Smartlead Campaign Upload

Takes a variants.yaml (written by /campaign-copywriting) and a leads.csv (from your list-building skills) and creates a DRAFT campaign in Smartlead. You review the result in the Smartlead UI and press Start manually.

This skill does NOT ship any email copy. Copy comes from /campaign-copywriting. This skill is the mechanical upload layer — API calls only.

Why DRAFT only

Cold email launches should never happen from a script. You hit Start in the Smartlead UI after reviewing:

• Subject lines + body previews
• Inbox assignments (correct tag? correct count?)
• Lead count and a few random lead rows
• Schedule (timezone + hours + throttle)

The script sets all of this up in DRAFT so the review is trivial — verify and click Start.

Inputs

leads.csv

Required columns:

• email
• first_name
• last_name
• company_name

Optional columns (passed through to Smartlead as custom fields):

• company_domain
• title
• linkedin_url
• situation_line (AI-generated per-lead context)
• value_line (AI-generated value mapping)
• cta_line (AI-generated CTA angle)

Additional AI variable columns produced by /campaign-copywriting or /personalization-subagent-pattern — named fields only. The script does NOT accept arbitrary columns; this is intentional. If you need to add a field, update this skill.

variants.yaml

Produced by /campaign-copywriting. Schema is in references/variants-schema.yaml.

Minimum required: name, schedule, inbox_selection, sequences with at least one step.

Usage

export SMARTLEAD_API_KEY=xxx
npx tsx scripts/upload.ts \
  --leads=profiles/<slug>/campaigns/<campaign-slug>/leads.csv \
  --variants=profiles/<slug>/campaigns/<campaign-slug>/variants.yaml

Output:

✓ Campaign created: #12345678
✓ Sequence saved (3 steps, 3 variants on step 1)
✓ 20 inboxes attached (tag=active, LRU by daily_sent_count)
✓ 1,847 leads uploaded (20 batches)
✓ Schedule set (M-F 08:00-17:00 EST, 30/day/inbox)

Campaign is in DRAFT. Review + Start:
→ https://app.smartlead.ai/app/email-campaign/12345678

Script flow

1. Load env (SMARTLEAD_API_KEY required)
2. Parse leads.csv — validate required columns, count rows
3. Parse variants.yaml — built-in minimal parser (~30 lines, no external dep)
4. POST /campaigns/create → get campaignId
5. POST /campaigns/{id}/sequences with all A/B/C variants
6. Query /email-accounts?limit=100, filter by tag, sort by daily_sent_count ASC (LRU), attach top N
7. Batch-upload leads (100 per batch) with standard custom fields mapped from CSV
8. POST /campaigns/{id}/settings (track off, stop on reply)
9. POST /campaigns/{id}/schedule with YAML values
10. Print campaign URL. Do NOT activate.

Gotchas

• Tag must exist and be applied to inboxes first. Use /smartlead-inbox-manager to tag inboxes as active before running this upload.
• Inbox count. If inbox_selection.count exceeds tagged inboxes, the script attaches all available and warns.
• Leads CSV size. Tested up to 10K rows; larger runs may hit API rate limits. Script has built-in retry with exponential backoff.
• Variants.yaml mismatch. If /campaign-copywriting didn't produce the exact schema, the script fails fast with a clear error pointing at the offending field.
• Email duplicates. Smartlead deduplicates per campaign server-side. Still, dedupe your CSV first with /list-quality-scorecard.

What to do next

Open the Smartlead URL printed at the end. Review the campaign. Hit Start when satisfied. The script deliberately does not auto-activate.

After Start:

• Wait 21 days, then run /positive-reply-scoring on the campaign to measure.
• Every Monday: run /email-deliverability-audit --days=7 (see /cold-email-weekly-rhythm).

Or wait: if the best-practice check flagged issues, go back to /campaign-copywriting and revise before uploading.

Related skills

• /campaign-copywriting — produces variants.yaml
• /smartlead-inbox-manager — required prep: inboxes must be tagged active before upload
• /list-quality-scorecard — dedupe + verify leads.csv before upload
• /positive-reply-scoring — run 21 days post-launch to measure
• /cold-email-weekly-rhythm — operational cadence after launch

Files

• scripts/upload.ts — the upload script
• references/variants-schema.yaml — blank schema reference (no example copy content)
• references/leads-csv-schema.md — column spec