talent-sourcing

Finds qualified candidates for a role by searching LinkedIn, Indeed, GitHub, and other professional platforms using Nimble Web Search Agents. Accepts a job description, role title, or freeform request and returns a ranked candidate list with profiles, skills, and contact signals. Use this skill when the user wants to find, source, or recruit candidates for a role. Common triggers: "find candidates for", "source engineers in", "who can I hire for", "find me a [role]", "recruiting for", "talent search", "find a [role] in [city]", "build a candidate list", "sourcing for [role]", "who's available for", "find potential hires". Also triggers on a pasted job description followed by a sourcing request. Do NOT use for job market research or salary benchmarking — use market-finder instead. Do NOT use for researching a single known person — use company-deep-dive or meeting-prep instead.

13 stars

Best use case

talent-sourcing is best used when you need a repeatable AI agent workflow instead of a one-off prompt.

Finds qualified candidates for a role by searching LinkedIn, Indeed, GitHub, and other professional platforms using Nimble Web Search Agents. Accepts a job description, role title, or freeform request and returns a ranked candidate list with profiles, skills, and contact signals. Use this skill when the user wants to find, source, or recruit candidates for a role. Common triggers: "find candidates for", "source engineers in", "who can I hire for", "find me a [role]", "recruiting for", "talent search", "find a [role] in [city]", "build a candidate list", "sourcing for [role]", "who's available for", "find potential hires". Also triggers on a pasted job description followed by a sourcing request. Do NOT use for job market research or salary benchmarking — use market-finder instead. Do NOT use for researching a single known person — use company-deep-dive or meeting-prep instead.

Teams using talent-sourcing should expect a more consistent output, faster repeated execution, less prompt rewriting.

When to use this skill

  • You want a reusable workflow that can be run more than once with consistent structure.

When not to use this skill

  • You only need a quick one-off answer and do not need a reusable workflow.
  • You cannot install or maintain the underlying files, dependencies, or repository context.

Installation

Claude Code / Cursor / Codex

$curl -o ~/.claude/skills/talent-sourcing/SKILL.md --create-dirs "https://raw.githubusercontent.com/Nimbleway/agent-skills/main/skills/human-resources/talent-sourcing/SKILL.md"

Manual Installation

  1. Download SKILL.md from GitHub
  2. Place it in .claude/skills/talent-sourcing/SKILL.md inside your project
  3. Restart your AI agent — it will auto-discover the skill

How talent-sourcing Compares

Feature / Agenttalent-sourcingStandard Approach
Platform SupportNot specifiedLimited / Varies
Context Awareness High Baseline
Installation ComplexityUnknownN/A

Frequently Asked Questions

What does this skill do?

Finds qualified candidates for a role by searching LinkedIn, Indeed, GitHub, and other professional platforms using Nimble Web Search Agents. Accepts a job description, role title, or freeform request and returns a ranked candidate list with profiles, skills, and contact signals. Use this skill when the user wants to find, source, or recruit candidates for a role. Common triggers: "find candidates for", "source engineers in", "who can I hire for", "find me a [role]", "recruiting for", "talent search", "find a [role] in [city]", "build a candidate list", "sourcing for [role]", "who's available for", "find potential hires". Also triggers on a pasted job description followed by a sourcing request. Do NOT use for job market research or salary benchmarking — use market-finder instead. Do NOT use for researching a single known person — use company-deep-dive or meeting-prep instead.

Where can I find the source code?

You can find the source code on GitHub using the link provided at the top of the page.

SKILL.md Source

# Talent Sourcing

Candidate discovery powered by Nimble Web Search Agents.

User request: $ARGUMENTS

**Before running any commands**, read `references/nimble-playbook.md` for Claude Code
constraints (no shell state, no `&`/`wait`, sub-agent permissions, communication style).

---

## Instructions

### Step 0: Preflight

Follow the transport selection + standard preflight from `references/nimble-playbook.md` — pick CLI or MCP at session start, then run the standard preflight calls (date calc, today, profile, memory index) in parallel.

