# Creator Sourcing > End-to-end creator sourcing for influencer and partnership outreach. Discovers creators on a platform three independent ways (profile/bio search, hashtag search, reels/video search), enriches each with follower count, average likes and comments, engagement rate and last-post date, ranks by engagement, resolves public contact paths (bio emails and link-in-bio pages), and renders a filterable dashboard. Use when the user asks to source, find, research, vet or build a list of creators, influencers, or accounts in a niche — or mentions creator sourcing, influencer discovery, an outreach list, or a creator database. Inputs: platform, niche keywords, follower range, number of results. - Skill: `mikefutia/creator-sourcing` (Agent Skill, multi-file: 7 files) - Install (CLI): `npx skillmds@latest add mikefutia/creator-sourcing` - Raw SKILL.md: https://api.skillmd.com/api/skills/mikefutia/creator-sourcing/raw - Safety review: pending - Works with: Claude Code, Claude.ai, OpenAI Codex - Category: Product & Planning - Author: mikefutia (https://skillmd.com/u/mikefutia) - Updated: 2026-09-17 - Page: https://skillmd.com/skills/mikefutia/creator-sourcing --- # Creator Sourcing Turns a niche into a ranked, contactable creator list plus a dashboard. **Requires the ScrapeCreators MCP connector.** Confirm it with a keyword `ToolSearch` (e.g. `instagram profile scrape`) before promising anything; if no tools come back, say the connector isn't attached and stop. Read `reference/gotchas.md` before writing any metric code. Every rule in it comes from a real failure, and several produce confident, plausible, wrong numbers when ignored. ## Inputs Collect these up front. Ask only for what's missing and genuinely changes the run; otherwise use the defaults. | Input | Default | Notes | |---|---|---| | `platform` | instagram | Instagram is verified end to end. TikTok/YouTube: read `reference/platforms.md` and verify field paths on one creator first. | | `niche keywords` | — | Required. Needs 2–3 bio/profile terms, 2–3 hashtags, 2 video-search phrases. Derive them from the niche and **show the user the list before spending credits**. | | `follower range` | no limit | Applied after enrichment, on the fresh follower count. | | `how many results` | all | A cut-off applied after ranking, not during discovery. | Also worth settling early: **mean or median engagement** for the ranking (see gotchas §3), and whether the contact stage covers all results or just the top N. ## Pipeline Set `CACHE` to the session tool-results directory — large responses spill there and every script reads them from disk: ```bash CACHE="$(dirname "$CLAUDE_SCRATCHPAD")/tool-results" # or locate it from a tool result path ``` ### 1 · Discover — three independent ways Run all searches **in one parallel batch**. Three methods matter because each surfaces creators the others miss, and anyone found by 2+ is a stronger signal. - profile/bio search × each keyword — `v1_instagram_search_profiles` - hashtag search × each hashtag — `v1_instagram_search_hashtag` - reels/video search × each phrase — `v2_instagram_reels_search` Profile-search results usually return inline; write them to `scratch/profile-search.json` as `{"": [{username,url,follower_count,biography}]}`. Hashtag and reels results spill to `$CACHE` on their own. ```bash python3 scripts/collect_pool.py --cache-dir "$CACHE" \ --inline scratch/profile-search.json \ --reels-queries "phrase one,phrase two" \ --out output/raw-pool.json ``` **Check the reels label output it prints** before continuing (gotchas §5). ### 2 · Enrich One `v1_instagram_profile` call per handle with `trim=true`. It returns the last 12 posts inline, so this covers profile *and* posts in a single call. Batch ~16 at a time. Handles that fail with an SSE parse error need the fallback ladder in gotchas §4 — retry, then `v1_instagram_basic_profile` by `userId`, then record as unavailable. ```bash python3 scripts/enrich.py --cache-dir "$CACHE" --pool output/raw-pool.json \ --out output/enriched.json \ --min-followers 5000 --max-followers 500000 \ --max-age-days 60 --limit 40 ``` Computes both mean and median engagement, drops creators silent past `--max-age-days`, applies the follower range, ranks by engagement rate, and writes `output/run-meta.json` with everything dropped and why. Read its stdout — it reports null-engagement creators and viral skew. ### 3 · Contact paths Public sources only: the creator's own bio and their own link-in-bio page. Bio emails are extracted automatically. Link-in-bio pages return **inline**, so resolve them yourself and hand over the contact fields: - `v1_linktree` (returns an `email_address` field), `v1_komi`, `v1_pillar`, `v1_linkbio`, `v1_linkme` - regex the *whole* payload for emails — one run found an address in Linktree's `description` rather than `email_address` (gotchas §10) Write `scratch/linkinbio.json` keyed by handle (schema in `scripts/contacts.py`), then: ```bash python3 scripts/contacts.py --enriched output/enriched.json \ --linkinbio scratch/linkinbio.json --cache-dir "$CACHE" --top 40 ``` `--cache-dir` also picks each creator's own `external_url` out of the cached profile, which is often the only contact path for accounts with no bio email. Agency/management addresses get tagged automatically — flag them in your summary, since the outreach differs. ### 4 · Dashboard ```bash python3 scripts/build_dashboard.py --enriched output/enriched.json \ --meta output/run-meta.json --out output/creator-pool.html \ --title "Creator Pool" --platform instagram --niche "skincare" \ --captured "13 Aug 2026" ``` Self-contained HTML, no network calls. Verify before publishing: open it with the browser tools, exercise the filters against expected counts, check dark mode and mobile overflow. Then publish with the **Artifact** tool. To update an existing dashboard, republish the **same file path** so it keeps its URL. ## Reporting back State plainly: - how many were sourced, and how many survived each filter - **who was dropped and why** — stale, out of range, or API-unavailable. A creator missing from a dashboard is indistinguishable from one never found. - the mean/median split if any creator is viral-skewed, with the worst example - which contacts are agency rather than personal - credits spent Do not present the pool as vetted for brand fit. Discovery matches captions as well as bios, so brands and off-topic accounts will be in there; say so. ## Scope This sources public professional data for partnership outreach. Keep to public bios and creators' own link-in-bio pages. Don't compile personal information beyond a business contact path, and don't send anything on the user's behalf without explicit approval.