How to Use OpenClaw for Cold Email Outreach
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TL;DR: OpenClaw is the viral open-source AI agent that can actually execute tasks on your behalf. MachFive published one of the first cold email skills on ClawHub, securing the /cold-email slug. Our skill lets AI agents generate personalized email sequences via API - no templates, no manual prompting. Result: 389 downloads, organic signups, and our first customer acquired at $0 CAC. Here's how to set it up.
"Our first OpenClaw customer cost us $0 to acquire."
Someone's OpenClaw agent discovered our skill on ClawHub. They signed up for MachFive, created an API key, built a campaign, and started generating cold emails - without ever talking to sales.
That's the agent economy in action. And it's just getting started.
What Is OpenClaw?
If you haven't heard of OpenClaw yet, you will soon.
OpenClaw is an open-source AI agent framework that went viral in late January 2026. Originally called Clawdbot, then briefly Moltbot (after Anthropic's trademark team reached out), it's now known as OpenClaw - and it's one of the fastest-growing open-source projects in history.
The numbers are staggering: 60,000+ GitHub stars in 72 hours. Over 145,000 stars now. Coverage in the Wall Street Journal. Developers calling it "the closest thing to JARVIS we've seen."
But what actually is it?
OpenClaw is an AI agent that runs locally on your machine and actually does things. Not just chat. Not just answer questions. It executes tasks - managing emails, updating calendars, browsing the web, controlling apps, sending messages via WhatsApp, Telegram, Slack, and Discord.
The key difference from ChatGPT or Claude: OpenClaw has hands. It can take action on your behalf, autonomously, 24/7.
And it's completely open-source. You run it on your own hardware (a Mac mini, a Raspberry Pi, a VPS), bring your own API key for the underlying LLM, and control everything locally.
What Is ClawHub?
ClawHub is the skill registry for OpenClaw - think of it like an App Store for AI agents.
Skills are simple packages that teach OpenClaw how to perform specific tasks. Want your agent to manage your Notion? There's a skill for that. Control Spotify? Skill. Query Google Analytics? Skill.
As of early February 2026, ClawHub hosts over 5,700 community-built skills. The ecosystem is growing fast.
Here's how it works:
- Discovery: Agents can search ClawHub for skills they need
- Installation: One command (
clawhub install skill-name) adds the capability - Execution: The agent reads the skill documentation and starts using it
This creates something new: AI agents discovering and adopting tools without human intervention.
When someone's OpenClaw agent needs to do cold email outreach, it can search ClawHub, find a skill, install it, and start using the API - all autonomously.
Why Cold Email Fits the Agent Model
Cold email is a perfect use case for AI agents:
It's repetitive. The workflow is the same: get leads, enrich data, generate emails, send sequences, manage replies. Agents thrive on repetitive tasks.
It's data-driven. Agents can pull lead data from CRMs, enrich it via APIs, and feed it into email generation - all programmatically.
It runs in the background. You don't need to babysit it. Set up the workflow, let the agent execute overnight, review results in the morning.
It integrates with existing tools. Agents can connect the data layer (Clay, Apollo) to the copy layer (MachFive) to the sending layer (Instantly, Smartlead) - orchestrating a complete stack.
The manual version of this workflow takes hours. An agent can do it while you sleep.
The MachFive Cold Email Skill
When we saw OpenClaw exploding, we moved fast.
We published one of the first cold email skills on ClawHub in early February 2026 and secured the /cold-email slug - prime real estate in a registry that now has thousands of skills.
Skill details:
- Name: cold-email
- Publisher: Bluecraft-AI
- URL: clawhub.ai/Bluecraft-AI/cold-email
- Current version: v1.0.5
What the skill enables:
AI agents can autonomously:
- List campaigns - See available campaigns in a MachFive workspace
- Generate sequences - Create personalized cold email sequences for individual leads (synchronous, 3-5 min processing)
- Batch process - Submit multiple leads for async processing
- Poll status - Check processing progress
- Export results - Download generated emails as CSV or JSON
The agent handles everything. Upload leads, get back unique email sequences - different hooks, angles, and proof points for each prospect. No templates. No merge fields. Genuinely personalized emails at scale.
Then export to Instantly, Smartlead, or whatever sending platform you use.
The Security Question
Let's address the elephant in the room.
ClawHub has had security problems. In late January and early February 2026, over 400 malicious skills were published - crypto scams, malware droppers, info stealers disguised as helpful tools. It made headlines. Security researchers sounded alarms.
ClawHub responded by partnering with VirusTotal for automated scanning. Every skill now gets a security rating.
MachFive's skill passed clean:
- VirusTotal scan: Benign (0/61 security vendors flagged issues)
- AI Code Insight analysis: "The skill bundle is benign. The SKILL.md provides clear, functional instructions for an AI agent to interact with the MachFive API. There are no instructions for data exfiltration, malicious execution, persistence, or prompt injection attempts."
