Templates and AI instructions

Every pitch the autopilot drafts is written one of two ways: from a template you wrote, with tokens filled in for each recipient, or by the AI, from a brief you wrote or from the outreach prompt alone. Templates and AI instructions live on the Outreach page under "Set up", then "Templates". The outreach prompt, under "Set up", then "Outreach prompt", is the standing brief every AI-written email follows. Outreach identity, in the project's settings, decides which mailbox and signature the client's emails go out with.

You set these up once per client and come back whenever drafts keep needing the same fix. A change to a template or to the prompt applies to drafts written from then on. Sequences already drafted keep their copy until you rewrite them.

Templates versus AI instructions

A sequence template is one version of a pitch for one page type. Its "How it is written" switch offers two modes.

• Template: you write the emails once. Tokens fill in the prospect details, such as the brand, the page address and the recipient's first name. Pick them from the insert chips in the editor. Every recipient gets the same words, so pick this when the wording is settled. No AI writes anything at draft time.
• AI instructions: you write a brief, and the AI writes each prospect their own copy when a draft is created.

Either kind can hold a page type's default or the project default, and either can layer in the outreach prompt. Whatever the mode, every draft waits under Needs review until you sign it off (see Reviewing and launching).

What you see

The Templates page has two tabs. Outreach sequences is what drafting resolves against: versions grouped by page type, "All categories" first. Each row carries its name, a "Template" or "AI instructions" badge, one line on what it does at draft time, and the "Tag default" and "Project default" toggles. An "Add version" row under each page type starts either kind; a "No version yet" box lists page types with nothing. The editor has "Name", "Applies to" (the page type), "How it is written", the steps or the brief, "Use the project outreach prompt" (on by default) and the default ladder note with "See the built-in voice".

Single emails holds one-off emails you apply by hand. Drafting never reads them, so you can leave this tab alone unless you keep such emails.

Tag default and project default

A page type can hold as many versions as you like. Only one of them can be that page type's default, and only one version in the project can be the project default. Drafting picks a template in this order:

1. The default for the page's type (the "Tag default").
2. The project default, the fallback when a page type has no default of its own.
3. A default set on "All categories", which applies regardless of page type.
4. With none of these, the built-in voice plus your outreach prompt.

Set either spot from the toggles on the row; it applies at once. Claiming a spot another version holds warns you that it "stays, but no longer auto-drafts". When a page type has no default yet, a new version for it opens with "Default for <type>" checked.

Tokens

Tokens can fill in:

• the brand you pitch for (never the prospect)
• the page address and its domain
• the page title and a one-line summary
• the kind of page and the kind of ask
• the angle, the next step for the page and what you would supply
• the project's market
• the recipient's name and job title
• the sender's name and the company you write on behalf of

Pick tokens from the insert chips in the editor for the exact syntax. A template with a token the chips do not offer is refused at save. A token that resolves to nothing is dropped, along with any brackets around it.

How to write a template or AI instructions

1. Open Outreach, then "Set up", then "Templates", on the "Outreach sequences" tab.
2. Press "New template" or "New AI instructions", or "Add version" under a page type, and pick "Applies to".
3. For a template, write "Step 1 · Initial", then "Add follow-up" for each later email and set its "Wait __ days". Insert tokens from the chips. "AI generate" drafts a starting point for you to edit.
4. For AI instructions, write the "Brief": the angle to lead with, the offer, what to avoid, how the follow-ups build. Set "Emails" and "Days between sends" if the structure matters, then "Preview what the AI writes" for a sample; nothing in the sample is saved.
5. Leave "Use the project outreach prompt" on unless this version should leave the prompt out (its Never list applies either way). Check "Default for <type>" or "Use as this project's default", then press "Create template" or "Create AI instructions". Later edits save with "Save".

The outreach prompt

One brief the AI follows on every email it writes for the brand, in numbered sections: "01 · Project short description", "02 · Next outreach prompt" (what this round asks for and why now), "03 · Approved: what we may say" (the only facts the AI may state), "04 · Never: what we must not say", "05 · Model email" (a real email that worked; the AI adapts its structure, length and sign-off) and "06 · Follow-up instructions". Under "Also layered in" sit "Voice and style (superseded)", "Sender identity" (who is writing and why they have standing) and "Other instructions".

"Suggest" drafts one section and "Suggest all sections" drafts them all from the project's brand, market and pages. Suggestions land marked "AI suggestion · not saved yet" with "Keep" and "Undo"; if you were typing when one arrived, nothing is overwritten. Nothing is saved until you press "Save outreach prompt".

A template in Template mode uses the prompt only for "AI generate"; your own copy renders as written. In the project's settings, the "Outreach templating" card shows how many of the eight sections are set and how many sequence templates exist, with "Edit prompt" and "Manage templates".

The never list and banned wording

Everything on "04 · Never: what we must not say" is a hard stop in the brief, and it applies even to templates that opt out of the rest of the prompt. An entry that names a specific word or phrase gets a second, mechanical check:

• Put the term in quotes, or write it as "the word …" or "never say …". Under the list you then read "Checked word for word after every draft: …". An entry with no literal to match, such as "never offer payment for a link", is enforced through the prompt alone.
• An AI-written draft that still contains a checked term is sent back to the AI to rewrite before you see it.
• Anything that slips through, and any wording in your own templates, is flagged on the email in review: "Uses wording the Never list bans: “note” ×2. Edit it out, or rewrite this email." The review bar asks you to edit it out or rewrite the email before you sign off.
• The check ignores case, and a plural or past tense counts as the same word.

Outreach identity

Mailboxes are shared across the organization. The "Outreach identity" card in the project's settings picks which one this client sends from and which signature signs the mail:

• "Send from": "No preference: use any active mailbox", or one mailbox.
• "Signature": "Mailbox default (<name>)", another of that mailbox's signatures, or "None: this client's mail goes out unsigned", with an "As recipients see it" preview. The signature is added at send, never baked into the draft. Editing its text reaches every unsent email; picking a different one does not change drafts already approved.
• "Contact number for invoices": a number publishers can use to raise an invoice or payment link. The AI draft in the inbox gives it when a publisher asks and never makes one up; it is never added to your signature or sequence emails.

A promotion rule that names its own mailbox sends from that mailbox and signs with its default; the card lists those rules. The sign-off name, the one a template's sender token fills in, lives under Settings, then Mailboxes (see Mailboxes).

Limits

• A template holds up to 4 steps: one initial email and up to 3 follow-ups. Each follow-up waits 1 to 30 days.
• AI instructions need a brief of at least 20 characters. "Emails" is "AI decides (3–4)" or 1 to 4; a blank "Days between sends" means the AI decides.
• The outreach prompt takes up to 20 entries per list, 2,000 characters per entry, 10,000 characters per text section and 8,000 for the model email. A text section shows a character counter out of 10,000 once it passes 70% of that.

Good to know

• On Sequences, check drafts and open "More actions" on the selection bar: "Rewrite selected" offers "AI redraft, current setup", "AI, project prompt only" or any of your templates. Rewritten drafts lose their review sign-off.
• Deleting a template or AI instruction set cannot be undone.