Find companies that are hiring for the work you sell, every day
Starts twice a day on a schedule. Ends with scored leads in a table and a daily digest of the newest top leads. Nobody is contacted.
Bring the step you are stuck on: 30 minutes, a straight answer and the next step. If you would rather have it built, a reply within 5 working days.
The route
5 steps: 2 rule steps, 1 AI step and no person step
Copy, share, discuss
- Copy
Available once this workflow passes its checks.
- Share
todkett.com/automations/sales/hiring-signal-lead-finder/
- Discuss
Opens when the first workflow passes its checks. No GitHub account? Ask about this by form.
How the library, the tracks and the talk work: the community page.
At a glance
- Starts when
- A schedule, twice a day, plus a daily digest email.
- Input
- Posts from job boards, public job APIs, forums, freelance sites, social posts and career pages.
- Output
- Scored leads in a table and a daily digest of the newest top leads.
- AI
- AI in one step only: classifying new posts
- Rule checks
- 7 checks around the AI
- Tools
- Public job board APIs and feeds, Automation community forums, Company career pages, n8n data tables, Google Sheets, Gmail, OpenRouter
- Last stress test
- No recorded run yet
01Steps
The steps
5 steps: 2 rule steps, 1 AI step and no person step. Companies posting jobs for work you could do are warm leads, but checking job boards, forums and freelance sites by hand takes hours and misses most of them.
01Trigger
Posts from public sources
Posts from job boards, public job APIs, forums, freelance sites, social posts and career pages.
02Rule step
Prefilter, skip seen posts
Cheap rules prefilter; posts seen before or reposted are skipped using an evidence ledger.
03AI step
AI classifies new posts
AI classifies only the new posts: signal type, relevance and organisation.
04Rule step
Score and rank in code
Code scores and ranks each lead, P1 to P3, saves it to a table and syncs a sheet.
05Output
Daily digest
A daily digest of new P1 and P2 leads and any failing source. Nobody is contacted.
Daily digest
02Where AI is used
Where AI is used, and what stays with you
AI reads, judges or drafts. Fixed rules check, decide and route. A person approves anything that goes out.
AI step
Step 03Classifying new posts
Posts are messy text from many sources. Rules remove most items before any AI call.
What the model reads
- New posts that passed the prefilter rules, in batches of 10.
What it never sees or decides
- Posts seen before or reposted: the evidence ledger skips them.
- The score or the rank: code computes both.
- Anyone's inbox: nobody is contacted.
Model calls: Not counted from the workflow yet. It is counted before this page goes live.
Fixed rules
They check, decide and route. 2 rule steps.
- 02Prefilter, skip seen posts
- 04Score and rank in code
A person
No step waits for a person. Human sign-off (ST7): fixed approval rule: nobody is contacted automatically.
03Checks
Checks around the AI
What runs before the model, and what checks its answer after, in plain words. Build these into your version too.
- 01Per-source schedule and health tracking, so a broken source never looks healthy.
- 02Prefilter rules run before AI.
- 03Posts are deduped against an evidence ledger and saved results; reposts are merged.
- 04AI runs in batches of 10.
- 05The score is computed in code from demand, relevance, freshness, fit, an identified organisation and commercial value.
- 06A 16-case labeled test set, including a prompt-injection case, checks the prompt and the scoring.
- 07It never contacts prospects.
04The 8 checks
Stress test
The 8 checks we run on every workflow, and you can run too. A check marked Not needed says why.
- Status
- Not yet0 of 8 that apply have a recorded pass
- Last run
- No recorded run yet
- Model review
- Still open
Checks marked Not yet are still open. 5 of them were seen in the workflow design on 23 Oct 2026; a check shows Passed only once its test run is recorded.
ST1Test set
Status: Not yet
Seen in the workflow design on 23 Oct 2026. The recorded test run is still open.
ST2Prompt attack
Status: Not yet
Seen in the workflow design on 23 Oct 2026. The recorded test run is still open.