In an ecosystem dealing with trust issues, that matters. We're a legitimate tool built by a real company (Bluecraft Leads has been running cold email campaigns for 30+ clients since 2023). The skill does exactly what it says - connects agents to MachFive's API for email generation.
While ClawHub's scanning has improved, always review skills in isolated environments before enabling.
Early Results
We published the skill early and tracked what happened:
Downloads: 389 in the first 7 days (organic, no promotion)
Signups: 6 self-serve MachFive accounts created
Full-funnel conversion: 1 user who:
- Discovered the skill on ClawHub
- Signed up for MachFive
- Created an API key
- Manually logged into the app to create a campaign
- Generated cold emails via the API
- Used 2 credits
That last point matters: they went through the full journey. Created a campaign (which requires understanding your offer, audience, proof points), then used the API to generate emails. Real usage, not just a test.
Customer acquisition cost: $0
No ads. No sales calls. No outreach. An AI agent found us.
How to Set It Up
If you want to use OpenClaw for cold email outreach, here's the setup:
Step 1: Install the skill
clawhub install cold-email
Step 2: Get your MachFive API key
- Sign up at machfive.io (free tier: 100 credits/month)
- Go to Settings → API
- Generate an API key
- Add it to your environment:
MACHFIVE_API_KEY=your_key_here
Step 3: Create a campaign in MachFive
Before generating emails, you need a campaign. This is where MachFive builds the strategic foundation:
- Log into app.machfive.io
- Create a new campaign
- Define your target audience, offers, and proof points
- Let MachFive's agents generate persona research, social proof ranking, and offer optimization
This step happens once per campaign. The AI agents do the strategic work upfront.
Step 4: Generate emails via your agent
Once your campaign exists, just tell your OpenClaw agent what you need. Via WhatsApp, Telegram, Slack - whatever channel you've connected:
You: "Show me my MachFive campaigns"
Agent: "You have 2 campaigns: 'Q1 SaaS Outreach' and 'Local Restaurant SEO'. Which one do you want to use?"
You: "Generate a cold email sequence for Robert Chen, Owner at Fish King Seafood, robert@fishkingseafood.com - use the Restaurant SEO campaign"
Agent: "Processing... Done. Generated a 3-email sequence for Robert Chen. The emails reference Fish King's 1948 legacy and include your 18% booking increase proof point. Want me to export it as CSV?"
You: "Yes, and also process the other 47 leads I uploaded yesterday"
Agent: "Exporting Robert's sequence now. Starting batch processing for 47 leads - I'll message you when it's ready (usually 15-20 minutes for this size). Want a notification when complete?"
That's it. No code. No manual API calls. You talk to your agent, it handles MachFive's API, and you get unique email sequences back.
Step 5: Send via your platform
Export the CSV and upload to Instantly, Smartlead, EmailBison, or any sending platform that accepts imports.
The full workflow: Agent enriches leads → Agent calls MachFive API → Agent exports CSV → Agent uploads to sender → Emails go out.
You review results and replies. The agent handles the grunt work.
What This Means for Cold Email
We're watching a new distribution channel emerge.
Traditional SaaS discovery: Human searches Google → Reads reviews → Signs up → Uses product.
Agent-driven discovery: Agent searches skill registry → Evaluates capabilities → Installs skill → Uses API on human's behalf.
The second model is just starting. But as OpenClaw grows (145K+ stars and climbing), as ClawHub matures (5,700+ skills), as more people run agents that can autonomously adopt tools - the companies with skills in the registry will have a compounding advantage.
Being early matters. Securing good slugs matters. Having clean, well-documented APIs matters.
We built MachFive API-first for exactly this reason. Not just a UI for humans - a programmable interface that agents can discover and use.
Takeaway
OpenClaw is the most viral AI tool of early 2026 for a reason: it's an agent that actually does things. The skill ecosystem (ClawHub) is how it learns new capabilities.
Cold email is a natural fit - repetitive, data-driven, runs in the background. MachFive's skill lets agents generate truly personalized sequences (not templates) via API.
We published early, secured /cold-email, and already have organic conversions at $0 CAC. That's the power of being discoverable in the agent ecosystem.
If you're running OpenClaw and want to automate cold outreach, the skill is ready:
clawhub install cold-email
If you're not on OpenClaw yet, MachFive works the same way via the web app - upload leads, get unique sequences, export to your sending platform.
Either way, the future of cold email is AI-generated, research-based, and genuinely personalized. We're just making it accessible however you want to work.
Want to try MachFive?
100 free leads/month. No credit card required.
- Web app: machfive.io
- API docs: app.machfive.io/settings
- ClawHub skill: clawhub.ai/Bluecraft-AI/cold-email
Works with Instantly, Smartlead, EmailBison, or any platform that accepts CSV imports.