What the Campaign field on a Remote Agent does

When you open the Modify Remote Agent screen in VICIdial, one of the first fields you see is Campaign. It looks simple - just a dropdown - but picking the wrong value here means your Remote agent either never rings or sends calls to the wrong place. This post explains exactly what the field controls and what you need to select for inbound call routing.

What the Campaign field actually does

Every Remote Agent in VICIdial must be associated with a Campaign. This tells the dialer which campaign's configuration - dial rules, call handling behavior, dispositions - applies to calls sent through this agent record. Think of it as registering the Remote Agent as a participant in a specific campaign, just like a logged-in agent would be.

For outbound dialing, you'd pick an outbound campaign. But for inbound routing, the Campaign field has a specific requirement: it must be set to a CLOSER campaign type.

Why inbound needs a CLOSER campaign

A Closer campaign is VICIdial's inbound-handling campaign type. Unlike outbound campaigns that initiate calls from lead lists, a CLOSER campaign is designed to receive incoming calls and route them to available agents. When you set the Campaign field on a Remote Agent to a CLOSER campaign, you're telling the system: "send inbound calls to this external number instead of an agent sitting at a softphone."

Once you've selected a CLOSER campaign, the Inbound Groups field lower on the screen becomes relevant - that's where you specify which Ingroup queues should route calls to this Remote Agent. Without selecting a CLOSER campaign first, the Inbound Groups section does nothing.

How the Campaign field fits into the inbound call flow

sequenceDiagram
  participant Caller
  participant DID
  participant InGroup
  participant CloserCampaign
  participant RemoteAgent
  Caller->>DID: Dials in
  DID->>InGroup: Routes to queue
  InGroup->>CloserCampaign: Searches for available agent
  CloserCampaign->>RemoteAgent: Matches Remote Agent record
  RemoteAgent->>Caller: External number rings, call connects

The flow above shows why the Campaign field matters at the routing step. The Ingroup hands the call off to the CLOSER campaign, which checks for available Remote Agent entries associated with it. If your Remote Agent points to an outbound campaign, it never appears in that pool.

For a broader look at how Remote Agents work, see VICIdial Remote Agents Explained. If you haven't created your Remote Agent record yet, How to Add a Remote Agent walks through every field on the creation screen.

Quick setup checklist

1. Create (or identify) a CLOSER campaign in VICIdial Admin → Campaigns.
2. Open or create your Remote Agent record.
3. Set the Campaign field to that CLOSER campaign.
4. Scroll to Inbound Groups and select the in-groups whose calls this Remote Agent should receive.
5. Set Status to ACTIVE and test with a live call.

If you're running a managed VICIdial instance and want the platform to handle server provisioning, CLOSER campaign setup, and DID routing out of the box, take a look at VICIfast's pricing plans.