system
API (application programming interface)
An API is a set of web addresses you can call from another program to make VICIdial do things or hand back data, without using the screen.
API stands for application programming interface. In plain terms, it's a way for one piece of software to talk to another. VICIdial publishes a set of web addresses that accept commands — add this lead, set this agent's Status (lead status), change a call's Disposition — so another program can do those things instead of a person clicking buttons.
Why it matters: the API is how you wire VICIdial into the rest of your business. If your CRM gets a new web lead, it can push that lead straight into a VICIdial list — and from there into the Hopper — within seconds, without anyone re-typing a phone number. The lead can be ringing a customer's phone almost as fast as it arrived on your website.
Two flavors you'll hear about
- Non-agent API: bulk things like adding leads, updating records, or reading reports.
- Agent API: live actions tied to a logged-in agent, like dialing a number or pausing them.
Each command is just a URL (in VICIdial) with a user, a password, and a few settings tacked on. That makes it easy for almost any system to use — you can fire a command from a spreadsheet macro, a website form handler, or a full-blown app. The API is the outside-the-call counterpart to AGI (Asterisk Gateway Interface), which runs logic during a call.
Keep the API credentials locked down. Anyone with them can add leads or move calls on your dialer, so treat them like a password to the whole system. A good habit is to make a dedicated API user with only the permissions it needs, rather than reusing a manager login, so you can shut it off later without locking a real person out.
You don't need to be a programmer to benefit from the API — most teams have a developer wire up the connection once, and after that leads just flow in automatically. The payoff is speed and accuracy: numbers stop getting fat-fingered, and a lead that filled out a form at lunchtime can be on an agent's screen before they've finished their sandwich. That gap between a customer raising their hand and someone calling them back is often the difference between a sale and a missed one.
Related terms
AGI (Asterisk Gateway Interface)
AGI is a way for VICIdial's underlying phone engine to hand a call off to a script, so custom logic can run in the middle of a call.
CRM
A CRM (customer relationship management system) stores your contact and deal records; VICIdial can hand calls to it or pull data from it through links and the API.
Disposition
A disposition is the short code an agent sets at the end of a call to record what happened — sale, no answer, callback, not interested, and so on.
Hopper
A staging table where VICIdial pre-loads the next batch of leads to dial, so the dialer always has fresh numbers ready to go.
Status (lead status)
A short code attached to a lead that records what happened on the call — like sale, no answer, or callback — driving how the lead is handled next.
URL (in VICIdial)
A web address VICIdial can open automatically during a call, usually to pop a customer record or pass data to an outside system.