What is a cold email MCP server? The cold-email MCP server for coding agents
A hosted, streamable-HTTP MCP server exposing 24 intent-level cold-email infrastructure tools, scoped by per-tenant bearer token and live in production. This page documents the exact tool surface — verified against the live tools/list response, not aspirational.
What this MCP server does
Most cold-email MCP servers in the wild re-export a vendor's full API surface — a well-known example ships 100+ tools. This one is a curated, high-level facade: 24 intents that hide domain-registrar, mailbox-vendor, and sequencing-engine plumbing behind calls an agent can reason about in one context window. Content generation — the offer, the subject lines, the sequence body — stays your agent's job; this server owns infrastructure provisioning, sequencing, isolation, and compliance guardrails. Five of the 21 (get_dashboard, configure_dashboard, label_thread, list_campaigns, activity) are the same facade the optional human dashboard at /app uses — parity by design, never dashboard-only state. For how that tool count compares to larger vendor-wrapper MCP servers, see Smartlead vs Instantly MCP tool coverage.
How to add it
Streamable HTTP, JSON-RPC 2.0 (initialize, tools/list, tools/call), one config line, no OAuth dance. Get a token first via POST /signup (see the setup guide), then add:
{
"mcpServers": {
"agent-cold-email": {
"url": "https://agent-cold-email-api.yaakovscher.workers.dev/mcp",
"headers": {
"Authorization": "Bearer <your-token>"
}
}
}
}
The endpoint resolves your token fresh on every call — there is no session or cache that could leak another tenant's data. The same tool names and same per-tenant auth are also reachable as plain REST (see openapi.yaml) if your agent talks HTTP directly instead of MCP.
The 24 tools — exact schemas
Verified directly against the live tools/list response and openapi.yaml. Two additional helpers described in the design spec (write_sequence, suggest_domains) are not implemented — don't assume they exist.
setup_infrastructure
Buy branded lookalike domains, provision mailboxes, and start the warmup ramp. Returns immediately (async job); poll infrastructure_status for progress.
{
brand: string (1-200 chars),
primaryDomain: string (3-253 chars),
domains: integer (1-20),
inboxesEach: integer (1-10),
persona: string (1-200 chars),
physicalAddress: string (1-500 chars), // CAN-SPAM footer address
senderIdentity: string (1-200 chars) // legal sender identity, captured at setup
}
// all 7 fields required
infrastructure_status
Provisioning + warmup progress, per-mailbox health, and send-readiness. No parameters.
launch_campaign
Create and activate a campaign against a lead list. The caller supplies the offer and sequence step content — this platform does not generate outreach copy.
{
name: string (1-200 chars),
offer: string (1-2000 chars),
leads: [ { email: string, firstName: string (1-200 chars), company?: string } ], // 1-5000 items
sequence: [ { step: integer (>=1), subject: string (1-300 chars),
body: string (1-20000 chars), delayDays: integer (0-60) } ], // 1-10 items
timezone: string, // default "UTC"
sendWindow: { startHour: integer (0-23), endHour: integer (0-23) }, // default 0-23
stopOnReply: boolean // default true
}
campaign_results
Sends, replies, bounces, and complaints for one campaign.
{ campaignId: string }
list_campaigns
List every campaign for the tenant with id, name, status, and event counts (sent/reply/bounce/...) — no per-campaign lookup needed. No parameters.
metrics
Account-wide deliverability + warmup health. No parameters.
activity
Unified, chronological activity feed merging campaign events (sent/reply/bounce/...) with deliverability control-loop actions (pause/throttle/...).
{
limit?: integer (1-200), // default 50
cursor?: string,
kind?: "event" | "deliverability" // omit for every kind
}
inbox
Unified reply inbox across all mailboxes for the tenant. No parameters.
thread
Full message history for one thread.
{ threadId: string }
reply
Send a reply on an existing thread.
{ threadId: string, body: string (1-20000 chars) }
mark
Mark a thread read, unread, or archived.
{ threadId: string, status: "read" | "unread" | "archived" }
label_thread
Set (or, with label: null, clear) a triage label on an inbox thread — the same labels the dashboard UI shows as chips.
{ threadId: string, label?: string (1-100 chars) | null } // default null
pause
Pause one campaign.
{ campaignId: string }
pause_all
Pause every campaign for the tenant. No parameters.
account
Usage, billing state, quota, and what the AI deliverability control loop has done (paused/throttled mailboxes, burning domains, auto-replacements, recent actions). No parameters.
get_dashboard
List every saved dashboard view (id, name, isDefault, rev, editedBy) or, with id, fetch one view's full layout + rev. The agent-controlled counterpart to the optional human dashboard at /app.
{ id?: string (1-200 chars) } // omit to list every view
configure_dashboard
Create, update, promote-to-default, or delete a dashboard saved view. update requires the rev you last read; a stale rev returns a structured conflict (currentRev + currentLayout) so you can rebase and retry.
{
action: "create" | "update" | "promote" | "delete",
id?: string, // required for update/promote/delete
name?: string (1-200 chars), // required for create; optional rename on update
rev?: integer, // required for update (rev-CAS)
layout?: { schemaVersion: 1, widgets: [...] }, // required for create/update
note?: string (0-2000 chars)
}
get_webhooks
List every outbound webhook subscription, or, with id, fetch one subscription plus its recent delivery and attempt log. Secrets are never returned on reads — shown once at create/rotate.
