First outreach
First outreach is one message through the same send boundary a person's own mail uses. Whether it goes immediately or waits is decided by the channel's autonomy mode at the narrowest scope that applies. Either way the record changes: a held message is queued with what it answers, and a sent one is only called *sent* once the provider has acknowledged it.
One message, not a sequence#
The first contact is a single message. It is not the opening of an automatic cadence that fires regardless of what happens next, because the second message in such a cadence is the one that arrives after somebody has already said no by not replying.
What follows is a follow-up with a reason attached, scheduled like any other dated commitment, and visible in the follow-up queue where a person can see it, change it or stop it. A commitment without a reason is not useful to whoever inherits it, which is why the reason is not optional.
Sent, held, or refused#
| Mode | What happens | Where you find it |
|---|---|---|
off | Nothing is drafted for that channel | Nowhere — the channel is disabled |
draft_only | The message is written and stops. It does not even ask | On the conversation, not in the approval queue |
ask_before_send | The message waits for a human yes | Needs You, with the prospect record beside it |
autonomous | It goes, within the gates | The conversation, with the send evidence |
The narrowest applicable scope wins: a rule against one contact beats one against the endpoint, which beats the channel, which beats the workspace. That is how one sensitive prospect can be held for a person while a run otherwise proceeds — and why the mode on the channel screen is not always the mode that governed a particular message.
What 'sent' means here#
Outreach uses the one send boundary shared by the engine and by people, so a first contact is subject to exactly the evidence rule every other message is. A message is reported as sent only when the provider has acknowledged it. There is a third state — uncertain — shown as uncertain rather than guessed either way, because re-sending on a maybe is how a stranger receives your introduction twice.
- Held — nothing has been handed to a provider. The recipient sees nothing at all; this is no message rather than a slow one.
- Uncertain — the provider was asked and has not confirmed. No automatic retry decides for you.
- Sent — acknowledged, with the acknowledgement recorded against the message.
- Refused — a rule stopped it, and the refusal is in the audit trail as a decision with its rule attached.
What the record carries afterwards#
The prospect stops being only a research record the moment a message exists. Several things change at once, and knowing them makes the later screens legible.
- Already contacted
- Set, and counted across the workspace. This is the guard against a second cold message, and it is why the count above the list matters more than it looks.
- A conversation
- The message belongs to a thread on the sending mailbox, so a reply arrives where it should and is not orphaned.
- A follow-up with a reason
- Scheduled if one is appropriate, and stoppable by a person or by the prospect's own reply.
- An audit entry
- What was decided, under which rule, by what, and what happened — including a refusal.
If the prospect replies, the record moves again: classification decides what the answer means, and some answers stop everything immediately. That is A prospect replies and Stopping a cold sequence.
Questions#
Can Connect send first outreach without anyone approving it?
Only where the applicable autonomy scope says autonomous, and only after readiness and the compliance check pass. In ask_before_send — the setting many workspaces keep for cold mail — every first contact waits for a person.
What does the prospect see while a message is held?
Nothing. A held message has not reached any provider, so there is no delivery attempt and nothing in your sent folder. It is worth remembering that the recipient is not experiencing a delay; they are experiencing no contact.
If a send comes back uncertain, should I send it again?
Not blindly. Uncertain is shown as uncertain precisely so a person decides, and the common outcome of re-sending on a maybe is a stranger receiving your introduction twice.