KnockPortal — a guide for AI assistants

This guide is for an AI assistant helping a contractor understand KnockPortal and set it up. It uses the site's own words and is rebuilt with every release, so it matches the screens. An assistant can't sign in or change anything for the contractor: the contractor takes every step.

What KnockPortal is

KnockPortal helps contractors decide where to send direct mail. It uses public permit records for your trade to show where recent permitted work is concentrated, filters out homes with prior permits for the same kind of work, and builds postcard mailings to nearby homes based on the areas you choose. Autopilot is the main way to use KnockPortal: you set a mailing rule and a spending cap per run, then authorize automatic sending under those settings. Sending depends on the required checks and payment, and you can pause or stop the rule. You can also build, approve and pay for a one-off mailing yourself. It shows where permit activity is happening; it does not predict who will hire you.

Vocabulary

• permit — A building permit a city issued for work at an address, as published in its public records.
• permit activity — Permits issued in an area over a recent window. It shows where permitted work is concentrated, not where work is under way.
• prior permit — An earlier permit at a home for the same kind of work. Homes with one are filtered out of mailings.
• combination — One city and one trade, such as San Francisco · Roofing. Maps, data and the subscription are scoped to each combination.
• group — A cluster the map creates from recent permits and the homes around them.
• area — What you mark for a mailing: a group, part of one, or an area you draw.
• nearby homes — Homes close to recent permits in the areas you choose, after homes with prior permits are filtered out.
• mailing — One set of postcards to a list of addresses, with its design, count and full price.
• Autopilot — A rule for automatically building and sending postcard mailings under settings you authorize, with a spending cap per run. Sending depends on the required checks and payment. You can have several autopilots, each with its own name, and pause or stop each one.
• run — One execution of an Autopilot rule. A run may result in a mailing, wait for requirements to be met, or finish without sending or charging. Its status and outcome appear in your account.
• cap per run — The most an autopilot may charge for one run. You set it. For a weekly autopilot it is shown as the weekly cap.
• zone — The ZIP codes an autopilot works in.
• one-off mailing — A single mailing you build, approve and pay for yourself.
• exclusions — Your company's list of addresses to leave out of all autopilots and one-off mailings. An exclusion applies until you remove it. It does not cancel a payment already in progress or a postcard already paid for.
• repeat window — How long an address stays out of a mailing after the printer accepted your company's last real postcard order for that address. It checks your company's history across all autopilots and one-off mailings. One-off mailings use the company setting; each autopilot has its own setting.
• 30-day rule — An address is left out if the printer accepted a real KnockPortal postcard order for it within the last 30 days, from any company. Autopilot runs also leave out an address held by another company's run that is still in progress. Other senders are never identified.
• daily summary — A company-wide summary of new Autopilot runs and significant changes to earlier runs, saved in your account and emailed if the daily summary email is on. No activity means no summary. Each summary records the status at the time it was created; links open the current run reports.
• delivery report — The latest postal scan or status available for each address, as recorded by the carrier. It is not proof that the postcard was received.
• match — An address found both in your inspections and jobs and in your mailings. A match does not prove a postcard brought the job.
• snapshot date — The date the data in a snapshot was read. Numbers based on that snapshot reflect the data available as of that date.

Where it works

Every city opens with the same map, the same assistant and its own snapshot date.

San Francisco · Roofing

• Available in San Francisco · Roofing: Autopilot (Neighbors of new permits) and one-off mailings.
• San Francisco · Roofing snapshot: Oct 25, 2026, 13:30 UTC. It covers the last 30 days of permits: 450 permits, 233 of them in 50 groups.
• Subscription for San Francisco · Roofing: $99.00 a month. Postcards: $0.89 each, printing and postage included.
• One job covers a month of the subscription and 100 postcards if at least $188.00 is left from it after the job's direct costs, such as materials and crew. This is arithmetic, not a forecast.

San Jose · Roofing

• Available in San Jose · Roofing: Autopilot (Neighbors of new permits) and one-off mailings.
• San Jose · Roofing snapshot: Oct 25, 2026, 13:55 UTC. It covers the last 30 days of permits: 326 permits, 53 of them in 10 groups.
• Subscription for San Jose · Roofing: $99.00 a month. Postcards: $0.89 each, printing and postage included.
• One job covers a month of the subscription and 100 postcards if at least $188.00 is left from it after the job's direct costs, such as materials and crew. This is arithmetic, not a forecast.

What it costs

• $99.00 a month for one city and one trade. Cancel any time: the subscription stops renewing and stays active until the end of the paid month.
• Postcards: $0.89 each, printing and postage included. Paid per batch, before anything is mailed. Each autopilot run stays within your cap.
• Looking at the map is free.

Let S be the subscription for one month, P the price of one postcard, and N the number of postcards you send that month. Your cost for the month is C = S + N × P.

One job covers that month if what is left from it after the job's direct costs — materials, crew — is at least C. This is arithmetic, not a forecast.

Your part

1. Choose an area. Approve your postcard and the rule. Set a weekly cap.
2. Then read the reports, change the settings when you want, pause or stop at any time.

What the assistant does every week

1. Watches your city — Reads the city's building permits for your trade every day and keeps the history, so you see where recent permits were issued.
2. Picks the houses — Builds a list of the nearest houses around each new permit in the area you chose.
3. Leaves out what doesn't fit — Skips houses with a prior permit for the same kind of work (8 years for roofing) and every address you excluded.
4. Remembers where you mailed — Keeps your mailing history and waits the interval you chose before mailing the same address again.
5. Sends the batch — Uses your approved postcard, prepares the next batch and hands it to print and mail.
6. Stays within your budget — Each autopilot run stays within your cap. You pay per batch, before anything is mailed.
7. Reports back — Shows what went out, what it cost and the available postal updates for each address.

