Job Followup

Companion to /job-outreach. Reads outreach-log.csv, figures out which cold emails need a nudge, and (optionally) walks the user through drafting and sending follow-ups one at a time.

Cadence (borrowed from santifer/career-ops)

A contact is done once any of these is true:

• replied_at is set
• follow_up_count ≥ 2
• status ∈ {bounced, replied, interview_scheduled, closed}

Repo location

$AI_JOB_AGENT_ROOT → ~/.claude/skills/ai-job-agent/ → REPO_PATH marker file → ~/ai-job-agent/.

Workflow

Step 1 — Read the log

Read $AI_JOB_AGENT_ROOT/outreach-log.csv (fall back to $OUTREACH_LOG env var).

If missing or empty: tell the user to run /job-outreach at least once and stop.

Step 2 — Compute urgency for every non-done row

For each row where the contact is not done (per rules above):

• reference_date = last_follow_up_at if set, else sent_at
• days_since = today − reference_date
• next_followup_after = reference_date + 7 days
• urgency:
  • overdue → days_since > 10
  • due → days_since ≥ 7
  • soon → days_since ≥ 5
  • waiting → otherwise

Step 3 — Render the dashboard table

Sort by urgency (overdue → due → soon → waiting), then by days_since desc within each bucket.

Emoji mapping (keep consistent across runs):

• 🚨 overdue (days_since > 10)
• ⏰ due (days_since ≥ 7)
• 👀 soon (days_since ≥ 5)
• 💤 waiting (otherwise)

Round = (follow_up_count + 1) / 2 (i.e. "this would be follow-up 1 of 2 max").

Step 4 — If no argument, stop here

Just show the table + a summary line: "N contacts need follow-up today. Run /job-followup send to draft and send one by one."

Step 5 — If argument is send, walk the list

Loop through the overdue + due rows, one at a time. For each:

1. Load the original email body from body_file (if present).

2. Draft a short follow-up (career-ops rule: ≤ 150 words, fewer is better):

   • First follow-up (follow_up_count == 0):
     • Sentence 1: Acknowledge the prior email by date (not "just following up" — reference the specific ask).
     • Sentence 2: One new angle — a recent company event, a project update, a relevant thing you've done since.
     • Sentence 3: Soft ask — still interested; can you point me to the right person if not you?
   • Second follow-up (follow_up_count == 1):
     • 2-3 sentences only.
     • New angle (different from the first follow-up).
     • Explicit: "If not a fit right now, I'll leave you alone — just wanted to confirm."

3. Build the JSON payload for scripts/send-cold-email.js with threading so the follow-up lands in the same email thread as the original cold email:

   {
     "from":        "<from-from-candidate-profile>",
     "to":          "<row.to_email>",
     "subject":     "Re: <original subject>",
     "body":        "<the new follow-up body>",
     "in_reply_to": "<row.message_id>",
     "references":  ["<row.message_id>"]
   }

   The original message_id lives in the outreach-log.csv row (set by /job-outreach on the original send). If message_id is empty for some reason, omit in_reply_to — the email still sends, just won't thread.

   Always prefix the subject with "Re: " (don't double-prefix if it already starts with Re:).

4. Ask: "send / edit / skip / stop"
   • send → run the dry-run preview first, then on confirm pipe the JSON into node scripts/send-cold-email.js. The script's output JSON now includes inReplyTo + references so you can verify threading worked.
   • edit → regenerate the body.
   • skip → move to next row without sending; nothing logged.
   • stop → end the loop.
5. On successful send:
   • Append a note to the same CSV row (don't create a new row — follow-ups are attached to the original contact):
     • follow_up_count → current + 1
     • last_follow_up_at → the new sentAt
     • notes → append | fu{N} ${YYYY-MM-DD}: <one-line reason for the angle>
   • Save the follow-up body to outreach/followups/<YYYY-MM-DD>-<company-slug>-<recipient-slug>-fu<N>.txt.

Step 6 — Final summary

Handling In-Reply-To threading

scripts/send-cold-email.js natively supports threading. Pass in_reply_to (the original send's messageId from outreach-log.csv) and optionally references (the full thread chain — defaults to [in_reply_to] if omitted). The script writes RFC 5322 In-Reply-To + References headers; recipient mail clients (Gmail, Outlook, Apple Mail) will thread the follow-up under the original.

If outreach-log.csv has an empty message_id for the row (e.g. a manually-added row, or a send before threading shipped), skip in_reply_to — the email goes out as a standalone send. The skill should flag this in the run output so the user knows the thread won't connect.

Safety rails (same as /job-outreach)

• Two gates: approve the draft, then approve the dry-run preview. Never one-step send.
• Never send beyond follow_up_count >= 2. The skill refuses.
• Never send to a replied_at-populated row. The skill refuses.
• Respect the user's skip/stop immediately.

Related

• /job-outreach — the original cold email that populated the row.
• /job-triage — run this first to catch replies that haven't been logged yet (otherwise you might follow up on someone who already said no).