Roadmap: from spec to v0.1 #1

This is the live roadmap for mailing-list-cli. Comment with feedback, vote with reactions, or open a Discussion to shape a section.

Status legend: ⬜ todo · 🟦 in progress · ✅ done

Architecture (locked)

mailing-list-cli shells out to email-cli for every send, audience operation, and webhook event. It does not talk to Resend directly. email-cli is a hard dependency.

Phase 0 — Spec & research

• ✅ Research swarm: five dossiers on competitors, Resend native capabilities, deliverability, and email templates (/research)
• ✅ Architecture decision: independent CLI on top of email-cli, follows agent-cli-framework patterns
• ✅ Public repo + README + LICENSE + AGENTS.md
• 🟦 Design spec → docs/specs/2026-04-07-mailing-list-cli-design.md
• ⬜ Implementation plan → docs/plans/

Phase 1 — Foundations (v0.0.x)

• ⬜ Cargo project scaffold
• ⬜ Config (~/.config/mailing-list-cli/config.toml)
• ⬜ Local SQLite store with migrations
• ⬜ JSON envelope output + TTY auto-detection
• ⬜ Semantic exit codes (0/1/2/3/4)
• ⬜ Self-describing agent-info command
• ⬜ Dependency check on first run: email-cli must be on \$PATH and email-cli agent-info must succeed
• ⬜ update self-update from GitHub Releases
• ⬜ skill install to drop the embedded skill into Claude / Codex / Gemini paths
• ⬜ CI: build, test, clippy, release-binary on tag

Phase 2 — Lists, contacts, segments (v0.1.0)

• ⬜ list create → wraps email-cli audience create
• ⬜ list ls → wraps email-cli audience list
• ⬜ contact add, contact tag, contact ls --filter, contact erase → all via email-cli contact …
• ⬜ contact import <file.csv> with rate-limit-aware chunking via email-cli contact create loops
• ⬜ segment create --filter, segment ls, segment members (segments are local — resolved at send time by querying email-cli)
• ⬜ Filter expression parser (tag:vip AND opened_last:30d AND NOT bounced)

Phase 3 — Templates (v0.2.0)

• ⬜ Local template SQLite store (own to mailing-list-cli)
• ⬜ MJML compilation in-process via mrml — no Node dependency
• ⬜ Handlebars merge tags {{ snake_case }} rendered locally
• ⬜ template create, template ls, template show, template lint
• ⬜ template guidelines — embedded agent authoring guide
• ⬜ Auto plain-text alternative via html2text

Phase 4 — Broadcasts & A/B testing (v0.3.0)

• ⬜ broadcast create — stages campaign metadata locally
• ⬜ broadcast preview — sends a single test via email-cli send
• ⬜ broadcast send — resolves segment → filters suppression → renders template per recipient → writes batch JSON → calls email-cli batch send --file …
• ⬜ broadcast schedule — local cron-style scheduler that triggers broadcast send at the right time
• ⬜ broadcast cancel — only works on scheduled broadcasts
• ⬜ broadcast ab — subject A/B with sample percentage and winner promotion
• ⬜ Pre-send invariant checks: suppression filter, RFC 8058 headers, physical address footer, complaint rate kill switch

Phase 5 — Webhooks, analytics, deliverability (v0.4.0)

• ⬜ event poll — pull recent events from email-cli events ls --json --since … and mirror into local DB
• ⬜ event listen — long-running daemon that polls on an interval
• ⬜ report show, report links, report engagement, report deliverability
• ⬜ Engagement scoring + auto-segments (engaged vs sunset)

Phase 6 — Compliance & opt-in (v0.5.0)

• ⬜ optin start / optin verify (double opt-in, signed HMAC tokens, 7-day expiry; optin start shells out to email-cli send for the confirmation email)
• ⬜ Global suppression list with typed reasons (unsubscribed, hard_bounced, soft_bounced_repeat, complained, manually_blocked, spam_trap_hit, gdpr_erasure)
• ⬜ suppression ls, suppression import
• ⬜ dnscheck — SPF / DKIM / DMARC / FCrDNS validation
• ⬜ GDPR contact erase, DSAR export
• ⬜ Per-jurisdiction consent tracking (CAN-SPAM, GDPR, CASL, PECR)
• ⬜ Warmup mode for new domains/IPs

Phase 7 — Polish (v1.0.0)

• ⬜ Homebrew tap entry
• ⬜ Pre-built binaries for macOS (arm64 / x86_64) and Linux
• ⬜ Shell completions (bash, zsh, fish)
• ⬜ End-to-end fixture tests with a stub email-cli binary
• ⬜ Full agent-info contract test

Star the repo if you want this to exist. Open a Discussion if you want to shape it.