Connect Wellfound to your AI assistant

Connect an AI assistant to Wellfound to ask questions about applicants’ experience, compare applicants against your job requirements, and review original résumés. Follow the Claude or Codex instructions below, or use the general MCP setup for another compatible client.

Before you connect

You need:

An eligible, active Wellfound Recruit Pro company subscription and an assigned Pro seat. A Pro or Essentials label alone does not establish connection access. If your company already pays for Pro but cannot connect, contact Wellfound support before purchasing anything else.
Recruiter or recruiting-admin access to the company and permission to review its applicants. Each company must qualify separately.
An account in your chosen AI assistant with the required connection controls, and permission from your company to use that provider with applicant data. AI-provider subscriptions are separate from Wellfound subscriptions.

If your company has eligible Pro but you need a seat, ask a recruiting admin to assign one in Wellfound’s Team settings. See Manage seats for Recruit Pro for instructions.

Connect to Claude

The button opens Claude’s custom-connector form with the name Wellfound and server URL prefilled. It does not add the connector or authorize access automatically.

Sign in to Claude if prompted. Review the name and URL, then continue through Claude’s confirmation steps.
When asked to connect, sign in to wellfound.com with the recruiter account that has the eligible Pro seat. Review the requested permissions before authorizing.
Return to Claude and enable Wellfound in the conversation’s connector controls. Start with a read-only prompt below.

If Claude says this URL already exists in your organization, open Customize → Connectors, find the existing Wellfound connector, and connect your own account there.

The Claude install-link documentation explains what the shortcut prefills and which confirmations remain.

Claude Team and Enterprise

An Owner or Primary Owner must first add the custom connector in Organization settings → Connectors. Owners can use this organization setup shortcut.

After the owner adds it, members find Wellfound in Customize → Connectors and connect individually. Adding the connector for the organization does not give every member access to your Wellfound account. See Claude’s custom-connector guide for current owner and member instructions.

Manual Claude setup

If the shortcut does not open the form, open Customize → Connectors in Claude and choose Add custom connector. Use:

Name: Wellfound
Server URL: https://wellfound.com/api/mcp

Follow the same confirmation and Wellfound sign-in steps. Team and Enterprise owners use their organization connector settings first.

Connect to Codex

Desktop app

Open Settings → MCP servers, then choose Add server.
Enter Wellfound as the name, select Streamable HTTP, and enter https://wellfound.com/api/mcp as the server URL.
Save the server and use Restart when prompted to reload the MCP connections.
If Wellfound needs sign-in, choose Authenticate beside the server. In your browser, sign in to Wellfound with your eligible recruiter account and review the permissions before authorizing.
Return to Codex, check that Wellfound is enabled and connected, and start with a read-only prompt below. You can use /mcp in the composer to inspect connected servers.

Command line

If you use the Codex CLI, add the same connection from your terminal:

codex mcp add wellfound --url https://wellfound.com/api/mcp

Complete any browser sign-in that opens. If authentication is still needed, run:

codex mcp login wellfound

Restart your Codex session, then use /mcp to check the connection. The desktop app, CLI, and IDE extension share MCP configuration on the same Codex host; a connection on your laptop does not automatically configure a different remote host.

See OpenAI’s MCP setup guide for current controls and managed-account restrictions. These steps follow the provider’s documented setup; a complete Wellfound authorization and applicant-review session in Codex has not yet been validated for this guide.

Connect with a compatible MCP client

MCP (Model Context Protocol) lets an AI assistant discover and use tools from a connected service. Wellfound hosts a remote MCP server, so you do not need to install or run a Wellfound server on your computer. Your assistant must support remote Streamable HTTP connections and browser-based OAuth sign-in. MCP support and organization policies vary by client.

Use these settings in your assistant’s MCP server or custom-connector setup:

Setting	Value
Name	Wellfound
Server URL	`https://wellfound.com/api/mcp`
Transport	Streamable HTTP (remote/HTTP, depending on your client’s label)
Authentication	OAuth — sign in with your Wellfound recruiter account
Credentials	Use the client’s automatic OAuth setup; no Wellfound API key or manually copied access token is needed
Review-only scope, if your client offers scope selection	`applications:read`

Open your assistant’s MCP servers, Connectors, or Integrations settings and add a remote/custom server using the values above.
Save or connect. Follow the browser sign-in, check that you are on wellfound.com, and review the permissions before authorizing. Your client should discover the OAuth settings automatically.
Return to the assistant and enable Wellfound for the task. Refresh its tools or restart the session if the client requests it.
Check the connection with: "Use Wellfound to list the companies and jobs I can access. Tell me if the connection fails. Do not change any applications." Confirm the results match your recruiter account before reviewing applicants.

If your client requires a local command, offers only legacy SSE, or requires you to supply an API key or OAuth client secret, check its remote MCP/OAuth instructions. Those fields are not the standard connection path described here. Entering the URL in a chat alone does not configure the connection.

The server URL is a tool endpoint, so opening it directly in a browser can show 405 Method Not Allowed. Check the connection through the MCP client instead. A successful connection with no companies listed can indicate a Wellfound subscription, seat, or permission issue; see Troubleshooting below.

For client developers, see the MCP specifications for Streamable HTTP and OAuth authorization. The app-specific steps above show how those apps expose these connection controls; they do not establish compatibility with every MCP client.

