Dialplan

The dialplan is the rulebook that Asterisk follows for every call. When a call comes in or goes out, Asterisk looks at the number and walks through the dialplan step by step to decide what to do: where to send the call, which Trunk to use, and what to play or connect. It is the brain that turns a dialed number into an actual connected call.

In VICIdial, most of the dialplan is generated for you, so you rarely write it by hand. Outbound calls get matched, may have a Dial prefix added to pick the right route, and then leave through your carrier's trunk. Inbound calls tied to a DID route are matched the same way and sent to a group of agents or a menu. Each rule has a pattern that matches certain numbers and a list of actions to run.

How matching works

Asterisk compares the dialed digits against patterns in the dialplan and runs the first one that fits. A dedicated Extension like an agent's internal number is one kind of match; a long-distance number that needs a Carrier route is another. Because the order and patterns matter, a wrong rule can send calls down the wrong path or fail outright, which is why VICIdial managing the generation keeps things consistent.

You usually only touch the dialplan when you add a custom route, a special prefix, or a new carrier. Even then, VICIdial gives you fields in its interface that build the underlying rules for you. If a call is going somewhere unexpected, the dialplan is the first place to look, because every routing decision your system makes lives there.