# Product Brief — Warmbox

## One-liner

Warmbox is a self-hosted (today) / SaaS (tomorrow) cold email warmup engine that safely builds sender reputation for **primary outbound mailboxes** using a controlled network of **satellite inboxes**, realistic AI-generated conversations, and human-like engagement signals — without triggering ESP anti-abuse systems.

## Problem

New or cold mailboxes used for B2B outreach land in spam. ESPs (Google, Microsoft, Yahoo) evaluate:

- Sending volume patterns (ramps, spikes, consistency)
- Authentication (SPF, DKIM, DMARC)
- Engagement (replies, not-spam actions, spam complaints)
- Content signals (spam triggers, templated/robotic text)

Commercial warmup tools exist but carry risks: toxic peer pools, detectable patterns, placeholder-filled AI content, and ESP policies against artificial warmup networks.

## Solution

Warmbox gives operators **full control** over:

- Which mailboxes are warming (primaries) vs supporting (satellites)
- Warmup **recipe** (progressive ramp, flat, randomized, custom)
- Volume bounds (1–50/day), duration (30–45 days), reply rate (30–45%)
- Spam rescue and placement visibility per primary
- AI content quality guardrails (no placeholders, no spam triggers)

## Target users (personas)

### P1 — Cold email operator (FillCare / agency owner)

- Warms `hello@fillcareapp.com` and future sales domains
- Owns 4–10 personal Gmail/Yahoo/Live satellites
- Needs confidence before connecting Instantly/Smartlead
- Wants dashboard: sent, replied, spam rate, ramp progress

### P2 — Deliverability-focused growth lead

- Manages multiple primaries across brands
- Needs recipes, custom schedules, alerts on spam spikes
- Cares about Google Postmaster / Microsoft SNDS integration (future)

### P3 — SaaS customer (future)

- Signs up, connects mailboxes via OAuth or app passwords
- Pays per primary mailbox warmed
- Never sees other customers' satellites (tenant isolation)

## Goals

| Goal | Measure |
|------|---------|
| Inbox placement | ≥95% warmup emails in inbox (not spam) after week 3 |
| Spam rescue | 100% of detected warmup-in-spam rescued within rescuer cycle |
| Reply realism | Reply rate within configured ±5% of target |
| Content quality | 0% emails with bracket placeholders; <1% AI validation failures |
| ESP safety | No account suspensions attributable to Warmbox patterns |
| Operator trust | Per-primary daily stats accurate within 1 message |

## Non-goals (MVP SaaS phase)

- Sending live cold campaigns (delegate to Instantly, Smartlead, Apollo)
- Shared public peer network at launch (optional later)
- Mobile native apps
- White-label reseller portal (future)

## Competitive positioning

| Capability | Warmbox | Typical warmup SaaS |
|------------|---------|---------------------|
| Self-hosted option | Yes | Rare |
| Own satellite pool | Yes | Often forced shared pool |
| Recipe control | Full (4 types) | Often progressive only |
| Open source core | Possible | No |
| ESP-aware behavior | Designed-in | Varies |

## Success criteria for "production ready"

1. Multiple primaries warming concurrently with independent recipes
2. Satellites only engage assigned primaries (no random cross-primary noise)
3. Statistics dashboard matches raw logs
4. Auto-pause on auth errors, bounce spikes, or spam-rate thresholds
5. Web UI for all operator workflows
6. Documented ESP compliance checklist passed before go-live