AugmentClaude

Cold Email Verifier

Verify email addresses and guess corporate emails from lead lists automatically.

Installation

  1. Make sure Claude is on your device and in your terminal.

    Skills load from ~/.claude/skills/ when Claude Code starts up — so you need it on your machine first. If you don't have it yet, install it once with the command below, then run claude in any terminal to verify.

    One-time setup
    npm i -g @anthropic-ai/claude-code

    Already have it? Skip ahead.

  2. Paste into Claude Code or into your terminal.

    This copies the whole skill folder into ~/.claude/skills/cold-email-verifier-varnan-tech/ — the SKILL.md plus any scripts, reference docs, or templates the skill ships with. Safe default: works for every skill.

    Faster alternative (instruction-only skills)

    Skips the clone and grabs only the SKILL.md file. Don't use this if the skill ships Python scripts, reference markdowns, or asset templates — they won't be downloaded and the skill will fail when it tries to load them.

    Quick install (SKILL.md only)
    Sign up to copy
  3. Restart Claude Code.

    Quit and reopen Claude Code (or any other agent that loads from ~/.claude/skills/). New skills are picked up on startup.

  4. Just ask Claude.

    Skills auto-activate when your request matches the skill's description — no slash command needed. Trigger phrases live in the skill's own frontmatter; you can read them in the “What this skill does” section above.

Prefer to read the source first? Open on GitHub.

When Claude uses it

Use when the user wants to verify cold emails, enrich a lead list, or autonomously guess email addresses from a CSV using ValidEmail.co or the open-source Reacher engine.

What this skill does

Cold Email Verifier and Guesser (Public)

Overview

This skill autonomously processes a CSV of leads (containing First Name, Last Name, and Company Name), discovers their corporate domain, generates professional email permutations, and strictly verifies their deliverability.

It is designed to solve the problem of missing contact info by guessing core email angles and then checking which one is real.

The Email Guessing Engine

You don't need to provide emails in your CSV! If the CSV only contains First Name, Last Name, and Company Name, the script will automatically:

  1. Look up the company's official domain using the free Clearbit API.
  2. Clean the names (removing punctuation) and generate the 3 most common corporate email formats:

Verification Methods (Choose Your Engine)

Once the emails are guessed, the script must verify them. We support three methods:

1. ValidEmail.co API (Highly Recommended)

The absolute best option. ValidEmail.co provides enterprise-grade accuracy, bypasses strict catch-all servers, and handles IP reputation for you.

  • Free Tier: They offer a generous free tier (50 free verification credits on signup) to get you started!
  • How to use: Go to validemail.co, create an account, get your API key, and run the script in --mode validemail.

2. Reacher Open Source (Self-Hosted)

If you want a 100% free, open-source solution, you can host the Reacher backend yourself on a cloud provider (like AWS, GCP, or Hetzner).

  • GitHub Repo: reacherhq/check-if-email-exists
  • Important: Your cloud provider MUST have outbound Port 25 open.
  • How to use: Host the docker container, then run the script using --mode reacher-http --reacher-url "http://<YOUR_SERVER_IP>:8080/v0/check_email".

3. Reacher Local CLI (Not Recommended / Unreliable)

You can run the Reacher CLI directly on your laptop.

  • Warning: Residential ISPs globally block Port 25 to prevent spam. Furthermore, major mail servers (Microsoft, Google) will automatically reject SMTP handshakes from residential Wi-Fi IP addresses.
  • Result: You will get massive amounts of false negatives and timeouts. Use ValidEmail.co instead.

How to Execute

First, ensure dependencies are installed: pip install -r requirements.txt

To use ValidEmail.co (Recommended): ash export VALIDEMAIL_API_KEY="your_api_key_here" python scripts/email_verifier.py --input leads.csv --output verified_leads.csv --mode validemail

To use Self-Hosted Reacher: ash python scripts/email_verifier.py --input leads.csv --output verified_leads.csv --mode reacher-http --reacher-url "http://your-server-ip:8080/v0/check_email"

CSV Format Requirements

The input CSV must contain these exact column headers (or their specific mappings):

  • First Name
  • Last Name
  • Company Name
  • Domain (Optional - highly recommended for accuracy)

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