# Workflow: Keep lists clean and compliant

> Continuous hygiene — validate addresses, suppress opt-outs, and prune dead records before they hurt deliverability.

**Outcome:** A contact base that stays sendable - bounces caught before sending, do-not-contact rules enforced platform-wide, and deliverability metrics trending up instead of down.

**Availability:** runnable today — all 5 steps are callable now.

Deliverability is a compounding asset: every bounce avoided today raises the odds tomorrow's email lands in the inbox. This recipe runs entirely on modules available today, and it's a natural cron job for an agent — a weekly sweep that keeps the base clean without anyone asking.

## Steps

1. **Segment stale and risky contacts** — uses [Contact Data API](https://headless-jason-ai-sdr-7ajjk.ondigitalocean.app/apis/contact-data.md)
   Filter contacts by last activity, bounce history, and missing fields to build the hygiene work list.
2. **Validate email addresses** — uses [Email Validation API](https://docs.reply.io/api-reference/email-validations/schedule-email-validation)
   Estimate the validation cost, then schedule validation across the segment — never send to a dead address.
3. **Enforce do-not-contact rules** — uses [Suppression & Blacklist API](https://docs.reply.io/api-reference/contact-blacklist-rules/create-a-domain-blacklist-rule)
   Add bounced domains, opted-out addresses, and competitor domains to blacklist rules — with exception rules for the addresses you still may contact.
4. **Prune and re-segment** — uses [Contact Data API](https://headless-jason-ai-sdr-7ajjk.ondigitalocean.app/apis/contact-data.md)
   Bulk-update or remove dead records, move survivors into clean lists ready for sequencing.
5. **Watch the deliverability effect** — uses [Analytics API](https://headless-jason-ai-sdr-7ajjk.ondigitalocean.app/apis/analytics.md)
   Compare bounce and reply rates before and after the sweep in the email overview report.

HTML version: https://headless-jason-ai-sdr-7ajjk.ondigitalocean.app/workflows/list-hygiene