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LinkedIn forgives little, so nothing here sends on a timer. You send each invite and each message, or you run the batch that does. OneShot holds the account connection and carries out the actions through its API. No browser automation, no webhook to set up. GTM decides who to write to, drafts the text and stops the cadence when someone answers. One thing runs unattended. Every 30 minutes the server checks pending invites: it records accepts, and withdraws an invite still pending after 21 days.

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Connecting

Connect LinkedIn on Setup runs two sign-ins back to back: the messaging account, shared by every workspace, then the profile-reading session for this workspace. Replies → Connections & reply preferences → LinkedIn manages the account afterwards. A new connection asks for read, reply, view_profile and invite. An older one adds a missing permission with Allow profile access or Allow connection requests: you sign in to the same account again and nothing is re-imported. Conversations are matched to prospects. A human reply stops every live cadence for that person, email included. Auto-responses are recorded and do not count.

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Connection requests as a first touch

A queue row on the LinkedIn channel gets a connection note drafted from the same signal an email would use. The note is written to 200 characters; LinkedIn’s limit is 300. Review it on Queue, then Send it as reviewed, or include the row in a batch.
  • Daily limit. OneShot enforces the account’s invite limit, 25 per UTC day by default, across every tool that uses the account. At the limit the batch stops and the rows stay approved.
  • Workspace share. config linkedin-invites <count> gives this workspace a share of that limit, so the first workspace to send does not spend the day. off removes it. The share never raises the account’s limit.
  • What is left. Queue, Cadences and Setup show it: LinkedIn invites today: 4 of 12 left · account 9 left.
  • Withdraw. Withdraw invite on the row. It never removes an accepted connection.
  • Switch channel. An unsent row can move to another channel the person has an address on. Its draft is dropped; Regenerate writes a new one.
A LinkedIn first touch starts a LinkedIn cadence, never an email one. Each message appears on Cadences as due. You preview it and send it. Until the invite is accepted the preview reads “waiting for acceptance”. not connected and rate limited answers leave the step due; they do not fail it.

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The invite guard

Before any invite leaves, the row is checked. A refused row is never sent and never dropped: it returns to pending with the reason as its flag. Fix it and send again.

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Before you turn on LinkedIn steps

If the account has sent connection requests from another tool or another workspace, tell GTM first. The guard sees conversations. It cannot see a profile that was invited and has not answered. Two imports close that gap. Neither sends anything, and running one twice changes nothing.
The file is a CSV with a profile_url, linkedin_url or url column, or a JSON array of URLs. --from-ledgers copies the invites every other workspace on this machine has recorded. Already contacted on LinkedIn on the Setup card takes the same file.

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Continuing an email cadence on LinkedIn

Set linkedinContinuation: true for the workspace or on one trigger; the trigger wins. An email cadence that ends without a reply then carries on three days later:
  • an invite whose note knows the person was already emailed,
  • a first message once they accept, or at once if you were already connected,
  • a close.
Each step is a draft you review on Cadences. The invite passes the same guard and quota. If the guard refuses, the preview shows the refusal, the step is skipped and the cadence completes. A cadence already running keeps the steps it started with. A step on a channel the person has no address for is skipped, in any cadence.

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What the drafts are told

  • Evidence, aged. One short clause for why the person surfaced. Stale claims are dropped: an event or hiring signal after 45 days, a job change after 90, a stack or funding round after 180. A repo star does not age.
  • Their company. Named only when the title is a founder’s, stored data agrees, and a live read of the profile names it. Otherwise no company is passed.
  • The close. It says what the product is, names one goal it could carry out for that reader, and ends with an easy out.
  • Lint. No link and no pitch phrase in the note. The first message holds to 400 characters and one question, with no link and no meeting ask. The close holds to 400 characters with no link, price or unsupported number. A draft that fails gets one repair; what it still breaks shows as a flag and holds the send.

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Connecting with people who replied by email

Invite, message, close is built for strangers. Someone mid-conversation with you by email gets something lighter: Connect on LinkedIn, a note that mentions the exchange, and nothing after it.
  • Who qualifies. At least one email reply labelled interested, question, partnership or meeting, not flagged for review. Any reply labelled unsubscribe, wrong_person, complaint, not_interested, objection or pitch_back vetoes it. They must still pass the invite guard; only its email-reply and ICP refusals are lifted for them.
  • Where. On a qualifying thread in Replies, and on the prospect in Queue and Cadences.
  • How. The button drafts the note. You edit it and press Send connection request. No pitch, no question, no link, no meeting ask, 300 characters at most.
  • After. No cadence, no scheduled message. If they accept, the conversation continues in Replies.

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Replies

Replies shows LinkedIn conversations beside email. Drafts are grounded in the prospect’s research and may link only to pages in your product brief. The composer says so in words when a draft links elsewhere, or when the options say nearly the same thing. A reply whose payment OneShot refuses is marked not sent, and Send is offered again. It usually means the sending wallet is empty. What Replies learns from your edits is a proposal you approve; see learning.

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LinkedIn funnel

Measure shows invites sent, pending, accepted and withdrawn, first messages sent, and replies. The same numbers come from oneshot-gtm measure --json and GET /api/measure/linkedin (filters sinceDays, play, stepKind: first-touch, continuation, friend). oneshot-gtm linkedin invites lists every invite with its state. All of it is read from this workspace’s ledger and inbox. None of it is a number from LinkedIn.
  • Each person once. A person counts by their newest invite.
  • Accepted. Counted from the recorded acceptance, else from a one-to-one conversation with the person, else from a first message having gone out. An accept nobody has messaged can be missed, so read the acceptance rate as a floor. “Already connected” is shown apart.
  • Withdrawn. timeout when GTM withdrew it after the wait, manual when you did, unknown when no cause was recorded.
  • Replies. Shown two ways: to the first message, and at any point after the invite. The same reply from two sources counts once.
  • Evidence clause. The funnel splits by whether the note carried an evidence clause.
  • Friend invites. Invites to people who replied by email are their own row, outside the cold funnel.

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History import

Import history downloads every saved conversation, resolves who the senders are, and replays human replies across your workspaces. A historical reply stops that person’s cadences, even one that predates enrolment. Running it again duplicates nothing. A name never establishes identity; only a verified profile does. Unmatched conversations stay visible under their own filter. The import waits when the day’s profile-lookup limit is spent and resumes at the reset. A permission, payment or budget failure stops it for you to review; Resume continues where it stopped.

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Remove or replace a connection

Remove connection revokes OneShot’s access. Imported messages and their prospect assignments stay. Force reconnect is for when Reconnect fails. It disconnects the account and opens a fresh login; sign in as the same LinkedIn member. Both actions cancel pending sends. After a force reconnect, no imported conversation can be replied to until its history is downloaded again, so resume the import and expect a wait.