What screening rule authoring covers
Six tools cover the full cycle. list_screening_rules shows what already exists, in priority order, so a new rule does not duplicate one you forgot about.
get_hiring_context pulls your open jobs, interview templates, challenges, and the engine's actual field, operator, and action catalog, which the agent is required to check before drafting anything, so a proposed condition never references a field or challenge id that does not exist.
test_screening_rule runs the draft against your own recent completed interviews without saving it, returning how many candidates it would have matched and a sample of who. create_screening_rule saves the rule once you have seen that number and approved it.
update_screening_rule and delete_screening_rule handle changes and removal, both scoped to a rule you name explicitly.
A walkthrough: turning a hiring habit into a live rule
An employer says: "I want anyone who scores above 8 overall and solves our take-home challenge to get tagged strong_candidate and moved to qualified automatically." The agent calls get_hiring_context first, confirms the take-home challenge's real id and that overall score is a valid field, then drafts the two-condition rule with two actions.
Before saving anything, it calls test_screening_rule and reports back: "this would have matched 7 of your last 40 completed interviews, including these three." The employer asks to tighten it to a score above 8.5, the agent re-tests and reports 4 matches, and only then does the approval card appear: "Create screening rule 'Strong technical + challenge pass': 2 condition(s), 2 action(s)?"
Once approved, the rule runs automatically on every interview that completes from that point forward.
Boundaries
What the agent will not skip
A rule is never created without first being back-tested against real recent interviews, and the match numbers are shown to you before the create step, not after, since the whole point of the back-test is to catch a rule that's too broad or too narrow while it still costs nothing to fix.
Creating, updating, or deleting a rule always requires your approval, and update or delete only happen when you explicitly name the rule to change, never as a side effect of drafting something else. Deleting a rule cannot be undone, and the approval card says so plainly before you confirm it.
The agent never invents a field name, operator, or challenge id; get_hiring_context is the only source it draws from, so a drafted rule references only things that genuinely exist in your account, and a rule referencing a challenge you retired months ago simply won't get drafted in the first place.
Frequently asked questions
Can the agent create a screening rule without showing me how many candidates it would match?
No. test_screening_rule runs first and reports a match rate against your recent completed interviews before create_screening_rule is ever called, so you see the numbers before the rule exists.
What fields can a screening rule use?
All 5 AI scores, challenge score, experience level, salary estimates, key skills, and strengths or weaknesses, combined with 14 operators and nested AND/OR logic up to 5 levels and 25 conditions. The agent pulls the real field catalog before drafting so it never guesses at a name that doesn't exist.
Can I ask the agent to change an existing rule instead of writing a new one?
Yes. update_screening_rule changes fields, conditions, actions, priority, or the enabled state on a rule you name. It's used for that case specifically, not for drafting a rule from scratch.
Do screening rules run automatically once created?
Yes, a saved rule runs automatically as each interview completes going forward. It does not retroactively apply to interviews finished before it existed.
What actions can a screening rule actually take?
Five: tagging a candidate, setting their pipeline stage, setting a priority, flagging them, or sending a notification. A single rule can combine more than one action, as long as its conditions actually match.
Related pages
Turn a screening habit into a rule
Describe the condition to the agent, review the back-test numbers, then approve it once the match rate looks right.