Also simultaneously:
- `mkdir -p ~/.nimble/memory/{reports,talent-sourcing}`

From the results:
- CLI missing or API key unset → read `references/profile-and-onboarding.md`, stop
- Tag all `nimble` CLI calls: `nimble --client-source skill-talent-sourcing <subcommand>`. MCP path: not yet supported — see `references/nimble-playbook.md` for status.
- Profile exists → note industry keywords if any; proceed to Step 1
- No profile → fine, talent-sourcing doesn't require onboarding; proceed to Step 1

### Step 1: Parse Request & Confirm Search Parameters

Parse `$ARGUMENTS` for:
- **Role** — job title or function (e.g. "Senior React Engineer", "Head of Sales")
- **Location** — city, metro, region, or remote (e.g. "New York City", "remote US")
- **Skills / requirements** — specific technologies, years of experience, domain expertise
- **Seniority** — junior, mid, senior, staff, director, VP, C-level
- **Source preference** — specific platforms (LinkedIn, GitHub, Indeed, etc.) or "all"

If a full job description was pasted, extract the above fields from it.

If **role** is missing or ambiguous, ask with `AskUserQuestion`:

> "What role are you hiring for, and where? (e.g. 'Senior ML Engineer, remote US'
> or paste a job description)"

Once parameters are clear, confirm with the user using `AskUserQuestion`:

> "Searching for: **[Role]** | Location: **[Location]** | Key skills: **[Skills]**
> | Seniority: **[Seniority]**
>
> Platforms to search: LinkedIn, Indeed, GitHub (for technical roles), AngelList /
> Wellfound, and professional communities.
>
> - **Start search**
> - **Adjust parameters first**"

### Step 2: WSA Discovery

Discover available Web Search Agents for candidate-sourcing platforms. Run
simultaneously:

```bash
nimble agent list --search "linkedin people" --limit 20
nimble agent list --search "indeed resume" --limit 20
nimble agent list --search "github profile" --limit 20
nimble agent list --search "wellfound talent" --limit 20
```

Filter results for `entity_type: SERP` or `entity_type: PDP`. Prefer
`managed_by: "nimble"`. Validate promising agents with:

```bash
nimble agent get --template-name {name}
```

Cache discovered WSA names and required params. If no WSAs found for a platform,
fall back to `nimble search` for that platform.

### Step 3: Parallel Candidate Search (Sub-Agents)

Spawn `nimble-researcher` agents (`agents/nimble-researcher.md`) with
`mode: "bypassPermissions"`, max 4 concurrent. Assign one agent per platform:

**Agent 1 — LinkedIn**

Search for people matching the role criteria. Use Boolean-style query construction:

```bash
nimble search --query "site:linkedin.com/in [Role] [Location] [Key Skills]" \
  --max-results 15 --search-depth fast
nimble search --query "[Role] [Location] linkedin profile [Skill1] [Skill2]" \
  --max-results 10 --search-depth fast
```

If a LinkedIn WSA was discovered in Step 2, use it instead with the role title,
location, and skill keywords as inputs.

**Agent 2 — Indeed / Resumes**

```bash
nimble search --query "site:indeed.com resume [Role] [Location] [Key Skills]" \
  --max-results 10 --search-depth fast
nimble search --query "[Role] resume [Location] [Key Skills]" \
  --max-results 10 --search-depth fast
```

**Agent 3 — GitHub (technical roles only)**

Skip this agent for non-technical roles (e.g. Sales, Marketing, Operations).

```bash
nimble search --query "site:github.com [Role] [Location] [Key Skills]" \
  --max-results 10 --search-depth fast
nimble search --query "github [Key Skills] developer [Location] open to work" \
  --max-results 10 --search-depth fast
```

**Agent 4 — AngelList / Wellfound + Communities**

```bash
nimble search --query "site:wellfound.com [Role] [Location] [Key Skills]" \
  --max-results 10 --search-depth fast
nimble search --query "[Role] [Location] open to work OR seeking opportunities \
  [Key Skills]" --max-results 10 --search-depth fast
```

Each agent returns: candidate name (if available), profile URL, current title,
location snippet, inferred skills, availability signals ("open to work", "seeking",
"available") with event date (if available) and source URL.

### Step 4: Deep Profile Extraction

For the top candidates identified in Step 3 (aim for 10–20 unique profiles across
all platforms), extract full profile details. Run all extractions simultaneously:

```bash
nimble extract --url "[profile-url]" --format markdown
```

From each extracted profile, pull:
- **Full name**
- **Current role & company**
- **Location**
- **Skills / tech stack**
- **Experience summary** (years, notable employers)
- **Education**
- **Availability signals** (open to work, recent job change, posting activity)
- **Contact signals** (email, personal site, GitHub handle)

For extraction failures, follow the fallback pattern in
`references/nimble-playbook.md`. If a profile is behind a login wall and extraction
fails, keep the search-snippet summary instead — do not skip the candidate.