From a permit to a postcard

1. A building permit is issued and appears in the city's public records. KnockPortal reads them every day and publishes a dated snapshot.
2. Permits issued close together form a group: recent permitted work concentrated on a few blocks.
3. Around each new permit, the homes nearby are taken from the city's address registry. The permit's own home is left out, and so is every home with a permit for the same kind of work in the years of history set for the trade (eight for roofing).
4. Your exclusions, your repeat window and the 30-day rule leave out more addresses. The run report lists them by reason.
5. An autopilot does this on its schedule — every Monday for the kind available today. A one-off mailing does it once, for the homes you pick on the map.
6. Every postcard passes the required checks — sender, addresses, approved text and logo — and is paid for before it prints.
7. Each address gets a delivery report: the latest postal scan or status.
8. Upload your inspections and jobs, and matches show where they meet your mailings. Your mailing history keeps an address out until your repeat window ends.

Setting up an autopilot

The autopilot wizard has nine steps. Each step below gives the screen's own help text.

1. Kind

• How this autopilot picks the houses it sends to.
• Neighbors of new permits — Houses near the permits issued in your zone last week. The permit's own house is left out. (Runs every Monday · you set the radius and cards per permit)
• Active permit areas — The groups of houses in your zone where permitted work is concentrated now, a set number of houses in each. (Not available yet)
• Neighbors of my jobs — Houses near a job you add in Inspections and jobs. Inspections don't start sends. (Not available yet)

2. Name & schedule

• Name — 1–60 characters. Each name is used once in {Cell}.

3. Zone

• The ZIP codes this autopilot looks in. Only ZIP codes in {Cell}. The list and the map stay in step.
• ZIP codes — Permits in these ZIP codes are served. One per line, up to 50.

4. Kind settings

• Radius (optional) — Leave it empty and each permit's postcards go to its nearest houses, up to about a mile away. Or set the farthest a house may be, in feet — 165 to 5,249.
• Cards per permit — How many neighbors of each permit get a card, nearest first — 1 to 100.
• Fewer eligible houses than your count around a permit: that permit gets the houses there are.
• Your company exclusions, this rule's repeat window and KnockPortal's 30-day rule still apply. You can set the repeat window in step 7.

5. Cap

• The most one run can charge. Cards × price per card, no fees.
• Weekly cap — In dollars. The most one week's batch can cost — $1 to $5,000.

6. Postcard text

• Text on the card — Up to 300 characters, in your own words. Printed on every card this rule sends.
• Editing your profile in Settings won't change it. Your other autopilots keep using the profile text. Name, contact details, logo and license still come from your profile.
• This autopilot's own text goes to review when you save it. Runs wait until it's approved.

7. Exclusions & repeat window

• Company exclusions — One list for your whole company — every autopilot and every one-off mailing, in all cells.
• Repeat window — How long an address waits before it can get another card from you. Counted over all your sends.
• Also: no address gets a KnockPortal card from anyone twice within 30 days. This applies even if your repeat window is 0.

8. Card & authorization

• One company card on file is used for autopilot charges. One-off mailings are paid when you approve them.
• Opens Stripe in this tab and brings you back to this step. Your draft is kept if you leave Stripe early.

9. Review & turn on

• Each Edit opens its step with a Back to review button.
• This doesn't stop you turning on. Runs are put together and wait; nothing is charged or printed until the review is done.
• Autopilot needs a subscription.

A one-off mailing

• You can also build, approve and pay for a one-off mailing yourself.
• Houses you pick on the map are added to this draft.
• Next step checks your exclusions, your repeat window, KnockPortal's 30-day rule and the suppression log, then shows what will be sent and the full price.
• Addresses and price stay fixed while the payment is open.

Your postcard

• Pick a style, add your logo and your text. Every new version is reviewed by a person before it prints.
• 4 × 6 in, sent by USPS First-Class Mail.
• Pick the look of your postcards. Your details stay the same in every style. What you see here is the file the printer gets.

Reports

• Shows what went out, what it cost and the available postal updates for each address.
• A delivery report is the latest postal scan, not proof that the postcard was received or read.

Match mailings with your inspections and jobs

Upload your inspections and jobs. Each mailing shows the addresses where one followed. A match is a fact about an address, not proof the postcard caused it.

When KnockPortal is not a fit

• You want leads — names and phone numbers of homeowners who asked for a quote. KnockPortal does not have them and does not sell them.
• You work outside the cities and trades listed on the home page.
• One job leaves you less than a month of subscription and postcards. Then the arithmetic on How it works does not add up.
• You need postcards out today. An autopilot runs weekly, and every new text and logo is reviewed before it prints.
• Right now, sending is open only to licensed contractors who pass a sender check.

How it compares

• A mailing list by ZIP code or radius: you pay for every address, including homes that just had the work done. KnockPortal starts where permitted work is happening and leaves those homes out.
• Every Door Direct Mail: cheap per piece, but it covers whole carrier routes with no filter at all.
• Lead services: they sell contacts of people who asked for a quote, and the same contact may be sold to more than one contractor. KnockPortal sends your postcard; it does not sell contacts.
• Doing it yourself from the city's open data: possible — the data is public. KnockPortal does the work of turning it into a filtered, addressed list, every week.

What you cannot conclude from this

• A permit does not mean that work is under way, or that a neighbor needs the same work.
• A home with no permit on record may still have had the work done.
• A delivery report is the latest postal scan, not proof that the postcard was received or read.
• A match between your mailings and your jobs does not prove that a postcard brought the job.
• KnockPortal does not forecast replies. The arithmetic tells you what one job has to cover, not how many jobs you will get.

Terms, privacy and help

• Terms
• Privacy
• Email: info@knockportal.com