Open Source·AI Agent Infrastructure

EmailBison in Your Terminal.

Campaigns. Leads. Replies. Warmup. 157 commands. Every one doubles as an MCP tool.

emailbison-cli gives AI agents full programmatic control of EmailBison — the same platform built for cold email at scale. No wrappers. No SDKs. Just commands your agent can call.

Install from npm
157
Commands
20
API Groups
CLI
+ MCP Native
OpenClaw
OpenClaw
CLI / MCP
🦬
EmailBison
campaigns · leads · replies · warmup · workspaces

Why emailbison-cli Exists

Without emailbison-cli

  • No official CLI — agents need to build custom API wrappers for every endpoint
  • Manual auth per request — no credential resolution strategy
  • No MCP support — agents can’t call EmailBison as a native tool
  • JSON output requires custom parsing logic for every endpoint
  • Multi-workspace workflows require manual context switching

With emailbison-cli

  • 157 commands covering the full EmailBison API surface
  • 3-tier auth resolution: flag → env var → config file (bison login)
  • Every command is also an MCP tool — plug into any AI agent
  • JSON-first output — pipe to jq, save to files, feed to agents
  • 1-minute setup, MIT licensed, base URL required (self-hosted)

Quick Start

1. Install

Terminal
npm install -g emailbison-cli

2. Set credentials

Note: EmailBison requires both an API key and a base URL. There is no default base URL — your instance URL is always required.

Terminal
# Both vars are required for every request
export EMAILBISON_API_KEY=your_api_key_here
export EMAILBISON_BASE_URL=https://send.yourinstance.com

3. Or use interactive login (saves to config)

Terminal
# Stores credentials in ~/.emailbison/config.json
bison login

4. Verify

Terminal
bison campaigns list --pretty
# Returns your active campaigns as formatted JSON

bison accounts list --pretty
# Returns all sender accounts and their status

MCP Server Configuration

Add to your agent’s MCP settings. Both env vars are required.

Claude Desktop / Claude Code

mcp.json
// ~/.claude/mcp.json  (or your MCP settings file)
{
  "mcpServers": {
    "emailbison": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": ["emailbison-cli", "mcp"],
      "env": {
        "EMAILBISON_API_KEY": "your-api-key",
        "EMAILBISON_BASE_URL": "https://send.yourinstance.com"
      }
    }
  }
}

Cursor

.cursor/mcp.json
// .cursor/mcp.json
{
  "mcpServers": {
    "emailbison": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": ["emailbison-cli", "mcp"],
      "env": {
        "EMAILBISON_API_KEY": "your-api-key",
        "EMAILBISON_BASE_URL": "https://send.yourinstance.com"
      }
    }
  }
}

What emailbison-cli Gives Your Agent

36 cmds

Campaign Management

Create, configure, activate, pause, resume, archive, and duplicate campaigns. Full lifecycle control — multi-step sequences, A/B variants, timezone-aware scheduling — from a single command.

18 cmds

Lead Operations

Import, update, and bulk-upload leads via CSV. Manage status, blacklist contacts, and track the full lead lifecycle from first touch to reply.

14 cmds

Reply Handling

Manage a unified reply inbox. Reply, forward, and thread conversations. Classify interest levels and trigger automations — your agent handles every inbound message.

13 cmds

Email Accounts

Add, update, and remove sender accounts with IMAP/SMTP validation and MX record checks. Control warmup limits, pause accounts, and monitor deliverability health across your full sending infrastructure.

28 cmds

Blacklists, Tags & Webhooks

Manage email and domain blacklists. Apply custom tags to campaigns, leads, and accounts. Subscribe to real-time webhook events — opens, replies, bounces — for event-driven agent workflows.

MCP Server

Every command is exposed as an MCP tool. Claude, Cursor, OpenClaw, and any MCP client can call all 157 commands. Requires EMAILBISON_API_KEY and EMAILBISON_BASE_URL — both are required for every request.

Agent Workflows

Real prompts agents use to run EmailBison end-to-end.

