Filter searches

A Clay search is a set of filters over a provider’s database. An Autumn task describes who you want, checked against the live web. Write down what the filters were trying to find, then split it into a prompt, count, rules and output.schema.

Read the search

The search sits on the table’s source column:

clay tables columns get "$TABLE" \
  | jq '.data[] | select(.type == "source") | .sources[] | {name, search}'

search.dslQuery holds the query (for example select from people where experiences.any(is_current = true and job_title contains "CEO")), search.entityType is companies or people, and search.sourceRecordLimit is how many rows it pulled.

Translate each filter

Clay filter	Autumn
Industry, keywords, description	The prompt, as what the company does (“sells to developers”), not the category label
Employee count, revenue band	A rule (`"Between 51 and 200 employees."`)
HQ location	A rule
Funding stage, last round date	A rule with the window as dates
Job title, seniority	The prompt for a people task (“leads engineering: VP Engineering, Head of Engineering, or CTO”)
Exclusions	One line in the prompt (“Exclude agencies and consultancies”)
Result limit	`count`
Columns selected	`output.schema`

Filters are proxies. “Industry: Software Development + keyword: developer” usually means “sells to developers”. Ask the user what the search was for, once, and put that in the prompt. Things filters couldn’t express (raised in the last 30 days, hiring for a role, launched a product) go in as rules too.

Example

Clay filter	In the Autumn task
Industry Software Development + keyword developer	prompt: “software companies that sell to developers or engineering teams”
Employees 51 to 200	rule `size`
HQ United States	rule `us_hq`
Last round Series A or B, past year	rule `recent_round`, with dates
Excluded keywords agency, consulting, crypto	prompt: “Exclude agencies, consultancies and crypto companies”
Limit 15	`"count": 15`

curl -sS -X POST "https://api.autumn.ai/task" \
  -H "X-API-Key: $AUTUMN_API_KEY" -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{
    "prompt": "Find 15 software companies that sell to developers or engineering teams, are headquartered in the United States, have between 51 and 200 employees, and announced a Series A or Series B round between 2025-10-01 and 2026-10-25. Exclude agencies, consultancies and crypto companies.",
    "count": 15,
    "output": {
      "id": "target-accounts", "kind": "research", "path": "outputs/target-accounts.jsonl",
      "schema": {
        "company": {"type": "str"},
        "domain": {"type": "domain"},
        "employee_count": {"type": "int"},
        "round": {"type": "str", "description": "Series A or Series B, with amount"},
        "round_date": {"type": "date"},
        "round_source": {"type": "url"},
        "why_developer_focused": {"type": "str", "description": "One line, from the company site"}
      }
    },
    "rules": {
      "us_hq": "Headquartered in the United States.",
      "size": "Between 51 and 200 employees.",
      "recent_round": "Announced a Series A or Series B between 2025-10-01 and 2026-10-25, with a source.",
      "sells_to_developers": "Its main product is bought or used by developers or engineering teams."
    },
    "clarify": false
  }'

This returned 15 rows in about two minutes, every rule match, including a round announced four days before the run. A sample:

company	employee_count	round	round_date
Depot	61	Series A $10M	2026-03-11
Mintlify	85	Series B $45M	2026-04-16
Firecrawl	62	Series B $75M	2026-09-22
Daytona	78	Series B $60M	2026-10-21

Need more? Continue the same task, so the agent knows what it already found:

curl -sS -X POST "https://api.autumn.ai/task/$TASK_ID/continue" \
  -H "X-API-Key: $AUTUMN_API_KEY" -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{"message": "Find 10 more companies that meet the same rules, without repeating any already in the list."}'

In the example this added 10 rows: 25 companies, no repeats, every rule match.

Then find the people

Clay’s Find People step becomes an enrichment task over the accounts you just found:

{
  "prompt": "For each input company, find the person who currently leads engineering (VP Engineering, Head of Engineering, or CTO if there is neither). Return one row per input company, keeping its domain. Leave fields empty rather than guessing.",
  "input_schema": {"company": "str", "domain": "str"},
  "input_rows": [{"company": "Depot", "domain": "depot.dev"}],
  "output": {
    "id": "eng-leaders", "kind": "research", "path": "outputs/eng-leaders.jsonl",
    "schema": {
      "name": {"type": "str"},
      "title": {"type": "str"},
      "linkedin_url": {"type": "url"},
      "title_source": {"type": "url", "description": "Page showing the current title"}
    },
    "schema_order": ["name", "title", "linkedin_url", "title_source"]
  },
  "rules": {"current_role": "The person holds the title now, per a dated or current source."},
  "clarify": false
}

For the first five accounts above this returned the engineering lead for all five, each with the page that shows their current title. Add work_email and phone the way Enrichment describes. Remove accounts and people the user already has (match on domain or LinkedIn URL) in code, before anything reaches the CRM.

Writing task prompts

How to state criteria so the list stops where you want.

Move a table

Compare the new list with what Clay returned.

Start here

By workflow

Read the search

Translate each filter

Example

Then find the people

Writing task prompts

Move a table

​Read the search

​Translate each filter

​Example

​Then find the people

Writing task prompts

Move a table

Read the search

Translate each filter

Example

Then find the people