# Refolk guides *Long, structured reference documents on searching for people, companies, and repositories. I revise them as the practice changes rather than publishing a replacement.* - Index: https://www.refolk.ai/guides - This file: https://www.refolk.ai/guides/index.md - Every guide is also available as plain Markdown at https://www.refolk.ai/guides/.md - Guides: 140 ## Recruiting and sourcing Finding, qualifying, and reaching the people you want to hire - from role brief to signed offer. - [Re-Engaging Past Finalists When a Matching Role Reopens](https://www.refolk.ai/guides/re-engaging-past-finalists) ([Markdown](https://www.refolk.ai/guides/re-engaging-past-finalists.md)) - A tool-neutral playbook to pull past finalists the day a role reopens, re-verify each one's public status, and produce a lawful, ranked re-engagement list. - [From Patent Records to a Reachable Inventor Shortlist](https://www.refolk.ai/guides/patent-records-to-inventor-shortlist) ([Markdown](https://www.refolk.ai/guides/patent-records-to-inventor-shortlist.md)) - The end-to-end method for sourcing hardware and R&D engineers from the public patent record, scoping CPC codes, disambiguating inventors, and resolving to current contacts. - [The First-Message Send Standard for Passive Candidates](https://www.refolk.ai/guides/first-message-send-standard) ([Markdown](https://www.refolk.ai/guides/first-message-send-standard.md)) - Grade any first-touch candidate outreach draft as send, rework, or hold against a checklist two recruiters would score the same way before it leaves the outbox. - [The Repo-Evidence Skill Standard for Technical Shortlists](https://www.refolk.ai/guides/repo-evidence-skill-standard) ([Markdown](https://www.refolk.ai/guides/repo-evidence-skill-standard.md)) - A pass/fail standard for deciding whether public GitHub activity proves a specific skill, so two sourcers grading the same profile reach the same verdict. - [The Recruiter's GitHub Signal Reference: Trust, Discount, or Ignore](https://www.refolk.ai/guides/github-signal-reference-recruiters) ([Markdown](https://www.refolk.ai/guides/github-signal-reference-recruiters.md)) - A lookup reference for recruiters reading an engineer's GitHub: what each signal proves, the false positive and false negative that make it lie, and how to weight it. - [Sourcing a Compiler Engineer From Public Contributions](https://www.refolk.ai/guides/sourcing-compiler-engineer-contributions) ([Markdown](https://www.refolk.ai/guides/sourcing-compiler-engineer-contributions.md)) - A worked teardown for filling a low-LinkedIn-signal compiler role: start from anchor repos, enumerate contributors, resolve identity, and rank a shortlist. - [The Shortlist Submission Standard: When a List Is Ready](https://www.refolk.ai/guides/shortlist-submission-standard) ([Markdown](https://www.refolk.ai/guides/shortlist-submission-standard.md)) - A gradeable definition of done for a candidate shortlist, with the pass/fail checklist two recruiters would apply identically before sending to the hiring manager. - [The Target-Company List Standard: When Your Source List Is Ready to Work](https://www.refolk.ai/guides/target-company-list-standard) ([Markdown](https://www.refolk.ai/guides/target-company-list-standard.md)) - A pass/fail standard for grading a target-company source list as ready-to-work before you pull a single candidate name, so two sourcers reach the same verdict. - [The Talent Watering-Hole Reference: Where Specialists Leave Traces](https://www.refolk.ai/guides/talent-watering-hole-reference) ([Markdown](https://www.refolk.ai/guides/talent-watering-hole-reference.md)) - A per-archetype lookup for sourcing rare specialists: the public venues to search, what a hit there proves about skill, and the false positives each one produces. - [The GitHub Profile Triage Read for Technical Sourcing](https://www.refolk.ai/guides/github-profile-triage-read) ([Markdown](https://www.refolk.ai/guides/github-profile-triage-read.md)) - A weighted rubric to score any GitHub profile against one open role and reach a research-now, park, or skip call in under two minutes. For technical recruiters. - [Draining One Competitor's Public Org Into a Hiring Shortlist](https://www.refolk.ai/guides/competitor-org-to-shortlist) ([Markdown](https://www.refolk.ai/guides/competitor-org-to-shortlist.md)) - Take one named competitor and produce a ranked, deduped, reachable shortlist of its team, with funnel counts, dedupe checks, and the contract red lines that pause a name. - [Leveling a Candidate: Reading Real Seniority From Title and Company](https://www.refolk.ai/guides/leveling-candidate-title-company) ([Markdown](https://www.refolk.ai/guides/leveling-candidate-title-company.md)) - A scoring rubric for sourcers to normalize a candidate's true level from their title plus company context, catching inflation and hidden seniority alike. - [The Talent-Availability Signal Reference for Target Companies](https://www.refolk.ai/guides/talent-availability-signal-reference) ([Markdown](https://www.refolk.ai/guides/talent-availability-signal-reference.md)) - A lookup reference for sourcers: which public company events make employees reachable, the receptivity window, where to detect it, and how each signal misleads. - [The Standing Talent Pipeline: Warm Before the Req Opens](https://www.refolk.ai/guides/standing-talent-pipeline-warm) ([Markdown](https://www.refolk.ai/guides/standing-talent-pipeline-warm.md)) - Stand up and maintain a proactive candidate pipeline per role family, with a stocking search, warmth tiers, a refresh cadence, and the five fields every entry must carry. - [Building a Target-Company List for a Product-Manager Search](https://www.refolk.ai/guides/target-company-list-pm-search) ([Markdown](https://www.refolk.ai/guides/target-company-list-pm-search.md)) - Carry one live Product-Manager search from a blank sheet to a ranked 20-to-50 company universe, sizing each company by candidate count and tagging include, expand, or cut. - [From Contributor Graph to Ranked Candidate Shortlist](https://www.refolk.ai/guides/contributor-graph-to-shortlist) ([Markdown](https://www.refolk.ai/guides/contributor-graph-to-shortlist.md)) - A repeatable