inkbox-outreach-sequence

name	inkbox-outreach-sequence
description	Use when the user asks the agent to follow up with someone over multiple days, run a multi-step outreach campaign across email and SMS, or "ping them again in 2 days if they don't respond". Coordinates send tools with delayed scheduling and reply detection.
user-invocable	false

Inkbox outreach sequence

Use this skill whenever the user asks for multi-step outbound communication — typically over several days, often combining email + SMS, with branching on whether the recipient replied.

Hermes tool availability

• inkbox_send_email — primary outbound for longer-form steps
• inkbox_send_sms — short nudges; respects opt-in/opt-out
• inkbox_list_contacts — find a named recipient before starting
• inkbox_lookup_contact — resolve a known email/phone to a contact
• inkbox_get_contact — inspect a specific contact returned by list/lookup
• inkbox_create_contact / inkbox_update_contact / inkbox_delete_contact — maintain address-book entries when the user explicitly asks
• inkbox_list_text_conversations — check whether the recipient has replied to past SMS
• inkbox_get_text_conversation — inspect a specific SMS thread when the conversation id is known

Hermes does not expose historical email-read, note, vCard export/import, or email-forwarding tools. Use contact lookup/list/get or literal email addresses/phone numbers supplied by the user. If a named recipient lookup is ambiguous or does not include a usable destination, ask the user for the concrete destination before starting.

Workflow

A sequence is a small state machine: a fixed list of steps, each with a channel and a delay from the prior step. Before running a step, the agent checks whether the recipient has replied since the last step; if so, the sequence exits early.

1. Plan before doing

Ask the user enough to fill in:

• Who is the recipient (contact lookup result, literal email address/phone number, or resolved current-contact context)
• Steps: ordered list, each with channel (email/SMS), copy, and delay from previous step
• Exit condition: typically "any reply"; sometimes "specific keyword in reply"

If the user is vague, propose a default 3-step sequence: email today → SMS in 2 days → email in 5 days.

2. Send step N

For each step:

1. Check for reply since last step.
   • If last step was email: Hermes cannot list historical email replies directly; only continue if the current turn or user-supplied context confirms no reply.
   • If last step was SMS: inkbox_get_text_conversation(remotePhoneNumber) and look for new inbound messages.
   • Reply found → exit the sequence.
2. Send the step. Email → inkbox_send_email (thread to last outbound if possible via inReplyToMessageId). SMS → inkbox_send_sms.
3. Schedule the next check. This skill does not schedule the delay itself — Hermes's scheduling layer or the user's own cron is responsible for re-invoking the agent at the next step time.

3. Record state

If the user wants the sequence persisted across sessions, provide a compact state summary they can store in their scheduler or notes system:

Outreach to Ada Lovelace (contact UUID xxx):
- Step 1 sent 2026-05-21 (email, id=...)
- Step 2 scheduled 2026-05-23 (SMS)
- Step 3 scheduled 2026-05-26 (email)
- Exit: any reply

Future sessions need that summary or an external scheduler to recover the plan.

Hygiene

• Don't ignore opt-out. If inkbox_send_sms returns "Recipient has opted out", the entire sequence stops for that contact — do not switch them to email-only without the user's explicit OK.
• Respect quiet hours. SMS in particular shouldn't fire at 3am local. If the user hasn't specified timing, default to business hours in the recipient's time zone (or US Eastern if unknown).
• Cap the depth. More than ~5 outbound touches without a reply is harassment. Surface this concern to the user before queueing step 6+.
• Thread email. Always pass inReplyToMessageId on follow-up emails so the recipient sees one conversation, not five separate cold pitches.

What this skill does NOT cover

• Bulk outreach to many contacts at once (current SDK + plugin scope is one recipient at a time per sequence).
• A/B testing different copy.
• Inbound parsing (intent detection on the reply body) — the agent reads the reply and decides, no auto-classifier.

When you need more — raw Inkbox docs

If a delivery-status field, reply-detection edge case, or rate-cap detail isn't covered here, go to the source:

• https://inkbox.ai/llms.txt — LLM-friendly index of every Inkbox doc page.
• https://inkbox.ai/docs/all.md — the full Inkbox documentation concatenated as one markdown file.

Especially useful for understanding inbound text.received / message.received webhook payloads when reasoning about reply detection.