New: 98,000+ skills indexed from GitHub repos with 100+ stars · every skill safety-checkedBrowse top skillsTop skills
Esc to closeBrowse all skills
Submit a skillBrowse skills
Submit a skillBrowse skills

Agent skill

Cold Email

by xujingchen1996 in xujingchen1996/research-app-toolkit

A skill your agent uses when the user asks to write a cold email, draft an outreach email, follow up with a professor, or prepare other supervisor-facing application emails.

MITAuto-check passedSales & Support

Install Cold Email

skills CLI
$ npx skills add xujingchen1996/research-app-toolkit --skill cold-email -a claude-code

Project install by default; add -g for ~/.claude/skills/.

GitHub CLI
$ gh skill install xujingchen1996/research-app-toolkit cold-email --agent claude-code

Project scope by default; add --scope user for a personal install. Needs GitHub CLI 2.90.0 or later (public preview).

Manual copy
$ git clone --depth 1 https://github.com/xujingchen1996/research-app-toolkit.git skills-src && mkdir -p .claude/skills && cp -r skills-src/codex/skills/cold-email .claude/skills/cold-email && rm -rf skills-src

Use ~/.claude/skills/ instead of .claude/skills for a personal install. The folder must contain SKILL.md.

Claude Code skills documentation · loads skills from .claude/skills/

Facts

Skill name
cold-email
GitHub stars
134
Token cost
~694 tokens
SKILL.md length
332 words
Files
1
Skills in repo
9
Repo updated
First seen
Licence
MIT

At a glance

A skill your agent uses when the user asks to write a cold email, draft an outreach email, follow up with a professor, or prepare other supervisor-facing application emails.

  • Works in 4 steps: Extract the most relevant background… → Verify the target professor through web… → Identify the 1 to 2 most natural… → …
  • The user asks to write a cold email
  • SKILL.md covers Preconditions, Language Rules, Identify the Email Type and Fill In the Key Context First, plus 4 more sections
  • Instructions only: no scripts, shell commands, URLs or credentials in SKILL.md

What it does

Cold Email is an agent skill from xujingchen1996/research-app-toolkit. Use when the user asks to write a cold email, draft an outreach email, follow up with a professor, or prepare other supervisor-facing application emails. Based on the shared application profile and target supervisor information, generate first-contact emails, follow-ups, interview thank-you notes, and offer-related communication.

Its SKILL.md is about 690 tokens, which your agent loads only when the skill is triggered. It is a single SKILL.md file with no bundled scripts.

It sits in Sales & Support, covering Cold outreach. The repository describes itself as: Research Application Toolkit - Claude Code plugin for PhD, MRes, MPhil applications. The licence is MIT.

When your agent uses it

  • The user asks to write a cold email
  • Draft an outreach email
  • Follow up with a professor
  • Prepare other supervisor-facing application emails

Example prompts

  • “/cold-email”

Workflow steps

4 steps, taken from the first numbered list in SKILL.md.

  1. Extract the most relevant background from memory.md.
  2. Verify the target professor through web search
  3. Identify the 1 to 2 most natural connection points between the user's experience and the professor's research.
  4. Output the email draft, and provide subject-line alternatives when necessary.

What it can do on your machine

Read from SKILL.md and the folder at commit d84dbc0. It shows what the files ask for, not the result of running them.

  • Tool permissions

    Pre-approves nothing: there is no allowed-tools line, so your agent's usual permission prompts apply.

    From allowed-tools in the SKILL.md frontmatter.

  • Runs code

    No scripts in the folder and no shell commands in SKILL.md.

    From the folder's file list and the shell code blocks in SKILL.md.

  • Network

    No URLs in SKILL.md.

    From URLs in SKILL.md, links to its own repository left out.

  • Credentials

    Names no API keys, tokens, secrets or passwords.

    From names ending in _API_KEY, _TOKEN, _SECRET, _KEY or _PASSWORD in SKILL.md.

Context cost

Cold Email loads about 694 tokens when it runs. Until then it costs about 86 tokens; SKILL.md has 332 words of instructions outside code blocks.

Always · name and description, kept in context so the agent knows when to use it
~86
When it runs · the whole SKILL.md, loaded when a task matches
~694

Estimates: characters ÷ 4, the usual rule of thumb; real counts depend on the model's tokenizer. Scripts and assets cost tokens only if the agent reads them.

Safety

Auto-check passed

The automated check found no risky patterns in SKILL.md.

Automated static check — not a guarantee. Review scripts before installing. It scans the text of SKILL.md for risky patterns (piping downloads into a shell, reading credential files, hidden Unicode, destructive commands); files beside SKILL.md are not scanned.

SKILL.md

The full file from xujingchen1996/research-app-toolkit at commit d84dbc0, republished under its MIT licence (© xujingchen1996). 332 words, ~694 tokens.

Download SKILL.mdSave it as .claude/skills/cold-email/SKILL.md (or your agent's skills folder).
name
cold-email
description
Use when the user asks to write a cold email, draft an outreach email, follow up with a professor, or prepare other supervisor-facing application emails. Based on the shared application profile and target supervisor information, generate first-contact emails, follow-ups, interview thank-you notes, and offer-related communication.

