Use whenever the user wants to find, shortlist, vet, or enrich US recruiting and staffing firms — executive search/retained search, RPO, tech/sales/healthcare recruiting, contingent/contract staffing, and temp staffing. Triggers on "find me an executive search firm for a CFO search", "shortlist three retained-search boutiques in NY focused on tech", "we need RPO support for a 50-engineer hiring push", or "pull contact info for these 8 staffing firm domains", even when described indirectly (need help hiring at scale, executive recruiter for senior roles). Drives the ServiceGraph API (api.servicegraph.co) — a 100k+ US firm catalog filterable by industry, services, location, size, ratings. Skip when the user wants to hire someone as their own employee (job-board questions, in-house recruiter hires, "where should I post the role"), individual job-seekers looking for recruiters to represent them, candidate-side career coaching, non-US firms, individual freelance recruiters.
Use whenever the user wants to find, shortlist, vet, or enrich US recruiting and staffing firms — executive search/retained search, RPO, tech/sales/healthcare recruiting, contingent/contract staffing, and temp staffing. Triggers on "find me an executive search firm for a CFO search", "shortlist three retained-search boutiques in NY focused on tech", "we need RPO support for a 50-engineer hiring push", or "pull contact info for these 8 staffing firm domains", even when described indirectly (need help hiring at scale, executive recruiter for senior roles). Drives the ServiceGraph API (api.servicegraph.co) — a 100k+ US firm catalog filterable by industry, services, location, size, ratings. Skip when the user wants to hire someone as their own employee (job-board questions, in-house recruiter hires, "where should I post the role"), individual job-seekers looking for recruiters to represent them, candidate-side career coaching, non-US firms, individual freelance recruiters.
Drive the ServiceGraph API (https://api.servicegraph.co) to find,
shortlist, and enrich US recruiting and staffing firms via the
pro_services dataset.
This skill is for procuring an external recruiting/staffing firm
to do hiring on the user's behalf. It is NOT for:
recruiting an in-house employee (the user wants to hire someone for their own team — that's job-posting, not procurement),
candidate-side asks (an individual job-seeker looking for someone to represent them).
Both share keyword overlap with the positive case ("recruiter", "hire"), so the boundary matters.
Always pin industry:hr_recruiting_staffing. Sub-types
(executive search, RPO, contingent staffing, temp, vertical
specializations) are NOT separate tags — sub-type specialization is
a keyword substring search on firm text.
Any HTTP client works (curl, fetch, requests). Examples below use curl.
When NOT to use this skill
"I want to hire a [role] for my team — where should I post the job?" → recruiting-an-employee.
"Find me a recruiter to represent me in my job search" → candidate side.
"Hire an in-house recruiter / Head of Talent" → recruiting an employee.
"Help me write a job description" → DIY/do-the-work.
ATS or HR-software comparisons (Greenhouse vs Lever, Workday).
Career coaching for individual job-seekers.
Non-US firms / individual freelance recruiters.
Prerequisites
ServiceGraph access, either:
the ServiceGraph MCP server (https://mcp.servicegraph.co) loaded in
your harness — this plugin's .mcp.json wires it up; OAuth 2.1 + PKCE
keeps credentials in the harness sandbox — or
a ServiceGraph API key (vk_…, minted at
https://servicegraph.co/profile/api-keys) available as
SERVICEGRAPH_API_KEY in the environment or .env.local for the REST
path (setup steps under Auth below).
An HTTP client for the REST path — the examples use curl.
Instructions
The loop is free-first: discovery, validation, search, and brief reads cost
nothing; only unlock after the user confirms the spend.
Pick the call path — the ServiceGraph MCP tools if loaded, otherwise the
REST flow (MCP server and Auth sections below).
GET /v1/datasets/pro_services/fields?include_values=1 — confirm the
fields and values you plan to filter on exist.
Build the filter (Filter DSL below) and validate it with
GET /v1/datasets/pro_services/check — or draft it from plain English via
POST /v1/datasets/pro_services/translate-intent.
GET /v1/datasets/pro_services/search — present the free brief cards and
let the user pick.
Quote the unlock cost (10 credits per row, 30-day TTL) and get an explicit
go-ahead.
POST /v1/datasets/pro_services/unlocks with the chosen apexes; report the
revealed detail.
GET /v1/me/credits to report the remaining balance when asked.
MCP server (preferred for authed calls)
If your harness has the ServiceGraph MCP server loaded (tools
containing servicegraph), prefer those — OAuth 2.1 + PKCE keeps the
token in the harness sandbox. Otherwise use the REST flow below.
API surface (dataset id: pro_services)
Every endpoint requires the bearer (Authorization: Bearer vk_…).
No anonymous tier.
Endpoint
Cost
Use it for
GET /v1/datasets/pro_services/fields[?include_values=1]
free
Confirm hr_recruiting_staffing is in the industry value list.
GET /v1/datasets/pro_services/check?filter=…
free
Validate filter.
POST /v1/datasets/pro_services/translate-intent
free
{intent} → DSL filter + sanity count.
GET /v1/datasets/pro_services/search?filter=…&limit=
free
Brief firm cards + per-row unlock hint + total.
