How to Connect Smartlead to Gemini via MCP

💡 No install? Use cloud.anythingmcp.com directly. Sign in, click Connectors → Smartlead, paste your credentials, mint an MCP API key and you're done. No Docker, no git clone, no local server.

Smartlead + Gemini

Smartlead cold email outreach from any AI agent: build and run campaigns with sequences and schedules, add and manage leads and their categories, read and answer replies in the master inbox, compare campaign and account analytics, and check sender mailboxes and warmup. Works with a Smartlead API key; irreversible unsubscribes and deletions install switched off.

Prerequisites

See the full setup instructions baked into the connector (visible in the in-app store when you select the connector). The required environment variables for this connector are:

SMARTLEAD_API_KEY

Step 1 — Get credentials

Setting up takes about 2 minutes. API access needs a paid Smartlead plan.

1. In Smartlead open Settings and the API Keys section (on some plans it sits under Settings, Integrations).
2. Copy the API key into SMARTLEAD_API_KEY. The connector adds it to every request as the api_key query parameter, so paste only the key.
3. Install the connector and run smartlead_list_campaigns: it lists your campaigns and confirms the key.

The key gives full access to the account, so treat it like a password.

Campaigns: smartlead_list_campaigns comes first, because the id of each campaign is the campaign_id of every other tool. smartlead_get_campaign, smartlead_get_campaign_sequences and smartlead_list_campaign_email_accounts show its setup. To build one, the AI chains smartlead_create_campaign (an empty campaign in DRAFTED status), smartlead_save_campaign_sequences, smartlead_update_campaign_schedule (time zone, weekdays, sending window, minutes between emails, new leads per day, start time), smartlead_update_campaign_settings (name, open and click tracking, when to stop emailing a lead, plain text, follow-up percentage, AI mailbox matching, unsubscribe text), smartlead_add_email_accounts_to_campaign and smartlead_add_leads_to_campaign, then smartlead_update_campaign_status with START. The statuses are START (not ACTIVE), PAUSED, STOPPED (final; use PAUSED for a break) and ARCHIVED. Starting a campaign sends real emails, so let the AI show you sequence, schedule and lead count first.

Sequences: smartlead_save_campaign_sequences replaces the whole sequence: steps left out are removed. The AI reads it with smartlead_get_campaign_sequences first, keeps the ids of existing steps and sends every step. Personalise with {{first_name}}, {{company_name}} and the names of your custom fields.

Leads:

• smartlead_list_campaign_leads lists the leads of a campaign. Each row has the campaign lead map id (the id of the row, used by smartlead_create_lead_note) and the lead itself (lead.id, used as lead_id).
• smartlead_get_lead_by_email finds a lead across all campaigns, smartlead_get_lead reads one by id, smartlead_get_lead_campaign_overview shows every campaign it is in.
• smartlead_add_leads_to_campaign takes at most 400 leads per call. Leads on the global block list, unsubscribed, or already in other campaigns are skipped unless the settings say otherwise; the answer counts uploaded, duplicate and blocked leads.
• Changes: smartlead_update_lead (the API wants the email even when it does not change; up to 200 custom fields), smartlead_update_lead_category (ids from smartlead_list_lead_categories, optionally pausing the lead), smartlead_pause_lead, smartlead_resume_lead (now or after a delay in days) and smartlead_unsubscribe_lead_from_campaign for one campaign.

Replies: smartlead_list_inbox_replies lists replies from the master inbox across campaigns, newest first, filtered by campaign, mailbox, category or reply time; smartlead_get_inbox_item opens one thread. To answer, smartlead_get_lead_message_history gives each message's stats_id, message_id and time; the AI passes them as email_stats_id, reply_message_id and reply_email_time to smartlead_reply_to_lead. The reply leaves from the mailbox of that thread, now or at a scheduled_time. smartlead_create_lead_note adds an internal note.

Analytics: per campaign smartlead_get_campaign_analytics (all-time totals and lead progress), smartlead_get_campaign_analytics_by_date, smartlead_get_campaign_sequence_analytics (per step and A/B variant) and smartlead_get_campaign_statistics (one row per sent email). smartlead_get_overall_analytics covers the whole account, optionally limited to some campaigns or clients.

