Smartlead Campaign Upload GTM Skill

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

Load env (SMARTLEAD_API_KEY required)
Parse leads.csv — validate required columns, count rows
Parse variants.yaml — built-in minimal parser (~30 lines, no external dep)
POST /campaigns/create → get campaignId
POST /campaigns/{id}/sequences with all A/B/C variants
Query /email-accounts?limit=100, filter by tag, sort by daily_sent_count ASC (LRU), attach top N
Batch-upload leads (100 per batch) with standard custom fields mapped from CSV
POST /campaigns/{id}/settings (track off, stop on reply)
POST /campaigns/{id}/schedule with YAML values
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