Smartlead inbox manager skill

Smartlead Inbox Manager

Zapmail hands you hundreds of new inboxes. Smartlead needs them configured: warmup enabled with the right ramp, signatures set so emails don't look bare, tags applied so you know which are active vs insurance, and health monitored so dead inboxes get recycled.

This skill does all of that via the Smartlead API.

Core operations

Operation	What it does	Script
Enable warmup	Turns on warmup with correct ramp (start 1/day, +5/day up to 40/day)	set-warmup.ts --mode=enable
Disable warmup	Turns off warmup (use for insurance inboxes)	set-warmup.ts --mode=disable
Set signatures	Bulk-applies a signature template to inboxes	set-signatures.ts
Tag as active	Adds the "active" tag	tag-inboxes.ts --tag=active
Tag as insurance	Adds the "insurance" tag	tag-inboxes.ts --tag=insurance
Health dashboard	Lists all inboxes with warmup status, reputation, daily sent	list-health.ts

Active vs insurance (the tagging convention)

Not every inbox should send all the time. A common pattern:

• Active inboxes — currently sending in live campaigns. Warmup OFF (or minimal) to prioritize real sends.
• Insurance inboxes — warmed but idle, held in reserve. Warmup ON to maintain reputation. Swap in when an active inbox burns out.

Tags are how you track this at scale. Filter by tag in Smartlead UI or via API.

Inputs

Every script reads:

• SMARTLEAD_API_KEY (env var)
• Inbox selector: --ids=1,2,3 OR --domain=example.com OR --tag=insurance OR --all
• Operation-specific flags (see each script)

Warmup ramp settings

Default warmup config for a NEW inbox (week 1-4 of warmup period):

{
  "warmup_enabled": "true",
  "total_warmup_per_day": 40,
  "daily_rampup": 5,
  "reply_rate_percentage": "20"
}

• total_warmup_per_day: max emails/day the inbox sends in warmup network (peak)
• daily_rampup: increment per day (day 1 = 1, day 2 = 6, day 3 = 11, etc. up to the cap)
• reply_rate_percentage: how often warmup peers reply (20% is realistic)

For INSURANCE inboxes (maintaining reputation long-term):

{
  "warmup_enabled": "true",
  "total_warmup_per_day": 15,
  "daily_rampup": 0,
  "reply_rate_percentage": "20"
}

Lower volume, no ramp — just keeps the inbox warm.

For ACTIVE inboxes (currently in live campaigns):

{
  "warmup_enabled": "false"
}

Warmup off so the daily send budget goes to real prospects.

Signature template

The default template, applied in bulk via set-signatures.ts, is:

{from_name}
{title}
{company}
{address}

Rendered (for example):

Jane Smith
Founder
Acme
123 Main St, Suite 400, Austin, TX 78701

Where each value comes from:

• {from_name} — the inbox's own from_name field if set (different personas per inbox), else SENDER_FIRST_NAME + SENDER_LAST_NAME from .env
• {title} — SENDER_TITLE env var
• {company} — SENDER_COMPANY_NAME env var
• {address} — SENDER_PHYSICAL_ADDRESS env var (recommended — a real mailing address in the footer keeps you on the right side of CAN-SPAM and similar rules)

Required .env entries for the default template:

SENDER_FIRST_NAME=Jane
SENDER_LAST_NAME=Smith
SENDER_TITLE=Founder
SENDER_COMPANY_NAME=Acme
SENDER_PHYSICAL_ADDRESS=123 Main St, Suite 400, Austin, TX 78701

Custom template override:

# Pass inline (use \n for newlines)
npx tsx scripts/set-signatures.ts --all --template="Cheers,\n{from_name}\n{title}\n{company}\n{address}"

# Or from a file
npx tsx scripts/set-signatures.ts --all --template-file=./my-signature.txt

Available placeholders: {from_name}, {from_email}, {domain}, {title}, {company}, {address}.

Email body order in campaigns:

In Smartlead sequences, always end the body with %signature% — Smartlead injects the inbox's signature there. Order:

<body content>

<PS unsubscribe line>

%signature%

This puts %signature% (with name + title + company + address) on the bottom, so every inbox sends with a real mailing address in the footer.