Mailboxes and warmup: smartlead_list_email_accounts shows address, provider, daily limits, SMTP/IMAP health and warmup; a broken connection has isSmtpSuccess=false. smartlead_get_email_account, smartlead_get_warmup_stats (last 7 days: warmup emails sent, landed in inbox, landed in spam, replies), smartlead_update_email_account (daily limit, sender name, signature, BCC, custom tracking domain, minutes between emails) and smartlead_update_warmup (on or off, daily volume, ramp-up, reply rate).

Webhooks, agencies and lists: smartlead_list_campaign_webhooks and smartlead_upsert_campaign_webhook (creates one, or updates it when id is given) with the events EMAIL_SENT, EMAIL_OPEN, EMAIL_LINK_CLICK, EMAIL_REPLY, EMAIL_BOUNCE, LEAD_UNSUBSCRIBED and LEAD_CATEGORY_UPDATED. smartlead_list_clients gives the client ids of an agency (white-label) account; smartlead_list_lead_lists lists the lead lists.

Switched off at install: smartlead_unsubscribe_lead_globally (unsubscribes the lead from every campaign and blocks future imports of the address), smartlead_delete_lead_from_campaign (removes the lead and its progress in that campaign) and smartlead_delete_campaign_webhook. They cannot be undone, so a workspace admin turns them on when the team needs them.

Data formats: counts are numbers of emails or leads; rates are percentages. Analytics dates are YYYY-MM-DD, with an optional IANA time zone (default UTC) for the day boundaries. Timestamps are ISO 8601 in UTC unless a time zone is passed.

Paging: lists take offset (default 0) and limit (default 100; the inbox defaults to 20). The AI raises offset by limit until fewer rows than limit come back; smartlead_list_campaign_leads also returns total_leads.

Limits and common errors: Smartlead throttles bursts (about 10 requests per 2 seconds on standard plans) and answers 429; wait and retry. 401 Invalid API Key means a wrong key, 404 a wrong id or an id from another account, and 400 names the invalid field.

The connector does not connect new sender mailboxes and does not delete campaigns.

Step 2 — Install the adapter

curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/HelpCode-ai/anythingmcp/main/docker-compose.quickstart.yml -o docker-compose.yml
printf 'JWT_SECRET=%s\nENCRYPTION_KEY=%s\n' "$(openssl rand -hex 32)" "$(openssl rand -hex 32)" > .env
docker compose up -d

Step 3 — Add the connector in Gemini

Your server URL: in AnythingMCP, open MCP Servers → the server this connector is on, and copy its URL (https://cloud.anythingmcp.com/mcp/…). Use it wherever this guide shows YOUR_SERVER_ID.

Gemini CLI reads MCP servers from ~/.gemini/settings.json (on Windows %USERPROFILE%\.gemini\settings.json). Add:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "anythingmcp": {
      "httpUrl": "https://cloud.anythingmcp.com/mcp/YOUR_SERVER_ID",
      "headers": { "X-API-Key": "YOUR_MCP_API_KEY" }
    }
  }
}

1. Create an MCP API key in AnythingMCP under MCP Servers → your server → API keys, and paste it in place of YOUR_MCP_API_KEY.
2. Save the file and restart gemini.
3. Run /mcp inside Gemini CLI (or gemini mcp list in your shell): anythingmcp should show as connected.
4. Start prompting: Gemini CLI can now call the Smartlead tools.

Available tools

Example prompts

• "Which of my active campaigns has the best reply rate this month? Show sent, replies and bounces for each."
• "Show me the replies of the last 24 hours that are categorised as Interested."
• "Reply to the latest email from [email protected] in the Q4 outreach campaign and propose a call next week. Show me the text before sending."
• "Which sender mailboxes have a broken SMTP connection or a lot of warmup emails landing in spam?"
• "Pause the lead [email protected] in every campaign he is in."

FAQ

Where does Gemini CLI look for MCP servers? In ~/.gemini/settings.json for your user, or in .gemini/settings.json inside a project. gemini mcp list shows each server and whether it connects.

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