TL;DR
- Botdog is a LinkedIn campaign tool with sequences, voice notes, a unified inbox and AI helpers. Curviate is a LinkedIn API, CLI, MCP server and TypeScript SDK that your own AI agent calls for every LinkedIn action.
- Botdog's public OpenAPI file has 53 operations over 37 paths. 35 of them manage Botdog's own campaigns, leads, lists, blacklists and snippets. 4 touch LinkedIn messaging, and the send call "Never starts a new conversation".
- Botdog's MCP server lists 41 tools, all for campaign management. None searches LinkedIn, reads a profile live or sends a message. There is "no official client SDK yet" and I found no CLI.
- Curviate's OpenAPI document has 159 operations (130 LinkedIn actions and reads, 29 developer endpoints), plus a CLI, a TypeScript SDK and a hosted MCP server on the same account.
- Per LinkedIn account, Botdog Solo costs USD 79 per month, or USD 55.33 per month billed yearly. Curviate costs EUR 20 per month, EUR 16 on annual billing, excl. VAT.
This page is for teams whose AI agent (Claude, ChatGPT, Claude Code, Codex, Cursor) should run LinkedIn on its own judgment and who are looking at Botdog. Botdog has a documented REST API, a remote MCP server and webhooks, with no plan gating stated for any of them. They mostly steer Botdog's campaigns. Apart from replies in existing threads, LinkedIn is reached through sequence steps you build in the app. I build Curviate, and I read Botdog's public pages, docs and OpenAPI file for this on October 2, 2026.
What is a good Botdog alternative for AI agents?
If your agent or your code should pick each LinkedIn action, you want an API that acts on LinkedIn. Curviate is that API.
Botdog is built around the campaign builder. Sequences chain invitations, messages, InMails, voice notes and profile visits, with if/then branches that run until someone replies. It adds engagement steps (a like or an AI-written comment on a prospect's post), lead imports from Sales Navigator, Recruiter projects and LinkedIn searches, shared inboxes, and Agency plans from 5 to 40 senders. Its Managed plan has Botdog run the outbound for you.
An agent needs different things. It searches people, companies, posts, jobs, groups and services. It opens new conversations, posts, comments and reacts. Between steps it looks at what a person would see: LinkedIn notifications, the home feed, a company page's admin inbox. I found none of these three on Botdog's features page.
Curviate gives the agent all of that through REST, an agent-oriented CLI, a TypeScript SDK and an MCP server that performs LinkedIn actions, on one account. Each connected account carries a safety policy that you read and change through the API.
Botdog vs Curviate: what differs, side by side?
Botdog sells a campaign tool whose 53-operation API steers its campaigns. Curviate sells LinkedIn actions through a 159-operation API, a CLI, an SDK and an MCP server. Sources are Botdog's pricing page, features page and API docs, plus Curviate's pricing and OpenAPI document. "Not in its OpenAPI" means I did not find it in that file; Botdog may still do it as a campaign step in the app.
| Botdog | Curviate | |
|---|---|---|
| What you buy | Campaign tool with sequences, inbox and AI helpers | LinkedIn actions for your agent or software |
| Price per account, monthly billing | USD 79 per month (Solo) | EUR 20 per month, excl. VAT |
| Price per account, yearly billing | USD 55.33 per month (USD 664 a year) | EUR 16 per month (EUR 192 a year) |
| Public API | OpenAPI 3.0, 53 operations, x-api-key header | OpenAPI 3.1, 159 operations, bearer key |
| Start a new LinkedIn conversation by API | Not in its OpenAPI (send works in existing threads) | Yes, plus InMail |
| Search, profile reads, posting, commenting | Not in its OpenAPI | Yes |
| MCP server | Hosted, OAuth 2.1, 41 campaign-management tools | Hosted, OAuth or API key, LinkedIn actions as tools |
| CLI, SDK | Not found; "no official client SDK yet" | Official CLI (npm) and TypeScript SDK |
| Webhooks | 11 subscribable event types, 6 delivered per its docs; 4 operations | 24 catalogued event types, 19 delivered; 11 operations |
| Per-account limits by API | Read and change daily caps | Read and change the safety policy, list limit hits |
| Sales Navigator, Recruiter | Lead import from searches, lists and projects | 12 and 23 operations (beta, licence required) |
| Sequences, voice notes, AI comments | Yes | No, your agent writes each message |
What can the Botdog API do?
