# Cold email Human Guide

## What This Is For
Write or rewrite cold outreach emails to founders, VCs, recruiters, journalists, partners. It gives the agent a clearer input/output frame for email marketing: what context to ask for, what decisions to make, and what usable artifact to return.

Use this as a human-readable version of the Cold email agent skill. It is meant for marketers, operators, founders, and other non-coders who want the workflow without reading agent-specific implementation instructions.

## When To Use This
- Use this when you need a repeatable process for cold email.
- Use this when the task needs judgment, examples, constraints, or a clear output format rather than a one-off prompt.
- Use this when you want to hand an AI assistant enough context to produce a usable marketing artifact.

## When Not To Use This
- Do not use this when you only need a quick factual answer.
- Do not use this when the work depends on private data you cannot share with the assistant.
- Do not use this as a replacement for legal, compliance, financial, or medical review.

## What You Need Before Starting
- The goal or business outcome you want.
- The audience, customer segment, or market context.
- Any source material the assistant should respect, such as notes, briefs, examples, URLs, or brand guidance.
- Constraints such as tone, length, channel, deadline, region, or approval requirements.
- A clear definition of what a good final answer should look like.

## Step-By-Step Workflow
1. State the job clearly: "Use the Cold email guide to help me with..."
2. Add context: audience, goal, offer, channel, source material, and constraints.
3. Ask the assistant to identify missing inputs before producing the final output.
4. Have the assistant follow the skill-specific guidance below.
5. Review the result against the final checklist and ask for revisions where needed.

## Skill-Specific Guidance
- a first-touch outreach (founder → VC, candidate → recruiter, writer → editor, partner → partner)
- a follow-up to a non-response
- an intro request through a mutual connection
- a warm-intro template (the "forwardable" email)
- a re-engagement after a long pause
- write viral posts (use `viral-text`)
- write long-form essays (use `essay-write`)
- shift register of existing content (use `tone-shifter`)
- write fiction outreach (DM to an author, fan letter) — those need a different voice.
- **Gather intent.** Ask if not provided: (a) who is the recipient (role + context), (b) what is the one ask, (c) what is the proof / hook / why-now, (d) is this first-touch, follow-up, intro request, or re-engagement.
- **Pick structure.** See `references/structure.md` for the 5-block template adapted to the email type. First-touch and follow-up have different leads.
- **Length-budget check.** See `references/length-budget.md`. Hard cap: 200 words. Target: ≤120 words for first-touch. If draft exceeds budget, cut — see the cut-list in length-budget.md.

## Decision Points And Nuance
The original skill emphasizes: ROLE, PIPELINE, MODES, REFERENCES (load on demand), EXAMPLES, CONSTRAINTS, INVOCATION HINTS, Supporting file: examples/before-after.md, Example 1 — EN founder → VC (first-touch), Before (~175 words).

Use these questions to steer the work:
- What is the intended audience or buyer?
- What source material must be preserved?
- What should the assistant optimize for: clarity, persuasion, accuracy, speed, creativity, or conversion?
- What examples represent the desired quality bar?
- What should the assistant avoid?

## Common Mistakes
- The contract: the recipient must be able to read it in 15 seconds and decide whether to act. Every word that doesn't earn that 15 seconds is a tax.
- **No multi-paragraph windups.** The first sentence must contain a hook or be the hook. No "I'm reaching out because I've been a longtime admirer of your work in X."
- **Proof must be specific.** "We grew 4x in 6 months" beats "We've grown significantly." "I wrote the iOS chapter of Y" beats "I have experience in mobile."
- **Subject line must NOT include "Quick question", "Touching base", "Hi", or the recipient's name as a desperate hook.** See structure.md section 6.
- > I hope you are doing well. My name is Sarah Chen and I am a Senior Account Executive at SentinelStack, a leading provider of supply-chain security solutions. I'll keep this brief — I know you must be incredibly busy.
- «I'll keep this brief — I know you must be incredibly busy» — removed (-12 words; banned-patterns.md §Ceremony openers, both clauses)
- > Just wanted to bump this up to the top of your inbox. I know you must be incredibly busy, so apologies for the follow-up.
- Subject — kept original threading «Re: $2.1M ARR in dev tools — fit for Magnet?» (structure.md §follow-up subject rule: never change subject mid-thread)

## Copy-And-Paste Prompt
```text
Use the Cold email human guide.

My goal:
[Describe the business outcome]

Audience:
[Describe who this is for]

Context and source material:
[Paste notes, examples, links, or existing copy]

Constraints:
[Tone, length, channel, timeline, must-include items, must-avoid items]

Before producing the final output, ask me for any missing information that would materially improve the result.
```

## Final Checklist
- [ ] The output matches the original goal.
- [ ] The audience and context are reflected in the answer.
- [ ] Important constraints and source material were preserved.
- [ ] The assistant made the relevant decisions explicit.
- [ ] The final artifact is ready to use, review, or hand to the next person.

