Twilio
Connect a Twilio account: its numbers, buying one, and calling out.
Connect your Twilio account once, and Pinecall lists its numbers, points the ones you pick at an agent, and can place calls through it. Twilio is the one carrier Pinecall drives through its API, so you never configure a trunk by hand.
What you can do with it#
Connect your account#
Make an API key in Twilio#
In Twilio's console, under Account ▸ API keys, create a key. Keep its SID (SK…) and its
secret. You can revoke it there at any time.
Add it in Pinecall#
On production's console, open Numbers ▸ Add a number ▸ Twilio and fill in the Account SID
(AC…), the API key SID and the secret. Pinecall tries them against Twilio before it keeps them, and
stores the secret encrypted. It is never shown again.
Pick a number and an agent#
The form lists every number on the account, read from Twilio just now. Pick one and the agent that answers it, then Review: the console shows each step it will take, and nothing changes until you press Connect number.
The same from a terminal, the secret typed on stdin:
$ pinecall carriers add twilio --account-sid AC0123… --user SK4567… --label Clínica
Twilio secret (the API key's, or the auth token):
kept: AC0123… · twilio · Clínica
route one of its numbers: `pinecall numbers import <+34…> --agent <slug>`
$ pinecall numbers available --prod
$ pinecall numbers import +34910000000 --agent clinica-norte --prod --dry-run--user also takes the account SID again, with the auth token as the secret, but an API key is the
one you can revoke on its own. Running carriers add again for the same account replaces its
secret: that is how you rotate it. An org may connect several Twilio accounts.
What Pinecall changes in your account#
When you connect a number, Pinecall does what you would do in Twilio's console, and nothing more:
- it finds the account's Elastic SIP Trunk that sends calls to Pinecall, or makes one when there is none;
- it attaches the number to that trunk. The number's own voice URL is then ignored by Twilio.
Every step is looked up before it is written, so running it twice changes nothing twice. Pinecall never deletes and remakes a trunk: carriers' fraud checks read that pattern as an account taken over.
Remove on the Numbers screen, or pinecall numbers drop, stops the number reaching the agent.
The number stays on your account.
A number already attached to another trunk of the same account is refused, and the refusal names that trunk. Run
pinecall numbers import … --dry-runbefore you connect a number that may be in use elsewhere.
Twilio marks every call with the account it came from, and Pinecall checks it: a call to your number that did not come from your account is refused.
Buying a number#
Where Pinecall sells numbers, Numbers ▸ Add a number offers Buy a number here. Give a country (two letters) and, if you want, an area code, then Find a number. The console names the number it found; nothing is bought until you confirm.
A bought number lives on Pinecall's own Twilio account. It counts against your org's numbers
limit (Limits & provider keys) and it cannot call out, because it dials through
no account of yours.
Calling out#
An agent can call people from a number on your Twilio account, once outbound calls are on:
Open Calling out#
On production's console, Numbers ▸ Calling out ▸ Turn on outbound calls. The console shows what will happen on your Twilio account and on Pinecall before anything is written.
Confirm#
Pinecall sets a termination address on the trunk, a credential list on it, and one credential for your org. Twilio shows that password once, so Pinecall keeps it, encrypted.
Make a test call#
The same tab has Make a test call: an agent, one of its numbers, and the number to call.
Which countries your agents may reach is your Twilio account's own setting (its geographic permissions). Every call also passes Pinecall's dialling rules: Calling out.
If a credential Pinecall made was lost, calling out is refused with a sentence naming it. Delete that credential in Twilio's console, then turn outbound calls on again.