cpanel

cPanel API — Reference Skill

Infrastructure scope: Bluehost/cPanel is used for email infrastructure (Instantly sending accounts, forwarders) and other websites (skampakis.com, thedatascientist.com, etc.). The tesseract.academy WordPress site is hosted on Cloudways, NOT Bluehost.

Authentication

• cPanel API Token via CPANEL_TOKEN env var
• Host: CPANEL_HOST env var (skampakis.com — Bluehost, cPanel user: skampaki)
• Username: CPANEL_USERNAME env var
• Auth header: Authorization: cpanel <username>:<token>
• Base URL: https://<host>:2083/execute

Quick Reference: Endpoints

Connector Methods

from tesseract_operator.connectors.cpanel import CpanelConnector

cpanel = CpanelConnector(
    host=os.environ["CPANEL_HOST"],
    username=os.environ["CPANEL_USERNAME"],
    token=os.environ["CPANEL_TOKEN"],
    dry_run=False,
)

# List all email accounts
accounts = cpanel.list_emails()

# Create a new email account
cpanel.create_email(email="sales1", password="...", domain="example.com", quota=500)

# List forwarders for a domain
fwds = cpanel.list_forwarders(domain="example.com")

# Add a forwarder
cpanel.add_forwarder(email="sales1", domain="example.com", forward_to="[email protected]")

Scripts

Provision Emails

Create email accounts on cPanel and add them to Instantly for warmup:

python scripts/provision_emails.py \
  --domain tesseract-academy.tech \
  --prefix sales \
  --count 3 \
  --password "SuperSecret123!"

Setup Forwarders

Forward replies from all Instantly sending accounts to a central Gmail inbox:

# Dry run first
python scripts/setup_forwarders.py --forward-to [email protected] --dry-run

# Live run
python scripts/setup_forwarders.py --forward-to [email protected]

This scans all active Instantly campaigns, identifies sending accounts, and creates cPanel forwarders on each one. Skips accounts that already have forwarders.

Current Infrastructure

10 domains on Bluehost cPanel with 26 sending accounts in the active Greek CEOs campaign:

All 26 accounts forward to [email protected].

Naming Conventions (MANDATORY)

1. Personal over Generic: NEVER use generic prefixes (sales, info, outreach) for outreach accounts unless explicitly requested. Stylianos (Stelios) Kampakis's personal brand is central to the project.
2. Preferred Patterns:
   • stelios@domain
   • stylianos@domain
   • s.kampakis@domain
   • stelios.kampakis@domain
   • stylianos.kampakis@domain
3. Confirmation: Always confirm the specific mailbox name with the user before creation if it's not a common pattern or previously used for that domain.

Known Gotchas

1. OPERATOR_DRY_RUN: The global OPERATOR_DRY_RUN=1 in .env affects OperatorConfig. Scripts that need live API access should use dotenv directly instead of OperatorConfig.
2. cPanel UAPI uses query params: Even for POST endpoints, pass data as params={} not json_body={}.
3. Forwarder param name: The destination email param is fwdemail, not forward_to.
4. Generic Prefix Trap: Avoid generic salesN naming (M-2026-05-05-01).