Thumbtack automation · runs weekly
Send Thumbtack estimates with an AI agent
The customer has answered your questions in Messages: two bedrooms, ceilings too, start next month. Now the estimate has to be built line by line from the three-dot menu, on a phone, between two jobs.
Cotlet does it in your own Thumbtack account with list_messages and send_estimate, called by your AI agent, an n8n workflow or a script.
Hosted · nothing to install or maintain
Official options
Can Thumbtack do this on its own?
Thumbtack has no API or webhook for estimates (checked 12 Oct 2026). The Partner Platform covers negotiations, messages and reviews, and estimates are built only from a conversation in Messages in the Pro app or on the web. Thumbtack keeps every sent estimate and invoice under Invoices & estimates and turns an estimate into an invoice with Convert to invoice, but nothing fills an estimate from what the customer already wrote.
By hand
How you do it in Thumbtack today
- Open Messages in the Thumbtack Pro app, open the conversation with the customer and tap the three-dot menu next to their name.
- Tap Create estimate or invoice and pick Estimate under "Choose type".
- Add custom line items with unit and price, any discount and tax, a message and your terms and conditions, preview the estimate and tap Send.
- A mistake found after sending cannot be fixed in place: open the estimate with View details, tap Duplicate, change it and choose Send as new.
- Quantities are copied from the thread and prices retyped from memory for every customer, and a half-built estimate waits under Resume estimate or invoice until someone remembers it.
With an agent
How to send Thumbtack estimates with an AI agent
Prompt
Send the Miller lead an estimate from our thread: 2 bedrooms painted at $450 each, ceilings at $120 each if she asked for them, 10% discount, 8.25% tax.- 01
Read the whole thread first
list_messages gives the conversation in order. The agent pulls the quantities the customer stated (rooms, square feet, number of fixtures) and the extras they asked for. When a quantity is missing or two messages disagree, it stops and asks you instead of guessing.
- 02
Price from your list, not from memory
Each line item uses the unit and price from your prompt or saved price list. A service the customer mentioned that is not on your list is left out and named in the report, so nothing is priced on the fly.
- 03
Look for an earlier estimate
Estimates you already sent show up in the thread. If one exists, the new estimate is treated as a replacement and its message says which one it replaces, because Thumbtack cannot cancel the old one and the customer will see both.
- 04
Add discount and tax only when told
A discount goes in only when your prompt names it, as a percent or an amount. tax_percent comes from the rate you gave for that job, never from a default.
- 05
Show the total, then send
Before send_estimate the agent shows subtotal, discount, tax and total. The estimate reaches the customer, so it waits for your OK unless you switched confirmation off for that tool.
What you get back
Example data
Miller, Interior Painting: estimate sent after your OK.
2 x Bedroom painting, $450 per room: $900.
2 x Ceiling, $120 each: $240 (she asked for ceilings on 9 Oct).
Discount 10%: -$114. Tax 8.25%: $84.65. Total: $1,110.65.
Not included: "touch up the hallway" is not on your price list. Price it yourself or ask her for the hallway size.Other ways to ask
- Send Dana R. a corrected estimate: same items as the last one, but 3 rooms instead of 2, and say it replaces the earlier one.
- Draft estimates for every conversation this week where the customer gave room sizes, and wait for my OK on each.
- Send the Patel lead an estimate for 120 feet of fence at $32 per foot, no discount, with my standard terms in the message.
Before you automate it
What Thumbtack allows, and what to know first
- A Thumbtack estimate can carry custom line items with unit and price, discounts and taxes, a message to the customer and your terms and conditions.
- Thumbtack does not let you edit or cancel a sent estimate; Duplicate and Send as new creates the replacement, and Thumbtack notifies the customer when the new version is ready.
- Thumbtack saves an unfinished estimate as a draft, reopened from the three-dot menu in the conversation with Resume estimate or invoice.
- A Thumbtack estimate becomes an invoice with Convert to invoice, and marking that invoice as paid sends a receipt to both you and the customer.
- Unlike an estimate, an unpaid Thumbtack invoice can be cancelled with Cancel invoice in its View details.
send_estimate asks for your OK by default. To run it weekly without you, switch confirmation off for that tool in your dashboard.
Sources: Thumbtack Help: How to create estimates and invoices on Thumbtack
REST
Call send_estimate from a script
curl
curl https://cotlet.dev/api/v1/thumbtack/send_estimate \
-H "Authorization: Bearer $COTLET_API_KEY" \
-H "Content-Type: application/json" \
-d '{"lead_id":"519153480500518912","line_items":[{"name":"Bedroom painting, walls","unit":"room","quantity":2,"unit_price":450},{"name":"Ceiling painting","unit":"ceiling","quantity":2,"unit_price":120}],"discount":{"type":"percent","value":10},"tax_percent":8.25,"message":"Includes paint and two coats. Start date as discussed."}'Example response
{
"lead_id": "519153480500518912",
"estimate_id": "est_5521",
"status": "sent",
"subtotal": 900,
"discount": 90,
"total": 810
}MCP: add https://cotlet.dev/mcp/v1 with the same key; the tool is thumbtack_send_estimate. Example data.
Schedule it in n8n, Make, Zapier or cronTools
Thumbtack tools this automation uses
| Tool | Parameters |
|---|---|
| list_messages | lead_id, limit |
| send_estimate | lead_id, line_items, discount, tax_percent, message |
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