The pipeline

Every lead moves through the same stages — here's what each one means, what your agent does there, and whether anything is needed from you.

The short version

Your agent handles everything up to the first reply: finding people, qualifying them, sending connection requests, and drafting messages. Your job starts in exactly two places — approving drafts at Message prepared (review mode only) and taking over the conversation once a lead reaches Message received (unless you've put that flow's replies on auto). Everything else runs in the background.

Before the Leads tab: sourcing and qualification

Two steps happen before a lead is visible to you:

• Sourcing — your agent searches for people matching your ICP.
• Qualification — every sourced person is evaluated against your ICP and your learned rules, before any outreach.

Neither needs anything from you, and neither produces a list to review. People who pass qualification get an invitation and show up under Connection sent; people who don't show up under Not qualified. The Dashboard's funnel starts at Connection sent, so the sourcing volume behind it isn't charted there — ask your Ninja ("how is my flow performing?") when you want the sourced-versus-contacted numbers.

Every lead also carries a qualification status of its own — Qualified or Not qualified — in a dropdown at the top of the lead. That's the switch you use to overrule the agent either way; see Manage your leads.

The stages you'll see in Leads

The Leads tab has five filters. They're the exact labels in the app.

Not qualified

Evaluated and excluded. These people stay visible so you can sense-check the agent's judgment. If a decision looks wrong, flip the lead's status and say why — it becomes a learned rule for future qualification. Note that targeting changes apply to future sourcing, not retroactively to leads already evaluated. See Manage your leads.

Connection sent

A connection request went to this person, counting against your daily allowance. Requests go out without a note — that's deliberate, not a malfunction: blank invites are accepted more often, and the real first message comes after they accept. See The cadence for why. Acceptance can take hours, days, or never happen at all — a lead sitting here for a week is normal.

Message prepared

They accepted your request and the first message is written. You can read the exact text: open the lead, or use the Message prepared filter to see everything waiting.

• Review mode: the draft sits here until you approve or edit it. This is the one stage that waits on you — nothing sends until you act. See Review and approve messages.
• Auto mode: the message is queued and sends in an upcoming work window. Nothing needed from you.

Not sure which mode you're in? See Autonomy and approvals.

Message sent

At least one message has gone out. Follow-ups continue on the cadence from here, spaced days apart, until the person replies or the cadence ends. Open the lead to read every message in order, exactly as it went out.

Message received

The lead answered one of your messages. The follow-up cadence for this person stops immediately — always, in both modes, no exceptions. Your agent drafts a suggested answer shortly after the reply lands and, by default, waits for you to send it. Respond promptly while the lead is warm — see Handle replies. (If you've put that flow's replies on auto, your agent answers the thread itself — see Autonomy and approvals.)

One thing to remember

Leads advance when your agent works, and it works in scheduled batches — not continuously. A lead sitting at the same stage for a few hours isn't stuck; it's between windows. See A day in your agent's life.