change it.
  • Keep importing new calls: the percent of new calls SignalMD imports after setup, from 0 to 100. 100% unless you change it, and 0% turns it off. Below 100%, the same calls are kept whichever way they arrive.
  • Cap: the most new calls SignalMD imports in a day, week or month. No cap unless you choose Day, Week or Month and enter a number. Once the cap is reached, new calls are skipped until the next day, week or month begins, counted in UTC with weeks starting on Monday.
Once the agent has calls, the panel estimates what new calls use a month, such as “Analyzing 20% of new calls uses about 122 credits a month, estimated from the last 30 days.” When the cap is lower than that, it says so: “Capped at 50 calls a week, so at most about 262 credits a month.”Importing is free. Analysing a call uses 1 credit per processed minute, and the exact figure for the calls you import is shown before you approve.Select Import calls. The page shows the import as it runs, with counts such as “Imported 240 calls…”. The time depends on how many calls there are and how long they are. If a step stops, the page says which one and offers Import again or Analyze again.To skip the import, select Skip, draft from configuration only. The brief is then drafted from the configuration alone, and you can import calls after you approve it.If the import cannot start, the panel says why. If the window had no calls, the brief is drafted from the configuration alone. Once you approve it, Import production calls on Agent config brings in calls from a window you choose.These choices are saved as the agent’s Import settings on Agent config, where you can change them later. After this first import you do not need to import again: SignalMD brings in new calls on its own, at the percent and cap you chose. To bring in a different window, see Connect Retell.
4

Review and approve the brief

When the import ends, the page says “Drafting the brief”. Then The brief panel shows a short document: what the agent does, why people call, what a good call is, how calls can end and which parts matter most. SignalMD cannot know your business, so it asks questions in the Calibrate panel beside it. You can also select Edit and change the text directly.Beside the brief, What recent calls show counts the calls it was drafted from: how many and on which dates, how they ended, the last part reached, how long they ran and any tool failures. Compare the brief with it. Nothing there is judged.Check three things before you approve:
  • A call worked when: the one line every success rate is measured against.
  • How a call can end: a transfer stops counting as a failed call only when every transfer ending is marked Good ending.
  • Not this agent’s job: what callers ask for that the agent is not meant to handle.
Above the button, the page says what analysing the imported calls uses, such as “Analyzing these 500 calls uses 612 credits. 3,000 left until Nov 1.” A call with no recorded length counts as 1 credit, and the page says how many there are.Then select Approve and analyze, or Approve if there were no calls. Nothing is analysed until you approve. If the import is still running, the analysis starts when it ends.If your plan has no credits left, or you are on Free, the button reads Choose a plan to analyze. It approves the brief and opens your plans. The calls stay imported, and See issues reads “Needs a plan”. Once your plan has credits, the analysis starts on its own, with no need to approve again. If your credits cover only some of the calls, the page says how many are analysed now: the oldest go first, and the rest wait until the month resets or you upgrade. See The brief.
5

Read your first issues

While analysis runs, Overview lists First issues so far, ranked on the calls analysed up to that point. The order can change as the rest are read.When analysis finishes, Overview shows Fix, the top 3 confirmed defects in priority order, and Improve, changes you control that move your numbers. Issues in the sidebar has the full lists, and you can narrow To fix to Technical, Flow or Content. Patterns whose cause is not established are listed at the bottom of Issues, under Cause not established. If Issues says “Nothing to fix here yet”, SignalMD has not confirmed a defect with an established cause so far. See Issues.Open an issue. It names the place, the Cause, a Suggested fix, Evidence quoted from calls, and By version, the share of each version’s calls with the problem.
6

Fix one issue, then check it worked

Take the top issue and make the change it points to in Retell. Fix an issue walks through it, and the lane on the issue says who should own it.New calls show up on their own within about 15 minutes of ending, and SignalMD picks up the new version within about 10 minutes of publishing. Once both versions have enough calls, Agent config shows what changed and what happened to the numbers, and the issue page says whether the live version fixed the issue. See Compare versions.

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Next steps

Connect Retell

Keys, the webhook, importing and more than one agent.

The brief

What to check before you approve, and what changes when you edit it.

Fix an issue

From the board to a change in Retell.

Compare versions

Read a before and after, and know when to trust it.