# Inbound calls

Source: https://docs.usetone.ai/inbound-calls

> What happens when somebody rings a number you own.

Inbound needs no API call. Bind an agent to a number and it answers:

```bash
curl "$TONE_API/v1/numbers/$NUMBER" -X PATCH \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $TONE_KEY" -H 'content-type: application/json' \
  -d "{\"agentId\":\"$AGENT\"}"
```

The call appears in your call log with `direction: "inbound"` and
`initiator: "inbound"`, and fires the same webhooks as any other call.

## Four things that differ from outbound

**A draft agent will not answer.** Outbound will happily dial with a draft;
inbound refuses. Publish before you expect your line to work.

**Inbound always uses the live version**, even while a campaign elsewhere is
running on an older one.

**The pre-dial gate does not run.** Calling windows and Do-Not-Call protect a
recipient from a call they did not ask for. Answering is not placing, and
refusing to answer your own published line at 21:01 would be absurd. No
`compliance_checks` rows are written for inbound calls.

**The opening line and voicemail handling are stripped.** An opening line reads
"calling from X about Y" and would greet someone who rang *you*; voicemail
detection is a callee-side judgement that would hang up on a real person.

## When a call is refused

Some inbound calls are refused before they become calls. **A refusal writes no
call record at all** — the call never happened, so inventing a row for it would
be a lie in your CDR.

| Reason | Fix |
|---|---|
| The number has no agent bound | Bind one |
| The bound agent is a draft | Publish it |
| The number is `suspended` | Top up; it reactivates on its own |
| Insufficient balance | Top up |
| At your concurrency quota | See below |

⚠️ **Inbound and outbound currently share one concurrency pool.** A campaign
running at your quota can lock out your published line. Keep campaign
`maxConcurrent` below your quota if the same organization takes inbound calls
that matter.

## Environment comes from the number

An inbound call presents no credential of yours, so there is no key to read an
environment from. It is taken from the number instead: a number allocated in test
mode produces test calls.