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I wanted to open a contact, see what we'd discussed and know what needed doing next. That was the reason I built ReachLog for my own freelance outreach.
The CRMs I tried had plenty of features, but I kept finding things I didn't need and missing things I did. Apparently, that was enough of an excuse to build another one.
I've now published ReachLog 1.0.1 on npm. The 1.0 release brought optional AI help with the reading, drafting and updating that happens between conversations. This small patch also fixes the npm README screenshots, so you can actually see the app before trying it.
It can read a reply and pull out the actual request or commitment, with quotes so you can check the assessment. It can prepare a follow-up using the recent conversation, capture a new business enquiry as a lead, and move an opportunity forward when there is strong evidence for the change.
Anything that needs a decision goes into a review queue.
I wanted the automation to have clear limits. AI and automatic sending start switched off. ReachLog never marks an opportunity Won by itself, and it won't overwrite a pipeline stage you've changed manually in the previous seven days.
If you enable automatic follow-ups, they only go into existing threads. There is a daily cap, and it checks for newer replies or changes before sending. No automatic cold outreach.
One smaller change I'm pleased with: an out-of-office reply no longer makes a conversation look answered or cancels the follow-up. Those little details matter when you're using the thing yourself.
ReachLog is self-hosted, free and MIT licensed. It connects to your existing mailbox and keeps contacts, companies, conversation history and the pipeline together. For AI, you choose an OpenAI-compatible provider or a compatible local model server. Hosted AI receives the email content it processes; a local endpoint can keep that part on your machine.
You can also leave AI off and use it as a manual contact and outreach manager.
If you want to have a look, npx reachlog demo opens a separate read-only workspace with sample data. It needs Node.js 22 or 24.
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My Watch Later list was never a library. It was a pile.
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