## Source
This guide was generated from the mikefluff/skills skill entry for `cold-email`.

## Source Skill Notes
These notes preserve the nuance from the original skill. Use them as supporting reference when the workflow above feels too generic.

Write a cold email that gets read and responded to. Not viral content (use `viral-text`). Not formal corporate (use `tone-shifter --to business-formal`). A direct, one-to-one message with a specific ask.

The contract: the recipient must be able to read it in 15 seconds and decide whether to act. Every word that doesn't earn that 15 seconds is a tax.

Use this skill when the user is writing:
- a first-touch outreach (founder → VC, candidate → recruiter, writer → editor, partner → partner)
- a follow-up to a non-response
- an intro request through a mutual connection
- a warm-intro template (the "forwardable" email)
- a re-engagement after a long pause

This skill does NOT:
- write viral posts (use `viral-text`)
- write long-form essays (use `essay-write`)
- shift register of existing content (use `tone-shifter`)
- write fiction outreach (DM to an author, fan letter) — those need a different voice.

## ROLE

Read context (who is the recipient, what's the ask, what's the proof) → assemble the email with the 5-block structure → respect the length budget → run the banned-patterns check → final pass through `writer`.

## PIPELINE

1. **Gather intent.** Ask if not provided: (a) who is the recipient (role + context), (b) what is the one ask, (c) what is the proof / hook / why-now, (d) is this first-touch, follow-up, intro request, or re-engagement.

2. **Pick structure.** See `references/structure.md` for the 5-block template adapted to the email type. First-touch and follow-up have different leads.

3. **Length-budget check.** See `references/length-budget.md`. Hard cap: 200 words. Target: ≤120 words for first-touch. If draft exceeds budget, cut — see the cut-list in length-budget.md.

4. **Banned-patterns check.** See `references/banned-patterns.md`. Strip ceremony, hedges, vague intros, "I hope this email finds you well", "Hope you're doing great", "Just checking in".

5. **Final `writer` pass.** 4-layer cleanup. Even more strict than usual: cold email has no slack for slop.

   **Delete the water, not the function.** The ask, the easy-yes, the proof link and the sign-off are the email's working parts. Writer's default treatment is deletion; applied here it produces a polished note that requests nothing. Treat them by replacement or simplification. After the pass, verify the ask is still present and still specific. See `forbidden-substitutions.md` in the `writer` skill.

6. **Output.** Subject line + body. Subject line follows its own rules (see `references/structure.md` section 6).

## MODES

- `cold-email first-touch <recipient> --ask <ask> --proof <proof>` — initial outreach
- `cold-email follow-up <previous>` — write a follow-up that doesn't repeat the original
- `cold-email intro-request <intro-via> --asking-for <intro-to> --why <reason>` — ask a mutual contact
- `cold-email forwardable <recipient-context> --ask <ask>` — the "forwardable" template designed to be pasted by the intro-giver into a separate thread
- `cold-email re-engage <last-context>` — re-open after silence

## REFERENCES (load on demand)

| File | When to load |
|---|---|
| [references/structure.md](references/structure.md) | When assembling the email — 5-block template per type, subject-line rules |
| [references/banned-patterns.md](references/banned-patterns.md) | After draft is assembled — the strip pass |
| [references/length-budget.md](references/length-budget.md) | When the draft exceeds 120/200 words — the cut-list |

## EXAMPLES

See [examples/](examples/) — three calibration emails (first-touch, follow-up, intro-request).

## CONSTRAINTS

- **One ask per email.** If the user wants two asks, write two emails.
- **No multi-paragraph windups.** The first sentence must contain a hook or be the hook. No "I'm reaching out because I've been a longtime admirer of your work in X."
- **Proof must be specific.** "We grew 4x in 6 months" beats "We've grown significantly." "I wrote the iOS chapter of Y" beats "I have experience in mobile."
- **Subject line must NOT include "Quick question", "Touching base", "Hi", or the recipient's name as a desperate hook.** See structure.md section 6.
- **Sign-off plain.** "Best, Name" or "Thanks, Name". Not "Cheers, Name" unless it matches your voice. Not "Warm regards" unless you genuinely use it.

## INVOCATION HINTS

When the user says any of:
- "write a cold email / outreach / pitch / intro request"
- "help me email this [VC / recruiter / journalist / founder]"
- "draft an outreach to ..."
- "write a follow-up to ..."
- "intro me to X via Y"
- "warm intro template"

RU triggers (use the skill when the user writes any of):
- "холодное письмо / холодный аутрич / письмо инвестору / письмо рекрутёру"
- "напиши outreach / напиши письмо ..."
- "фоллоу-ап / фолоуап / follow-up к ..."
- "интро через X к Y / попроси Y представить меня"