method for turning a repository's raw contributor list into a deduplicated, noise-filtered shortlist ranked by role fit and contactability. - [The Layoff Watchlist Playbook: Reach Affected Talent First](https://www.refolk.ai/guides/layoff-watchlist-recruiting-playbook) ([Markdown](https://www.refolk.ai/guides/layoff-watchlist-recruiting-playbook.md)) - Build and run a standing watchlist that flags when target companies shed the roles you hire, ordered by lead time, so you reach affected people first. - [Grading a Company as a Talent Source for a Sourcing List](https://www.refolk.ai/guides/grading-company-talent-source) ([Markdown](https://www.refolk.ai/guides/grading-company-talent-source.md)) - Score any company as include, tier, or exclude for a specific search using four public signals, and turn those scores into a prioritized target company list. - [The Candidate Openness Score: Message Now, Nurture, or Skip](https://www.refolk.ai/guides/candidate-openness-score-rubric) ([Markdown](https://www.refolk.ai/guides/candidate-openness-score-rubric.md)) - Turn public signals into a weighted openness score that sorts any candidate into message-now, nurture, or skip, with a column for how each signal lies. - [One Sourcing Search: From First Query to Ranked Shortlist](https://www.refolk.ai/guides/sourcing-search-first-query-to-shortlist) ([Markdown](https://www.refolk.ai/guides/sourcing-search-first-query-to-shortlist.md)) - Carry one real candidate search from an empty result set to a sent shortlist, diagnosing at each fork whether a count is a query problem or a market fact. - [The People-Search Query Cookbook: Patterns That Return Real Candidates](https://www.refolk.ai/guides/people-search-query-cookbook) ([Markdown](https://www.refolk.ai/guides/people-search-query-cookbook.md)) - A reference of people-search query patterns organized by hiring intent, with how each one translates across LinkedIn, GitHub, and Google X-ray, and how it misfires. - [The Search Brief Standard: When a Role Is Ready to Source](https://www.refolk.ai/guides/search-brief-standard) ([Markdown](https://www.refolk.ai/guides/search-brief-standard.md)) - A pass/fail standard for grading a role brief before sourcing starts, with a reproducibility test, must-have criteria, and a verification checklist. - [The Talent Sourcing Playbook: Role Brief to Ranked Shortlist](https://www.refolk.ai/guides/talent-sourcing-playbook) ([Markdown](https://www.refolk.ai/guides/talent-sourcing-playbook.md)) - Run a full sourcing cycle for one open role, from intake brief to ranked shortlist, sized against real funnel and pool data so you do not waste a week. ## Sales and go-to-market Building account lists, mapping who actually decides, and finding the moment to reach out. - [The Account Whitespace Map: One Logo to Every Buying Center](https://www.refolk.ai/guides/map-account-whitespace-buying-centers) ([Markdown](https://www.refolk.ai/guides/map-account-whitespace-buying-centers.md)) - A search-first playbook to turn one existing customer into a ranked list of untapped departments, units, and subsidiaries, each with a named decision-maker. - [Scoring a Closed-Lost Deal: Reopen, Nurture, or Bury](https://www.refolk.ai/guides/scoring-closed-lost-deals) ([Markdown](https://www.refolk.ai/guides/scoring-closed-lost-deals.md)) - Score any closed-lost deal on loss reason, ICP fit, elapsed time, live trigger, and reachability, then sort it into reopen, nurture, or bury. - [The Repo-Signal Qualification Standard: When a GitHub Lead Is Sales-Ready](https://www.refolk.ai/guides/repo-signal-qualification-standard) ([Markdown](https://www.refolk.ai/guides/repo-signal-qualification-standard.md)) - A pass/fail standard for deciding when a GitHub star, fork, issue, or PR clears the bar to become an outbound lead a rep actually works. - [The GitHub Buying-Signal Reference: What Each Repo Event Proves](https://www.refolk.ai/guides/github-buying-signal-reference) ([Markdown](https://www.refolk.ai/guides/github-buying-signal-reference.md)) - Look up any GitHub repository event, read what it proves about buying intent, its intent tier, its false-positive traps, and how to confirm it before routing to a rep. - [The Account Disqualification Standard: When to Cut a Company](https://www.refolk.ai/guides/account-disqualification-standard) ([Markdown](https://www.refolk.ai/guides/account-disqualification-standard.md)) - A gradeable standard for disqualifying accounts from a target list: the disqualifier categories, the public field that proves each, and the verification checklist. - [From Repo Stargazers to a Qualified Meeting List](https://www.refolk.ai/guides/stargazers-to-meeting-list) ([Markdown](https://www.refolk.ai/guides/stargazers-to-meeting-list.md)) - Turn one repository's stargazers into a deduplicated, outreach-ready meeting list, with the real intermediate counts and drop-off yield at every stage. - [The Competitive Displacement Signal Reference](https://www.refolk.ai/guides/competitive-displacement-signal-reference) ([Markdown](https://www.refolk.ai/guides/competitive-displacement-signal-reference.md)) - A per-signal reference for finding accounts that already run a competitor and are ready to switch: what each signal proves, how it misleads, and how to weight it. - [Ranking Named Contacts at One Account for First Touch](https://www.refolk.ai/guides/ranking-contacts-first-touch) ([Markdown](https://www.refolk.ai/guides/ranking-contacts-first-touch.md)) - A five-dimension framework to tier named contacts at one account, decide send order, and split hand-written outreach from templated sequences before you touch a cold prospect. - [From Badge-Scan Export to a Ranked Outreach Queue](https://www.refolk.ai/guides/attendee-list-to-outreach-queue) ([Markdown](https://www.refolk.ai/guides/attendee-list-to-outreach-queue.md)) - Turn a messy multi-company conference attendee export into a deduplicated, ICP-filtered, contact-resolved outreach queue ranked by fit and intent with a defensible count at every stage. - [The DevTool Outreach Queue: From GitHub Activity to Ranked Sends](https://www.refolk.ai/guides/github-devtool-outreach-queue) ([Markdown](https://www.refolk.ai/guides/github-devtool-outreach-queue.md)) - Build