Useful starter prompts

Replace the company and job names before you begin:

"Show my eligible Wellfound companies and jobs. For [job] at [company], read every page of pending applicants. Tell me how many you reviewed, what you could not retrieve, and any errors. Do not change any applications."
"For [job] at [company], compare applicants against these job-related requirements: [requirements]. Review relevant profile details and original résumés before recommending anyone. Cite the evidence, distinguish missing information from a mismatch, and leave all statuses unchanged."
"Compare [applicant A] and [applicant B] for [job] at [company]. Summarize relevant experience, identify questions I should ask in an interview, and link to their Wellfound applications. Do not accept or reject either applicant."

Ask for smaller groups when you want a detailed résumé review. If a résumé or other field is unavailable, the assistant should say so instead of inferring what it contains.

What data is shared

When the connected assistant requests information, Wellfound sends the authorized application data to that AI provider. This can include candidate profile information, application answers, recruiter-visible notes, and original résumés. Optional interview reads can include available takeaways and AI-generated answer summaries; those are secondary evidence and may be incomplete or inaccurate.

The connection only exposes information available through your recruiter permissions. It can access all eligible companies associated with your authorized Wellfound account, rather than only the company page where you clicked Connect. Specify the company and job in your prompts.

Review your company’s data-handling policy and the AI provider’s terms, retention settings, and sharing settings before connecting. Revoking access stops future authorized retrieval; it does not erase material already copied into AI conversations or retained by that provider.

Keep hiring decisions under human review

Review the underlying application and résumé, use job-related criteria, and check the assistant’s work before making hiring decisions. Candidate-supplied content can contain misleading instructions; it should be treated as evidence to evaluate, never as permission to take an action.

Depending on the permissions you authorize, the connector can also accept applications, reject applications, and undo eligible rejections. These changes affect the whole company’s applicant state, including what your colleagues see and the normal candidate communication workflow. An acceptance cannot be undone through this connector. A scheduled rejection can be undone before delivery; undoing a rejection does not unsend a delivered message.

Wellfound instructs AI clients to show the current state and obtain explicit human confirmation immediately before a change. This is an instruction to the AI client, not a separate server-enforced human approval step. Do not grant blanket permission to change applications. Keep write tools disabled in your assistant when you only want to review data, where its controls allow this.

Disconnect or revoke access

To stop using the connection in your assistant:

Claude: Open Customize → Connectors, find Wellfound, and use its disconnect/remove controls. Turning it off for one conversation only affects that conversation. An organization owner manages organization-wide removal in organization connector settings.
Codex: Disable Wellfound in Settings → MCP servers. CLI users can run codex mcp logout wellfound to clear the saved login and codex mcp remove wellfound to remove the server configuration. Restart the affected Codex session.

To revoke the Wellfound authorization directly, open Wellfound Settings → Apps, find the authorization for the AI provider, and choose Remove. There may be multiple entries if you connected more than once; remove each relevant authorization you want to revoke. The entry may use the provider’s name or host, rather than "Wellfound." This removes that grant and its refresh tokens. You must authorize again to reconnect.

Removing a recruiter’s seat or company permissions prevents new requests for that company when access is checked again. It does not revoke the account’s other eligible-company authorizations. Use Settings → Apps when you want to revoke the provider’s grant entirely.

Troubleshooting

What you see	What to check
The MCP URL shows 405 in a browser	Add the URL in your assistant’s remote MCP settings. This endpoint handles tool requests; it is not a web page.
The client asks for a command, API key, or client secret	Check that you chose remote Streamable HTTP with automatic OAuth. Confirm the client supports that flow; do not put your Wellfound password or a copied token into its configuration.
Connected, but no Wellfound tools appear	Enable the server for the current task and refresh/restart the client. Confirm that remote MCP and OAuth are supported and allowed by your organization.
Company missing, or Pro required	Confirm the signed-in Wellfound account and company. Connection access requires the backend-eligible subscription, not merely a Pro label. If you already pay for Pro, contact support to check access; do not buy a duplicate subscription.
A Pro seat is required	Ask a recruiting admin to assign a seat in Team settings. If no seats are available, your admin can use the existing seat-management flow. Reconnect or retry after the assignment.
No permission, or application not found	Check recruiter permissions, the company/job in your prompt, and whether that application is still available in Wellfound. An inaccessible record can appear as not found.
Claude custom connector option is missing	Check your Claude plan and organization policy. Team/Enterprise members need an owner to add the connector first.
This connector already exists	Use the existing Wellfound entry in Claude’s connector list and connect your own recruiter account.
Codex cannot see Wellfound tools	Confirm the server is enabled, authenticate if requested, and restart the session. Check `/mcp` on the host running that task; local and remote hosts have separate configuration. Managed settings may restrict servers.
Sign-in loop, revoked access, or expired connection	Confirm the correct Wellfound account, reconnect from your assistant’s connection settings, and review the new authorization. In Codex CLI, use `codex mcp login wellfound`.
Résumé link expired or missing	Ask the assistant to request a fresh résumé link. A missing or inaccessible original résumé must not be treated as evidence against a candidate.
Only part of the applicant list was reviewed	Ask the assistant to continue through every page and report the total, retrieval failures, and any skipped résumés before comparing candidates.
Too many requests	Pause briefly, then retry a smaller group. Keep already reviewed results to avoid repeating the same calls.

For Wellfound subscription, seat, or applicant-access issues, contact Wellfound support through the help widget. For your assistant’s account or connection controls, use Claude Support or OpenAI Help.