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Overview

Live Call Routing gives your team a phone number that pages the right person. A caller dials the number, Rootly figures out who’s on call, and either connects the two live or takes a message and pages the on-call responder. It’s designed for the calls that shouldn’t wait — a customer reporting an outage, an on-site engineer needing help, a vendor calling in — where email or a form is too slow. Every routing number lives on the On-Call → Live Call Routing tab and combines four pieces:
  • A routing mode — either connect the caller to a responder or drop to voicemail.
  • A number — the phone number callers actually dial.
  • Routing rules — who gets paged, at what urgency, optionally through an IVR menu.
  • A greeting — what the caller hears when Rootly picks up.

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Choose a Routing Mode

Both modes result in a page — the difference is whether the caller waits on the line.

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Create a Routing Number

1

Open Live Call Routing

Go to On-Call → Live Call Routing and choose + New Routing Number.
2

Pick the mode

Choose Connect Live or Route to Voicemail — see the table above.
3

Set up the number

Give it a name, pick a country, and choose a number type (local, mobile, or toll-free). Rootly provisions a number once you save; it appears under Your Number on the setup screen.
4

Add routing rules

Choose who to page. Set an alert urgency on the routing number — or, if you add multiple targets and turn it into a Calling Tree, set urgency per mapping instead.
5

Write the greeting

Add the message Rootly reads to callers. Keep it short — most callers hang up on long menus.
6

Create the number

Save. The number appears in the Live Call Routing tab.

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Number Fields

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string
required
Name for your new routing number.
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string
required
See Supported Countries.
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enum
required
Availability varies by country.
Once saved, Your Number appears on the setup screen.

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Routing Rules

Routing rules decide who Rootly pages when a call comes in.
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required
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required
Required on the routing number unless you configure a Calling Tree. With a Calling Tree, urgency is set per mapping instead — see IVR Calling Trees below and Alert Urgency.

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IVR Calling Trees

Adding more than one paging target turns the number into an IVR menu. Rootly asks the caller to press a digit for their destination and pages the matching target.
  • Each target has a digit shown in the first column of the target list. Digits must be unique across the list.
  • With a Calling Tree, urgency is set per mapping rather than once at the routing-number level — see Alert Urgency for how to configure per-mapping urgency.
  • Rootly reserves * for “repeat the menu.”
  • Your greeting must tell callers which digits map to which teams. “Press 1 for Security, 2 for the Database team, or 3 for the On-Call Engineer.”
A single company-wide routing number with a calling tree usually beats one number per team. Callers only have to remember one phone number, and adding a new team is one row in the IVR, not a new number to publish.

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Advanced Settings (Connect Live only)

Connect Live exposes three extra settings under Advanced Settings in the routing rules tab.
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duration
Send the caller to voicemail if no one answers after the configured amount of time.
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duration
How long to wait between escalation-policy levels when a caller is on the line.
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boolean

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Greetings

The greeting is the first thing your caller hears. Keep it short and load-bearing — a name, a menu (if there is one), and nothing else.
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required
The initial message Rootly reads to your callers.
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What the caller hears while waiting on hold. Applies to Connect Live.
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The message played when the caller is sent to voicemail.

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Supported Countries

If your country isn’t listed, contact your Rootly representative to discuss availability in your region.

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Best Practices

  • Use Connect Live for production issues. A hold with music beats a callback for anything actively burning.
  • Use Voicemail for intake queues. Vendor calls, internal help lines, and anything the responder should hear before calling back.
  • Publish one number, not one per team. A single company-wide number with an IVR routes to any team and only needs updating once.
  • Keep the greeting short. Long menus lose callers before they finish listening.
  • Assign meaningful digits and match them in the greeting. For example, 1 = Security, 2 = Database, 3 = On-Call Engineer — memorable digits reduce misdials.
  • Shorten escalation delays for live calls. A caller on hold notices seconds — set the Connect Live escalation override low.

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Troubleshooting

Rootly couldn’t provision a number matching your selections.
  • The requested number type may be out of stock in that country. Try another type (local, mobile, toll-free).
  • Try another country if the caller can dial internationally.
  • Contact Rootly support if all combinations fail — regional inventory changes over time.
The IVR isn’t accepting or acting on caller input.
  • The greeting isn’t telling the caller what to press. Add a menu prompt.
  • Two targets have the same digit. IVR mappings must be unique — adjust the list so every target has a different digit.
  • The number has only one target. IVR menus only appear when there are two or more.
The call connected but no one got paged.
  • Alert urgency isn’t set on the routing number or on the specific IVR mapping.
  • The paging target has been removed or is no longer valid.
Callers hear silence while waiting on Connect Live.
  • Waiting music must be selected from the approved Rootly list.

Escalation Policies

Who gets paged when a caller comes in — and what happens if they don’t answer.

Alert Muting

Why live call routing rings responders even while their automated alerts are muted.

On-Call Notifications

The channels a paged responder receives calls on.