a repeatable weekly pipeline that turns GitHub stars, forks, issues, and dependency adoption into a deduped, account-resolved, lawful-send outreach queue. - [Scoring an Account's Open-Source Footprint for Buying Intent](https://www.refolk.ai/guides/scoring-repo-footprint-buying-intent) ([Markdown](https://www.refolk.ai/guides/scoring-repo-footprint-buying-intent.md)) - A weighted scoring model that turns a company's activity on your open-source repo into a defensible intent tier: reach now, nurture, or skip. - [The Outreach-Ready Contact Standard: When a Record Is Safe to Send](https://www.refolk.ai/guides/outreach-ready-contact-standard) ([Markdown](https://www.refolk.ai/guides/outreach-ready-contact-standard.md)) - A pass/fail standard for grading one contact record on identity, role currency, deliverability, and reachability before it enters an outbound sequence. - [The Buyer Readiness Signal Reference: Reading One Person's Footprint](https://www.refolk.ai/guides/buyer-readiness-signal-reference) ([Markdown](https://www.refolk.ai/guides/buyer-readiness-signal-reference.md)) - Look at one prospect's public footprint and decide what each signal proves about receptivity, how fast it decays, and whether it justifies a touch now. - [Buying-Committee Mapping: Finding Everyone Who Has to Say Yes](https://www.refolk.ai/guides/buying-committee-mapping) ([Markdown](https://www.refolk.ai/guides/buying-committee-mapping.md)) - A framework for turning a target account into a named list of the people who decide, block, and champion, with role scoring and coverage checks. - [The Job-Change Trigger Playbook: Turn a Champion's Move Into Pipeline](https://www.refolk.ai/guides/job-change-trigger-playbook) ([Markdown](https://www.refolk.ai/guides/job-change-trigger-playbook.md)) - A field playbook to track when customers change jobs, detect a champion move fast, qualify the new employer, and run a warm first-touch that opens the account. - [Scoring an Account's Fit Before It Earns Rep Time](https://www.refolk.ai/guides/scoring-account-fit-before-rep-time) ([Markdown](https://www.refolk.ai/guides/scoring-account-fit-before-rep-time.md)) - A per-account rubric to score one named company on structural fit and buying window from public evidence, then assign a defensible pursue, nurture, or pass tier. - [The Account Brief Standard: What a Rep Needs Before First Touch](https://www.refolk.ai/guides/account-brief-standard) ([Markdown](https://www.refolk.ai/guides/account-brief-standard.md)) - A fixed evidence bar and stop rule for grading whether an account brief is ready to hand a rep for outbound, so two graders reach the same verdict. - [From One Account to the Person Who Owns the Problem](https://www.refolk.ai/guides/account-to-problem-owner) ([Markdown](https://www.refolk.ai/guides/account-to-problem-owner.md)) - Take a single named account and produce one verified, current name plus the right first contact, with the exact searches and tenure checks that got you there. - [One Target Account List: From ICP to the Reps' Queue](https://www.refolk.ai/guides/icp-to-reps-queue-account-list) ([Markdown](https://www.refolk.ai/guides/icp-to-reps-queue-account-list.md)) - Carry one ideal customer profile through query, dedup, scoring, and tiering into a defensible, tiered account list your reps can work this quarter. - [The Warm Intro Path Playbook: From Target Account to Forwarded Ask](https://www.refolk.ai/guides/warm-intro-path-playbook) ([Markdown](https://www.refolk.ai/guides/warm-intro-path-playbook.md)) - A per-account procedure to surface every connector path into a target account, rank paths by real relationship strength, and send a forwardable ask that gets passed along. - [Building a Reseller Partner Pipeline From Public Evidence](https://www.refolk.ai/guides/reseller-partner-pipeline-from-evidence) ([Markdown](https://www.refolk.ai/guides/reseller-partner-pipeline-from-evidence.md)) - Turn an ideal partner profile into a ranked pipeline of reseller and referral companies scored on public evidence of overlap, offering, and sales capacity. - [The Outbound Trigger Reference: What to Watch and When to Move](https://www.refolk.ai/guides/outbound-trigger-reference) ([Markdown](https://www.refolk.ai/guides/outbound-trigger-reference.md)) - A per-signal lookup table for sales triggers, with the decay window, proof of intent, false-positive trap, and public source for each. Jump to a row and act. - [Scoring a Buying Committee by Power, Stance, and Coverage](https://www.refolk.ai/guides/scoring-buying-committee-power-stance-coverage) ([Markdown](https://www.refolk.ai/guides/scoring-buying-committee-power-stance-coverage.md)) - A scoring rubric that turns one target account into a named committee roster with decision-role, power, stance, confidence, and a coverage verdict. ## Investing and deal sourcing Spotting companies and founders early, and diligencing the team behind a round. - [Customer Reference Calls: Verifying Traction Before You Wire](https://www.refolk.ai/guides/customer-reference-calls-verify-traction) ([Markdown](https://www.refolk.ai/guides/customer-reference-calls-verify-traction.md)) - Run customer reference calls on a seed or Series A deal that test real demand and retention, sequenced to the term-sheet window without burning the founder's base. - [Founder Reference Calls: From First List to Go or No-Go](https://www.refolk.ai/guides/founder-reference-call-program) ([Markdown](https://www.refolk.ai/guides/founder-reference-call-program.md)) - Build and run a complete founder reference program: source on-list and backchannel names, sequence the calls, ask the right questions, and reach a defensible verdict. - [The Pre-Wire Diligence Standard for Seed Deals](https://www.refolk.ai/guides/pre-wire-diligence-standard-seed) ([Markdown](https://www.refolk.ai/guides/pre-wire-diligence-standard-seed.md)) - Grade any seed deal's confirmatory diligence as ready-to-wire or not-yet, against named founder, traction, and reference criteria two partners can score alike. - [The Diligence Red-Flag Reference: Walk Away, Price It In, or