What the Start Chat URL and Dispo Chat URL fields do

The Start Chat URL and Dispo Chat URL fields on a chat group are silent web hooks. When a chat is handed to an agent, VICIdial fetches the Start Chat URL in the background. When the agent finishes and statuses the chat, it fetches the Dispo Chat URL. Neither one is ever shown to the agent, so you use them to ping an outside system, not to load a page anyone reads.

When each URL fires

Start Chat URL fires once, at the moment the chat is received by an Agent. Dispo Chat URL fires once, at the moment the agent saves a Disposition and closes the chat. Leave either field blank and nothing is sent at that point. Both default to blank, so a fresh chat group sends no hooks at all until you fill these in.

sequenceDiagram
  participant C as Customer
  participant V as VICIdial
  participant A as Agent
  participant X as Outside system
  C->>V: Starts chat
  V->>A: Routes chat to agent
  V->>X: Fetch Start Chat URL
  A->>V: Replies and statuses chat
  V->>X: Fetch Dispo Chat URL

The variables you can pass

Both URLs accept the same variables you already use in a Web form address or an agent script, so the substitution syntax carries straight over. That means you can hand the receiving system the lead_id, the phone number, custom fields, and whatever else you reference in your forms today. There is nothing new to learn on the variable side.

The Dispo Chat URL has two extra variables the Start URL does not. The dispo variable carries the disposition the agent chose, and the talk_time variable carries the real seconds the agent spent working the chat. Those two only make sense once the chat is finished, which is why they live on the dispo hook rather than the start hook.

What to use them for

The Start URL is good for a heads-up: tell your CRM a session opened, stamp a ticket, or warm a record. The Dispo URL is where the useful payload is, because by then you know the Disposition and the Talk time. A common pattern is posting the outcome and duration of every chat into an outside dashboard so the Lead history stays in sync without anyone touching it.

The Dispo URL also pairs well with moving a lead to another list based on how it was statused. A chat that ended in a sale, for example, can be pushed to a separate list so it can be followed up later, while a different outcome goes somewhere else. You can split outcomes across many lists this way, which means the dispo hook is not only a notification but a quiet way to keep your lists organized as chats close out.

These two URL fields are the chat-side twins of the start and dispo URLs on an email group, so if you have set those before the idea is identical. For the wider picture of how chat sits alongside email and voice, read the VICIdial inbound email and chat guide, and for the QC fields that live just below these on the same screen see what the QC settings on a chat group do. If you would rather not stand up your own endpoints, our managed VICIdial plans give you a box that is ready to wire these hooks into on day one.