ActiveCampaign Automation via Rube MCP

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

Toolkit docs: composio.dev/toolkits/active_campaign

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.

• Verify Rube MCP is available by confirming RUBE_SEARCH_TOOLS responds

• Call RUBE_MANAGE_CONNECTIONS with toolkit active_campaign

• If connection is not ACTIVE, follow the returned auth link to complete ActiveCampaign authentication

• 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:

• ACTIVE_CAMPAIGN_FIND_CONTACT

• Search for an existing contact [Optional]

• 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:

• ACTIVE_CAMPAIGN_FIND_CONTACT

• Find contact by email or ID [Prerequisite]

• 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:

• ACTIVE_CAMPAIGN_FIND_CONTACT

• Find the contact [Prerequisite]

• 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:

• ACTIVE_CAMPAIGN_FIND_CONTACT

• Verify contact exists [Prerequisite]

• 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:

• ACTIVE_CAMPAIGN_FIND_CONTACT

• Find the contact to associate the task with [Prerequisite]

• 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

Task Tool Slug Key Params

Find contact ACTIVE_CAMPAIGN_FIND_CONTACT email, id, phone

Create contact ACTIVE_CAMPAIGN_CREATE_CONTACT email, first_name, last_name, tags

Add/remove tags ACTIVE_CAMPAIGN_MANAGE_CONTACT_TAG action, tags, contact_email

Subscribe/unsubscribe ACTIVE_CAMPAIGN_MANAGE_LIST_SUBSCRIPTION action, list_id, email

Add to automation ACTIVE_CAMPAIGN_ADD_CONTACT_TO_AUTOMATION contact_email, automation_id

Create task ACTIVE_CAMPAIGN_CREATE_CONTACT_TASK relid, duedate, dealTasktype, title

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