Outreach Email

Preconditions

  • Read ../../memory.md first.
  • If cv_profile_analyzed is not complete, first suggest that the user run cv-analyze, unless the user has already directly provided sufficiently complete background materials.

Language Rules

  • Support three output modes: zh, en, and bilingual.
  • If the user explicitly specifies the email language, prioritize the current request.
  • Otherwise read preferred_language from memory.md.
  • If it is still unclear, prioritize the language commonly used by the target professor or target program.
  • If the user requests bilingual output, default to one main email body plus one concise counterpart version, rather than mixing Chinese and English in the same email.

Identify the Email Type

If the user does not specify it, default to first-contact. Supported types:

  • first-contact
  • follow-up
  • interview-thanks
  • offer-negotiation
  • reference-remind
  • rejection-follow

Fill In the Key Context First

If any of the following is missing, ask directly:

  • professor name and school
  • whether the user wants Chinese or English
  • the 1 to 2 experiences they most want to emphasize
  • whether there has already been prior communication

Writing Workflow

  1. Extract the most relevant background from memory.md.
  2. Verify the target professor through web search:
    • homepage
    • research direction
    • recent papers or projects
  3. Identify the 1 to 2 most natural connection points between the user's experience and the professor's research.
  4. Output the email draft, and provide subject-line alternatives when necessary.

Writing Rules

  • The first outreach email should be short and direct.
  • It must include specific research connections, not just generic praise.
  • Do not expose unnecessary weaknesses, such as grade anxiety or previous application failures.
  • For English emails, aim to keep them within about 250 to 300 words.
  • For Chinese emails, aim to keep them within one screen of readable length.

Output Requirements

  • By default provide:
    • 2 to 3 candidate subject lines
    • the draft email body
    • replaceable personalization sentence slots

Constraints

  • When discussing the professor's latest research direction, rely on current search results.
  • Do not fabricate facts such as "having read one of their papers" unless that has actually been verified in this round.

© xujingchen1996, MIT. Rendered from Markdown: HTML in the file is shown as text, images as links, and headings moved down two levels. Raw file

Files

Just SKILL.md in codex/skills/cold-email of xujingchen1996/research-app-toolkit.

Open the folder on GitHubat commit d84dbc0

Compare with similar skills

Cold Email next to the 5 skills that share the most tags, products or categories with it. Stars are the repository's; “used in” counts other GitHub owners with a copy.

Cold Email compared with similar skills
SkillStarsUsed inTokensAuto-checkLicenceRepo updated
Cold Email this skillxujingchen1996/research-app-toolkit134—~694Automated safety check: PassMIT
RevopsAvdLee/RocketSimApp8046 repos~3.7kAutomated safety check: PassCustom licence
Cold Outbound Optimizerericosiu/ai-marketing-skills3.6k1 repos~1.7kAutomated safety check: PassMIT
Prospectingcoreyhaines31/marketingskills54k—~5kAutomated safety check: PassMIT
Sales OsromangojiberryAI/gojiberryai-sales-os139—~2kAutomated safety check: PassMIT
ProspectingCesarjoquin/Marketing-Skills2011 repos~3.8kAutomated safety check: PassMIT

Similar skills

  • Revops

    AvdLee/RocketSimApp

    When the user wants help with revenue operations, lead lifecycle management, or marketing-to-sales handoff processes.

    804 GitHub starsUsed in 6 repos~3.7k tokens
    Sales & SupportAuto-check passed

  • Cold Outbound Optimizer

    ericosiu/ai-marketing-skills

    Design, analyze, and optimize cold outbound email campaigns for Instantly.

    3.6k GitHub starsUsed in 1 repo~1.7k tokens
    Sales & SupportAuto-check passed

  • Prospecting

    coreyhaines31/marketingskills

    When the user wants to find, qualify, and build a list of prospects to reach out to, across B2B SaaS, general B2B, or local small businesses.

    54k GitHub stars~5k tokensUpdated today
    Sales & SupportAuto-check passed

  • Sales Os

    romangojiberryAI/gojiberryai-sales-os

    A complete outbound sales department in one skill. An agent skill from romangojiberryAI/gojiberryai-sales-os.

    139 GitHub stars~2k tokensUpdated 1 mo ago
    Sales & SupportAuto-check passed

  • Prospecting

    Cesarjoquin/Marketing-Skills

    When the user wants to find, qualify, and build a list of prospects to reach out to — across B2B SaaS, general B2B, or local small businesses.

    201 GitHub starsUsed in 1 repo~3.8k tokens
    Sales & SupportAuto-check passed

  • Icp Onboarding

    growthenginenowoslawski/coldoutboundskills

    Conversational intake for cold email campaigns. An agent skill from growthenginenowoslawski/coldoutboundskills.

    751 GitHub stars~1.9k tokensUpdated 3 days ago
    Sales & SupportAuto-check passed

More from xujingchen1996/research-app-toolkit

All 9 skills in this repo

  • Cv Analyze

    xujingchen1996/research-app-toolkit

    A skill your agent uses when the user asks to analyze a CV or resume, extract an applicant profile, review a resume, or parse a CV.

