What the AGENT DID route does

Every DID (direct inward dialing) in VICIdial needs a DID Route — a setting that decides where an incoming call goes after the system recognises the number. Setting DID Route to AGENT points the call at one specific user account rather than a pool of agents, a call menu, or a general Call queue. It is the right choice when a phone number should always ring one particular person.

How DID Route AGENT differs from other route options

VICIdial offers several DID Route values. INGROUP sends the call to any available agent in a named Ingroup. CALLMENU drops the call into a multi-step IVR. EXTEN sends it to a raw Extension in the dialplan. AGENT is the only route that binds the call to one named user account — every other option distributes or transfers to a destination that is independent of a single login.

flowchart LR
  A["Inbound call hits DID"] --> B{"DID Route setting"}
  B -->|"AGENT"| C["Routes to one specific User Agent"]
  B -->|"INGROUP"| D["Routes to any agent in named in-group"]
  B -->|"CALLMENU"| E["Routes to IVR call menu"]
  B -->|"EXTEN"| F["Routes to dialplan extension"]
  C --> G["Waits in AGENTDIRECT queue for that user"]

Fields that only appear when you pick AGENT

Once you select AGENT as the DID Route, two additional fields become relevant in the DID settings:

• User Agent — the numeric user ID of the target agent. This is the VICIdial login ID, not a phone number or extension. It must belong to a real, active user.
• User Route Settings In-Group — the in-group that holds the call while the system waits for that user. This must be an AGENTDIRECT-prefixed in-group. The call sits there until the agent picks up or the drop timeout fires.

Without both fields set correctly, the route cannot deliver the call. A missing User Agent means the system has no one to wait for; a non-AGENTDIRECT in-group will not handle the direct-to-user wait logic properly.

When to use AGENT vs INGROUP

Use AGENT when a DID is a personal direct-dial number — a number given to a specific Closer or account manager so their clients can always reach them. Use INGROUP when a number should go to whoever is available first, or when redundancy matters and you cannot afford a call to wait for one person. AGENT is a commitment: if that user is on another call, logged out, or PAUSED, the caller waits. There is no automatic fallback to another agent — only the User Unavailable Action you configure (voicemail, another in-group, or extension).

IVR dial-by-extension also uses AGENTDIRECT

The AGENT DID route is not the only path to an AGENTDIRECT queue. An IVR dial-by-extension script (AGENT_route.agi) can validate a caller-entered user ID and then route to that user's AGENTDIRECT in-group — or to their voicemail if they are unavailable. The underlying queue mechanism is the same; the DID Route AGENT setting just handles it automatically for a specific number without needing an IVR step.

To see the full DID configuration workflow that uses this route, read how to point a DID at a specific logged-in agent. For the bigger picture of how agents handle routed inbound calls, see the remote agents and mobile guide. If you want a managed VICIdial server where DID routing is ready to configure on day one, our plans get you a running dialer in under 40 seconds.