coldforge

Honest, local-first cold outreach. Research a prospect → personalize the opener → run a safe, sequenced campaign → auto-follow-up only the people who didn't reply. One shared Python core, two front-ends: a CLI and an MCP server you can drive from Claude.

No SaaS, no account, no required API keys. Your prospect data and your .env never leave your machine — it's a single SQLite file you can delete and rebuild.

git clone https://github.com/Makeph/coldforge && cd coldforge
pip install -e ".[all]"            # or `pip install -e .` for the zero-dep core
coldforge init
coldforge leads import examples/leads.csv
coldforge research --all
coldforge campaign create --name q3 --sequence examples/sequence.yml
coldforge campaign activate q3 --leads examples/leads.csv
coldforge campaign preview q3      # review the whole timeline first
coldforge tick --dry-run           # see exactly what would send

Not on PyPI yet — install from source as above. (pip install coldforge will be the one-liner once it's published.)

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Why this exists

It's a synthesis of the best ideas from a pile of open-source outreach tools, rebuilt small and honest:

Idea	Borrowed from	How coldforge does it
Local SQLite sending engine, sequences, A/B, safe tick worker	cold-cli (Go)	Re-implemented lean in Python
Web-search + scrape to personalize	prospect-research-mcp	research command + research_prospect MCP tool, zero-key DuckDuckGo fallback
LLM-personalized emails	ProspectAI	~150 lines, not 137k; always degrades to template fill
Curated reply-driving templates, silent-reply follow-up, SPF/DKIM/DMARC check	coldflow	Original template pack + doctor + reply→cancel rule

Everything degrades gracefully: no Anthropic key → deterministic template fill; no Tavily key → DuckDuckGo + site scrape; no SMTP → dry-run only. You can run the entire pipeline end-to-end with an empty .env.

Two front-ends, one core

            ┌──────────────────────────────────────────────┐
            │  shared core (research · personalize ·        │
            │  templates · sequence · sender · db)          │
            └───────────────┬───────────────┬──────────────┘
                            │               │
                      coldforge CLI     MCP server
                  research→send→follow   research_prospect
                                         draft_email

CLI

coldforge templates list                 # browse the pack
coldforge templates show sales_pain_point
coldforge research alex@acme.io          # store a personalization signal
coldforge draft -l alex@acme.io -t sales_pain_point --research
coldforge doctor acme.io                 # SPF / DKIM / DMARC, 0–100 score
coldforge reply mark alex@acme.io        # records a reply → cancels follow-ups
coldforge stats q3

MCP (drive it from Claude)

pip install "coldforge[mcp]"
coldforge mcp        # stdio server

Register it with any MCP client (e.g. Claude Desktop / Claude Code):

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "coldforge": { "command": "coldforge", "args": ["mcp"] }
  }
}

Tools exposed: research_prospect, draft_email, list_templates, show_template, check_deliverability. Now you can ask Claude "research Alex at Acme and draft a pain-point cold email" and it uses the same engine the CLI does.

Sequences

A sequence is a list of steps in YAML:

- template: sales_pain_point   # concrete opener from the lead's data + research
  wait_days: 0
  condition: always
- template: followup_bump      # one soft bump, same thread, only if no reply
  wait_days: 3
  condition: no_reply

On activate, every step is pre-scheduled for every lead. The tick worker (run it from cron / Task Scheduler) sends what's due and enforces the guardrails:

• Send window & days — nothing sends outside COLDFORGE_SEND_WINDOW / COLDFORGE_SEND_DAYS (default 09:00–17:00, Mon–Fri).
• Daily cap — COLDFORGE_DAILY_LIMIT (default 40) per account.
• Jittered pacing — randomised gap between real sends.
• Reply → cancel — a no_reply step is skipped and the rest of that lead's sequence canceled the moment a reply is recorded (manually or via IMAP).

# typical cron line — runs the worker every 15 min during the day
*/15 9-17 * * 1-5  coldforge tick --scan-replies

Configuration

Everything is optional — copy .env.example to .env and fill what you need.

Variable	Purpose	Without it
ANTHROPIC_API_KEY	Claude-personalized drafts	deterministic template fill
TAVILY_API_KEY	high-quality research	DuckDuckGo + site scrape
SMTP_*, COLDFORGE_FROM_*	actually send mail	dry-run only
IMAP_*	auto-detect replies	mark replies manually
COLDFORGE_DAILY_LIMIT / SEND_WINDOW / SEND_DAYS	guardrails	sane defaults

Templates

Nine curated, plaintext, reply-tested templates across sales, recruiting, partnership, warm-intro, networking, follow-up — each under ~120 words with one CTA and deliverability notes baked into the front-matter. Add your own by dropping a .md file into ~/.coldforge/templates/.

Install from source

git clone https://github.com/Makeph/coldforge
cd coldforge
pip install -e ".[dev]"
pytest          # offline test suite, no keys needed

Responsible use

coldforge is a precision tool, not a spam cannon: low daily caps, send windows, one-bump follow-ups, an explicit "say no and I'll stop" CTA in the templates, and a doctor check so you authenticate your domain before sending. Only email people you have a legitimate reason to contact, honour unsubscribes, and follow the law that applies to you (CAN-SPAM, GDPR, etc.).

License

MIT © 2026 Aurore Biakou