Ignore](https://www.refolk.ai/guides/diligence-red-flag-reference) ([Markdown](https://www.refolk.ai/guides/diligence-red-flag-reference.md)) - A graded lookup for early-stage investors: take any warning sign found during diligence and classify it as walk-away, price-it-in, or noise, with what it proves. - [The Build-Versus-Wrapper Read: One Startup's Repos, Start to Finish](https://www.refolk.ai/guides/build-versus-wrapper-repo-read) ([Markdown](https://www.refolk.ai/guides/build-versus-wrapper-repo-read.md)) - Carry one target startup's public repos through to a defensible read of proprietary engineering versus open-source and API glue, with evidence for each claim. - [The Commercial Open Source Readiness Standard](https://www.refolk.ai/guides/commercial-open-source-readiness-standard) ([Markdown](https://www.refolk.ai/guides/commercial-open-source-readiness-standard.md)) - A pass/fail standard for grading whether an open-source project clears the bar to become a venture-backable company, before you take the founder call. - [Sourcing Companies Before the Round Is Announced](https://www.refolk.ai/guides/sourcing-before-round-announced) ([Markdown](https://www.refolk.ai/guides/sourcing-before-round-announced.md)) - A pre-seed and seed sourcing playbook for finding companies weeks before they show up in a funding database, using people, registry, and code signals. - [Mapping the Real Competitive Set Behind One Pitch](https://www.refolk.ai/guides/mapping-competitive-set-behind-pitch) ([Markdown](https://www.refolk.ai/guides/mapping-competitive-set-behind-pitch.md)) - Take one pitch deck's "no competition" claim to a documented map of named competitors, including stealth and incumbent efforts, and a defensible verdict. - [The Open-Source Traction Metric Reference for Deal Screening](https://www.refolk.ai/guides/open-source-traction-metric-reference) ([Markdown](https://www.refolk.ai/guides/open-source-traction-metric-reference.md)) - A lookup for screening open-source startups: what each repository metric proves about adoption, how it gets inflated, and the counter-check to run before you price traction. - [The Early-Hire Team-Quality Score for Seed and Series A Deals](https://www.refolk.ai/guides/scoring-early-hires-team-signal) ([Markdown](https://www.refolk.ai/guides/scoring-early-hires-team-signal.md)) - Score a seed or Series A company's first ten to twenty non-founder hires from public profiles and produce a defensible team-quality read before the partner meeting. - [The Imminent-Raise Signal Reference for Watchlist Companies](https://www.refolk.ai/guides/imminent-raise-signal-reference) ([Markdown](https://www.refolk.ai/guides/imminent-raise-signal-reference.md)) - A row-by-row lookup of public signals that a watchlisted startup is about to raise, scored by lead time and by the exact way each one misleads. - [Grading a Deck's Traction Claims Against Public Signals](https://www.refolk.ai/guides/grading-deck-traction-claims) ([Markdown](https://www.refolk.ai/guides/grading-deck-traction-claims.md)) - Take a pitch deck's stated MRR, user count, and growth rate and grade each claim plausible, inflated, or unverifiable from public signals in under an hour. - [The Founder Claim Verification Standard: When a Track Record Checks Out](https://www.refolk.ai/guides/founder-claim-verification-standard) ([Markdown](https://www.refolk.ai/guides/founder-claim-verification-standard.md)) - Grade every material founder claim as confirmed, unconfirmed, or contradicted against an independent source, and decide when the background clears the bar to wire. - [Building a Living Sector Map for Deal Sourcing](https://www.refolk.ai/guides/living-sector-map-deal-sourcing) ([Markdown](https://www.refolk.ai/guides/living-sector-map-deal-sourcing.md)) - Turn an investment thesis into a maintained sector map with measured coverage, a refresh cadence tied to field decay, and a ranked contact list. - [The Stealth Founder Signal Reference: Reading One Person's Pre-Launch Footprint](https://www.refolk.ai/guides/stealth-founder-signal-reference) ([Markdown](https://www.refolk.ai/guides/stealth-founder-signal-reference.md)) - Read any single pre-formation founder signal on one person and know what it proves, how it misleads, and how fast it decays before you rank them. - [The Public-Repo Technical Diligence Read for Early-Stage Deals](https://www.refolk.ai/guides/public-repo-technical-diligence-read) ([Markdown](https://www.refolk.ai/guides/public-repo-technical-diligence-read.md)) - Run a same-day technical read of a startup from its public repos, with named red flags, evidence, and go/flag/stop thresholds before a term sheet. - [Grading Whether a Repo's GitHub Traction Is Real](https://www.refolk.ai/guides/grading-github-traction-real) ([Markdown](https://www.refolk.ai/guides/grading-github-traction-real.md)) - A weighted scoring framework for early-stage investors to decide whether a dev-tools repo's GitHub popularity is real, mixed, or inflated before partner review. - [The Deal Screen Standard: What a Company Must Prove Before Partner Review](https://www.refolk.ai/guides/deal-screen-standard) ([Markdown](https://www.refolk.ai/guides/deal-screen-standard.md)) - A gradeable bar for the single gate between a sourced company and a partner meeting, so two associates reach the same pass-or-advance verdict from one record. - [The Off-List Reference List: Who to Call Before You Wire](https://www.refolk.ai/guides/off-list-reference-list-founder) ([Markdown](https://www.refolk.ai/guides/off-list-reference-list-founder.md)) - Build a ranked list of 8 to 15 off-list references on a founder before you wire, using employment-spine reconstruction and alumni search. Carried through one worked example. - [The Public-Signal Momentum Score for Early-Stage Triage](https://www.refolk.ai/guides/public-signal-momentum-score) ([Markdown](https://www.refolk.ai/guides/public-signal-momentum-score.md)) - Score any early-stage company on public momentum signals and land a defensible pursue-now, watch, or pass decision before you spend a warm intro on it. - [The Solo Talent Partner's Monthly Portfolio Hiring Cycle](https://www.refolk.ai/guides/solo-talent-partner-portfolio-cycle) ([Markdown](https://www.refolk.ai/guides/solo-talent-partner-portfolio-cycle.md)) - A