cold-email-onboarding

Cold Email Onboarding — first-run setup

Walks the operator through 10 minutes of setup that makes every downstream output 10x more useful than generic framework prose.

Activation

Loaded automatically by cold-email (the orchestrator) on first invocation when brand-config.json and/or SOUL.md are missing from the project root.

Also user-invocable on demand:

• "Set up brand config"
• "Configure my voice"
• "Re-run cold-email onboarding"
• "Update brand-config"

Why this exists

Generic cold-email output is worse than no output. The framework is generic — your ICP + PSP + voice are specific. Without those, the skill produces vibes-emails that look like every other AI-generated cold email.

This onboarding sub-skill captures the operator's:

1. ICP precision (specific segment, exclusion criteria)
2. PSP (signal anchors → felt pain → vocabulary)
3. EVP (Schwartz tier + the 22-word line + proof)
4. Voice (phrases used + phrases banned + tone settings)
5. Stories (case-study reservoir to pull from)
6. Infrastructure (domain, inbox provider, deliverability state)
7. Operations (weekly cadence, reply routing, experiment log)

Output: brand-config.json + SOUL.md at the project root, both filled in.

Workflow

Step 0 — Detect prior state

# Pseudo-code logic
exists_brand = file_exists("brand-config.json")
exists_soul = file_exists("SOUL.md")

if exists_brand and exists_soul:
    ask: "Both files exist. Refresh them, or skip onboarding?"
elif exists_brand:
    "I see brand-config.json but no SOUL.md. Let's add the voice piece."
elif exists_soul:
    "I see SOUL.md but no brand-config.json. Let's add the config."
else:
    "Welcome. ~10 minute setup. Ready?"

Step 1 — Operator + company

Ask in one batch:

First, the basics:

1. Your name (for the sign-off line)?
2. Your title?
3. Your company?
4. Your calendar / booking link?

Save to brand-config.operator.

Step 2 — ICP precision check

Now your ICP. Be specific. "B2B SaaS" is too broad.

Tell me:
1. The 1-sentence segment (with stage / size / motion / region)
2. The 3 role-titles you target most
3. The 3 exclusion criteria (who you DON'T sell to)

If you're unsure on any of these, that's a signal you need to
sharpen ICP before launching outreach. Let me know if you want to
talk through it, or use a placeholder for now.