Variables

Variables are named, mutable values you can reference inside Speech, Web Request URLs, Conditions and any other text field that supports {VARIABLE_NAME} placeholders. Set a variable once — from the console, a Flow, an API call or a webhook — and use its current value wherever you need it.

Create a variable

Go to Variables (app.voicemonkey.io/variables) and use the inline form at the top of the page: type a name, type a value, click Create Variable.

Name rules:

• Uppercase letters, numbers and underscores only, starting with a letter — e.g. FIRST_NAME, CAMERA_STATUS, UNREAD_COUNT_2.
• Up to 64 characters.
• WEBHOOK and WEB_RESPONSE are reserved for built-in placeholders ({WEBHOOK.<slug>.<key>} and {WEB_RESPONSE.<nodeId>.<path>}) and can’t be used as variable names.

Value rules:

• Up to 1024 characters in the console form. The API accepts longer strings but extra-long values aren’t recommended — they tend to make announcement TTS unwieldy.
• Anything you’d like — values are plain strings.

Update a variable

• From the console — click the pencil icon next to the value, type the new value, hit save.
• From a Flow — use a Set Variable node.
• From an API call — PUT https://api-v3.voicemonkey.io/variables with { "variable": "NAME", "value": "..." }. Or, on any other endpoint (/announce, /trigger, /flow), send a var-NAME=value parameter — the variable is upserted before the main action runs. See the Variables API.
• From an inbound webhook — add ?var-NAME=value to the /catch URL the caller hits, or include var-NAME in the JSON body. Same var- shorthand as above.

Delete a variable

Click Delete on the variable’s row in the console. Once deleted, any {NAME} placeholders that referenced it will resolve to an empty string until a variable with that name exists again.

Use a variable

A variable’s current value is substituted wherever its {NAME} placeholder appears, at the moment the surrounding action runs.

In an announcement / Speech node

Hello {FIRST_NAME}, you have {UNREAD_COUNT} unread messages.

In a Web Request URL or body

https://example.com/hook?name={FIRST_NAME}&status={CAMERA_STATUS}

In a Condition

A Condition node compares a variable against a value using a structured picker (operators: equals, not_equals, contains, not_contains, greater_than, less_than) and branches the Flow based on the result. See Flows → Control nodes.

Storing structured (JSON) values

The API’s var- shorthand JSON-stringifies objects and arrays before storing, so you can keep structured payloads in a single variable:

{ "var-PAYLOAD": { "temp": 72, "humidity": 45 } }

Stored value: {"temp":72,"humidity":45}.

Inside a Flow, reference fields with the dotted-path syntax: {PAYLOAD.temp} resolves to 72.

Variables vs webhook payloads

When an inbound webhook fires, its payload is also addressable via {WEBHOOK.<slug>.<key>} without being copied into a variable. Use whichever fits:

• Variables are durable — they live until you delete or overwrite them.
• Webhook payloads are stored per-webhook and overwritten each time that webhook fires; great for “latest reading”-style data without burning a variable slot.

If you want a webhook value to persist like a normal variable, send it as a var-NAME parameter on the /catch URL — that route upserts the variable on receipt.

Plan limits

Plan	Variables
Free	3
Hobby	25
Ultimate	Unlimited

Plan limits are checked when creating a new variable. Updates to existing variables always succeed, even after a plan downgrade.