Connect with Telephony
Everything so far has worked in the browser. To put the agent on an actual phone line you need a carrier account, and Decibyl needs the credentials to it.
This page uses Twilio, because it is the quickest to get running: you can buy a number and place a test call on trial credit within a few minutes. Plivo, Vonage, Telnyx and Cloudonix work the same way with different credentials — or skip the carrier account entirely and have us provision a number for you.
Buy a number at Twilio
Sign up at twilio.com. On the dashboard, go to Phone Numbers → Buy a number and take any number. Trial credit covers it.
Copy your Account SID and Auth Token
Both are on the Twilio console home page. The Auth Token is a credential with full access to your Twilio account — treat it the way you would a password.
Create the configuration in Decibyl
Open Telephony, click Add Configuration, and pick Twilio. Name it something you will recognise later — the agent’s name works well. Paste the Account SID and Auth Token.
Leave answering-machine detection off for a first setup, and click Create.
Add your number
With the configuration created, open its phone numbers and add the number you bought. Paste it exactly as Twilio shows it, in E.164 form (
+14155550100), and set the country to match.Two fields decide behaviour:
- Inbound agent — the workflow that answers when somebody rings this number. Leave it empty and the number is outbound-only.
- Default caller ID — whether test and campaign calls show this number as the caller.
Verify the number you are calling
On a Twilio trial account you can only dial numbers you have verified. That is the destination — your own phone — not the number you just bought.
Add it under Verified Caller IDs in the Twilio console. On a paid account this step does not apply.
Place a real call
Back in the agent, use Phone Call in the editor header, or trigger one the way you did in Trigger Calls using API. Decibyl dials out through Twilio, your phone rings, and the agent starts talking.
Inbound works the same way in reverse: someone rings the number, Twilio hands the call to Decibyl, and the workflow you attached answers it. The full inbound setup, including carriers that need manual webhook configuration, is in Inbound.
When the call does not go out
The Phone Call button is greyed out
It disables while the agent has unsaved changes or validation errors. Save first, then check the validation errors in the header.
400: Telephony provider not configured for this organization
No configuration is set as the default for outbound calls. Edit the configuration and switch that on — see step 3.
Twilio rejects the call
On trial, the destination number has to be verified (step 5). On a paid account, the usual cause is that the number you are dialling from is not one Twilio has issued to you, or geo permissions for the destination country are not enabled in the Twilio console.
It rings, connects, and there is silence one way
One-way audio on a phone call is a media path problem at the carrier, not an agent problem — the same agent will sound fine on a web test. Note the time and the number and send it to support; the call logs show which leg failed.
Next steps
Tools for live data, a Knowledge Base for anything written down.
Other carriersPlivo, Vonage, Telnyx, Cloudonix and SIP setups.
Let us provide the numberWe buy it, configure it, and bill it on your Decibyl balance. No carrier account.
Take inbound callsRouting a number you already own into a Decibyl agent.