# Sequences

> The authoritative specification of the Reply sequence — ordered outreach steps, enrolled contacts, up to 100 sending accounts, the General and Replies settings, and the six toggle states. Formerly called a campaign.

**A sequence is Reply's unit of outreach execution: ordered steps, enrolled contacts, up to 100 assigned email accounts, a schedule, and settings such as Max new daily contacts and Max number of emails per day (up to 10,000). Its toggle shows six states, from green Active to blue Completed. Replies either finish the contact or sending continues.**

_Status: Reviewed — human-edited, facts not yet confirmed against the product._

> **Sequence vs Campaign.** One object, two names — "campaign" is the legacy name still used
> in older articles and API payloads. Current product and API say
> [Sequence](/specifications/sequences); the [Campaigns page](/specifications/campaigns)
> explains the history.

## At a glance

| Aspect | Detail |
| --- | --- |
| **What it is** | Ordered outreach steps plus enrolled contacts, assigned accounts, a schedule, and settings — Reply's unit of execution |
| **Belongs to / Contains** | Contains [sequence steps](/specifications/sequence-steps) (Email, LinkedIn, Call, WhatsApp, SMS, Zapier, Task, Condition); enrolls [contacts](/specifications/contacts); sends through up to 100 [email accounts](/specifications/email-accounts); timed by a [schedule](/specifications/schedules) |
| **Surfaces** | UI · REST API · MCP |
| **Key limit** | Up to **100** email accounts per sequence; *Max number of emails per day* configurable up to **10,000** first-step emails |
| **Lifecycle** | New → Active → Paused → Archived; the toggle shows six colors, from green (Active) to blue (Completed) |
| **Does not** | Copy contacts or metrics when duplicated, restore after Delete, or come back from Archived — archiving is permanent |
| **Plans** | All plans; Team Edition adds Public/Private ownership rules |

## Definition

A sequence is an ordered set of outreach steps plus the contacts enrolled into it, the email
and LinkedIn accounts that execute it, the schedule that times it, and the settings that
constrain it. **"Campaign" is the former name of the same object** — see
[Campaigns](/specifications/campaigns).

## Purpose

The sequence is Reply's unit of execution. Everything that sends, waits, follows up, or stops
happens inside a sequence: a contact is enrolled, moves through steps on a schedule, and exits
when the sequence finishes, a reply arrives, or a stopping rule fires.

## Relationships

| Relationship | Object |
| --- | --- |
| Contains | [Sequence steps](/specifications/sequence-steps) — Email, LinkedIn, Call, WhatsApp, SMS, Zapier, Task, plus Condition steps that branch the flow into Yes and No paths |
| Enrolls | [Contacts](/specifications/contacts), managed on the **People** tab with preset filters (All, Opened, Replied, Bounced, Opted Out, Calls, Clicked) and a Lead's Progress vs History view per step |
| Executes through | Up to 100 [email accounts](/specifications/email-accounts), assigned to contacts round-robin, and LinkedIn accounts |
| Timed by | A [schedule](/specifications/schedules) — sending windows, timezone, holiday calendars |
| Owned by | The team member who created it; in Team Edition only the Owner can change sequence settings such as email accounts or schedules |
| Organized in | Folders on the **Sequences** page |
| Reported by | Sequence statistics and [campaign analytics](/capabilities/campaign-analytics) |

## Creation

Create a sequence from the **Sequences** page, duplicate an existing one, or save one as a
template for reuse. Sequences can also be generated by [Jason AI](/capabilities/ai-sdr).
Contacts are added through *Import from CSV*, *Add from existing*, or *Create manually*.
**Duplicate** copies all steps, settings, and templates — but not contacts or metrics; the
copy is named *original name + "- Copy"* and starts with the *Paused* status. Over the API,
sequences are managed through the v3 sequences endpoints — see the
[API reference](https://docs.reply.io/api-reference/introduction).