**Extraction budget:** extract up to 15 profiles. If more than 15 candidates were
found in Step 3, prioritize by relevance score (seniority match + skill overlap +
location match) before extracting.

### Step 5: Score & Rank Candidates

Score each candidate (1–10) using these weighted signals:

| Signal | Weight |
|--------|--------|
| Role / title match | 30% |
| Skill overlap with requirements | 30% |
| Location match | 20% |
| Seniority match | 10% |
| Availability signals | 10% |

Group candidates into tiers:
- **Tier 1 (Strong match, 7–10):** All required signals present
- **Tier 2 (Partial match, 4–6):** Most signals present, 1–2 gaps
- **Tier 3 (Stretch, 1–3):** Worth reviewing if Tier 1/2 list is thin

### Step 6: Output

Before presenting results, check `~/.nimble/memory/talent-sourcing/[role-slug].md` —
if a candidate was surfaced in a prior run, mark them `(previously surfaced)` rather
than re-presenting them as new.

Present a structured candidate report:

```
## Candidate Report: [Role] in [Location]
Searched: LinkedIn, Indeed, GitHub, Wellfound
Found: [N] candidates | Tier 1: [N] | Tier 2: [N] | Tier 3: [N]

**TL;DR:** [2-3 sentence summary of the strongest candidates and any notable patterns]

---

### Tier 1 — Strong Match

#### 1. [Name] — [Score]/10
- **Current role:** [Title] at [Company]
- **Location:** [Location]
- **Skills:** [Skill1], [Skill2], [Skill3]
- **Experience:** [X years, notable employers]
- **Availability:** [signal] — [event date or "date unknown"] — [source URL]
- **Profile:** [URL]
- **Contact signals:** [email / personal site / GitHub]

...

---

### What This Means
[1-2 sentences on hiring outlook: supply/demand signal, speed recommendation, any
standout sourcing channel]
```

Omit fields where data is unavailable. Do not fabricate details — use "unknown"
for missing fields. Add a one-sentence **"Why this candidate"** note for each
Tier 1 result.

### Step 7: Save to Memory

Make all Write calls simultaneously:

- Report → `~/.nimble/memory/reports/talent-sourcing-{YYYY-MM-DD}.md` (full candidate report with all tiers)
- Per-role → `~/.nimble/memory/talent-sourcing/[role-slug].md` (candidate list; write or update)
- Profile → update `last_runs.talent-sourcing` in `~/.nimble/business-profile.json` using the python3 snippet in `references/profile-and-onboarding.md`. Skip if the file does not exist.

Update `~/.nimble/memory/talent-sourcing/index.md` with a row for this search.
Follow the wiki update pattern from `references/memory-and-distribution.md`.

### Step 8: Share & Distribute

**Always offer distribution — do not skip this step.** Follow
`references/memory-and-distribution.md` for connector detection, sharing flow, and
source links enforcement.

### Step 9: Follow-ups

Offer next steps using `AskUserQuestion`:

> **What's next?**
> - **Go deeper on a candidate** — extract full profile + find contact info
> - **Expand search** — broaden location, relax seniority, try more platforms
> - **Narrow search** — add a required skill or tighten location
> - **Export list** — save as CSV or formatted doc
> - **Done**

**Sibling skill suggestions:**

> - Run `company-deep-dive` on a candidate's current employer for deal context
> - Run `meeting-prep` before reaching out to a Tier 1 candidate

---

## Error Handling

See `references/nimble-playbook.md` for the standard error table. Skill-specific
handling:

- **Profile behind login wall:** Keep search-snippet summary; note "full profile
  unavailable — LinkedIn/Indeed login required" in the candidate entry.
- **< 5 total candidates found:** Notify the user, suggest broadening location to
  remote or relaxing seniority, then ask whether to re-run with adjusted params.
- **Search 500 on a platform:** Retry once with a simplified query; if still failing,
  skip that platform and note it in the report header.
- **GitHub agent skipped for non-technical role:** Note "GitHub not searched for
  this role type" in the report header.

Related Skills

We are still matching the closest adjacent skills for this page. In the meantime, continue through the full directory.