Ken's agent templates are jobs that keep your outbound running. You can run them in the AI tool you already use, such as Claude, ChatGPT, Grok Bot or Muse, on a schedule you set there. Your tool does the thinking. Ken decides what actually changes, and anything outside the limits you set waits for a person to approve it in Ken.
One template is ready today: Keep campaigns running. Once a week it keeps every live campaign stocked with leads, at the right daily volume, on healthy inboxes and on its winning tests, and turns everything else into proposals. More templates are on the way. See Agent templates reference.
Before you start
- Agent templates on for your workspace. In Ken, open Outreach, then Agent team, then Templates. If you don't see it, templates aren't on for your workspace yet.
- An Admin or Editor role in the workspace. The agent needs to edit campaigns, and to see and approve proposals you need the Approve and send touches permission. Both roles have what the template needs.
- An AI tool that connects to Ken and runs on a schedule. See Which tools work today.
How it stays safe
Your agent acts as you, with your role. It connects to Ken the same way you do from any AI tool, so it can do what you can do in Ken. Keep that in mind when you pick who sets it up.
The template is a Ken skill. Your agent loads it from Ken each run. It tells the agent to change campaigns only through Ken's agent_team tools (agent_team_read and agent_team_write in most AI tools) and to leave everything else as a proposal. Ken checks every agent_team call and decides what happens:
- Ken applies it when the campaign's Autopilot is on and the change is inside its bounds. Your agent gets an undo deadline back.
- Ken turns it into a proposal when Autopilot is off or the change is outside the bounds. A person approves it in Ken.
- Ken refuses it when the campaign is paused or gone. Nothing changes, and the agent reports it.
Your agent never decides which of these happens, and it can't approve its own proposals.
Autopilot
Autopilot is a switch on each campaign. It is off until a person turns it on: open the campaign, then its Settings tab, and under Sending, turn on Autopilot. An agent can't turn it on. On a client workspace, Ken also asks for the client's yes (who, where and when) when you turn it on. Turn it off at any time, and Ken stops acting on its own on that campaign at once. The agent keeps proposing.
With Autopilot on, Ken can apply these changes on its own:
| Change | Bound | Undo |
|---|---|---|
| Add leads from the campaign's approved audience | Up to the campaign's Weekly top-up limit (500 leads in 7 days unless you change it), and only while you have credits | Within 7 days. Removes the added leads that haven't been emailed yet |
| Change the daily cap | At most 25% at a time and once in 7 days, never above what the healthy inboxes can send, and not while the campaign ramps up | Within 7 days, if nobody changed the cap since |
| Take a sick inbox off the campaign | Off every campaign it sends on only when all of them have Autopilot on | Within 7 days |
| Put back an inbox an agent took off | Can't be undone. Take it off again instead | |
| Run a placement test | Once a day per campaign | Can't be undone |
| Make a test's proven version the default | Only when Experiments grades it proven | Within 14 days |
A campaign has no approved audience until you approve one. Until then, the agent proposes an audience instead of adding leads.
Proposals
Everything else is a proposal: new copy, a new angle, an audience, sending days, the sending window, pause and resume, a cap change outside the bounds, and a top-up past the limit or when credits are out.
Proposals wait in Today. If you use Ken in Slack or Teams, Ken also asks there, with Approve and Skip. Only a person in Ken can approve one. On a client workspace, a change to the schedule or the volume needs the client's yes on the proposal before it can be applied, and from Slack or Teams you can only skip it.
Ken's other write tools
Your agent connects with your role, so it also sees Ken's direct write tools, such as changing a campaign's settings, pausing it or saving a sequence. Those skip Autopilot and its bounds, the same as when you make the change yourself. The template forbids them. Where your tool lets you switch tools off one by one, switch off every Ken tool whose name ends in _write, except agent_team_write. Leave load_skill and the read tools on.
