# Cold outreach: what Rook does with strangers who want something

A recruiter, a vendor, an agency or a link seller writes first. Rook sorts it as Cold outreach, quotes what they want, never treats it as a lead, and never answers it for you.

Staying safe · Updated October 21, 2026 · https://userookery.com/help/cold-outreach/

Some email comes from someone with no tie to you who wants something you didn't ask for: to sell you something, recruit you, get a call, a link or a favour. Rook sorts it as **Cold outreach**, one of the three topics every inbox has (the others are **Other** and **From your team**).

## What counts, and what doesn't

Rook decides by who wants what from whom.

- **It is Cold outreach** when someone writes first and wants something *from you*: a recruiter offering a role, a vendor asking for a demo, an agency pitching a redesign, a request for a link or a guest post, a "partnership" that's for the sender's gain. Each later step of a sequence that follows up on one of these counts too.
- **It isn't** when a stranger may want *what you offer*: someone asking for a quote (even out of the blue, even with "quick call?"), a job applicant, a candidate writing to your recruiting agency. It isn't a reply to something you sent, and it isn't a supplier or client you already work with. Those go to the topic that fits, like a sales lead.

Rook never calls it cold when there's a tie: you've written to the sender (or copied them), it's a reply in a conversation you started, you let them in, someone looks after them as a contact, they wrote in before and you saw it, or they work at a company you've written to. A follow-up in a conversation that already has a topic, like a prospect's "just bumping this" on a Sales lead, stays where it is. A teammate forwarding a pitch is **From your team**.

## What you see

On the conversation, a card sits where **Nothing to answer** would:

> **Cold outreach:** Jun asks for a 15-minute chat about a role. Reply only if you're interested.
> *"Would you be free for a 15-minute call this week?"*

The line is built from what Rook found, and the quote under it is the sender's own words, checked against the email. When the email also looks like one step of an automated sequence, a second line says why, like "it follows up on an email that isn't here, and it has an unsubscribe link". That line only shows when Rook's reading and a fact it can check agree.

The card offers three ways on:

- **Done** closes it, with **Undo**.
- **Not interested** prepares a short, polite decline for you. It waits for your yes and nothing sends by itself. Sending it closes the conversation. It doesn't count as you having written to them, so their next emails can be Cold outreach again.
- **Done, and don't ask about Jun again** closes it and files that sender's mail as it arrives.

In the inbox, the row's quiet sticker says **Cold outreach**.

## How Rook handles it

- **It's never a lead.** Rules that name Sales leads never fire on it.
- **It's never shared out.** A rule's round robin or **Least busy first** passes it over, and the thread says "Skips cold outreach: it's never shared out as work." You can still give one to someone yourself.
- **Rook never sends it on its own.** It starts at **You do it**, and the most you can set is **Ready for your yes**. **Rook does it** is greyed. Rook doesn't start a draft on it unasked.
- **It's quiet.** It isn't on [Today](https://userookery.com/help/today/), in your morning brief or on the count in the sidebar, and it never sends a push. It stays in the inbox, in view.
- **A playbook that sends can't start on it.** Saving one fails with a line that says why.

## What you can't change

Cold outreach is in every inbox. It has no switch and can't be removed, because without it a stranger's sales sequence would be sorted as a lead, shared out by round robin and answered in your name. If a sender turns out to be someone you want to hear from, write back: from then on their mail isn't cold.

## If Rook can't read it

Rook only calls something Cold outreach when it can quote the words. With AI off, or a model that can't quote, the email stays in view, sorted as usual, and no line guesses. A thank-you with no checked reason says **Nothing to answer. Rook couldn't say why.** See [When no reply is needed](https://userookery.com/help/approve-a-draft/).