    134 GitHub stars~690 tokensUpdated 2 mo ago
    Auto-check passed

  • Cv Polish

    xujingchen1996/research-app-toolkit

    A skill your agent uses when the user asks to polish a CV or resume, improve a CV, tailor a resume, or optimize a CV.

    134 GitHub stars~710 tokensUpdated 2 mo ago
    Auto-check passed

  • Document Assist

    xujingchen1996/research-app-toolkit

    A skill your agent uses when the user asks to draft or revise an SOP, personal statement, motivation letter, research proposal, recommendation-letter draft, or similar application document.

    134 GitHub stars~821 tokensUpdated 2 mo ago
    Auto-check passed

  • Gap Analysis

    xujingchen1996/research-app-toolkit

    A skill your agent uses when the user asks to analyze research gaps, find research gaps, generate research ideas, or analyze papers for gaps.

    134 GitHub stars~932 tokensUpdated 2 mo ago
    Auto-check passed

  • Interview Ppt

    xujingchen1996/research-app-toolkit

    A skill your agent uses when the user asks to prepare a PhD interview deck, professor meeting slides, research presentation PPT, slide-by-slide speaking notes, or interview visuals.

    134 GitHub stars~1.8k tokensUpdated 2 mo ago
    Auto-check passed

  • Interview Prep

    xujingchen1996/research-app-toolkit

    A skill your agent uses when the user asks to prepare for an interview, run a mock interview, practice interview questions, or get ready for a graduate application interview.

    134 GitHub stars~600 tokensUpdated 2 mo ago
    Auto-check passed

Categories

Questions about Cold Email

What does Cold Email do?

A skill your agent uses when the user asks to write a cold email, draft an outreach email, follow up with a professor, or prepare other supervisor-facing application emails. Cold Email is an agent skill from xujingchen1996/research-app-toolkit. Use when the user asks to write a cold email, draft an outreach email, follow up with a professor, or prepare other supervisor-facing application emails.

When should I use Cold Email?

Cold Email fits situations like: the user asks to write a cold email; draft an outreach email; follow up with a professor; prepare other supervisor-facing application emails.

How do I install Cold Email in Claude Code?

Run `npx skills add xujingchen1996/research-app-toolkit --skill cold-email -a claude-code`. Or copy the skill folder (codex/skills/cold-email in xujingchen1996/research-app-toolkit) into .claude/skills/cold-email in your project. Claude Code loads it when a task matches its description.

How do I install Cold Email in Codex?

Run `npx skills add xujingchen1996/research-app-toolkit --skill cold-email -a codex`. Or copy the skill folder (codex/skills/cold-email in xujingchen1996/research-app-toolkit) into .agents/skills/cold-email in your project. Codex loads it when a task matches its description.

Can I use Cold Email in Cursor, Gemini CLI or GitHub Copilot?

Cursor, Gemini CLI, GitHub Copilot and OpenCode also load SKILL.md folders. With the skills CLI, run `npx skills add xujingchen1996/research-app-toolkit --skill cold-email -a cursor` (or -a gemini-cli, github-copilot or opencode for the others). To copy it by hand, put the folder in .cursor/skills/cold-email, .gemini/skills/cold-email, .github/skills/cold-email and .opencode/skills/cold-email in your project.

What does Cold Email need to run?

SKILL.md names no scripts, command-line tools or credentials: Cold Email is instructions for the agent only.

Does Cold Email access the network?

SKILL.md contains no URLs. Any network use would come from the scripts or tools the agent runs. This is read from the text; nothing was executed.

Is Cold Email safe to install?

Our automated static check of SKILL.md found no risky patterns, such as piping downloads into a shell, reading credential files or hidden Unicode. It is not a guarantee. Review the folder before installing.

What licence does Cold Email use?

Cold Email is published under the MIT licence (the repository's licence). It allows redistribution, so the full SKILL.md is shown on this page.

How many tokens does Cold Email use?

About 694 tokens (SKILL.md is roughly 2.8k characters). Agents keep only the skill's name and description in context until a task matches; then they load SKILL.md in full.

What are the alternatives to Cold Email?

Skills that share tags, products or a category with Cold Email: Revops (AvdLee/RocketSimApp, 804 stars), Cold Outbound Optimizer (ericosiu/ai-marketing-skills, 3.6k stars), Prospecting (coreyhaines31/marketingskills, 54k stars) and Sales Os (romangojiberryAI/gojiberryai-sales-os, 139 stars). The comparison table on this page puts their stars, adoption, token cost, safety result and licence side by side.

Who maintains Cold Email?

xujingchen1996 (a GitHub user) maintains it in xujingchen1996/research-app-toolkit, which has 134 GitHub stars. The repository holds 9 skills in this directory. The repository was last updated on July 18, 2026.

Source: xujingchen1996/research-app-toolkit on GitHub. Facts on this page come from the repository at the commit we read; the author's words are quoted as theirs.