Sifting through hundreds of CVs for the perfect candidate can be a major bottleneck in recruitment. Imagine an AI assistant that could take your job posting, securely access your internal candidate database, instantly match relevant CVs, and even grade them based on suitability. Today, we’ll show you how we leveraged FlowHunt.io to build exactly this kind of system. We’ll focus on a crucial technique: using the Run Flow component to securely interact with a private CV database API and manage complex matching logic.
An Intelligent CV Screening Assistant
Our objective was to create an automated system that could:
- Accept a job posting description as input.
- Securely connect to a private API hosting a database of candidate CVs.
- Identify CVs that match the requirements of the job posting.
- Analyze each matched CV, grading its compatibility and highlighting strengths and weaknesses relative to the role.
- Present a ranked list of the most suitable candidates.

Security and Rating model
Building such a system involves several challenges:
- Security: Accessing a private CV database requires handling sensitive API keys and ensuring data privacy.
- Sophisticated Logic: Matching CVs to job descriptions isn’t just keyword searching; it requires nuanced understanding and comparison, often best handled by AI, followed by structured grading.
Modular Design using ‘Run Flow’ for Custom Tools
To tackle complexity and enhance security, we used FlowHunt’s Run Flow component. This allows us to create a dedicated, reusable “sub-flow” that acts as a secure custom tool for handling the CV matching task.
Here’s the breakdown:
- The “CV Matching & Grading” Tool (Sub-Flow):
- Purpose: This specialized flow handles all interactions with the private CV database and performs the core matching/grading.
- Input: Receives the job posting details from the main flow.
- Actions:
- Contains an API Request component securely configured with the private API URL, necessary headers, and authentication credentials (using FlowHunt’s secrets management for the API key). This component fetches candidate CV data.
- Includes logic (potentially using another AI Agent within this sub-flow, or Code component ) to:
- Compare the job posting requirements against the fetched CVs.
- Identify relevant matches.
- Grade each matched CV based on criteria like skills overlap, experience relevance, etc.
- Determine strengths and weaknesses for each match.
- Output: Returns a structured list of matched candidates, including their CV data, compatibility grade, and analysis.
[Image: Conceptual simplified diagram of the CV Matching Sub-Flow: Input (Job Posting) -> API Request (Private CV DB w/ Secret Key) -> AI Logic (Matching/Grading) -> Output (Ranked CV List)]
- The Main Orchestration Flow:
- Purpose: Handles user interaction and coordinates the overall process.
- Input: A Chat Input component (or similar) takes the job posting description from the user.
- Action: Uses the Run Flow component to execute the “CV Matching & Grading” sub-flow, passing the job posting details to it.
- Output: Receives the structured list of graded candidates from the sub-flow and presents it clearly to the user via a Chat Output component (potentially after some final formatting or summarization by another AI agent in the main flow).
[Image: Conceptual simplified diagram of the Main Flow: Chat Input (Job Posting) -> Run Flow (Calls CV Matching Sub-Flow) -> Chat Output (Displays Ranked List)]
Step-by-Step Conceptual Build:
- Build the Sub-Flow (“CV Matching & Grading Tool”):
- Create a new flow.
- Add an API Request component. Configure its URL, method (e.g., POST or GET), and crucially, set up authentication using FlowHunt’s credentials/secrets feature to store your private API key securely.
- Add AI Agents component to process the API response (the CVs) against the input job posting. Implement your matching and grading logic here.
- Define the output structure (e.g., a JSON list of candidates with grades).

–Build the Main Flow:
- Create the main flow.
- Add Chat Input for the job posting.
- Add the Run Flow component.
- Add Chat Output to display results.
–Configure the Run Flow Component:
- Click the Run Flow component in the main flow.
- In its settings, select the “custom_trigger” sub-flow you created.
- Map the job posting data from the Chat Input to the expected input of the sub-flow.

–Connect Outputs: Connect the output of the Run Flow (Iterator) component (which contains the results from the sub-flow) to the Chat Output component (potentially via an intermediate formatting step if needed).
Why This Modular Approach Excels:
- Security: The sensitive API key for the private CV database is contained entirely within the sub-flow, reducing exposure. Access to edit/view that specific sub-flow can be controlled.
- Reusability: The “CV Matching & Grading Tool” can be called by different main flows if needed (e.g., one triggered by email, another by chat).
- Maintainability: Updates to the private API or the matching logic only require changes in the dedicated sub-flow.
- Testability: The sub-flow can be tested independently, ensuring the core API interaction and matching logic work correctly before integrating it.
Secure, Scalable AI Recruitment
FlowHunt, combined with strategic use of the Run Flow component, empowers you to build sophisticated AI recruitment tools that interact securely with private data sources. By encapsulating complex logic and sensitive API calls within modular sub-flows, you can create powerful, maintainable, and scalable solutions to automate demanding tasks like CV screening and matching. This approach turns a complex challenge into a manageable, automated workflow.
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