{ id?: string (1-200 chars) } // omit to list every subscription
configure_webhook
Create, update, or delete an outbound webhook subscription — push reply, bounce, soft_bounce, and complaint events (HMAC-SHA256 signed, header X-Coldrig-Signature) to your own HTTPS endpoint. URLs must be https and resolve to a public host.
{
action: "create" | "update" | "delete",
id?: string, // required for update/delete
url?: string, // required for create; optional on update
eventTypes?: ("reply" | "bounce" | "soft_bounce" | "complaint")[], // required for create; 1-4 items
secret?: string (16-200 chars), // omit on create to auto-generate; set to rotate
active?: boolean // default true
}
get_byo_domains
List your bring-your-own domains, or, with id, fetch one domain's full intake detail (pre-flight scan, abuse verdict, consent status). byoStatus progresses pending_kyc|pending_consent|pending_dns → active (or rejected/abandoned).
{ id?: string (1-200 chars) } // omit to list every domain
configure_byo_domain
Register or advance a BYO domain intake (SPEC.md §20). Registration, the pre-flight scan, and consent tracking are live today; real DNS delegation, live reputation checks, and platform-provisioned mailboxes on your own domain activate via the same concierge step as real sending generally.
{
action: "register" | "poll_dns" | "acknowledge_consent" | "request_managed_mailboxes" | "connect_mailbox",
domain?: string (3-253 chars), // required for register
domainRelationship?: "fresh_standalone" | "subdomain_of_primary" | "is_primary", // required for register
id?: string, // required for poll_dns/acknowledge_consent/request_managed_mailboxes/connect_mailbox
acknowledged?: true, // required (must be true) for acknowledge_consent
count?: integer (1-10), // required for request_managed_mailboxes
personaSlug?: string (1-50 chars), // optional for request_managed_mailboxes
email?: string, // required for connect_mailbox
transport?: { kind: "smtp", host, port, secure, user, pass }
| { kind: "gmail_api", clientId, clientSecret, refreshToken }
| { kind: "ms_graph", mode: "delegated" | "app_only", tenantId, clientId, clientSecret, refreshToken? }
// required for connect_mailbox — declares a mailbox connection YOU already hold; not this platform's own send transport
}
No pricing is published yet for BYO-connected mailboxes specifically, and a burned BYO domain hard-pauses rather than auto-replacing (unlike a burned lookalike domain) — see the BYO domain page for the full risk model.
suppress_lead
Permanently suppress an email address tenant-wide — every current and future campaign — the manual/free-text "stop emailing me" path for opt-outs the strict typed-unsubscribe matcher misses. Cancels every pending send and marks every campaign-lead row for this email suppressed. There is no un-suppress tool.
{
email: string (email),
reason?: "manual", // the only value this tool honestly claims — bounce/complaint/unsubscribe are recorded automatically elsewhere
note?: string (0-2000 chars) // accepted for schema symmetry, not persisted
}
update_lead
Record what you learned about a contact — their reply, your triage — as a durable, contact-level disposition keyed by email, visible across every campaign that lists them. A partial patch: only the fields you pass are changed.
{
email: string (email),
interestStatus?: "none" | "interested" | "meeting_booked" | "not_now" | "not_interested" | "bad_fit" | "out_of_office" | "wrong_person",
notes?: string (0-5000 chars),
tags?: string[] (0-50 items, each 1-100 chars)
}
// at least one of interestStatus, notes, tags is required
list_leads
List/export leads with their contact-level disposition, cursor-paginated. This is the export surface — paginate to dump the full book of business as JSON (no separate CSV endpoint).
{
campaign?: string (1-200 chars),
interestStatus?: "none" | "interested" | "meeting_booked" | "not_now" | "not_interested" | "bad_fit" | "out_of_office" | "wrong_person",
suppressed?: boolean,
replied?: boolean,
cursor?: string (1-500 chars),
limit?: integer (1-200) // default 50
}
Returns { leads[], nextCursor }; each row: leadId, email, firstName, company, campaignId, campaignName, globalStatus, interestStatus, notes, tags, suppressed, lastEventType, lastEventTs, createdAt.
The no-signup CLI demo
npx agent-cold-email demo mints a demo tenant, provisions sample infrastructure, and runs the accelerated sandbox pipeline end to end (warmup, sends, replies, bounces, stop-on-reply) in one command — no signup or token-wrangling required. The npm CLI is live at v0.2.0 (registry-verified 2026-07-15). The same 24 tools are available over the hosted MCP endpoint or directly over HTTP (quickstart). The demo path stays sandboxed; real sending is live in production for activated accounts, via a short concierge activation step.
Auth model
One bearer token per tenant, minted by the unauthenticated POST /signup bootstrap call. Every other tool call requires Authorization: Bearer <token> and resolves server-side to exactly one tenant's isolated state — there is no cross-tenant data access at any layer.
Related
- Run your entire cold email operation with Claude Code — the flagship end-to-end lifecycle guide, plus a reusable Claude Code Skill.
- Run your entire cold email operation with Cursor — exact mcp.json config and Cursor Rules.
- Run your entire cold email operation with Codex — exact config.toml and native AGENTS.md context.
- How to run cold email with your AI coding agent — the full step-by-step walkthrough.
- 24 intent-level tools vs larger vendor MCP surfaces — lifecycle coverage and control tradeoffs.
- Smartlead vs Instantly vs agent-cold-email.
- Docs — quickstart, CLI usage, auth model.
- openapi.yaml — the same 24 intents as REST.
- MCP server card — machine-readable transport + tool list for registry scans.