## Lifecycle and states

The **Sequences** page filters sequences by status: **New**, **Active**, **Paused**, and
**Archived**. The toggle next to each sequence starts or pauses it, and its color reports
execution health — hover over it for a tooltip with details:

| Toggle color | State | Meaning |
| --- | --- | --- |
| **Green** | Active | The sequence is running — launched, restarted, or working through its steps (planning, checking conditions, sending emails, generating tasks, executing LinkedIn actions) |
| **Gray** | Inactive | Newly created and not launched, paused, or archived |
| **Red** | Action required | Missing or invalid settings block the run: sending email account removed or disconnected, LinkedIn account removed, sending errors, no contacts, missing schedule, or suspension at an 8% bounce rate — see [Bounce handling](/behavior/bounce-handling) |
| **Orange** | Issues detected / Warnings | Some contacts lack a sending email or LinkedIn account, contacts are missing required data, a provider blocked some accounts, the sequence reached a 4% bounce rate, or a voice profile is missing |
| **Yellow** | Limits reached | Temporarily paused by a limit: email account daily limit, active contacts limit for the billing period, sequence daily limit, LinkedIn's weekly connection-request limit, or a provider's daily sending quota |
| **Blue** | Completed | All contacts finished the sequence; no active contacts are left |

Archiving requires the sequence to be *Paused* first. Archived sequences keep their metrics
and sit in the *Archived* list at the bottom of the **Sequences** page, but the only action
still available on them is deletion — **you cannot unarchive a sequence**. Move prospects to
a separate list before archiving if you plan to reuse them.

## Configuration

Settings live on the sequence's **Settings** tab. General settings (labels as they appear in
the product):

| Setting | Controls |
| --- | --- |
| Plain text sending mode (text-only) | Removes HTML code, link tracking, and pictures to improve deliverability |
| Opens tracking | Adds an open-tracking pixel; disabled by default |
| Link tracking | Tracks clicks on links; disabled by default |
| Enable List-Unsubscribe header for all emails from this sequence | Adds the unsubscribe header as an extra opt-out route |
| Max same-domain contacts per day | Caps contacts sharing one company domain contacted per day, excluding common free domains such as gmail.com and yahoo.com |
| Matching email providers | Pairs contacts with sending addresses on the same email provider |
| Max new daily contacts | How many new contacts start the sequence each day; new contacts wait in the **Throttled** state while the system prepares them for Step 1 |
| New daily contact addition mode | *Add full amount* adds the full number daily regardless of the Step 1 backlog or the schedule; *Add until capacity* (default) only tops up to the limit and does not add contacts on days the schedule is closed |
| No limit on new daily contacts | Skips throttling entirely — new contacts move straight into Step 1 |
| Max number of emails per day | Cap on first-step emails, up to **10,000** |
| Delay between each email sent (seconds) | Pause between individual sends; **120–180 seconds** recommended, and the system adds roughly **10–15 seconds** of its own |

*Max new daily contacts* overrides *Max number of emails per day*: the system prepares
contacts for Step 1 every day, **including weekends**. With *Max number of emails per day*
at 400 and *Max new daily contacts* at 100, the sequence sends 100 first-step emails per day
and distributes the remaining 300 across follow-up steps. The capacity snapshot for *Add
until capacity* is recalculated once per day at UTC midnight, and blacklisted contacts on
Step 1 do not consume daily slots.

**Replies handling** decides what a reply to a sequence email does: **Mark as finished**
stops further follow-ups for that prospect, **Continue sending emails** sends the remaining
sequence. A separate option, *Switch contact to 'Finished' state if the last step email is
sent and no reply is received*, closes out unresponsive contacts. A reply to a **direct**
email (not a sequence email) sets the *Replied* status but not *Finished* — it does not stop
the contact in the sequence.

**Tasks handling** controls Call and Task steps: in manual mode a contact does not advance
until the task is completed; in automatic mode the contact moves on after the step delay even
if the task was not finished. In Team Edition Public mode, generated tasks can be assigned to
the sequence owner or to each contact's owner.

## Processing behavior

When active, the sequence walks each enrolled contact through the steps in order, inside the
schedule's windows and daily limits. Contacts are assigned to the sequence's email accounts
one by one (round-robin), and all follow-ups for a contact are sent from the same account as
the first email unless that account is removed from the sequence. Condition steps route each
contact into a Yes or No branch; a monitored condition is re-checked every **10 minutes** for
its set duration. The full selection and ordering logic is specified in
[Sequence execution](/behavior/sequence-execution) and
[Mailbox selection](/behavior/mailbox-selection).

