Originally published at claudeguide.io/claude-sales-agent-ethical
Building a Sales Outreach Agent with Compliance Guardrails
A sales outreach agent without compliance guardrails is a spam machine. A well-built one enforces CAN-SPAM/GDPR opt-out handling, personalizes without fabricating facts, rate-limits to avoid inbox reputation damage, and logs everything for audit purposes in 2026. This guide builds a compliant outreach agent from the ground up, with the guardrails that keep it professional and legal.
The Compliance Requirements
Before building:
| Requirement | CAN-SPAM (US) | GDPR (EU) |
|---|---|---|
| Unsubscribe mechanism | Required | Required |
| Physical address in email | Required | Not required |
| No deceptive subject lines | Required | Required |
| Consent before outreach | Not required | Required (cold email = legitimate interest defense) |
| Data retention limits | Not specified | Defined retention period required |
| Opt-out processing time | 10 business days | Within 1 month |
Practical minimum for B2B cold outreach: unsubscribe link + physical address + honest subject + no fabricated content.
Architecture
Contact list → Filter (unsubscribe check) → Research (company/role) →
Personalization (Claude) → Compliance check → Rate limit → Send → Log
Each stage has explicit guardrails. The agent cannot skip stages.
Stage 1: Contact Filtering and Opt-Out Check
python
import anthropic
import sqlite3
from dataclasses import dataclass
from datetime import datetime, timedelta
@dataclass
class Contact:
id: str
email: str
name: str
company: str
role: str
linkedin_url: str = None
last_contacted: str = None
class OptOutRegistry:
"""Permanent opt-out list — never email these addresses."""
def __init__(self, db_path: str = "outreach.db"):
self.conn = sqlite3.connect(db_path)
self._init_db()
def _init_db(self):
self.conn.execute("""
CREATE TABLE IF NOT EXISTS opt_outs (
email TEXT PRIMARY KEY,
opted_out_at TEXT NOT NULL,
reason TEXT
)
""")
self.conn.execute("""
CREATE TABLE IF NOT EXISTS outreach_log (
id INTEGER PRIMARY KEY AUTOINCREMENT,
email TEXT,
sent_at TEXT,
subject TEXT,
personalization_notes TEXT
)
""")
self.conn.commit()
def is_opted_out(self, email: str) -
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