monthly operating cycle for the only talent person at a fund: triage every open portfolio role, pick the few to source hands-on, and batch one search across many companies. - [Grading a Founding Team on Public Evidence](https://www.refolk.ai/guides/grading-founding-team-public-evidence) ([Markdown](https://www.refolk.ai/guides/grading-founding-team-public-evidence.md)) - A scored framework for judging a founding team from public sources alone, so you can reach a defensible go/hold/pass call before you spend partner time. - [The Pre-Announcement Deal Sourcing Playbook](https://www.refolk.ai/guides/pre-announcement-deal-sourcing-playbook) ([Markdown](https://www.refolk.ai/guides/pre-announcement-deal-sourcing-playbook.md)) - A weekly routine that names forming pre-seed and seed companies from public signals before they hit any funding database, so you reach the founder first. ## Engineering and open source Reading code, repositories, and contribution history as evidence of what someone can do. - [Scoring an Inbound PR: Genuine Work or AI Slop](https://www.refolk.ai/guides/scoring-inbound-pr-ai-slop) ([Markdown](https://www.refolk.ai/guides/scoring-inbound-pr-ai-slop.md)) - A graded rubric to triage each unsolicited pull request or issue on reputation, effort, and code signals and reach a defensible verdict in minutes. - [The Model-Hub Signal Reference for Reading an ML Engineer](https://www.refolk.ai/guides/model-hub-signal-reference-ml-engineer) ([Markdown](https://www.refolk.ai/guides/model-hub-signal-reference-ml-engineer.md)) - Decode Hugging Face and Kaggle signals one by one: what each proves, what it does not, and how re-uploads and bot inflation make it lie. - [The Elevated-Access Grant Standard for Open-Source Contributors](https://www.refolk.ai/guides/elevated-access-grant-standard) ([Markdown](https://www.refolk.ai/guides/elevated-access-grant-standard.md)) - Grade any commit, maintainer, or publish access request against fixed criteria and land on grant, probation, or deny with the same verdict a teammate would reach. - [The Open-Source Control Signal Reference: Who Governs a Project](https://www.refolk.ai/guides/open-source-control-signal-reference) ([Markdown](https://www.refolk.ai/guides/open-source-control-signal-reference.md)) - Read the public governance signals on any open-source project and state in writing who controls the name, license, and releases, and what happens to you if they change them. - [Reading a Repository: The Maintainer-Signal Reference](https://www.refolk.ai/guides/reading-a-repository-maintainer-signals) ([Markdown](https://www.refolk.ai/guides/reading-a-repository-maintainer-signals.md)) - A lookup reference for judging what a GitHub repository actually proves about the people who work on it, with each signal's limit and how it misleads. - [Verifying the Real Team Behind a Dev Shop Before You Sign](https://www.refolk.ai/guides/verify-dev-shop-real-team) ([Markdown](https://www.refolk.ai/guides/verify-dev-shop-real-team.md)) - Take one dev shop proposal and confirm from public evidence that the pitched engineers exist, work there, and wrote the code, before you sign. - [The Company-Backed Dependency Standard: Safe to Build On](https://www.refolk.ai/guides/company-backed-dependency-standard) ([Markdown](https://www.refolk.ai/guides/company-backed-dependency-standard.md)) - Grade a company-backed open-source project pass, conditional, or fail on relicensing and single-vendor continuity risk before you commit to it. - [Scoring a Vendor's Engineering Reliability From Public Signals](https://www.refolk.ai/guides/scoring-vendor-engineering-reliability) ([Markdown](https://www.refolk.ai/guides/scoring-vendor-engineering-reliability.md)) - Score a prospective API or platform vendor on weighted engineering-health dimensions from public evidence alone, then turn the total into a build, sandbox, or avoid decision. - [The Employer-Concentration Read: Elephant Factor Before You Adopt a Dependency](https://www.refolk.ai/guides/employer-concentration-elephant-factor) ([Markdown](https://www.refolk.ai/guides/employer-concentration-elephant-factor.md)) - Map a dependency's core contributors to their employers, compute its Elephant Factor, and assign a single-vendor capture and abandonment risk tier you can defend. - [Developer Public Evidence: What Each Source Proves](https://www.refolk.ai/guides/developer-public-evidence-sources) ([Markdown](https://www.refolk.ai/guides/developer-public-evidence-sources.md)) - A source-by-source reference for locating one engineer's public technical evidence and judging what each platform proves, how it misleads, and how fresh it must be. - [Reading an Acquihire Target's Engineering Team From Public Evidence](https://www.refolk.ai/guides/reading-acquihire-engineering-team) ([Markdown](https://www.refolk.ai/guides/reading-acquihire-engineering-team.md)) - Turn one acquihire target from company name into a ranked engineering roster that names load-bearing builders and flags who is likely to walk, using only public code. - [Reading a Company's Engineering Org From Public Signals](https://www.refolk.ai/guides/reading-engineering-org-public-signals) ([Markdown](https://www.refolk.ai/guides/reading-engineering-org-public-signals.md)) - A signal-by-signal reference for reading a company's stack, engineering team size, and technical maturity from public sources, with what each proves and how it lies. - [Resolving a GitHub Handle to a Verified, Reachable Person](https://www.refolk.ai/guides/resolve-github-handle-to-person) ([Markdown](https://www.refolk.ai/guides/resolve-github-handle-to-person.md)) - A teardown that carries one handle-only GitHub contributor to a verified name and a confirmed contact channel, with the spoof and false-match checks the shortcuts skip. - [Scoring Maintainer Concentration Risk Before You Depend on a Repo](https://www.refolk.ai/guides/scoring-maintainer-concentration-risk) ([Markdown](https://www.refolk.ai/guides/scoring-maintainer-concentration-risk.md)) - Score any open-source repo's maintainer concentration risk from public commit and review history, and land on safe, depend-with-mitigation, or avoid. - [Scoring