The Botdog API mostly manages Botdog. 35 of its 53 operations work on Botdog's campaigns, leads, lists, blacklists and snippets, and 4 touch LinkedIn messaging. The Botdog API takes a team key in an x-api-key header, with a default of 60 requests per 60 seconds (rate limiting). I counted the OpenAPI 3.0 file at docs.botdog.co/openapi.json by method: 37 paths, 53 operations. Grouped by what they operate on, next to Curviate's document:
| Operations work on | Botdog (53) | Curviate (159) |
|---|---|---|
| The vendor's campaigns | 14: create (name and dates), update, list, delete, archive, pause, resume, pause single activity types, read the sequence, statistics | None, there are no campaigns |
| Leads, lists and blacklists stored in the vendor | 17: add, update or stop leads, lists, suppression lists | None |
| Message snippets | 4 | None |
| Campaign and team analytics | 3 | None |
| LinkedIn messaging | 4: send into an existing conversation, schedule a send, reply, mark read or unread | 15: start a chat, send, edit, delete, react, attachments, search, InMail |
| Profiles, connections, invitations, follows | Not in its OpenAPI | 20, incl. endorsements, profile visitors and SSI |
| Posts, comments, feed, notifications | Not in its OpenAPI | 25 |
| Search and groups | Not in its OpenAPI | 12: people, companies, posts, jobs, groups, services |
| Company pages | Not in its OpenAPI | 13, incl. admin inbox and reply as page |
| Job postings | Not in its OpenAPI | 10 |
| Sales Navigator, Recruiter | Not in its OpenAPI | 12 and 23 (beta, licence required) |
| Connected LinkedIn accounts | 1: list, with connection health | 10: connect by credentials or cookie, checkpoints, account settings |
| Per-account limits | 2: read caps and today's remaining quota; change caps, sending days, timezone, auto-withdraw | 5: safety policy per account and per workspace, limit hits |
| Webhooks | 4 | 11 |
| Team, users, seats, health check | 4 | 3 |
Two descriptions in the file show the limit. Create campaign says "The message sequence is built, and the campaign launched, in the app". Send a message goes "into a lead's existing LinkedIn conversation" and "Never starts a new conversation". Invitations, InMails, profile visits and post reactions show up in the API only as campaign statistics, webhook events and daily caps. They run as steps of a sequence someone built in Botdog. That fits a campaign product. For an agent, it makes the API a remote control for Botdog.
On limits, Botdog's API reads each account's daily caps with used and remaining counts and changes them, clamped to what its spec calls "safe maximums". In the app a slider can go into the red zone; through the API the caps stop at those maximums. In Curviate the same job sits at GET and PATCH /v1/{account_id}/safety-policy, plus a list of limit hits. You decide per account whether a crossed ceiling comes back as a warning next to the result or the call gets refused (safety).
Reads are where the two differ most. Botdog's API returns its stored lead records with event history. I found no LinkedIn profile, company or post read in the file, and no documented caching. Its FAQ says Botdog does not allow scraping of LinkedIn data. A Curviate agent reads LinkedIn directly. A repeat read of a person profile within 12 hours (the default) comes from the workspace's own store (caching guide). Chats and messages come from the store at any age and refresh on message events (AGENTS.md). A stored answer costs the account nothing from its action budget. The agent controls this with mode (cache_only never contacts LinkedIn) and max_age, and each of these reads reports source and observed_at.
Can the Botdog MCP server run LinkedIn for your agent?
