playbooks

home / skills / shipshitdev / library / email-finder

email-finder skill

/bundles/sales/skills/email-finder

This skill finds domain emails using free methods and APIs, helping you contact stakeholders efficiently.

npx playbooks add skill shipshitdev/library --skill email-finder

Review the files below or copy the command above to add this skill to your agents.

Files (3)
SKILL.md
2.7 KB
---
name: email-finder
description: This skill should be used when users need to find email addresses associated with a domain. It activates when users ask to scan a domain for emails, find contact emails, discover email addresses, or replace email hunter functionality.
version: 1.0.0
tags:
  - email
  - domain
  - contact-discovery
  - lead-generation
---

# Email Finder

## Overview

Discover email addresses associated with a domain using a hybrid approach: free methods first (web scraping, pattern guessing, WHOIS lookup), then APIs (Hunter.io, Apollo.io, etc.) when keys are available.

## When to Use

- Scan a domain to find associated emails
- Find contact emails for a company
- Replace email hunter functionality
- Find email patterns for a domain
- Verify email addresses
- Enrich contact data with discovered emails

## Project Context Discovery

Before finding emails:

1. Check for existing email discovery tools
2. Review available API keys (Hunter.io, Apollo.io)
3. Check compliance/privacy requirements
4. Look for project-specific `[project]-email-finder` skill

## Methodology

### Free Methods (Primary)

1. **Web Scraping** - Scan `/contact`, `/about`, `/team` pages for emails
2. **WHOIS Lookup** - Query domain registration data
3. **Pattern Guessing** - Generate patterns from names found on site:
   - `[email protected]`
   - `[email protected]`
   - `[email protected]`
   - `[email protected]`

### API Methods (If Keys Available)

| API | Env Variable | Purpose |
|-----|-------------|---------|
| Hunter.io | `HUNTER_API_KEY` | Domain search + verification |
| Apollo.io | `APOLLO_API_KEY` | Contact discovery |
| Snov.io | `SNOV_CLIENT_ID/SECRET` | Email finder |
| Clearbit | `CLEARBIT_API_KEY` | Company enrichment |

## Email Result Interface

```typescript
interface EmailResult {
  email: string;
  source: 'web-scraping' | 'whois' | 'pattern-guessing' | 'hunter' | 'apollo';
  confidence?: number;
  firstName?: string;
  lastName?: string;
  position?: string;
  verified?: boolean;
}
```

## Best Practices

- **Rate limiting**: Delay between requests (1s recommended)
- **Respect robots.txt**: Check before scraping
- **Deduplicate**: Normalize emails (lowercase, trim)
- **Verify**: Use MX record checks or API verification
- **Filter**: Remove noreply@, donotreply@ addresses

## Legal & Ethical

- Comply with GDPR/CCPA
- Respect terms of service
- Honor opt-out requests
- Don't spam discovered emails

## Integration

Works well with:

- `leads-researcher` - Discover contact emails after researching companies
- `copywriter` - Use found emails for outreach campaigns

---

**For complete implementation code, API examples, verification patterns, and rate limiting utilities, see:** `references/full-guide.md`

Overview

This skill finds email addresses associated with a domain using a hybrid approach that favors free methods first and falls back to API providers when keys are available. It focuses on accurate discovery, pattern inference, and lightweight verification while respecting rate limits and privacy rules. Results include source attribution and confidence hints to guide downstream use.

How this skill works

The skill scans common pages like /contact, /about and team pages to scrape visible emails and names, performs WHOIS lookups for registrant addresses, and generates pattern-based candidates from discovered names. When configured with API keys (Hunter, Apollo, Snov, Clearbit), it augments results with provider searches and verification checks. Outputs are deduplicated, normalized, and optionally verified via MX checks or provider flags.

When to use it

  • You need to scan a domain to collect associated email addresses
  • Finding contact emails for a company or outreach list
  • Replacing or supplementing email-hunter functionality in workflows
  • Inferring email patterns for a domain to generate candidate addresses
  • Enriching lead data with contact emails and verification metadata

Best practices

  • Start with free methods (scraping, WHOIS, pattern guessing) before using paid APIs
  • Respect robots.txt and implement delays between requests (1s recommended)
  • Normalize and deduplicate email addresses (lowercase, trim whitespace)
  • Filter out no-reply/donotreply addresses and obviously invalid formats
  • Verify high-value emails with MX checks or API verification flags
  • Confirm compliance with GDPR/CCPA and avoid sending unsolicited messages

Example use cases

  • Build a contact list for B2B outreach by scanning company websites and team pages
  • Enrich CRM records with discovered and verified emails from multiple sources
  • Detect common email formats for a domain to generate candidate addresses for sales outreach
  • Supplement research workflows by combining web scraping with Hunter/Apollo results when keys are available
  • Automate lead enrichment after a leads-researcher pass to attach contact emails

FAQ

Are discovered emails guaranteed deliverable?

No. Discovery provides candidates and confidence hints; verify high-value addresses with MX checks or API verification before outreach.

Which data sources does the skill use?

Primary sources are website scraping, WHOIS, and pattern guessing. Optional sources include Hunter, Apollo, Snov, and Clearbit when API keys are configured.

How does the skill avoid abuse and legal issues?

It enforces rate limiting, respects robots.txt, filters out no-reply addresses, and includes guidance to comply with GDPR/CCPA and provider terms.