# How to source candidates with Claude (https://www.hyreflow.ai/blog/how-to-source-candidates-with-claude)
By Niklas Huetzen, Co-founder, hyreflow. Published 3 Oct 2026.
> Claude can source candidates, but not on its own. It has no candidate database, so by itself it can only search the public web and work with profiles you paste in. Connect a recruiting connector such as hyreflow through Claude's custom connector settings, and Claude can search people databases, score candidates against a job description, and find contact details from a single prompt.
- Claude alone has web search, not a people database. The candidates come from the tools you connect.
- Custom connectors work on every Claude plan. The free plan allows one.
- Claude builds the list. You still decide who is on it, so read every shortlist before a client sees it.
Paste a job description into Claude and ask for candidates, and you get a search plan, a Boolean string, or a list of names Claude cannot stand behind. The model is not the problem. Claude has nothing to search.
## Can Claude source candidates on its own? [#can-claude-source-candidates-on-its-own]
Only partly. Claude can read a job description, work out what a strong candidate looks like, write a Boolean string, and score any profile you paste into the chat. It can also search the public web: Anthropic describes its web search as a way to "search the internet to provide you with up-to-date information and insights."
What Claude does not have is a database of people. It cannot query a candidate database, it cannot look up a personal email or a mobile number, and it cannot sign in to your LinkedIn account. Anything it tells you about a named person comes from a public web page or from its training data, and neither is a sourcing tool.
| Task | Claude on its own | Claude with a recruiting connector |
| -------------------------------------------- | -------------------------- | ---------------------------------- |
| Read a job description and define the search | Yes | Yes |
| Write a Boolean string | Yes | Yes |
| Score profiles against the brief | Only profiles you paste in | Yes, on profiles it found |
| Search people databases | No | Yes |
| Find personal emails and mobile numbers | No | Yes |
| Push candidates to an ATS or a sequencer | No | Yes, for connected tools |
## What does Claude need to find real candidates? [#what-does-claude-need-to-find-real-candidates]
Claude needs a connector: a link between the assistant and an outside system that holds the data. Connectors are built on the Model Context Protocol.
MCP is "an open-source standard for connecting AI applications to external systems", in the words of its own documentation. A recruiting MCP server gives Claude tools it can call during a conversation: search for people, find contact details, add someone to a sequence.
hyreflow is a recruiting connector for Claude. Once hyreflow is connected, Claude can call the data, enrichment, outreach and ATS tools in the hyreflow catalog, and one credit balance covers all of them. You describe the outcome you want in plain language, and Claude chooses which tools to call.
## How do you connect Claude to recruiting data? [#how-do-you-connect-claude-to-recruiting-data]
You add hyreflow as a custom connector in Claude. It takes a few minutes and nothing is installed on your computer. Anthropic states that custom connectors are available "for users on Free, Pro, Max, Team, and Enterprise plans" and that "free users are limited to one custom connector", so a paid Claude plan is not required.
In Claude, go to Customize, then Connectors, and choose Add custom connector. On Team and Enterprise plans an owner adds it under Organization settings.
Name the connector hyreflow and paste the server URL from the hyreflow setup page. Leave the advanced OAuth fields empty.
A browser window opens. Sign in to hyreflow and choose the workspace Claude may act on.
Claude now lists hyreflow among its connectors, and you can use it in any new chat.
Start your first prompt with "Use hyreflow". Claude decides for itself which connector to use, and naming hyreflow removes the guesswork until you have seen it work.
The exact steps for ChatGPT and other clients are in the [hyreflow setup guide](/docs/mcp-setup).
## What prompt builds a candidate shortlist in Claude? [#what-prompt-builds-a-candidate-shortlist-in-claude]
Paste the job description, then ask for the outcome and say how you want it run. A good sourcing prompt names the number of candidates, what disqualifies someone, and which contact details you want.
Prompt (Claude):
> Use hyreflow and turn this job spec into a ranked shortlist of 10 candidates. Pull each person's real work history before you score them, drop anyone who fails a must-have, and show me your reasoning. Then find a personal email for the ones who made the list. Tell me the cost before you spend anything.
What comes back: A ranked list of candidates who match the brief on evidence, a line on why each one made the cut, and a personal email or a LinkedIn profile for each.
Behind that one prompt, Claude runs four stages in order.
The full version of this prompt, with each step and its cost, is in the [job spec to shortlist playbook](/skills/job-spec-to-shortlist).
## What else can Claude do for recruiters? [#what-else-can-claude-do-for-recruiters]
Sourcing is the first use, not the only one. The same connection lets Claude run the business development side of a desk:
* Send a candidate to market: find the companies likely to hire a strong candidate and the hiring manager at each one. The full walk-through is in [How to run an MPC or spec campaign with Claude](/blog/how-to-run-a-spec-campaign-with-claude).
* Find the hiring manager behind a job advert, with a verified email. See the [hiring manager playbook](/skills/find-the-hiring-manager-behind-a-job-ad).