GET /v1/datasets/pro_services/:apex
free
One row brief; detail only if unlocked.
POST /v1/datasets/pro_services/unlocks
10 credits / firm
{apexes:[...]} ≤100; atomic; 30-day TTL on detail.
GET /v1/me/credits
free
Balance.
Cost model. Discovery / validation / search / brief reads are
free. Detail (url, phone, email, social, address, full platforms
map) costs 10 credits per firm and lasts 30 days.
Auth
vk_* API keys minted in the dashboard. Keep the token out of the
LLM context — never read .env* into your context; dispatch via
shell.
Try the call first through a shell wrapper that sources .env.local:
"Open https://servicegraph.co/profile/api-keys, create a
key, and add SERVICEGRAPH_API_KEY=vk_… to .env.local here
(or export it). Tell me when done. Please don't paste the key
into chat."
Retry after the user signals ready.
Filter DSL
GitHub-search-style.
filter := orExpr
orExpr := andExpr ("OR" andExpr)*
andExpr := notExpr (("AND")? notExpr)* # whitespace = implicit AND
notExpr := ("NOT" | "-") notExpr | atom
atom := "(" filter ")" | predicate
predicate:= IDENT op valueOrList | bareword
op := ":" | "=" | ">=" | "<=" | ">" | "<"
valueOrList := value ("," value)*
value := IDENT | NUMBER | tagAtEvidence
tagAtEvidence := IDENT "@" ("low"|"medium"|"high")
bareword := IDENT | NUMBER # → keyword:<bareword>
Four rules that bite: AND binds tighter than OR (use parens);
comma list = OR within one predicate; negation is -x or NOT x;
bareword = keyword search (quote multi-word phrases).
Recruiting-flavored examples (validate yours with /check):
Firms are identified by their apex domain (korn-ferry.com, not
www.korn-ferry.com/about).
Output
All responses are JSON.
Search returns free brief firm cards — apex, name, location, and
rating signals — plus a per-row unlock hint and the match total. Briefs
never include url, phone_primary, email_primary, legal_name,
address_full, or the full platforms map.
Unlock (POST …/unlocks) returns each unlocked firm's detail block —
contact fields, address, socials, the platforms map — plus per-item
billing; detail stays readable for 30 days.
Errors arrive as a JSON envelope
{"error": {"code": "…", "message": "…"}} — see Errors below.
Examples
A. Executive search for a CFO
GET /v1/datasets/pro_services/search?filter=industry:hr_recruiting_staffing+executive+search&limit=10
# Present, get pick of 3. "Unlocking 3 = 30 credits, 30-day TTL."
POST /v1/datasets/pro_services/unlocks
{ "apexes": ["firm-a.com", "firm-b.com", "firm-c.com"] }
B. Retained boutique in a state, vertical
GET /v1/datasets/pro_services/search?filter=industry:hr_recruiting_staffing+retained+state:NY+tech+-company_size_signal:large_50plus&limit=10
C. RPO for a hiring surge
GET /v1/datasets/pro_services/search?filter=industry:hr_recruiting_staffing+rpo+(tech OR engineering)&limit=10
D. Indirect intent — "scaling fast, need help hiring"
GET /v1/datasets/pro_services/search?filter=industry:hr_recruiting_staffing+(rpo OR contingent)&limit=10
Or use the translator:
POST /v1/datasets/pro_services/translate-intent
{ "intent": "RPO or volume recruiting partner for a 50-engineer hiring push" }
E. Vertical: healthcare staffing
GET /v1/datasets/pro_services/search?filter=industry:hr_recruiting_staffing+healthcare+state:OH,IL,MI,IN,WI,MN&limit=10
F. Quality threshold + tech-sector
GET /v1/datasets/pro_services/search?filter=industry:hr_recruiting_staffing+executive+search+tech+rating>=4&limit=10
G. BYO apex list — enrich domains
User pastes 8–20 staffing/recruiting firm domains:
GET /v1/datasets/pro_services/:apex per domain — free brief
(404 = not in catalog, no charge).
User picks N to fully enrich. POST /unlocks = 10×N credits,
atomic, detail returned.
Re-runs within 30-day TTL are free.
Gotchas
Always pin industry:hr_recruiting_staffing. Without it, "recruiter" / "executive search" keywords leak into other industries.
Distinguish "find me a recruiting firm" (procurement, fires) from "find me a recruiter / hire a recruiter for our team" (recruiting-an-employee, refuses). When ambiguous, lean on context: explicit firm/agency/RPO language or volume framing → procurement; "for our team" / "to post the job" / "I want to hire" → in-house hire.
Candidate-side asks ("represent me as a candidate", "find me a job") are out of scope.
Career coaching for individuals is a different need (and shares the executive-coaching keyword with management consulting). Refuse — this skill is firm-procurement.
Sub-types are keyword-only. Multi-word sub-types split into ANDed barewords unless quoted ("executive search" → one phrase).
Briefs DO include apex, name, location, ratings. They DON'T include url, phone_primary, email_primary, legal_name, address_full, full platforms — those require an unlock.
not_found / not_in_dataset 404 = not in pro_services. Skip; not charged.
Unlock is atomic. N apexes either all charge (up to 10×N credits) or none on 402.