a GitHub Profile: Genuine, Gamed, or Borrowed](https://www.refolk.ai/guides/scoring-genuine-vs-gamed-github-profile) ([Markdown](https://www.refolk.ai/guides/scoring-genuine-vs-gamed-github-profile.md)) - Score any developer's GitHub profile for authenticity before you trust it in a shortlist, and learn the one check that confirms authorship of the code. - [From Package Name to Account List: Who Runs Your Library](https://www.refolk.ai/guides/package-to-company-account-list) ([Markdown](https://www.refolk.ai/guides/package-to-company-account-list.md)) - Turn your open-source library's public dependents into a deduplicated, ranked list of companies to hand DevRel or sales, each tagged with adoption depth. - [Mapping the Repository Landscape Around One Seed Project](https://www.refolk.ai/guides/mapping-repository-landscape-seed-project) ([Markdown](https://www.refolk.ai/guides/mapping-repository-landscape-seed-project.md)) - An end-to-end procedure to turn one seed repository into a deduplicated, ranked landscape map of alternatives, dependents, and adjacent tools. - [The Developer Champion List From Public Build Signals](https://www.refolk.ai/guides/developer-champion-list-public-signals) ([Markdown](https://www.refolk.ai/guides/developer-champion-list-public-signals.md)) - A repeatable procedure to find external developers using your SDK or API from public signals alone, then rank and lawfully invite them into a beta or advocacy program. - [The Dependency Adoption Standard: Grade a Library Before You Add It](https://www.refolk.ai/guides/dependency-adoption-standard) ([Markdown](https://www.refolk.ai/guides/dependency-adoption-standard.md)) - A gradeable standard for deciding whether to adopt an open-source library as a production dependency, with named thresholds and a reproducible review checklist. - [Tracing Who Actually Wrote a Library From Its Commit History](https://www.refolk.ai/guides/who-wrote-the-library-commit-forensics) ([Markdown](https://www.refolk.ai/guides/who-wrote-the-library-commit-forensics.md)) - Take any public repository and name the engineer who owns its core, separating real authorship from bot noise and squash merges, then verify before you reach out. - [The Maintainer Outreach Send Standard: Grade a Draft Before You Send](https://www.refolk.ai/guides/maintainer-outreach-send-standard) ([Markdown](https://www.refolk.ai/guides/maintainer-outreach-send-standard.md)) - A pass or fail standard for grading outreach to open-source maintainers as send, fix, or kill before you hit send, so two reviewers reach the same verdict. - [The Public-Work Interview Screen for Engineers](https://www.refolk.ai/guides/public-work-interview-screen) ([Markdown](https://www.refolk.ai/guides/public-work-interview-screen.md)) - A framework for deciding whether to interview an engineer from their public code and writing, including when the trail is too thin to score at all. - [Reading a Repository: What Each Signal Proves About a Contributor](https://www.refolk.ai/guides/reading-a-repository-contributor-signals) ([Markdown](https://www.refolk.ai/guides/reading-a-repository-contributor-signals.md)) - A signal-by-signal reference for evaluating a GitHub profile: what stars, commits, and merged PRs prove about a person, and the one check that separates truth from noise. ## Market and talent intelligence Mapping a market, a competitor, or a talent pool, and turning the map into a decision. - [Scoring a Competitor Hiring Spike: Real Acceleration or Noise](https://www.refolk.ai/guides/scoring-competitor-hiring-spike) ([Markdown](https://www.refolk.ai/guides/scoring-competitor-hiring-spike.md)) - Normalize and de-noise a competitor's open-role count against a per-company baseline, then return a defensible verdict of real acceleration, ambiguous, or noise. - [The Build, Buy, or Borrow Read for a Capability Gap](https://www.refolk.ai/guides/build-buy-borrow-capability-read) ([Markdown](https://www.refolk.ai/guides/build-buy-borrow-capability-read.md)) - Score a single capability gap on six talent-market dimensions and resolve it to build, buy, or borrow, with the supply, time, and cost evidence behind every score. - [The Briefing Readiness Standard: When Talent and Market Findings Can Ship](https://www.refolk.ai/guides/briefing-readiness-standard) ([Markdown](https://www.refolk.ai/guides/briefing-readiness-standard.md)) - A claim-level definition of done for competitor-and-talent briefings, so two reviewers reach the same ship-or-hold decision on the same draft. - [The Adoption Read Standard: When an Open-Source Trend Holds Up](https://www.refolk.ai/guides/adoption-read-standard) ([Markdown](https://www.refolk.ai/guides/adoption-read-standard.md)) - Grade any open-source adoption read against fixed acceptance criteria so two analysts return the same publish, fix, or kill verdict on the same evidence. - [The Talent Market Map That Survives a Leadership Review](https://www.refolk.ai/guides/talent-market-map-leadership-review) ([Markdown](https://www.refolk.ai/guides/talent-market-map-leadership-review.md)) - A start-to-finish method to size and segment a talent pool, anchor it to a citable baseline, and defend every number when leadership pushes back. - [Telling Real Category Adoption From Manufactured Momentum](https://www.refolk.ai/guides/real-adoption-vs-manufactured-momentum) ([Markdown](https://www.refolk.ai/guides/real-adoption-vs-manufactured-momentum.md)) - A teardown that carries one AI agent framework category through every check, so you can tell real open-source adoption from fake star velocity before you file a report. - [The Market Sizing Standard: When a TAM Estimate Is Defensible](https://www.refolk.ai/guides/defensible-tam-estimate-standard) ([Markdown](https://www.refolk.ai/guides/defensible-tam-estimate-standard.md)) - A pass/fail rubric and verification checklist for grading a TAM, SAM, and SOM estimate so two analysts reach the same verdict before it goes into a deck. - [The Demand-Signal Reference for Sizing a Market Category](https://www.refolk.ai/guides/demand-signal-market-sizing-reference) ([Markdown](https://www.refolk.ai/guides/demand-signal-market-sizing-reference.md)) - Pick the right