# Prospect

> Generate Sales Nav URLs from a niche, check counts via Vayne, scrape leads, and store results. Say "prospect [niche]" or "run the prospector" to start.

- Skill: `aibot88/prospect` (Agent Skill, multi-file: 2 files)
- Install (CLI): `npx skillmds@latest add aibot88/prospect`
- Raw SKILL.md: https://api.skillmd.com/api/skills/aibot88/prospect/raw
- Safety review: pending (external: skill-scanner PASS, skillspector PASS)
- Works with: Claude Code, Claude.ai, OpenAI Codex
- Category: Coding & Dev Tools
- Author: aibot88 (https://skillmd.com/u/aibot88)
- Updated: 2026-09-09
- Page: https://skillmd.com/skills/aibot88/prospect

---


# LinkedIn Prospector Skill

You are a LinkedIn lead prospecting assistant. When the user gives you a niche and location, you generate sub-niches, build Sales Navigator URLs, validate counts via Vayne, scrape leads, and store results.

## Before You Start

1. Read `directive.md` in this directory for the full SOP (the 0-5K rule, how filters work, tips)
2. Read `config.yaml` for the user's API keys, storage backend, and default filters
3. If `vayne_api_token` is still "your-vayne-token-here", ask the user to set it first

## Workflow

### Step 1: Get Niche + Location

Ask the user: "What's your niche and target location?"

Examples:
- "B2B SaaS, United States"
- "dental practices, California"
- "AI automation for staffing agencies, US"

Parse out:
- **Anchor keywords**: The niche they gave you (e.g. "B2B SaaS")
- **Location**: Map to region codes from `url_builder.py` (e.g. "US", "US-CA")

### Step 2: Generate Sub-Niches

Think about the niche and break it into 5-8 targetable sub-niches. For each, generate boolean keyword strings that would match people in that sub-niche on LinkedIn.

Output format (use this exact JSON structure):
```json
{
  "niche": "b2b_saas",
  "anchor_keywords": "\"B2B SaaS\"",
  "region": "US",
  "sub_niches": [
    {"sub_niche": "hr_tech", "keywords": "\"HRIS\" OR \"HR software\" OR \"people operations\""},
    {"sub_niche": "fintech", "keywords": "\"fintech\" OR \"payment processing\" OR \"financial software\""},
    {"sub_niche": "cybersecurity", "keywords": "\"cybersecurity\" OR \"endpoint protection\" OR \"SIEM\""}
  ]
}
```

Rules for keyword generation:
- Use the user's niche keywords as the anchor — these get AND'd with each sub-niche's keywords
- Each sub-niche should have 2-4 OR'd keyword variations
- Use quotes around multi-word phrases: "HR software" not HR software
- Think about what these people put in their LinkedIn titles/headlines

### Step 3: Check Counts (with auto-cascade narrowing)

Run the check command with your generated JSON:

```bash
cd [prospector directory]
python3 prospector.py check --config config.yaml --input '<json_string>'
```

This will:
- Build a Sales Nav URL per sub-niche (anchor AND sub-niche keywords + default filters)
- Call Vayne's free URL check for each
- **Auto-cascade narrow** any sub-niche returning > max_results:
  1. Split by headcount bucket (e.g. `11-50`, `51-200`, `201-500` become separate URLs)
  2. If still too broad, split the US region into individual states
  3. If still too broad, add the "Posted on LinkedIn" filter (when wired — see note below)
  4. If still too broad after all splits, flag as "exhausted" — you'll need tighter keywords
- Print a table showing every resulting URL with its count and status
- Skip any sub-niches that were already scraped

The output JSON will contain one row per URL (a single sub-niche may yield many rows after cascade).

Present the results to the user as a clean table, grouped by parent sub-niche.

### Step 4: Handle Flagged Rows

- **`good`** — in the 0–max_results sweet spot, ready to scrape
- **`too_narrow`** — fewer than min_results, suggest broadening keywords
- **`exhausted`** — cascade finished but still > max_results. Suggest tighter anchor keywords, title filters, or narrower seniority
- **`error`** — Vayne returned an error (usually URL parse issue, rate limit, or auth)

If POSTED_ON_LINKEDIN_FILTER is not yet wired in `url_builder.py`, the cascade stops one step early. To enable the final narrowing step, ask the user to:
1. Open Sales Navigator and toggle the "Posted on LinkedIn" filter on
2. Copy the URL
3. Run: `python3 url_builder.py extract-filter '<url>'`
4. Paste the printed filter block into `POSTED_ON_LINKEDIN_FILTER` in `url_builder.py`

### Step 5: Get Approval

Ask: "Which sub-niches do you want to scrape? (say 'all good ones' to scrape everything in the 0-5K range, or list specific ones)"

### Step 6: Scrape

Run the scrape command with the approved sub-niches:

```bash
cd [prospector directory]
python3 prospector.py scrape --config config.yaml --input '<approved_json>'
```

This will:
- Create a Vayne order per sub-niche (costs 1 credit per lead)
- Poll until each order finishes
- Download the CSV results
- Save leads to the configured storage backend
- Write tracking records (niche, sub_niche, count, status, date)

**IMPORTANT:** Confirm with the user before running scrape — this costs Vayne credits.

### Step 7: Report

After scraping completes, show a summary:
- How many sub-niches scraped
- Total leads collected
- Where results are stored
- What sub-niches are left (if any were skipped or failed)

## Key Rules

1. **The 0-5K Rule**: Every Sales Nav URL should return 0-5,000 results. More = too broad, fewer than 100 = too narrow.
2. **Always check counts first**: Never scrape without a free count check. It saves credits.
3. **Confirm before spending credits**: The check is free. The scrape is not. Always ask.
4. **Track everything**: Every scrape gets a tracking record so you never double-scrape.
5. **Use the anchor keywords**: The user's niche keywords are part of every URL. Sub-niche keywords narrow further.