ST3Run twice
Status: Not yet
Seen in the workflow design on 23 Oct 2026. The recorded test run is still open.
ST7Human sign-off
Status: Not yet
Seen in the workflow design on 23 Oct 2026. The recorded test run is still open.
ST8Rules around the AI
Status: Not yet
Seen in the workflow design on 23 Oct 2026. The recorded test run is still open.
0 passed · 0 not needed · 8 not yet
What we testWe show what we tested, never the test data. The example below is made up.
05Test replay
How to test it
Before you trust a workflow, try to break it. The sample record runs the route step by step. Each break test below gets its own replay once its recorded run exists.
- Record
- SIGNAL-0482
- Data
- Sample run, made-up data
01Posts from public sources
A new job post on a public board
Done02Prefilter, skip seen posts
Not seen before; passes the prefilter rules
Done03AI classifies new posts
Signal type, relevance and organisation classified
Done04Score and rank in code
Ranked P1 in code; saved to the table
Done05Daily digest
Listed in the daily digest; nobody contacted
Daily digestArrived
SIGNAL-0482 reached the last station: Daily digest. Listed in the daily digest; nobody contacted.
Sample run on made-up data. No stress-test run is recorded yet, so this plays the example, not a test. Nothing runs live.
The break tests for this workflow
- ST3Not yet
Same input sent twice
Seen in the workflow design. No recorded run to replay yet.
- ST2Not yet
Instructions hidden in the input
Seen in the workflow design. No recorded run to replay yet.
- ST4Not yet
A connected service fails
No recorded run to replay yet.
- ST8Not yet
The AI returns a broken answer
Seen in the workflow design. No recorded run to replay yet.
06Example
The example, in and out
Made-up data, written to show the steps; no recorded run stands behind it yet. Fernway is a made-up small software company, and its address ends in .example, so it cannot belong to a real business.
InputExample
Example on made-up data: one run over public job boards and forums for Fernway's services.
OutputExample
Posts seen before skipped by the evidence ledger. Prefilter rules drop most items before AI. New posts classified, scored in code, and the new P1 and P2 leads listed in the daily digest. Nobody contacted.
Measured result
From the run log, 16 Oct to 23 Oct 2026: about 9 percent of 13,236 collected items reached the AI step, over 10 runs.
Source: Run log, 10 runs, 16 Oct to 23 Oct 2026.
07Limits
When not to automate this
- It never contacts anyone. It finds and ranks.
- Sources change their pages; a broken source shows in the daily digest.
08What you need
What you need to run it
| Tool | Access |
|---|---|
| Public job APIs and feeds | Read only, within each source's terms |
| n8n data tables | Settings, the evidence ledger and the results |
| Gmail | Send the daily digest to you |
| OpenRouter | One API key with a credit limit, for the classifier step |
- Where it runs
- In n8n, self-hosted or n8n cloud.
- Model calls
- Not counted from the workflow yet. It is counted before this page goes live.
- Running costs
- Yours, paid to each service directly. Scope in writing first. A quote before any build. No prices on the site yet.
How to adapt it
Changes we have made or tested on this workflow.
- 01Change the sources and search queries in a settings table, without editing the workflow.
What changed
- ContentFirst version, written from the 23 Oct 2026 catalog.
09FAQ
Questions people ask about it
Does it contact the companies it finds?
No. It finds, scores and lists them in a daily digest. Nobody is contacted automatically.
How much of the input reaches AI?
Over 10 runs from 16 Oct to 23 Oct 2026, about 9 percent of collected items reached the AI step. Rules and a ledger of posts already seen removed the rest.
How is it tested?
A labeled test set of 16 cases, including a prompt-injection case, checks the prompt and the scoring.
10Related
Where to go next
Use cases
6 steps
7 steps
Projects built from it
Stuck on your version of this workflow?
Bring the step that does not work. In 30 minutes you get a straight answer and the next step. If you would rather have it built, tell us your tools and the rules you already follow. Scope in writing first. A quote before any build. No prices on the site yet.