cold-email-kickoff

name	cold-email-kickoff
description	Adaptive router for the cold-email skill pack. Detects the operator's current state (brand-config present? SOUL.md present? infrastructure ready? PSP defined? EVP locked? first campaign run?) and picks the next-best step. Loaded by the main cold-email skill on bare invocation ("/cold-email") or when the operator asks "where do I start" / "what's next". Inspired by coldoutboundskills' /cold-email-kickoff pattern.
user-invocable	false
allowed-tools	["Read","Write","Grep","Bash"]

Cold Email Kickoff — adaptive router

State-aware router. Operators don't ship cold email on day 1 — they go through a sequence: ICP → PSP → EVP → infrastructure → first send → reply triage → iterate. Kickoff detects where the operator is in that sequence and picks the right next step.

Activation

Loaded by cold-email on:

• Bare /cold-email invocation (no other intent)
• "Where do I start"
• "What should I do next"
• "I'm new — what's the path"
• "Onboard me"

State detection

Before recommending, kickoff checks the project state:

# Pseudo-code
state = {
    "has_brand_config":   file_exists("brand-config.json"),
    "has_soul":           file_exists("SOUL.md"),
    "has_psp":            "psp" in brand_config and brand_config.psp.primary_pain != "",
    "has_evp":            "evp" in brand_config and brand_config.evp.primary != "",
    "has_infrastructure": "infrastructure" in brand_config and brand_config.infrastructure.sending_domain != "",
    "deliverability_audited_recently": days_since(brand_config.infrastructure.deliverability_last_audited) < 30,
    "first_send_logged":  has_entries(brand_config.operations.experiment_log_path),
    "reply_data_available": has_logged_replies(brand_config.operations.experiment_log_path)
}

Map state to the next-best step:

State condition	Route to
!has_brand_config OR !has_soul	cold-email-onboarding
has_brand_config AND !has_psp	"Install cmj-hub/claude-psp first; let me know when PSP is done"
has_psp AND !has_evp	"Install cmj-hub/claude-evp first; let me know when EVP is done"
has_evp AND !has_infrastructure	"Let's set up infrastructure. Run cold-email-deliverability for a baseline audit."
has_infrastructure AND !deliverability_audited_recently	"Deliverability hasn't been re-audited in 30+ days. Run cold-email-deliverability first."
deliverability_audited_recently AND !first_send_logged	"Ready to ship. Want to draft your first sequence via cold-email-craft?"
first_send_logged AND !reply_data_available	"First sequence shipped. Set up reply routing — see cold-email-reply-scoring."
reply_data_available	"You've got data. Run cold-email-audit to score the program + cold-email-weekly-rhythm for the cadence going forward."

Welcome flow

On first invocation with no state:

> /cold-email

Welcome. Let's figure out where you are.

[Detected state: brand-config.json missing]

You're at step 1 of 7. The 7 steps:

1. ⬜ Set up brand-config + voice (10 min)        ← YOU ARE HERE
2. ⬜ Build a Pain Signal Profile (20-30 min)
3. ⬜ Lock the EVP for your primary tier (15 min)
4. ⬜ Set up sending infrastructure
5. ⬜ Run the 15-point pre-campaign deliverability check
6. ⬜ Draft + ship first signal-anchored sequence
7. ⬜ Score replies + iterate (weekly rhythm)

Step 1 takes ~10 minutes and is required for everything else.

Want to run it now? (y/n)

If yes → invoke cold-email-onboarding. If no → tell the operator what minimum-mode produces, and offer to defer.

Status check mode

User-invocable: /cold-email status

Returns:

# Cold Email program status

Brand config:        ✓ brand-config.json (24 fields)
Voice (SOUL.md):     ✓ SOUL.md (8 phrases used, 6 banned, 5 stories)
PSP:                 ✓ Series-B SaaS pipeline-gap pain
EVP:                 ✓ Tier 3: "For Series-B SaaS, in a pipeline gap, we ship 14+ SQLs/month without hiring 2 SDRs"
Infrastructure:      ✓ outreach.acmecloud.com (Smartlead, ramped 60+d, DMARC quarantine)
Deliverability:      ✓ Last audited 2026-05-20 (3 days ago) — score 94/100
First send:          ✓ 142 sends logged (last 14d)
Reply data:          ✓ 11 replies (4 positive, 2 buy-signal, 5 neutral) — 7.7% reply rate

You're in iteration mode. Recommended next step:
→ Run `cold-email-audit` against your current program for the 30-point grade.
→ Or run `cold-email-weekly-rhythm` to set Monday's hunt + Wednesday's ship.

Resume from a specific step

User-invocable: /cold-email resume <step>

Where step is onboarding | psp | evp | infrastructure | deliverability | first-send | iterate. Jumps to that step regardless of detected state.

Why state-aware routing matters

Without it, kickoff would dump a "here are 12 sub-skills" menu and overwhelm the operator. State-aware routing surfaces the ONE next step that matters most given where they actually are.

The 30K+-star marketing-skills repos that work do this — orchestrator adapts, doesn't list. Operators ship faster.

References

• ../cold-email-onboarding/SKILL.md — invoked on missing state
• ../cold-email-craft/SKILL.md — invoked on "ready to ship"
• ../cold-email-audit/SKILL.md — invoked on "have reply data"
• ../cold-email-weekly-rhythm/SKILL.md — invoked on "in iteration mode"