The Botdog MCP server lets your agent run Botdog's campaigns. You paste https://api.botdog.co/mcp into Claude Desktop, ChatGPT, Cursor or Claude Code and sign in with OAuth 2.1 (MCP docs). The tools page lists 41 tools: 23 reads (campaigns, analytics, leads, replies, lists, limits, webhooks) and 18 writes (create or pause campaigns, add leads, update limits, manage webhooks). I found no tool that searches LinkedIn, reads a LinkedIn profile live or sends a message. get_lead returns Botdog's stored lead record. Botdog's features page describes it the same way: "Ask your AI assistant about your campaigns, or have it add leads".
Besides its API and MCP pages, I found no CLI on Botdog's site or in its docs. Its SDK page says "There is no official client SDK yet". An agent in a terminal is left with raw HTTP.
Curviate's CLI, SDK and hosted MCP server run on the same engine and the same account. The CLI prints JSON when piped, returns stable exit codes and shows any write with --preview before it sends. In this example an agent finds the unread conversations in a company page's admin inbox and drafts a reply as the page:
# Unread conversations in a company page's admin inbox
curviate company search-chats 1234567 --unread --json
# Reply as the page; --preview shows the request without sending
curviate company reply 1234567 2-YTQ3ODU3Njgt "Thanks for writing in, a demo link follows today." --preview
Both commands also exist as REST calls, MCP tools and SDK methods (interfaces). The connected account has to be an admin of the page.
What does Botdog pricing look like per LinkedIn account?
Botdog's pricing starts with Solo at USD 79 per month for one sender. Quarterly billing takes 10% off, yearly billing brings it to USD 55.33 per month (USD 664, which Botdog calls 30% off). Curviate costs EUR 20 per account per month, excl. VAT. Both charge per connected LinkedIn account; Botdog calls it a sender, Curviate a seat. Agency is USD 299 per month for 5 senders, or USD 209.33 per month billed yearly. Its selector also offers 10, 20, 30 and 40 senders, whose prices I did not capture. Managed starts at USD 690 per month per seat. The page does not state VAT. I left both currencies as published.
| Accounts | Botdog, monthly | Botdog, billed yearly | Curviate, monthly | Curviate, billed annually |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | USD 79 (Solo) | USD 55.33 per month | EUR 20 | EUR 16 per month |
| 5 | USD 299 (Agency) | USD 209.33 per month | EUR 100 | EUR 80 per month |
Solo includes "All LinkedIn actions", the API and every AI feature, and the page states no per-plan action quota. Limits are set per account and action: new accounts start at 20 invitations a day, and the zones on each slider are "guidance, not caps" (safe automation). Curviate meters no actions either. Each account gets adjustable ceilings and a warm-up for young or dormant accounts (safety).
Is Botdog worth it?
For a team that lives in its campaign builder, inbox and AI helpers, Botdog's price buys a finished product (USD 41.87 per sender per month on a yearly Agency plan of 5). What your own code or agent can make LinkedIn do through it is narrow: four messaging operations in the API and no LinkedIn action in the MCP tool list. If your agent plans the outreach, USD 79 a month pays for a sequencer the agent works around. Curviate sells the LinkedIn layer on its own, at EUR 20.
What stays behind when you move to Curviate?
Your LinkedIn accounts move with you, because Botdog only connects to them. Sequences, lead data and campaign features stay in Botdog. Plan for four things.
- Running sequences live in Botdog, including which lead sits on which step and the if/then branches. Let the campaigns finish or stop the leads, or prospects get a second opening message.
- Leads, lists, blacklists and snippets export as CSV, Excel or Google Sheets. Put them in your CRM or database, where your agent can read them.
- Voice notes, AI comments and the AI inbox assistant have no Curviate counterpart. Your agent writes and sends each message itself.
- Zapier flows, webhooks and Slack alerts get rebuilt on Curviate's webhooks or in your own code.
When should your agent act on LinkedIn directly?
As soon as your agent decides the work instead of feeding a sequence. Botdog gives an agent a handle on its campaign engine. Curviate gives the agent LinkedIn itself, within ceilings you set per account. Start the 3-day trial, no card required, and connect Claude Code or Codex through the API, CLI, MCP or SDK.
Not affiliated with LinkedIn Corporation. Botdog prices and features above are as published on its pages on October 2, 2026.