Flat-file ATS for small teams

A single Claude Code command, /team-hr candidate "{Name}", replaces an ATS for a small team. When a referral arrives (Telegram forward, email, LinkedIn DM), the command creates one flat markdown file under Org/HR/hiring/{Company} {candidate} {Name} – YYYY-MM-DD.md with the CV PDF placed flat alongside (not in a subfolder). The file has fixed sections: TL;DR (3–5 lines + founder flag), CV compression (table of period/role/scale — never the full CV), verbatim intro quotes with channel + timestamp, Call YYYY-MM-DD with pre-loaded standard + role-specific question banks, Fit Assessment (2–3 bullets), Decision A/B/C (trial / advisory / pause), Next checklist. Status moves only in frontmatter: intro → trial / pause / archived. When archived, file moves to hiring/archive/. No per-candidate subfolders. No copy-pasted full CVs.

Replaces a $50–200/mo per-recruiter ATS for a sub-30-person team. More important: it produces a forced-function for hiring discipline. Per the source skill, "lesson learned 2026-05-05: per-candidate folders multiply, get lost, fragment information." A flat-file intake means search works, agents read it natively, and any team member can scan the hiring pipeline with ls. Demo-ready in under 30 seconds: /team-hr candidate "Jane Doe" → templated file is created with the right frontmatter, ready to populate after the intro call.

1. Install the team-hr skill (a self-contained Claude Code skill):

mkdir -p ~/.claude/skills/team-hr
cp -R /path/to/team-hr-skill/SKILL.md ~/.claude/skills/team-hr/
cp -R /path/to/team-hr-skill/examples ~/.claude/skills/team-hr/

2. Create the hiring folder structure:

mkdir -p "$VAULT/Org/HR/{roles,hiring/archive,onboarding}"

3. Customise SKILL.md once. Replace <COMPANY> placeholder, set HR= and VAULT= paths in the eval block, whitelist your current team members' folder names in the eval grep check #1, decide your standard + role-specific question banks.
4. Run on every new referral. When a CV / DM / forward arrives:

• /team-hr candidate "Mark Petrov" — the agent creates Org/HR/hiring/{Company} {candidate} Mark Petrov – 2026-05-10.md with frontmatter tags: [team, hr, candidate], type: candidate, status: intro, person, referrer, contact, cv: [[mark-petrov-cv.pdf]], date, direction.
• Drop the CV PDF flat in hiring/ (no subfolder).
• Fill TL;DR (3–5 lines: who, strengths, concerns, founder flag).
• Fill the CV compression table: period / role / scale (one row per role; never paste the full CV).
• Paste verbatim intro quotes — with channel and timestamp on each.

5. Pre-load questions for the upcoming call. Standard bank (5 universal: ownership story, AI workflow concrete example, hardest decision in last year, what would you do in your first 90 days, anti-pattern personal example). Role-specific bank (3 questions per role — keep these in Org/HR/Global-Rules/Question-Banks/).
6. After the call, fill Fit Assessment with ✓ / ⚠️ markers across the standard axes: AI fluency, ownership, domain knowledge, culture fit. Then mark decision A (trial) / B (advisory) / C (pause).
7. Run the multi-round process. Initial chat (15–20 min) → Founder call (45–60 min) → Paid test ($100–300 if no offer) → optional external advisor → Trial month (paid, explicit KPIs) → Permanent or part ways.
8. Status changes are frontmatter edits. status: intro → status: trial → if archived, move the file to hiring/archive/ and set status: archived. The personal folder Org/HR/{First}/ is created ONLY after they actually join.
9. Run the eval hygiene block weekly. The skill ships with 5 grep-based checks: candidates flat (not in subfolders); candidate files have cv:; candidates with status: intro older than 14 days force a decision; role cards have status: and 1-1 History; compensation strings don't leak outside Org/HR/. Schedule bash on the embedded eval block weekly.

The /team-hr candidate command (called from Claude Code in the vault):

/team-hr candidate "Mark Petrov"

The generated file shape (sample frontmatter + section skeleton):

---
tags: [team, hr, candidate]
type: candidate
status: intro
person: Mark Petrov
referrer: "@anna_referrer (Telegram, 2026-05-08)"
contact: mark.petrov@example.com / @mpetrov
cv: [[Mark Petrov CV 2026-05-10.pdf]]
date: 2026-05-10
direction: Engineering — backend
---

• No per-candidate subfolders. Banned 2026-05-05 after a candidate-folder case where candidate data fragmented across Mark/, Mark-Petrov/, Backend/Mark/. Flat files only. The eval block catches violations.
• No full-CV paste into the intake file. Use the CV compression table. Full CV is the PDF flat in hiring/. Reason: long files become unreadable; the table is what humans + agents both query.
• No per-candidate-status subfolders either (no hiring/intro/, hiring/trial/). Status lives in frontmatter; the eval block + grep are the index.
• No 8-section-with-emojis intake files. The 6 sections (TL;DR / CV table / Quotes / Call / Fit / Decision / Next) are the entire schema. Adding a "Personality assessment" or "🎯 Goals" section drifts.
• Personal folder Org/HR/{First}/ is created ONLY after the candidate joins. Not during trial. Not "in anticipation". Not at offer. After they actually start. Compensation, NDA, contracts live there; pre-creation invites compensation leaks into hiring discussions.
• Paid test is paid even on no-offer. $100–300 if no offer is made. This is the quality filter — refuses unpaid-take-home culture, attracts senior candidates.
• Compensation never lives in the candidate intake file. Negotiation drafts go in the personal HR folder only after they join. Past failure: comp strings leaked into a shared candidate file and were screenshot-shared.

• Lighter (1-3 person team): drop the eval block — manual hygiene is fine at this scale. Keep the file shape and the paid-test rule.
• Heavier (30-100 person team): add an agent-driven Stage-1 screening pre-call (CV + intro quotes → preliminary fit assessment, see #54+#55). Add a hire {role-slug} companion command that auto-generates a public JD landing page from a JD source file. Add the team-hr review command for periodic performance reviews of joined teammates.
• Recruiting-led variant: replace founder approval with hiring-manager approval; add a "panel" frontmatter field tracking 3–5 interviewers; rotate decision authority across panel.