How to receive SMS in OpenWebUI
This guide walks you through retrieving incoming SMS messages in OpenWebUI using the Ozeki SMS MCP server. By following this tutorial, you will learn how to enable the SMS MCP tool, ask the AI model to list incoming messages in plain language, and verify the transaction through the gateway logs.
What is an MCP tool call?
An MCP (Model Context Protocol) tool call is how an AI model communicates with external systems. When the AI needs to perform an action or retrieve data, such as querying a database, calling an API, or reading a file, it sends a structured request to the appropriate MCP server, which processes it and returns the result.
Example prompt
List all incoming SMS messages.
Steps to follow
We assume Ozeki SMS Gateway is already installed on your system, you have created an MCP user account with an API key, and you have already configured the Ozeki SMS MCP server in OpenWebUI.
How to receive SMS in OpenWebUI video
The following video shows how to retrieve incoming SMS messages in OpenWebUI using the Ozeki SMS MCP server step-by-step.
Step 1 - Enable the SMS MCP tool
In OpenWebUI, click the New Chat button to open a fresh conversation. Before sending your prompt, locate the Integrations tools selector in the chat interface and enable the Ozeki SMS MCP tool so that the AI model can invoke it during the conversation (Figure 1).
Step 2 - Use the list incoming messages tool
In the chat input box, type your request in plain language and press the Send button or Enter. The AI model will interpret the request and invoke the appropriate MCP tool to retrieve the messages from the gateway inbox (Figure 2).
List all incoming SMS messages.
The AI model's response will appear in the OpenWebUI chat, displaying the list of incoming messages returned by the Ozeki SMS MCP server. Each entry includes the sender number and message text (Figure 3).
Step 3 - Verify the transaction in logs
Open Ozeki SMS Gateway in your browser and navigate to the MCP user details page by clicking on the MCP user entry in the Users and applications panel (Figure 4).
In the MCP user event log, you should see a log entry for the incoming message retrieval request, confirming that the API key authentication and tool call were processed correctly by the gateway (Figure 5).
Final thoughts
You have successfully retrieved incoming SMS messages in OpenWebUI using the Ozeki SMS MCP server. The AI model connected in OpenWebUI can now list incoming messages from your gateway simply by being asked to do so in plain language, making it easy to add SMS inbox access to any workflow powered by OpenWebUI.