Outreach

Outreach Skill

Cold email outreach. Invoked via /outreach [N] where N is the count of emails to send today (default 5, max 10 per session).

This is the one-and-only path for any cold email that leaves acrid@acridautomation.com. If an email is going to a stranger we haven't emailed before, it runs through this skill. If we already emailed them, a follow-up runs through this skill. No outbound to strangers via any other path.

---

Approval gate (2026-04-18 — Supabase-native)

See docs/human-in-loop.md for the full flow. TL;DR:

• Every agent INSERT into cold_outreach_targets uses status='pending_approval' (sourcing sub-agents, Mason, Firecrawl research, etc.). Agent writes NEVER land in a queryable state for /outreach.
• Operator approves in Supabase Studio — bookmark https://supabase.com/dashboard/project//editor — filter status=pending_approval, change status to queued (approve) or skipped + fill approval_notes (reject).
• /outreach query reads status IN ('queued','ready') — pending-approval rows are invisible. Approved rows flow through without any new code or polling.
• Rejected rows stay for learning — sourcing agents query status='skipped' AND source='' to tune scoring next cycle.

Legacy rows (Mason direct inserts pre-2026-04-18, Firecrawl legacy writes) that have status='queued' continue to flow — grandfathered in.

Earlier design attempted Google Sheets + an n8n "Gate Polling" agent. Killed 2026-04-18 (same day) because the MCP couldn't update sheet cells and Supabase Studio is a better UI for this anyway. Artifacts removed: n8n workflow `, agents/gate-polling/, memory/specs/gate-polling.md`.

---

NON-NEGOTIABLE rules

Voice

Read soul/acrid.md BEFORE writing anything. Every email must pass the voice test — sounds like Acrid, not like a SaaS sales template. If a line could appear in a Mailchimp sequence from a 2019 agency, delete it.

Signature

Every email MUST be sent with isHtml: true and MUST append the signature from memory/email-signature.html. Pattern:

plain_body  = "paragraph one\n\nparagraph two\n\nparagraph three"
body_html   = "" + plain_body with \n\n →  + ""
signature   = Read("memory/email-signature.html") — strip the  at the top
final_body  = body_html + "" + signature
createGmailDraft({ to, subject, body: final_body, isHtml: true, account: "acrid" })

If isHtml: true fails, fallback to plain signature: "\n\n— Acrid | Acrid@acridautomation.com | acridautomation.com | X • LinkedIn • Instagram" AND log signature_fallback=text-only in interactions.notes.

Dedup / cooldown

Before drafting, check:

• public.interactions WHERE counterparty = target_email — if any row exists dated within last 14 days, SKIP.
• public.cold_outreach_targets WHERE email = targetemail — if status='sent' and emailsent_at within 14 days, SKIP.

One email per lead per 14 days. No exceptions without explicit operator override.

Never fabricate

• Don't invent quotes, customer names, stats, or outcomes.
• Don't invent that we worked with someone we didn't.
• If the hook requires a specific detail about the target's business, CONFIRM it from their public site/social via WebFetch/WebSearch or public source. If you can't confirm, drop the hook and use a generic-but-honest opener.
• Don't reference a prior conversation that didn't happen.

Anti-spam

• Max 10 emails per session
• Max 10 sessions per week
• Never BCC / never CC a list
• Never attach anything without explicit operator approval
• Subject line ≤ 60 chars, lowercase-friendly (the campaign norm)
• Body ≤ 180 words. If you need more, you haven't tightened enough.

What we sell (by campaign)

> PRICES LIVE IN apps/site-v2/src/data/truths.ts. Read them there before > quoting a number in an email. The hardcoded figures below drifted from the > site once already — this skill said the Daily Post was $597/mo while the site > said $497, and GEO Audit $99 while the site said $149. A cold email quoting a > price the buyer then fails to find on the page is worse than no email. If a > number here disagrees with truths.ts, truths.ts wins and this file is > wrong — fix it here, do not append a correction.

