Campaign Pause And Fix

Campaign Pause & Fix

Outcome: A running campaign stops cleanly, the problem gets fixed, and the motion restarts without double-touching anyone. This is the mid-send escape hatch for every other play.

First-run onboarding gate

Before running this skill for the first time in a workspace, load ../../references/onboarding.md and complete the onboarding questions. Do not proceed until you know: LinkedIn account type (free/basic = no connection notes; recommend 10 connection requests/day and never exceed the FirstTouch max of 20/day; Sales Navigator/Premium = connection notes available; recommend 20 connection requests/day and never exceed the FirstTouch max of 30/day), HubSpot access (MCP, service key/private app token, HubSpot list only, or none), and which play the user wants to run. Recommend high-intent plays before outbound to keep the LinkedIn account healthy. If HubSpot is unavailable, do not run HubSpot-specific steps unless the user provides a HubSpot list FirstTouch can access.

When to use

• "Pause the campaign" / "stop sending right now"
• Bad copy, wrong audience, or a broken variable shipped in a live flow
• Acceptance or reply rates dropped mid-run, or replies are negative
• The user wants to change the message or audience of a flow that is already running
• The sender seat shows Action required, Disconnected, or Restricted in FirstTouch Social settings mid-campaign

Step-by-step

1. Identify the running motion

Find the flow the user means - do not guess from chat memory:

• list_flow_plans to list flows; confirm the exact flow plan with the user by name.
• list_flow_plan_enrollments (or list_enrollments) to see who is in it and in what state: awaiting, in-progress, completed, failed, canceled.
• list_linkedin_outreach_queue for what is queued to send next.

Present a status snapshot before touching anything: total enrolled, sent so far, queued next 24h, awaiting approval.

2. Stop the bleeding

• Unpublish/pause the flow with manage_flow_publication. This stops new sends; it does not undo anything already sent.
• Confirm to the user what is now frozen and what already went out. Anything already sent is a fact to work with, not something to hide.
• If the trigger was a non-Available seat status (Action required / Disconnected / Restricted), stop sends for that seat and follow the account-statuses section in ../../references/troubleshooting.md before any fix-and-restart.

3. Diagnose

Establish which of these is the actual problem - the fix differs:

• Copy problem (wrong message, broken {{variable}}, off-brand tone) → fix templates; audience can stay.
• Audience problem (wrong segment, suppressed contacts included, duplicates with another motion) → fix the list; re-run Gate 0/Gate 1 from ../../references/safety-governance.md on whatever remains.
• Volume/health problem (caps too aggressive, acceptance dropping) → keep copy and audience, lower the daily cap and restart slower.
• Wrong motion entirely → cancel and route the user to the right play instead of patching this one.

4. Cancel or hold the affected enrollments

• Cancel enrollments that must not continue with cancel_flow_enrollments - scope the cancellation to affected contacts, not blindly to everyone (completed contacts are done either way; untouched awaiting rows may only need the fix, not cancellation).
• Record exactly who was canceled at which step. This list drives safe re-enrollment.

5. Apply the fix

• Copy fix: update the flow's templates (draft through firsttouch-messaging quality gates; replace_flow_root / update_flow_plan where the connected MCP supports flow edits - otherwise the user edits in the FirstTouch app and confirms).
• Audience fix: rebuild or prune the audience; re-run suppression, duplicate, and owner checks on the corrected list.
• Volume fix: restate the new daily cap in the approval table (never above the FirstTouch max: 20/day free/basic, 30/day Sales Navigator/Premium).

6. Gate the restart

The restart is a new send decision, not a resumption of old approval. Present a restart approval table: who re-enters, at which step, with which (new) copy, at what daily cap. Wait for explicit approval.

7. Re-enroll safely

• Run validate_flow_reenroll first for contacts being re-enrolled - never skip the validation step.
• Re-enroll approved contacts with reenroll_flow_enrollments; enroll net-new approved contacts with enroll_awaiting_flow_items.
• Republish the flow with manage_flow_publication.
• Confirm with list_enrollments that re-enrolled contacts moved from awaiting to in-progress, and report the restart state to the user.

Duplicate-send rule: anyone who already received a step's message must never receive that step again. If FirstTouch cannot confirm where a contact stopped, leave that contact out and list them for manual review - skipping a prospect is recoverable; double-messaging them is not.

Output

• Pre-pause snapshot (enrolled / sent / queued / awaiting)
• Diagnosis: copy, audience, volume, or wrong-motion
• Canceled-enrollment list with steps reached
• Restart approval table and post-restart confirmation

Examples

User: "The AI SDR batch is getting bad replies - stop it." Play: pause via manage_flow_publication → snapshot shows 34 sent, 61 queued → diagnosis: opener has a meeting ask (iron-rule violation) → cancel the 61 queued enrollments, fix copy through the messaging quality gate → restart approval at 10/day → validate_flow_reenroll + reenroll_flow_enrollments → confirm in-progress. The 34 already-sent contacts are excluded from the restart.

Why this play wins

Every outbound motion eventually needs a mid-flight correction. Without a clean pause-and-fix path, users either let a broken campaign keep sending or nuke everything and double-touch people on the redo. This play is the difference between a five-minute correction and a burned account.

Pitfalls

• Pausing without snapshotting first - you can't restart safely if you don't know who got what.
• Canceling everyone by default - completed contacts don't need cancellation; untouched rows may only need the fix.
• Treating the restart as pre-approved - the original approval covered the original copy/audience/caps. Fixed motion = fresh gate.
• Re-enrolling without validate_flow_reenroll - the validation exists to catch exactly the duplicate-send cases humans miss.

Reference

• Safety gates for the restart: ../../references/safety-governance.md
• Cooldowns and limits: ../../references/troubleshooting.md
• Messaging quality gates for fixed copy: ../../references/messaging-framework.md