Needle
Needle Technologies · Coding · Leaning
Needle is an agent-native outbound engine that finds leads, builds lists and runs LinkedIn, Instagram and email campaigns from an AI agent or its own dashboard.
About Needle
What Is Needle
Needle is an outbound engine for revenue teams, and it doubles as an AI sales agent. It keeps a list of leads, connects the LinkedIn and Instagram accounts you send from, and enrolls people into multi-step campaigns. The same engine runs in a web dashboard, over a REST API, and as MCP tools you call from an AI client.
The product came out of a pivot. Needle started life as a managed retrieval tool that threaded documents into answers for chatbots and assistants. The team kept the name and the agent-first thinking, then rebuilt the platform around sales outreach. Old accounts and code libraries from the retrieval era still float around, so make sure you land on the current product at needle.app.
The main limit is reach. Sending, following and inviting all depend on a connected LinkedIn or Instagram account, and those connections can only be set up in the dashboard. The platform leans on the health of your accounts, so daily limits and warm-up rules apply.
Getting Started
- Sign up at needle.app and create an account for your workspace.
- Connect the LinkedIn or Instagram accounts you want to send from. This step is dashboard only, at needle.app/accounts.
- Create an API key at needle.app/api-keys to use the engine from code or an AI agent.
- Source leads by searching people and places, then save them to a list and check them against your suppressions.
- Build a campaign or send a one-off message, preview the copy, and approve the send.
Product Information
A quick look at Needle's pricing, supported platforms, and performance.
Best for
The users, tasks, and scenarios where this tool fits best.
Users
- Sales and growth teams running outbound
- Founders doing their own outreach
- Agencies managing many accounts
Tasks
- Building a targeted lead list
- Running a multi-step LinkedIn campaign
- One-off outreach
Scenarios
- Handing outbound to an AI agent
- Keeping outreach compliant
- Watching a campaign run
Key features
Agent-native outbound over MCP
You can connect Needle to Claude, Claude Code, Cowork, Codex, Cursor or any MCP client and drive outreach from the chat. The MCP server exposes the same engine as the dashboard under a single URL, so an agent can search people, create leads, enroll a campaign and approve pending sends without you opening a separate tool. Listing the tools is public; calling them needs a key.
Lead sourcing from LinkedIn, Instagram and places
Needle searches LinkedIn people and companies through both the classic view and Sales Navigator, and it reads posts, comments and reactions. On Instagram it works from post likes, comments and follower lists, and the Places search finds businesses by category and city. Canonical LinkedIn and Instagram handles, profile URLs or user ids all resolve, which makes bulk imports forgiving. As a lead generation tool it covers the sourcing side of LinkedIn automation, while the sending side stays inside the campaigns you approve.
Campaigns with sequences and approvals
A campaign carries the sequence graph, a schedule, send limits and the connected accounts it sends from. You enroll leads by id, and any send that waits for review shows up as a pending approval you clear with one call. Stats and campaign events report back on how the sequence performed, so you can spot where replies drop off.
Suppression and safety controls
The suppression list holds people and companies you should not contact, and campaigns honor the policy you set when you create them. Connected accounts carry their own limits, which you can list, override or reset, along with warm-up rules. This is the part that keeps a busy account from getting flagged, and it matters most once several accounts run at once.
REST API and webhooks
Everything the dashboard does is available under /api/v1 with a bearer key, and the OpenAPI spec lets you generate clients. Webhooks push events as they happen, which suits teams wiring Needle into a CRM or an internal pipeline. One key covers both the REST API and the MCP server, and each key is bound to one user and one workspace.
Message composition and preview
Before any send, Needle can compose a message and return a preview, so you see the copy before it leaves. That step fits both one-off outreach and campaigns, and it lets an agent draft in your voice while you keep the final call on what goes out.
Pros and cons
Pros
- Runs from an AI agent through MCP, so outreach fits inside Claude, Codex or Cursor instead of a separate dashboard.
- Leads are included with no credit meter or per-lead charge, so the only ceiling is your sending limit.
- Same engine on the dashboard, REST API and MCP, which means one API key covers every path.
- Suppression lists and per-account limits keep a busy LinkedIn or Instagram account from getting flagged.
Cons
- No free plan. There is a 7-day trial without a card, but after that you pay per connected account, starting at $69/month.
- Connecting accounts is dashboard only. The API and MCP can manage a connection but cannot start the OAuth flow, so a human has to do it once.
- Sending depends on LinkedIn and Instagram, so an account restriction or ban cuts campaigns off until it is fixed.
- The product pivoted from a retrieval tool, so old docs and libraries from that era still surface and can send you down the wrong path.
Frequently asked questions
Needle is used to run outbound sales and growth work. It builds lead lists, enrolls people into LinkedIn and Instagram campaigns, sends one-off messages and keeps a suppression list so you skip customers and open deals. Everything is available from a dashboard, a REST API and MCP tools.
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