Campaign routing is driven by public.cold_outreach_targets.campaign. Three active campaigns as of 2026-08-24:

Campaign reliability-audit (2026-08-24 — the lead offer)

• Offer: Silent Failure Audit, $750, fixed scope, one week — we read what their automations actually DELIVERED, not what the logs claim. Converts to the $1,500/mo reliability retainer, cancel any month. (PRICES.silentFailureAudit / PRICES.reliabilityRetainer.)
• Target fit: companies ALREADY running workflow automation in production — agencies, e-commerce brands, small B2B SaaS, 10-200 employees — where a silent failure costs client trust. The buyer is whoever owns ops or the pipelines: founder/CEO at the small end, Head of Ops, Director of Ops, CTO, RevOps/Marketing Ops.
• Why it lands: everyone selling AI right now sells building. Nobody sells finding the thing that already broke and is still reporting success. Proof is at /work/silent-success/ — a real incident with the run data attached, not a testimonial.
• Precondition: status='queued' AND cooldown clear.
• Never claim we have looked at their specific stack. We have not. The email offers to.
• CTA (locked, verbatim):

`` Reply 'audit' and I'll send back one specific thing about your setup I can already tell is unverifiable from the outside - free, inside 24 hours. If that read is useful, the full audit is $750 and takes a week. ``

Campaign daily-post

• Offer: The Daily Post — $497/mo (PRICES.dailyPostMonthly; this file said $597 until 2026-08-24 and was wrong), one branded post/day across 3 social channels, client approves a week in a Google Sheet, Acrid posts.
• Target fit: local service businesses with under-active social (boutique fitness, small nonprofits, independent law firms, CPAs, specialty retail).
• Precondition: status='queued' AND cooldown clear. No special build_status check.
• CTA (locked, verbatim): Reply 'send samples' and I'll write 3 sample posts specifically for [business] in the next 24 hours. You see the actual work before paying anything.

Campaign mason-rebuild (populated by Mason — see agents/mason/)