* Build a target account list: the companies of a certain type in a region, with the people who run the function you recruit for. See the [target account playbook](/skills/build-a-target-account-list).
* Re-engage people who moved: find contacts in your CRM who were promoted or changed jobs. See the [job change playbook](/skills/promotion-and-job-change-reengagement).
In-house talent acquisition teams use the same connection differently: they source for their own open roles and sync candidates into an ATS such as Ashby, Lever or SmartRecruiters.
All of the playbooks are listed in the [hyreflow playbook library](/skills).
## How much time does AI sourcing save a recruiter? [#how-much-time-does-ai-sourcing-save-a-recruiter]
Survey data points to about a day a week, though no survey measures Claude specifically. LinkedIn's Future of Recruiting 2025 report, based on a survey of 1,271 recruiting professionals, found that those using generative AI save "about 20% of their work week".
of the work week is what recruiting professionals who use generative AI report saving. That is one working day in five.
Staffing firms report the same direction. In Bullhorn's 2026 GRID Industry Trends Report, a survey of nearly 2,300 recruitment professionals published in February 2026, 46 percent of firms said AI cut their screening time in half or better. The same report found that only 10 percent of firms have implemented agentic AI across their full workflow, so most agencies have not yet connected an assistant to their tools at all.
## Where does sourcing with Claude fall short? [#where-does-sourcing-with-claude-fall-short]
Claude with hyreflow replaces the search, not the conversation. A score catches seniority, sector and must-haves; it misses what you would hear in five minutes on the phone. Personal contact data is strongest in the US and the UK and weaker in the DACH region and Asia. A full run takes minutes rather than seconds, because Claude searches, reads and scores before it spends anything on contact details. And InMail still needs a LinkedIn licence.
Read every shortlist before it goes to a client. Claude can rank someone highly who changed jobs last month, and the client will notice before you do.
New workspaces start with free credits. Most lookups that find nothing are free, and each tool shows its cost before it runs.
## Questions recruiters ask about sourcing with Claude [#questions-recruiters-ask-about-sourcing-with-claude]
### If I typed the same prompt into Claude without hyreflow, would I get the same result?
No. Claude can reason about the brief and score profiles you give it, but without a connector it has no people database to search. The candidates in a hyreflow shortlist come from the data providers that hyreflow connects Claude to.
### Do I need a paid Claude plan?
No. Anthropic makes custom connectors available on the Free, Pro, Max, Team and Enterprise plans, and limits free users to one custom connector. hyreflow can be that one.
### Does hyreflow replace LinkedIn Recruiter?
hyreflow replaces the search. It finds and scores candidates through people-data providers instead of LinkedIn's own member search. InMail still needs a LinkedIn licence.
### Do I need my own subscriptions to the data providers?
No. hyreflow credits cover the providers it calls. If you already pay for a data provider, you can connect your own account from the Essential plan, and those calls do not use hyreflow credits.
### What does it cost?
One hyreflow credit costs about $0.10 and plans start at $49 a month for 500 credits, as of 3 October 2026. New workspaces get 25 free credits. Most lookups that find nothing are free, but some searches are charged per request whatever they return; [credits and billing](/docs/credits-and-billing) lists which. The plans are on the [hyreflow pricing page](/pricing).
### Does this work in ChatGPT as well?
Yes. hyreflow connects to ChatGPT and other clients that support MCP in the same way. The steps for each one are in the hyreflow setup guide. If you are weighing a standalone sourcing app instead, see [Juicebox vs hyreflow](/blog/juicebox-vs-hyreflow), or [hyreflow beside other AI recruiting tools](/blog/compare).
## Sources
- [Getting started with custom connectors using remote MCP](https://support.claude.com/en/articles/11175166-getting-started-with-custom-connectors-using-remote-mcp), Anthropic. Checked 3 Oct 2026
- [Enabling and using web search](https://support.claude.com/en/articles/10684626-enabling-and-using-web-search), Anthropic. Checked 3 Oct 2026
- [What is the Model Context Protocol (MCP)?](https://modelcontextprotocol.io/introduction), modelcontextprotocol.io. Checked 3 Oct 2026
- [The Future of Recruiting 2025](https://business.linkedin.com/talent-solutions/resources/future-of-recruiting), LinkedIn Talent Solutions. Checked 3 Oct 2026
- [Bullhorn GRID report: Staffing firms using AI see stronger growth, faster placements](https://www.bullhorn.com/news-and-press/press-releases/bullhorn-grid-report-staffing-firms-using-ai-see-stronger-growth-faster-placements/), Bullhorn. Checked 3 Oct 2026
- [MCP setup, per client](https://www.hyreflow.ai/docs/mcp-setup), hyreflow docs. Checked 3 Oct 2026
- [hyreflow pricing](https://www.hyreflow.ai/pricing), hyreflow. Checked 3 Oct 2026