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Building a Cold Email Agent: From Setup to First Send

June 5, 2026 howto

The Cold Email Use Case

Cold email is repetitive — research prospects, write a personalized draft, send, follow up. It's the perfect job for an AI agent. Here's how to set one up on Derez.ai.

What Your Agent Needs

Your cold email agent needs three things: a research tool (to find prospects and learn about their business), an email-sending integration (SMTP or API), and a clear prompt that defines your voice and process. We cover all three.

Step 1: Configure the Prompt

In the app.derez.ai dashboard, give your agent a role: "You are a B2B outreach specialist for [Company]. Research each prospect, write a personalized first email, and send it." Attach your prospect list or connect a CRM via the tools section.

Step 2: Connect Email

Hermes Agent supports SMTP and email APIs out of the box. Add your email credentials in the agent's environment settings, and your agent can send emails directly from the conversation.

Step 3: Add Research Skills

Your agent can use web search to research each prospect's company, recent news, and LinkedIn profile before writing. This makes each email genuinely personalized — not a template with a name swapped in.

Step 4: Test and Launch

Run a few test emails to yourself first. Tweak the tone in the prompt until it sounds right. Then add your prospect list and let the agent work through it. Follow-ups can be scheduled as separate tasks.

The result? Each prospect gets a researched, personalized email written and sent — while you focus on the replies that matter.

Derez.ai — Deploy your AI agent in 5 minutes.