ActiveCampaign Automation via Rube MCP

Automate ActiveCampaign CRM and marketing automation operations through Composio's ActiveCampaign toolkit via Rube MCP.

Prerequisites

• Rube MCP must be connected (RUBE_SEARCH_TOOLS available)
• Active ActiveCampaign connection via RUBE_MANAGE_CONNECTIONS with toolkit active_campaign
• Always call RUBE_SEARCH_TOOLS first to get current tool schemas

Setup

Get Rube MCP: Add https://rube.app/mcp as an MCP server in your client configuration. No API keys needed — just add the endpoint and it works.

1. Verify Rube MCP is available by confirming RUBE_SEARCH_TOOLS responds
2. Call RUBE_MANAGE_CONNECTIONS with toolkit active_campaign
3. If connection is not ACTIVE, follow the returned auth link to complete ActiveCampaign authentication
4. Confirm connection status shows ACTIVE before running any workflows

Core Workflows

1. Create and Find Contacts

When to use: User wants to create new contacts or look up existing ones

Tool sequence:
1. ACTIVE_CAMPAIGN_FIND_CONTACT - Search for an existing contact [Optional]
2. ACTIVE_CAMPAIGN_CREATE_CONTACT - Create a new contact [Required]

Key parameters for find:
- email: Search by email address
- id: Search by ActiveCampaign contact ID
- phone: Search by phone number

Key parameters for create:
- email: Contact email address (required)
- first_name: Contact first name
- last_name: Contact last name
- phone: Contact phone number
- organization_name: Contact's organization
- job_title: Contact's job title
- tags: Comma-separated list of tags to apply

Pitfalls:
- email is the only required field for contact creation
- Phone search uses a general search parameter internally; it may return partial matches
- When combining email and phone in FIND_CONTACT, results are filtered client-side
- Tags provided during creation are applied immediately
- Creating a contact with an existing email may update the existing contact

2. Manage Contact Tags

When to use: User wants to add or remove tags from contacts

Tool sequence:
1. ACTIVE_CAMPAIGN_FIND_CONTACT - Find contact by email or ID [Prerequisite]
2. ACTIVE_CAMPAIGN_MANAGE_CONTACT_TAG - Add or remove tags [Required]

Key parameters:
- action: 'Add' or 'Remove' (required)
- tags: Tag names as comma-separated string or array of strings (required)
- contact_id: Contact ID (provide this or contact_email)
- contact_email: Contact email address (alternative to contact_id)

Pitfalls:
- action values are capitalized: 'Add' or 'Remove' (not lowercase)
- Tags can be a comma-separated string ('tag1, tag2') or an array (['tag1', 'tag2'])
- Either contact_id or contact_email must be provided; contact_id takes precedence
- Adding a tag that does not exist creates it automatically
- Removing a non-existent tag is a no-op (does not error)

3. Manage List Subscriptions

When to use: User wants to subscribe or unsubscribe contacts from lists

Tool sequence:
1. ACTIVE_CAMPAIGN_FIND_CONTACT - Find the contact [Prerequisite]
2. ACTIVE_CAMPAIGN_MANAGE_LIST_SUBSCRIPTION - Subscribe or unsubscribe [Required]

Key parameters:
- action: 'subscribe' or 'unsubscribe' (required)
- list_id: Numeric list ID string (required)
- email: Contact email address (provide this or contact_id)
- contact_id: Numeric contact ID string (alternative to email)

Pitfalls:
- action values are lowercase: 'subscribe' or 'unsubscribe'
- list_id is a numeric string (e.g., '2'), not the list name
- List IDs can be retrieved via the GET /api/3/lists endpoint (not available as a Composio tool; use the ActiveCampaign UI)
- If both email and contact_id are provided, contact_id takes precedence
- Unsubscribing changes status to '2' (unsubscribed) but the relationship record persists

4. Add Contacts to Automations

When to use: User wants to enroll a contact in an automation workflow

Tool sequence:
1. ACTIVE_CAMPAIGN_FIND_CONTACT - Verify contact exists [Prerequisite]
2. ACTIVE_CAMPAIGN_ADD_CONTACT_TO_AUTOMATION - Enroll contact in automation [Required]

Key parameters:
- contact_email: Email of the contact to enroll (required)
- automation_id: ID of the target automation (required)

Pitfalls:
- The contact must already exist in ActiveCampaign
- Automations can only be created through the ActiveCampaign UI, not via API
- automation_id must reference an existing, active automation
- The tool performs a two-step process: lookup contact by email, then enroll
- Automation IDs can be found in the ActiveCampaign UI or via GET /api/3/automations

5. Create Contact Tasks

When to use: User wants to create follow-up tasks associated with contacts

Tool sequence:
1. ACTIVE_CAMPAIGN_FIND_CONTACT - Find the contact to associate the task with [Prerequisite]
2. ACTIVE_CAMPAIGN_CREATE_CONTACT_TASK - Create the task [Required]

Key parameters:
- relid: Contact ID to associate the task with (required)
- duedate: Due date in ISO 8601 format with timezone (required, e.g., '2025-01-15T14:30:00-05:00')
- dealTasktype: Task type ID based on available types (required)
- title: Task title
- note: Task description/content
- assignee: User ID to assign the task to
- edate: End date in ISO 8601 format (must be later than duedate)
- status: 0 for incomplete, 1 for complete

Pitfalls:
- duedate must be a valid ISO 8601 datetime with timezone offset; do NOT use placeholder values
- edate must be later than duedate
- dealTasktype is a string ID referencing task types configured in ActiveCampaign
- relid is the numeric contact ID, not the email address
- assignee is a user ID; resolve user names to IDs via the ActiveCampaign UI

Common Patterns

Contact Lookup Flow

1. Call ACTIVE_CAMPAIGN_FIND_CONTACT with email
2. If found, extract contact ID for subsequent operations
3. If not found, create contact with ACTIVE_CAMPAIGN_CREATE_CONTACT
4. Use contact ID for tags, subscriptions, or automations

Bulk Contact Tagging

1. For each contact, call ACTIVE_CAMPAIGN_MANAGE_CONTACT_TAG
2. Use contact_email to avoid separate lookup calls
3. Batch with reasonable delays to respect rate limits

ID Resolution

Contact email -> Contact ID:

1. Call ACTIVE_CAMPAIGN_FIND_CONTACT with email
2. Extract id from the response

Known Pitfalls

Action Capitalization:
- Tag actions: 'Add', 'Remove' (capitalized)
- Subscription actions: 'subscribe', 'unsubscribe' (lowercase)
- Mixing up capitalization causes errors

ID Types:
- Contact IDs: numeric strings (e.g., '123')
- List IDs: numeric strings
- Automation IDs: numeric strings
- All IDs should be passed as strings, not integers

Automations:
- Automations cannot be created via API; only enrollment is possible
- Automation must be active to accept new contacts
- Enrolling a contact already in the automation may have no effect

Rate Limits:
- ActiveCampaign API has rate limits per account
- Implement backoff on 429 responses
- Batch operations should be spaced appropriately

Response Parsing:
- Response data may be nested under data or data.data
- Parse defensively with fallback patterns
- Contact search may return multiple results; match by email for accuracy

Quick Reference