Call routing rules
Every number answers with your AI agent by default. Call routing rules let you change that per number on a weekly schedule — send calls to a human during business hours, ring a person first and fall back to the agent if nobody picks up, or forward to an on-call phone after hours. Each number has its own set of rules; a number with no rules keeps today’s behavior (the agent answers every call).
You manage a number’s rules from the Numbers page — find the number under Your numbers and click Routing to open its rules.
How a rule is matched
Each rule has a weekly schedule and an action:
- Days of the week — any combination of days the rule applies to.
- Time window — a start and end time. Windows can cross midnight (for example 22:00–06:00 for overnight cover).
- Time zone — the schedule is evaluated in the time zone you choose, so daylight-saving shifts are handled for you.
When a call comes in, Ciaomatic checks your rules in order and uses the first one whose schedule matches the current day and time. If no rule matches, the agent answers — that’s always the fallback.
Actions
| Action | What happens |
|---|---|
| Agent | The AI agent answers the call (the default behavior). Use this to carve out hours where the agent handles calls even if a later rule would forward them. |
| Forward | The call is sent straight to a human phone number you choose. The agent doesn’t answer. |
| Ring first | The call rings a human first for a few seconds; if they don’t pick up, it falls back to the AI agent so the caller is never left hanging. |
Forward and Ring first destinations must be verified first — the same one-time-code verification used for test calls. This stops calls being sent to a number you don’t control. Verify a destination once and it stays available for your routing rules. Premium-rate numbers can’t be used as a destination, verified or not.
Forwarded minutes are free
Minutes spent on a forwarded or ring-first call to a human are not metered against your plan’s call-minute allowance — forwarding a call never eats into the minutes your agent needs. Instead, each plan includes a separate monthly fair-use allowance for forwarded minutes:
| Plan | Free forwarded minutes / month |
|---|---|
| Starter | 300 |
| Pro | 1,000 |
| Business | 2,500 |
A few things to know about the allowance:
- Expensive destinations count double. Forwarding to a costly destination — typically a mobile number in a high-cost country — consumes two allowance minutes for every minute of call. Standard destinations count one-for-one.
- You get an 80% warning. When you’ve used about 80% of your monthly forwarded-minute allowance, we email you so there are no surprises.
- Past the allowance, the agent takes over. Once the monthly allowance is used up, forward and ring-first rules automatically fall back to the AI agent for the rest of the billing period — calls keep being answered, just by the agent instead of forwarded. The allowance resets at the start of the next period.
Recording
Forwarded and ring-first calls are not recorded, even when call recording is switched on for your workspace. Recording applies to calls your AI agent answers; a call routed to a human is between the caller and that person.
Related
- Bring your own number — keep the number you already have.
- Billing — plans, included minutes, and overage.
- Agent builder — verify a destination and place a test call.