• Offer: Website Rebuild — $299 launch (first 3 buyers) / $499 standard / +$99 DNS done-for-you / $899 bundle (site + GBP optimization + GEO Audit).
• Target fit: local home-service trades (plumbing, HVAC, electrical, landscaping) in U.S. secondary metros. Mason discovers, scores, and rebuilds them as previews at acridautomation.com/preview/{slug}/.
• Preconditions (MUST check before drafting):
• build_status='built' (not pending_approval, not failed). If pending_approval, SKIP — operator hasn't spot-checked yet.
• preview_url IS NOT NULL.
• Standard cooldown still applies.
• CTA (locked, verbatim):

``` Reply 'buy' and this site goes live on your domain in 48 hours:

• $299 for the first 3 customers (case study pricing)
• $499 standard
• +$99 if you want me to handle the DNS cutover myself

If it's a no, no worries — the preview URL will stay up for a couple weeks. Other sites I've built: acridautomation.com/rebuilds ```

Other products (GEO Audit $149, Agent Architect $29, Skill Creator $19 — all from PRICES; the $99/$17/$10 figures here were stale until 2026-08-24) are NOT cold-pitched. They convert through inbound.

Default CTA rule

Exactly ONE CTA per email. The campaign's locked CTA is used verbatim — do NOT improvise a different CTA, do NOT combine CTAs. No calls, no calendar links, no meeting requests. Ever.

Social sample posts (social-pitch route only, Phase 4)

For targets with source='social-pitch' (promoted from the Lead Approval Queue), attach 2 sample posts to the cold email — one Facebook, one Instagram — tailored to the prospect's vertical + local market + any business-specific voice signal we have.

Generate AFTER Gate 1 approval, not before. Rejected leads never see sample generation — saves tokens.

Rules:

• Facebook sample: 60-120 words, neutral-casual voice appropriate for the vertical, one CTA in the post (book online / call / visit), no hashtags or 2-3 max.
• Instagram sample: IG-native per CLAUDE.md rules — lowercase-leaning, short sentences, line breaks for breath, NO inline URL ("link in bio" instead), end with disclosure emoji OR the account's own signature, 8-12 hashtags (mix local + vertical + 1-2 branded).
• Both drafts written in THE PROSPECT'S voice (Facebook page tone for FB, Instagram bio tone for IG), NOT in Acrid's voice. Read their existing posts via WebFetch if any exist; if not, use a neutral local-service-business register.
• If we don't have voice signal (no prior posts, thin social presence), set voice_confidence: low in the sheet's notes column AND append this line to the email, verbatim:

> These are first drafts from what I could see publicly — tell me what's off and we tune the voice weekly.

Attach in the email body. Pattern for the body:

{{2-3 lines of personalized opener + hook}}

Here's what week 1 looks like — two drafts I'd queue on Monday if you want to try us:

FACEBOOK:
{{facebook draft}}

INSTAGRAM:
{{instagram draft}}

{{CTA line (campaign-locked)}}

— Acrid

Log: emit a social_samples_generated event after drafting, with payload {target_id, platforms: ['facebook','instagram'], voice_confidence: 'low'|'medium'|'high'}.

Token budget: generate both samples in one Opus call for cost efficiency. Don't dispatch subagents for this; it's a cheap two-completion prompt.

---

Execute

1. Read soul/acrid.md + memory/email-signature.html.
2. Query targets to email. Default source (campaign-aware):

``sql select * from public.cold_outreach_targets where status in ('queued','ready') and (last_emailed_at is null or last_emailed_at \n\n", "last_activity_at":"2026-04-18T14:00:00Z", // NOT "occurred_at" "status":"awaiting_reply", "value_score":3, "notes":"campaign= | hook= | preview_slug=" }} ``

If you're writing to Supabase directly (not via drain), hit POST /rest/v1/interactions with the same body structure under data.data. The table requires platform, counterparty, and last_activity_at — everything else is optional.

g. Update public.cold_outreach_targets SET status='sent', emailsentat=now(), email_subject, notes += body.

1. Summary log: "Outreach: N sent, M skipped (cooldown), P failed. Campaigns: ."

Sourcing new targets (when queue is empty or low)

1. Pick a niche aligned with The Daily Post product (local service businesses with under-active social). Good fits:

• Boutique fitness (pilates, yoga, barre, CrossFit) in specific cities
• Small nonprofits (veteran, mental health, community)
• Independent law firms (≤5 attorneys)
• CPAs / specialty accountants
• Specialty retail (bookstores, record stores, etc.)

1. WebSearch: "[niche] [city]" → scrape top 10 results.
2. For each: confirm business is real + find contact email on website (About, Contact, footer). If email requires a form, skip — we only cold-email to addresses they list publicly.
3. Insert row into cold_outreach_targets:

• campaign, business_name, website, email, city, state, niche, hook (1 sentence why we picked them), source, status='pending_approval' (NOT queued — awaiting operator gate).

1. After sourcing, surface in operator-log: "Sourced N new leads to coldoutreachtargets with status=pendingapproval. Review in Supabase Studio: https://supabase.com/dashboard/project//editor — filter status=pendingapproval, change to queued (approve) or skipped + approval_notes (reject)."

Safeguards / failure handling

• Any sendGmailDraft failure → mark target status='send_failed', notes the error, STOP the run (don't send the next 9 if Gmail is broken).
• Target website unreachable during research → use what the queue row already has; if row has no hook, SKIP (we don't cold-pitch without a hook).
• Target's email appears on public.interactions already as counterparty (any platform) → SKIP (we've interacted before).
• If / the operator / / any customer appears in the outreach queue somehow → hard SKIP. Customers never get cold outreach.

Learnings

Append observations to skills/outreach/LEARNINGS.md after every session:

• Reply rate
• Which hooks worked / which didn't
• Any subject lines that got flagged as spam (check Gmail bounces)
• Voice notes — what slipped in that sounded off

Source & license

This open-source skill is cataloged on AgentStack and links to its original source — we do not rehost the code.

• Author: acrid-auto
• Source: acrid-auto/acrid-brain
• License: MIT

Install and usage instructions live in the source repository linked above.