What it costs
Your agent's thinking runs on your AI tool's own plan and costs no Ken credits. Ken actions cost what they cost in the app, whoever starts them. A lead top-up pays for the emails Ken finds and the AI qualification and personalization that follow, exactly as if you added the leads yourself. When your credits are out, the next top-up becomes a proposal that says so. The other changes in the table above cost no credits. See How credits work.
Create a key for a scheduled agent
For a scheduled run, an API key in a request header is better than a sign-in. A sign-in can expire and stop the schedule without warning; a key works until you revoke it or it expires. Use a key wherever your tool takes a request header, and sign in only where it doesn't.
- In Ken, open Settings, then Integrations.
- Under Developer, click API Keys.
- Click Create API Key. Under Name, enter the tool and the template, such as
Claude - Keep campaigns running, so you know which key each tool uses. - Under Expiration, choose Never, or set a reminder to replace the key before it expires. An expired key stops the schedule.
- Click Create API Key, then Copy. Ken shows the key once.
- Paste it straight into your tool's request header:
Authorization: Bearerfollowed by the key.
The key acts as you, with your role. Never paste it into a chat, a shared doc or a code repository. If a key leaks, revoke it on API Keys and create a new one.
Connect your tool and schedule it
The steps are the same in every tool. Each tool's article has the exact clicks.
- Connect Ken at
https://mcp.ken.so/mcp, with your key in a request header or by signing in. If you belong to several workspaces, add the workspace to the address, such ashttps://mcp.ken.so/mcp?workspace=42, and connect Ken once per workspace. - Switch off Ken's other write tools where your tool allows it.
- Run the starter prompt once by hand. Copy it from Agent templates reference, or from Run in your own tool on the template in Ken's Templates tab. Read what the agent calls.
- Schedule it every Monday at 07:00 in your time zone.
Which tools work today
| Tool | Connect Ken | Runs on a schedule | Article |
|---|---|---|---|
| Claude (Cowork scheduled tasks) | Custom connector, with your key in a request header | Yes, in the cloud | Claude: Cowork scheduled tasks |
| Claude Duet | Not confirmed | No fixed time | Claude: Cowork scheduled tasks |
| ChatGPT (Work scheduled tasks) | Custom MCP plugin, with a sign-in | Yes | ChatGPT: Work scheduled tasks |
| ChatGPT Dots | Not confirmed | Yes | ChatGPT: Work scheduled tasks |
| Grok Bot | Custom MCP server, not confirmed yet | Yes, routines | Grok Bot |
Claude is the best fit today: its scheduled tasks run in the cloud, and its connector takes your key in a header, so a run never stops for a sign-in.
Check the first run
- Read your agent's summary at the end of the run. It lists what Ken applied, with each undo deadline, what it proposed, and any call Ken refused.
- Open Today in Ken and approve or skip each proposal.
- Ask your agent: "What changed in Ken this week?" It reads Ken's change log, where each change names who made it, such as "Maya via Claude".
If the summary says something changed and Ken shows nothing, the call never reached Ken.
Undo a change
Ask your agent to undo it, such as "Undo the cap change on the Q4 Fintech campaign". Ken undoes it while its undo window is open and tells the agent if it can't. The agent never undoes a change on its own.
If something goes wrong
The agent says Ken's agent tools are missing, or every Ken call answers not found. Agent templates aren't on for your workspace yet, or the agent connected to the wrong workspace.
A Ken call is refused for permissions. The key or sign-in belongs to someone whose role can't edit campaigns in that workspace. Connect as an Admin or Editor.
Everything comes back as a proposal. Autopilot is off, the change is outside its bounds, or the campaign has no approved audience yet. Approve the proposals in Today, and turn on Autopilot on the campaigns you trust the agent with.
The scheduled run didn't happen, or stopped reaching Ken. Check your tool's run history. A sign-in can expire, a key can expire, and some tools pause schedules you don't answer.
Next: Agent templates reference, Use Ken from Claude or ChatGPT or What Ken does on its own.