## Side effects

Starting a sequence schedules and sends messages, creates tasks for manual steps, updates
per-contact statuses, and updates statistics. The **People** tab shows a counter of emails
sent in the past 24 hours. Pausing stops future sends but does not retract state — see
[Sequence stopping](/behavior/sequence-stopping).

The **Sequences** page reports PEOPLE, OPEN RATE, REPLY RATE (red at 0–3%, yellow at 3–10%,
green above 10%), PROGRESS (the ratio of Active to Finished prospects), OWNER, and DELIVERED
per sequence.

## Limits

| Limit | Value |
| --- | --- |
| Email accounts per sequence | Up to **100** |
| Max number of emails per day | Up to **10,000** first-step emails; effective sending is also bounded by each account's own daily limit |
| Delay between each email sent | Recommended **120–180 seconds**, plus roughly **10–15 seconds** of system overhead |
| Bounce-rate thresholds | Warning at **4%**, suspension at **8%** — see [Bounce handling](/behavior/bounce-handling) |

Account-level and plan-level caps stack on top — see [Limits](/reference/limits).

## Deletion behavior

**Delete** permanently removes the sequence — there is no way to restore it. Enrolled
contacts themselves are not deleted. **Archive** is the alternative for old sequences whose
metrics you still need: pause the sequence first, then archive. Apart from deleting, no
action can be performed on an archived sequence, and archiving cannot be undone.

## Edge cases

- Once a contact finishes a step, that step can no longer be changed for them in the original sequence — duplicate the sequence and move contacts over to edit completed steps or send contacts back to a completed step.
- When moving contacts into a sequence, the *Ignore step delay* option applies only to the first step they are moved to; later steps follow their scheduled delays.
- In a duplicated sequence, a follow-up step with a blank subject line sends without a subject — there is no previous email in the thread to inherit one from.
- A reply to a direct email sets *Replied* but does not stop the contact — only replies to sequence emails trigger the *Finished* handling.
- In Team Edition, changing a sequence's owner fails when some enrolled contacts belong to a team member who already uses them in their own sequences — remove those contacts or change their ownership first.

## FAQ

### Can a contact be enrolled in two sequences?

Yes. When moving contacts between sequences you can choose to keep them in both, and Team
Edition explicitly supports pushing the same prospect into sequences of different team
members. Cross-sequence conflicts are governed by
[Contact enrollment](/behavior/contact-enrollment).

### What happens when a prospect replies?

That depends on the *Replies handling* setting: **Mark as finished** stops further follow-ups,
**Continue sending emails** keeps the sequence going. Replies to direct emails set *Replied*
without stopping the contact. See [Reply detection](/behavior/reply-detection).

### Does duplicating a sequence copy contacts?

No. Duplicate copies all steps, settings, and templates only; the copy is named
*"- Copy"* and starts *Paused*. Move contacts over with **Move to sequence** on the
**People** tab.

### Why is my sequence's toggle red?

Red means action required: a sending email account was removed or disconnected, a LinkedIn
account was removed, there are sending errors, the sequence has no contacts, the schedule is
missing, or the sequence was suspended at an 8% bounce rate. See
[Why is a campaign not running?](/troubleshooting/campaign-is-not-running).

### Can I unarchive an archived sequence?

No. Archiving is permanent — the archived sequence keeps its metrics for comparison but only
deletion remains available. Move prospects to a separate list before archiving if you plan to
reuse them.

## Related

- [Campaigns (legacy name)](/specifications/campaigns)
- [Sequence steps](/specifications/sequence-steps)
- [Sequence execution](/behavior/sequence-execution)
- [Sequence stopping](/behavior/sequence-stopping)
- [Create a sequence](/how-to/create-a-sequence)
- [Launch an outbound campaign](/workflows/launch-an-outbound-campaign)
- [Statuses](/reference/statuses)

## Build with Reply

- REST API: [docs.reply.io](https://docs.reply.io/api-reference/introduction) — sequences endpoints
- MCP: [agents.reply.io/mcp](https://agents.reply.io/mcp) — operate sequences from an agent
- CLI: [agents.reply.io/cli](https://agents.reply.io/cli) — `reply` command over the v3 API
- Agent skills: [agents.reply.io/skills](https://agents.reply.io/skills) — packaged launch-outreach workflows