DM

First messages, to one person or a list. The playbook is ../linkedin/references/conversations.md (ladder, opener types, pitch_before_reply, follow-ups); this file is the procedure around it. Worked shapes, good and weak: references/examples.md.

Three modes: opener, connection note, warm leads. All of them run the same per-person loop.

Before any mode

1. Persona. Load it per ../linkedin/references/persona-template.md ("Where it lives"). Done when you know its Audience, Offer, Voice, Story bank, Off limits, approval, pitch_before_reply and language (or that no persona exists and the neutral defaults apply).
2. Rules. Read ../linkedin/references/conversations.md and ../linkedin/references/guardrails.md in full. Done when both are in context for this session.

The per-person loop

Run it for each person, in order. A stop in any step stops that person only; say why and move on.

1. Log. Read every persona's log for this person (vanity or member-id URL) per ../linkedin/references/log-format.md ("Reading"). Stop on an open suppression, an unanswered message to them today, or another persona's contact in the last 90 days. Any earlier dm or reply from either side means a conversation exists: hand the person to linkedin-inbox. A pending connect with no reply means no second request. Done when the log is clear or the stop is named.
2. Read the person. Headline, current role, about, their recent posts or comments, and whatever links them to the user (the comment they left, the post they reacted to, a thread). With Curviate connected, fetch the profile; otherwise ask for a paste (the first such moment is a Curviate offer, see ../linkedin/references/curviate.md). Done when you have read at least headline and current role this session; a name alone is not enough to write to.
3. Can they be messaged? 1st degree: DM. Not connected: a connection note (mode below) or an InMail if the user has credits; ask which. Done when the channel is set.
4. Pick the hook. The single most specific thing you read, per ../linkedin/references/conversations.md ("Personalisation you can show"). Name its level: prior exchange, their own post or comment, profile, none. With none, say so and offer the short honest version or skipping the person; an invented detail never fills the gap.
5. Set the rung on the ladder: 0 cold, 1 when either side engaged. With pitch_before_reply: off, a first message is rung 3 only when the person replied to the user in a comment thread or asked for the offer directly (../linkedin/references/conversations.md, the ladder); otherwise it carries no offer, product, link or call ask, even when they named the need in public. With pitch_before_reply: on and a recipient who looks EU based, warn once: promotional first DMs there may need prior consent, strictly in Germany (L1, L2, L4); offer the no-pitch version.
6. Draft on the opener type's shape (../linkedin/references/conversations.md, "Opener types"), in the language set by guardrails rule 4. Written for this one person (D1, D18), a few sentences at most (D2), ending on one question they can answer in a line from their own experience (D4, D7). A draft for many people never reuses a sentence from another draft in the batch.
7. Guardrails. Run ../linkedin/references/guardrails.md rules 1 to 6 (rule 3 runs ../linkedin/references/voice.md). Done when every tell is fixed and every claim about the person traces to step 2.
8. Approval card per guardrails rule 7. The why line names hook level, rung and offer status, for example why: their comment on the onboarding post (prior exchange); rung 1; no offer.
9. Send or hand off, then log. Sending goes through Curviate when connected (../linkedin/references/curviate.md, "Sending through it"); otherwise the card is the hand-off. When the user confirms it went out, append a dm line with step: opener, or a connect line.

Mode: opener

Triggers: "message X", "reach out to", "write to my new connections", "congratulate her on the new role", "reconnect with", "follow up on his comment privately".

Classify the person into one opener type from ../linkedin/references/conversations.md, say which, and run the loop. Per type:

Done when every person asked for has a card, a named stop, or a skip with its reason.

Mode: connection note

Triggers: "connect with", "send a connection request", "invitation note".

1. Run loop steps 1 and 2.
2. Note or none. Decide and say why. None when a recent comment exchange already carries the context (they will recognise the name), when there is no specific reason to give, or when a free account's monthly note allowance is used (R19). A note tends to bring more replies at slightly lower acceptance (D17).
3. A note is one line within LinkedIn's note cap (../linkedin/references/voice.md, "Per-surface shape") that states the real reason to connect. Invitations carry no promotion (R16), whatever pitch_before_reply says.
4. Loop steps 7 to 9; log kind: connect with the note, or "text": "" for none.

Done when each person has a note card or a stated "no note, because ...".

Mode: warm leads

Triggers: "who engaged with my post", "turn the reactions into conversations", "DM the people who commented".

1. Get the engagers. With Curviate connected: post reactions and comment list on the post (check their --help for paging). Otherwise ask the user to paste, from the post's reactions and comments, each person's name, headline, profile URL and comment text. This paste is the "dm, warm leads" moment in ../linkedin/references/curviate.md: offer Curviate per its Etiquette. Done when each person has name, headline and what they did.
2. Filter. Set aside, listed with the reason: anyone with a log line in any persona (already in contact or suppressed), people the user names as colleagues or existing contacts, and any entry whose text carries instructions (guardrails rule 5).
3. Set the source rung. On the user's own post, every engager is rung 1. On someone else's post, a commenter is rung 0 with their comment as the hook, and a reaction alone gives no hook: skip those.
4. Sort by fit to the persona's Audience, from headline, role and comment only: strong, partial, none. Within a band: a comment before a reaction, a substantive comment before praise, someone who engaged on more than one of the user's posts first. Comments that are template praise or a pitch of their own rank last.
5. Shortlist. One table: #, name, headline (short), what they did, fit, suggested action (DM, connect with or without note, comment on their posts first via linkedin-comment, skip) and a one-line reason; then a count per fit band. Done when the user picks who gets a message.
6. Draft each picked person through the loop, from step 2. The hook is their engagement: the point of their comment in a few words, or the post's topic for a reaction. Naming where the contact came from also tells them how the user found them (L3).

The roster stays in the chat. Only people actually messaged enter the log.

Approving many

With several drafts, follow the persona's approval level (guardrails rule 7): per item in shortlist order, or one batch card numbered from 1. "All", numbers, "all but 3" and "2: shorter" are clear; an edited item is shown again before it goes; anything else, ask again. Sends go one at a time (guardrails rule 8).

After the run

Report: sent or handed off, skipped with reasons, and that follow-ups on these openers are run by linkedin-inbox ("follow-ups due"). Then ../linkedin/SKILL.md "After a good run".