# Give every number the right answer. Send incoming calls to your phone system, a verified forwarding number or a call sequence. Manage the route beside the number, then follow what happened to each call. [Start for Free](/dashboard/signup?returnTo=%2Fdashboard%2Fw%2Fvoice%2Fnumbers) [Contact sales](/demo?product=voice-inbound) ## Set up with your agent [Read the agent setup guide](/docs/ai/set-up-your-agent) Copy this prompt into your coding agent: ```text Bird connects customer communications, data and automation. Help me build with Bird using my coding agent. 1. Read https://bird.com/docs/ai/set-up-your-agent.md and follow its setup workflow for this client. Use an existing connected Bird MCP server or signed-in CLI when available. 2. Read the product guide for the task I want to complete and inspect my existing integration. Identify the workspace, available operations and required setup. 3. Help me complete a first example for the product and destination I choose. Follow the operation through to its actual result, explain any uncertainty, and help me choose the next step. First task: Inspect the number I hold and its current inbound route. Prepare a trunk or verified forwarding destination and a test of the unanswered path. First use the connected Bird MCP server or signed-in CLI for a read-only inventory. Discover the available tools and read their schemas or help; do not invent call-control operations. If neither surface is available, follow https://bird.com/docs/ai/set-up-your-agent.md. Read the linked guides through their .md alternatives. Present the exact target and configuration before changing routing, placing calls, recording audio, purchasing numbers or submitting a port. Obtain my approval for those actions. Use this Bird page as the starting context: https://bird.com/products/voice/inbound-routing Read its Markdown alternative and linked guides. Keep the first example relevant to this page and the customer outcome I choose. Preserve the supplied campaign context when following Bird signup or sales links. ``` Give the call a destination Incoming customer call +1 202 555 0194 Deliver to a SIP trunk Your phone system handles the call. Forward to an eligible number Connect an outbound leg to the chosen destination. Enter a published sequence Start the named greeting or menu. Follow the connected session Keep each call leg and its outcome visible. Illustrative number and routing choices. Available actions depend on the number. Trusted every day by teams that build world-class software [Read more customer stories](/customers) - [Airwallex](/customers/airwallex) - [Glovo](/customers/glovo) - [Zillow](/customers/zillow) - Uber - [Binance](/customers/binance) - Adobe - Meta - PayPal - Pinterest - Square - [Al Jazeera](/customers/aljazeera) - [Aramex](/customers/aramex) - [Bazaar Technologies](/customers/bazaar) - [ComparaOnline](/customers/compara) - [Emma](/customers/emma) ## Where should this call go? Start with the number’s purpose. A support number may reach your PBX, a regional office may forward to a verified phone, and a service line may start a sequence. Assign an explicit answer to each number before making it public. ### Deliver to your phone system Enable inbound calling on the selected trunk and add the gateway that receives the call. Configure both the number and the trunk; neither is enough on its own. ### Forward with a verified target Use a destination number your workspace is allowed to forward to. The outbound leg still needs an enabled country and valid account capacity. ## What will the person answering see? Caller identity affects both the recipient’s experience and how downstream carriers treat the call. Choose from the presentation options the number exposes, then check the actual recorded value. Verification establishes eligibility; it does not guarantee that every carrier will preserve the caller ID. - **01** Understand the two legs: A forward creates an arriving call and an outbound call, correlated through the session. Read both legs to understand what connected and where a failure occurred. - **02** Price the complete route: Forwarding includes the receiving and outbound legs. Review the published rates and applicable handling components for the route you plan to use. ## See what the number did at the time. A call record retains the inbound route chosen for that call. A later configuration edit does not rewrite its history. Read that route alongside the outcome and any rejection reason to distinguish a deliberate refusal from a failed delivery attempt. ### Treat changes as operational changes Disabling or deleting an inbound trunk changes the numbers pointing to it. Verify their new bindings before restoring customer traffic. ### Confirm the caller experience Call each public number from outside your system. Check greeting, routing, two-way audio, timeout and hangup, including the path when the target cannot answer. ## Questions about inbound routing ### Do newly allocated numbers answer automatically? No. Configure the number’s inbound route. A rejecting route is an explicit outcome, not an automatic connection to a team or agent. ### Can an incoming call reach my AI assistant? Yes, through the call application or SIP runtime you configure to receive it. The number, inbound trunk, gateway and conversation runtime each need to be ready. ### Why did a forwarded call fail? Inspect both correlated call legs. Check the verified target, enabled destination, available routing and applicable account limits. ### Does the route field prove the call connected? No. The route records the selected handling behavior. The call status and related events tell you whether that behavior succeeded. ### Does forwarding cost the same as one incoming call? Forwarding creates an outbound leg as well as the arriving leg. Consult the published rates and the call’s final rated components. ## Build the next part of your calling path [Inbound routing guide](/docs/guides/voice/receiving-calls) Follow the setup, requirements and operational checks. [SIP trunking](/products/voice/sip-trunking) Connect your PBX, softphone or SIP application to the telephone network. [Call sequences](/products/voice/call-sequences) Turn prompts, keypad choices and named branches into a versioned workflow. [Voice pricing](/pricing/voice) Review published destination rates and relevant call components. ## Give your number a destination. Choose how incoming calls reach your team. Test the number, destination and unanswered path together before publishing a customer contact number. [Read the inbound guide](/docs/guides/voice/receiving-calls) ## Related resources - [Voice overview](/docs/guides/voice/overview) (docs) - [What is a voice API?](/explained/voice/what-is-a-voice-api) (answer) - [Voice](/products/voice) (product) [Get an implementation brief](/learn/workspace?topic=voice)