Health dashboard output

list-health.ts prints a CSV + summary:

email                              warmup   reputation   sent_today   health_status
[email protected]                    on       good         18           healthy
[email protected]                    on       fair         5            warming
[email protected]                     off      n/a          28           active
[email protected]                   on       bad          0            blocked

Summary:

Total inboxes: 80
  Warmup on: 50
  Active (warmup off): 28
  Blocked/failed: 2

Reputation:
  Good: 65
  Fair: 10
  Bad: 3
  Unknown: 2

Action items:
  - 2 inboxes blocked — run /email-deliverability-audit
  - 3 inboxes with "bad" reputation — consider pausing

Common workflows

Day 1 after Zapmail provisioning

# 1. Enable warmup on all newly created inboxes
npx tsx scripts/set-warmup.ts --mode=enable --tag=new --warmup-per-day=40 --ramp=5

# 2. Set signatures
npx tsx scripts/set-signatures.ts --tag=new --template="Best,\n{from_name}"

# 3. Tag them as insurance (they aren't active yet — warmup for 2 weeks first)
npx tsx scripts/tag-inboxes.ts --tag=new --add-tag=insurance
npx tsx scripts/tag-inboxes.ts --tag=new --remove-tag=new

Activating insurance inboxes into a live campaign

# 1. Identify warm insurance inboxes with good reputation
npx tsx scripts/list-health.ts --tag=insurance --filter=reputation:good --out=activate-candidates.csv

# 2. Flip them to active
npx tsx scripts/tag-inboxes.ts --ids-from-csv=activate-candidates.csv --add-tag=active --remove-tag=insurance

# 3. Disable warmup (they're sending for real now)
npx tsx scripts/set-warmup.ts --mode=disable --tag=active

Weekly health check

npx tsx scripts/list-health.ts --all --out=health-$(date +%Y-%m-%d).csv

Review the action items. Replace blocked inboxes.

When to retire an inbox

This skill is the mechanics of retiring an inbox. The decision belongs to /inbox-lifecycle-manager, which applies the full ladder — age guard, send floors, bounce fork, and a check that you have a warmed reserve to swap in before you take capacity away.

The cancel line is the 1% rule: reply rate <1% over 200+ sends (or zero replies on 150+), on a domain at least 30 days old. The floors do the protecting, not a softer threshold.

Three rules that matter here, because it is easy to retire the wrong thing from this skill:

1. ⛔ Retire whole domains, never single inboxes. Mailbox providers judge reputation at the domain level. Keeping two "good" inboxes on a domain you declared burned means the good ones inherit the bad one's reputation, and you are still sending from a domain you condemned.
2. ⛔ Never retire a domain under 30 days old, at any reply rate. It hasn't finished ramping.
3. ⛔ Never retire on under 200 sends. Below that floor a 0% reply rate cannot distinguish a burned inbox from an unlucky week.

Once /inbox-lifecycle-manager has produced an approved plan, execute it here:

# actions.csv comes from /inbox-lifecycle-manager — reviewed and explicitly approved
npx tsx scripts/tag-inboxes.ts --domain=burned-domain.co --add-tag=retired --remove-tag=active
npx tsx scripts/set-warmup.ts --mode=disable --domain=burned-domain.co

Snapshot the current tags before you start — nothing here records prior state, and without a snapshot there is no clean undo. Read the tags back afterwards; a 200 is not proof.

Common gotchas

• Warmup settings are per-inbox. There's no global setting. Scripts loop and hit each inbox individually.
• Rate-limiting. Smartlead allows ~33 req/sec. The scripts use 5 concurrent by default. Don't crank this higher without testing.
• Warmup blocked. If is_warmup_blocked: true, the inbox is flagged (usually for spam-like behavior in warmup). Manual investigation needed.
• Tags have no delete endpoint in some Smartlead versions — tags can only be ADDED. To "remove" a tag, replace the full tag list with a new one that omits it. The script handles this automatically.
• Signature formatting. HTML signatures can break rendering across Gmail/Outlook/Apple Mail. Keep it plain text or use minimal <br> tags. Test in Gmail/Outlook after setting.
• Warmup ramp accumulates. If you set daily_rampup: 5, the inbox sends 1 on day 1, 6 on day 2, 11 on day 3... up to total_warmup_per_day. To reset (e.g. after a break), disable then re-enable.

What to do next

If you just provisioned new inboxes: enable warmup (set-warmup.ts --mode=enable), apply signatures (set-signatures.ts), tag as insurance, then wait 2 weeks for warmup. After 2 weeks, promote insurance → active.

If inboxes are already warm: proceed to list-building (/prospeo-full-export, /disco-like, etc.) using active-tagged inboxes.

Or wait: if the health dashboard shows bad-reputation inboxes, run /inbox-lifecycle-manager to decide which ones actually warrant retirement (and what replaces their capacity) before launching a new campaign.

Related skills

• /zapmail-domain-setup-public — creates the inboxes this skill configures
• /email-deliverability-audit — when health dashboard shows problems
• /inbox-lifecycle-manager — decides which inboxes to retire, promote, or buy; this skill executes it
• /smartlead-api — underlying API reference

Scripts

• scripts/set-warmup.ts — enable/disable warmup, configure ramp
• scripts/set-signatures.ts — bulk signature setting
• scripts/tag-inboxes.ts — add/remove tags
• scripts/list-health.ts — health dashboard CSV + summary
• scripts/_lib.ts — shared: API client, inbox selector parser, concurrency