public proxy for each part of a market-size estimate, convert it into a defensible number, and state how far to trust it before you accept a TAM. - [Placing a Technology Category on Its Adoption Curve](https://www.refolk.ai/guides/category-adoption-curve-oss-signals) ([Markdown](https://www.refolk.ai/guides/category-adoption-curve-oss-signals.md)) - A framework to score an emerging technology category from its open-source footprint and place it into a defensible adoption state for a strategy review. - [Reading a Competitor's Talent Outflow From Public Departures](https://www.refolk.ai/guides/reading-competitor-talent-outflow) ([Markdown](https://www.refolk.ai/guides/reading-competitor-talent-outflow.md)) - Build a dated departure list for a target company, compute a defensible public-signal attrition read for one function, and classify it with a stated confidence tier. - [The Domain-Authority Signal Reference: What Proves Someone Shapes a Field](https://www.refolk.ai/guides/domain-authority-signal-reference) ([Markdown](https://www.refolk.ai/guides/domain-authority-signal-reference.md)) - Name the handful of people who genuinely shape a niche field, using only public evidence, and defend every rank against the way each authority signal misleads. - [The Talent-Competitor Ranking Standard: Tiering Rivals by Public Movement](https://www.refolk.ai/guides/ranking-talent-competitors-public-movement) ([Markdown](https://www.refolk.ai/guides/ranking-talent-competitors-public-movement.md)) - Score any company on net talent flow, skill and role overlap, geography, and hiring velocity, then tier it into a competitor class that drives a specific action. - [The Ecosystem Adoption Signal Reference for Technology Trend Reads](https://www.refolk.ai/guides/ecosystem-adoption-signal-reference) ([Markdown](https://www.refolk.ai/guides/ecosystem-adoption-signal-reference.md)) - A signal-by-signal reference for reading open-source ecosystem adoption: what star velocity, downloads, dependents, and job postings each prove, and how each one lies. - [The Competitive Set Inclusion Standard: Direct, Adjacent, Substitute, or Out](https://www.refolk.ai/guides/competitive-set-inclusion-standard) ([Markdown](https://www.refolk.ai/guides/competitive-set-inclusion-standard.md)) - Score whether a company you just surfaced belongs in your competitive set and at which tier, using public product, buyer, geography, and hiring signals two analysts can reproduce. - [The Pay Benchmark Standard: When a Salary Range Is Ready to Post](https://www.refolk.ai/guides/pay-benchmark-post-ready-standard) ([Markdown](https://www.refolk.ai/guides/pay-benchmark-post-ready-standard.md)) - Grade any draft salary range as post-ready or not-yet against fixed criteria, and produce the one-page evidence trail that survives a legal or Finance challenge. - [Sizing a Private Company From Public Headcount Signals](https://www.refolk.ai/guides/sizing-private-company-headcount) ([Markdown](https://www.refolk.ai/guides/sizing-private-company-headcount.md)) - A vendor-neutral method to estimate a private company's headcount, department mix, and growth rate from public signals, with a stated confidence range. - [Sizing a Skill's Talent Pool From Its Open-Source Ecosystem](https://www.refolk.ai/guides/sizing-skill-talent-pool-open-source) ([Markdown](https://www.refolk.ai/guides/sizing-skill-talent-pool-open-source.md)) - A start-to-finish method to count and geolocate the people who genuinely work in a niche technology by traversing its repository graph, then reconcile it. - [Reconstructing a Competitor Org Chart From Public Profiles](https://www.refolk.ai/guides/reconstruct-competitor-org-chart) ([Markdown](https://www.refolk.ai/guides/reconstruct-competitor-org-chart.md)) - A tool-agnostic method to rebuild one competitor's reporting structure from public data, with every inferred line graded by confidence and evidence. - [The Talent-Market Signal Reference: What Each Data Point Proves](https://www.refolk.ai/guides/talent-market-signal-reference) ([Markdown](https://www.refolk.ai/guides/talent-market-signal-reference.md)) - A lookup reference for labor-market signals: what a posting spike, duration, supply-demand ratio, or tenure drop proves, and the confound to rule out first. - [Turning a Raw Candidate Count Into a Defensible Pool Estimate](https://www.refolk.ai/guides/defensible-talent-pool-estimate) ([Markdown](https://www.refolk.ai/guides/defensible-talent-pool-estimate.md)) - A scoring model that corrects a raw candidate count into a talent pool estimate with a stated confidence grade and reachable subset, defensible line by line. - [Choosing a Second Engineering Hub From the Talent Numbers](https://www.refolk.ai/guides/second-engineering-hub-talent-numbers) ([Markdown](https://www.refolk.ai/guides/second-engineering-hub-talent-numbers.md)) - A teardown that carries candidate cities through a specialty-level talent count so you can pick a second engineering hub on depth, not a cost spreadsheet. - [Reading a Competitor's Roadmap From Its Open Roles](https://www.refolk.ai/guides/competitor-roadmap-from-open-roles) ([Markdown](https://www.refolk.ai/guides/competitor-roadmap-from-open-roles.md)) - Reconstruct a competitor's next two to three product and market bets from one quarter of its public job postings and departures, with a confidence level on each. - [Building a Talent Market Map That Survives a Leadership Review](https://www.refolk.ai/guides/talent-market-map-defensible) ([Markdown](https://www.refolk.ai/guides/talent-market-map-defensible.md)) - A step-by-step method to size and segment a talent pool, deduplicate across sources, and attach a confidence band that holds up when an executive pushes back. ## Process, data, and compliance Keeping a search operation clean: data hygiene, lawful sourcing, measurement, and handoffs. - [The Lawful-Sourcing Standard: What You May Collect, Keep, and Send](https://www.refolk.ai/guides/lawful-sourcing-standard) ([Markdown](https://www.refolk.ai/guides/lawful-sourcing-standard.md)) - Set a candidate sourcing data policy legal will sign off and recruiters will follow, covering lawful basis, retention, cross-border transfers, and