Launch a Campaign from Scratch

Agent Prompt

“Launch a new cold email campaign targeting SaaS founders in the US. Import my lead list, set up weekday sending, and activate it.”

Your agent creates the campaign, configures a timezone-aware schedule, imports the lead CSV, attaches multi-step sequences, activates sending, and verifies delivery — full launch in one autonomous run.

1
bison campaigns create --name "Q2 SaaS Founders Outreach"

Create the campaign shell

2
bison campaigns configure $ID --timezone "America/New_York" --days "1,2,3,4,5"

Set weekday sending in EST

3
bison leads import --campaign-id $ID --file leads.csv

Bulk-import leads via CSV

4
bison campaigns set-sequences $ID --sequences '[...]'

Attach multi-step email sequences

5
bison campaigns activate $ID

Go live — emails start sending

6
bison campaigns status $ID

Verify delivery is flowing

Monitor and Triage the Reply Inbox

Agent Prompt

“Check my inbox. Flag anyone who replied with interest, move unsubscribes to the blacklist, and forward any hot leads to me.”

Agent reads the unified inbox, classifies each reply, blacklists opt-outs, and escalates interested prospects — inbox zero with autonomous triage.

1
bison replies list --status unread --pretty

Pull all unread replies from inbox

2
bison replies classify $REPLY_ID --interest high

Flag interested prospects

3
bison blacklists add-email $EMAIL

Blacklist any opt-out or unsubscribe

4
bison replies forward $REPLY_ID --to you@company.com

Forward hot leads for human follow-up

Infrastructure Health Check

Agent Prompt

“Check my sending infrastructure. Flag any accounts with connectivity issues, pause the bad ones, and report warmup status.”

Agent validates IMAP/SMTP connectivity across all accounts, pauses any that fail MX checks, and surfaces warmup progress — proactive infrastructure monitoring, automated.

1
bison accounts list --pretty

List all sender accounts and status

2
bison accounts validate $ACCOUNT_ID

Test IMAP/SMTP + MX for each account

3
bison accounts pause $ACCOUNT_ID

Pause accounts failing connectivity checks

4
bison warmup status --pretty

Pull warmup progress across all accounts

Multi-Workspace Campaign Rollout

Agent Prompt

“Roll out this week's campaign across all active workspaces. Each workspace should get its own campaign with the same template.”

Agent lists all workspaces, switches context to each one, and creates matching campaigns — enabling a coordinated rollout across your entire EmailBison organization.

1
bison workspaces list --pretty

Enumerate all active workspaces

2
bison workspaces switch $WORKSPACE_ID

Switch context to workspace

3
bison campaigns create --name "Week 11 Outreach" --template-id $TPL

Create campaign from template in each workspace

4
bison campaigns activate $ID

Activate per workspace

5
bison webhooks list --pretty

Verify event subscriptions are firing

Command Groups

Campaigns

36 commands

Full campaign lifecycle — create, configure, activate, pause, archive, duplicate, sequences, scheduling

Leads

18 commands

Import, update, bulk CSV upload, status management, blacklisting, lifecycle tracking

Replies

14 commands

Unified inbox, reply, forward, thread management, interest classification, automations

Email Accounts

13 commands

Add/remove senders, IMAP/SMTP validation, MX checks, warmup limits

Blacklists

10 commands

Email and domain blacklist management for compliance and bounce prevention

Tags

10 commands

Custom tagging across campaigns, leads, and accounts for segmentation

Warmup

5 commands

Account warmup status, enable/disable, configure daily limits

Webhooks

8 commands

Create and manage webhook subscriptions; test payload delivery for real-time events

Workspaces

15 commands

Multi-workspace management, team members, context switching for org-wide orchestration

Tracking Domains

4 commands

Custom tracking domain setup and validation

OpenClaw

emailbison-cli Powers OpenClaw

OpenClaw uses emailbison-cli (alongside instantly-cli, clay-cli, and others) to orchestrate your full GTM motion autonomously. Set it up once, connect your tools, let it work.

OpenClaw Setup GuideAll Agent Tools