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Getting started

Quickstart

This guide walks you through placing your first call with the Programmable Voice API in a few minutes.

Before you begin

You need:

• Your account SID and auth token, available from the dashboard.
• A phone number your account owns, to use as the caller ID (From).
• A destination number to call (To). Your own phone works well for testing.

Make your first call

The following examples create an outbound call that speaks a short greeting. The call script is passed inline with Twiml, so no webhook server is required for this first call.

The response

A successful request returns 201 with the new call resource. The call starts in the queued status, and direction is outbound-api because it originated through the REST API rather than as an inbound call:

Code
{
  "sid": "CA5388f7a5e04d0ed71cac5cdf1ea17a53",
  "account_sid": "AC9ce1cd445308e3ec5080c6126288aa09",
  "api_version": "2010-04-01",
  "date_created": "Thu, 02 Jul 2026 12:00:00 +0000",
  "date_updated": "Thu, 02 Jul 2026 12:00:00 +0000",
  "to": "+2341800000001",
  "to_formatted": "+2341800000001",
  "from": "+2341700000000",
  "from_formatted": "+2341700000000",
  "direction": "outbound-api",
  "status": "queued",
  "start_time": null,
  "end_time": null,
  "duration": null,
  "price": null,
  "price_unit": null,
  "queue_time": "0",
  "phone_number_sid": "PN9992109eed74a671cdc4e192a934d43e",
  "parent_call_sid": null,
  "annotation": null,
  "answered_by": null,
  "caller_name": null,
  "forwarded_from": null,
  "group_sid": null,
  "trunk_sid": null,
  "subresource_uris": {
    "recordings": "/2010-04-01/Accounts/AC9ce1cd445308e3ec5080c6126288aa09/Calls/CA5388f7a5e04d0ed71cac5cdf1ea17a53/Recordings.json"
  },
  "uri": "/2010-04-01/Accounts/AC9ce1cd445308e3ec5080c6126288aa09/Calls/CA5388f7a5e04d0ed71cac5cdf1ea17a53.json"
}

Save the sid: it identifies this call in every subsequent request.

Verify the result

Fetch the call resource to check on its progress:

Code
curl -u ACCOUNT_SID:AUTH_TOKEN \
  "https://api.helios.pressone.co/2010-04-01/Accounts/ACCOUNT_SID/Calls/CA5388f7a5e04d0ed71cac5cdf1ea17a53.json"

The status field moves through the following values as the call progresses:

Status	Meaning
queued	The call has been accepted and is waiting to be placed.
ringing	The destination phone is ringing.
in-progress	The call was answered and is connected.
completed	The call ended normally.

If the destination does not answer within the ring timeout (60 seconds by default, configurable with the Timeout field on create-call), the status becomes no-answer instead of completed. Poll the call resource, or use a status callback to be notified of the transition instead of polling.

Next steps

• Receiving calls: handle inbound calls and build an IVR menu.
• OneML overview: every verb available for scripting a call.
• API reference: complete REST endpoint documentation.