List-level overrides: changing campaign settings per list

Most settings in VICIdial live on the Campaign, and every list attached to that campaign inherits them. But sometimes one list needs to behave differently than the rest. That is what list-level overrides are for: small fields on the Modify List screen that quietly replace a campaign default for the leads in that one list, and nothing else.

A list is just a bucket of Lead records that gets dialed on a single campaign. If you have not set one up yet, start with the what is a VICIdial list primer, then come back here.

What you can override at the list level

The Modify List page carries a handful of override fields. The ones operators reach for most often are:

• Agent Script Override: a different on-screen script for this list's leads.
• Campaign CID Override and CID Group Override: a different caller ID or pool of caller IDs.
• Dial Prefix Override: route this list's calls through a different trunk or rule.
• Answering Machine Message Override: a different recording for machine-detected calls.

Each one defaults to not set, which means "use whatever the campaign says." Fill it in and only this list changes. Clear it and the list falls back to the campaign again.

How VICIdial decides which value wins

Think of it as a fallback chain. When a call goes out, VICIdial checks the list first. If the list has an override, that value is used. If not, it drops back to the campaign default. For scripts there is a third layer: when a lead arrives on an inbound call, the Ingroup setting can still take priority, so a list script override is not the last word everywhere.

flowchart TD
  A[Call placed] --> B{List override set?}
  B -->|Yes| C[Use list value]
  B -->|No| D[Use campaign value]
  C --> E[Dial lead]
  D --> E

When to override the list instead of the campaign

Use a campaign setting when the value is true for the whole effort. Use a list override when one slice of leads is special. A common pattern: you run several lead sources on the same campaign, but a fresh batch from one vendor needs its own caller ID for compliance, or its own script because the offer is different. Rather than splitting it into a second campaign with all the duplicated config, you load it as its own list and set one or two overrides. Cleaner, and easier to undo.

The reason this matters is upkeep. Every campaign you clone is another place you have to remember to update when a dial setting changes, when call hours shift, or when a status gets added. Two campaigns that were identical on Monday quietly drift apart by Friday because someone tweaked one and forgot the other. Overrides avoid that whole class of mistake. The shared settings stay in exactly one place, the campaign, and each list only carries the one or two values that genuinely differ. When you want to retire the special behavior, you clear the field and the list rejoins the herd. No campaign to delete, no leads to move, no config to reconcile.

It also keeps your reporting honest. Calls and dispositions still roll up under one campaign, so you see the whole effort in a single view instead of stitching numbers together across cloned campaigns. That is worth a lot when you are judging answer rates or agent performance and do not want the data fragmented just because one list needed a different script.

For the full picture of how lists, leads, and campaigns fit together, the VICIdial lists and leads guide ties all of it together.

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