DPIAs. - [The Sourcing Funnel Leak Diagnosis Standard](https://www.refolk.ai/guides/diagnose-sourcing-funnel-leak) ([Markdown](https://www.refolk.ai/guides/diagnose-sourcing-funnel-leak.md)) - Take one outbound search's raw stage counts, score each transition against outbound baselines, rule out false leaks, and name the one stage to fix first. - [The Data Access and Deletion Request Runbook](https://www.refolk.ai/guides/data-access-deletion-request-runbook) ([Markdown](https://www.refolk.ai/guides/data-access-deletion-request-runbook.md)) - A start-to-finish runbook for taking a candidate or prospect data access or deletion request from intake to a verified, defensible response inside the deadline. - [The Contact Dataset Quality Standard: Release, Remediate, or Quarantine](https://www.refolk.ai/guides/contact-dataset-quality-standard) ([Markdown](https://www.refolk.ai/guides/contact-dataset-quality-standard.md)) - A gradeable pass/fail bar for people-and-company contact datasets, with numeric cutoffs and a verification procedure, so two ops owners reach the same release verdict. - [Clearing a Commit-Mined Contact Batch for Lawful Outreach](https://www.refolk.ai/guides/clearing-commit-mined-contact-batch) ([Markdown](https://www.refolk.ai/guides/clearing-commit-mined-contact-batch.md)) - A record-by-record clearance funnel for commit-mined GitHub contacts, ending in a per-segment go, hold, or drop decision with an auditable paper trail. - [Grading a Commit-Mined Email Before It Enters the CRM](https://www.refolk.ai/guides/grading-commit-mined-email) ([Markdown](https://www.refolk.ai/guides/grading-commit-mined-email.md)) - A fixed rubric for scoring git-sourced email addresses on reachability, identity, and recency so you load only usable contacts into the CRM. - [The Git Commit Metadata Reference: Which Fields You Can Trust](https://www.refolk.ai/guides/git-commit-metadata-trust-reference) ([Markdown](https://www.refolk.ai/guides/git-commit-metadata-trust-reference.md)) - A field-by-field lookup for git and GitHub commit metadata: what each field proves, how it is forged, and whether it is safe as identity evidence. - [The Company Identifier Reference: Which Key Resolves One Entity](https://www.refolk.ai/guides/company-identifier-reference) ([Markdown](https://www.refolk.ai/guides/company-identifier-reference.md)) - Pick the right identifier to match company records across two sources, rank each by stability and coverage, and name the exact way each one produces false merges. - [The Field Conflict Rubric: Which Source Wins When Records Disagree](https://www.refolk.ai/guides/field-conflict-survivorship-rubric) ([Markdown](https://www.refolk.ai/guides/field-conflict-survivorship-rubric.md)) - Score any single-field data conflict on five dimensions and decide, consistently, which source's value survives, when to keep both, and when to flag it. - [Auditing a Purchased Data Sample Field by Field](https://www.refolk.ai/guides/auditing-a-data-sample-field-by-field) ([Markdown](https://www.refolk.ai/guides/auditing-a-data-sample-field-by-field.md)) - A neutral teardown of one contact-data accuracy audit, carried from a stratified sample through field-level rates to a renew, renegotiate, or replace call. - [The Lawful-Use Standard for Repository-Sourced Contact Data](https://www.refolk.ai/guides/lawful-use-repository-contact-data) ([Markdown](https://www.refolk.ai/guides/lawful-use-repository-contact-data.md)) - Grade any repository-derived contact record as usable, restricted, or must-discard, cite the exact rule behind each verdict, and make two reviewers agree. - [The Account Universe Maintenance Cadence: Keeping a Company Master List Accurate](https://www.refolk.ai/guides/account-universe-maintenance-cadence) ([Markdown](https://www.refolk.ai/guides/account-universe-maintenance-cadence.md)) - Run a repeating cadence that keeps your CRM account universe accurate as companies merge, rebrand, relocate, and grow, with measurable accuracy thresholds. - [Verifying a Flagged Candidate Is a Real, Single Person](https://www.refolk.ai/guides/verify-flagged-candidate-real-person) ([Markdown](https://www.refolk.ai/guides/verify-flagged-candidate-real-person.md)) - A desk procedure for carrying one suspicious candidate through cross-platform footprint checks and reaching a defensible verdict before any interview is booked. - [The Do-Not-Contact Registry Standard: One Suppression List Every Tool Honors](https://www.refolk.ai/guides/do-not-contact-registry-standard) ([Markdown](https://www.refolk.ai/guides/do-not-contact-registry-standard.md)) - Build a central do-not-contact registry that every sequencer, dialer, and mail tool scrubs before a send, wire opt-out capture, and prove enforcement with a seed test. - [Reconciling Two Account Lists Into One Company Universe](https://www.refolk.ai/guides/reconcile-two-account-lists) ([Markdown](https://www.refolk.ai/guides/reconcile-two-account-lists.md)) - Merge two company lists into one deduplicated master without losing records or over-merging distinct firms, with the intermediate counts at every stage. - [From Raw Commit Log to a Defensible Count of Distinct Humans](https://www.refolk.ai/guides/commit-log-to-distinct-humans) ([Markdown](https://www.refolk.ai/guides/commit-log-to-distinct-humans.md)) - Turn a repository's raw commit data into a deduplicated roster of distinct human contributors, using an auditable alias-merge and bot-exclusion pipeline. - [The Source Attribution Standard: One Tag, Two Graders, No Drift](https://www.refolk.ai/guides/source-attribution-standard) ([Markdown](https://www.refolk.ai/guides/source-attribution-standard.md)) - A definition-of-done for source tagging candidate and account records, so two people credit the same record identically and channel reports reconcile. - [The Data Provider Vetting Standard: What a Source Must Prove Before You Buy](https://www.refolk.ai/guides/data-provider-vetting-standard) ([Markdown](https://www.refolk.ai/guides/data-provider-vetting-standard.md)) - Grade any prospective people or company data provider pass or fail on sourcing, lawful basis, data-subject rights, and accuracy before you sign the contract. - [The Data Freshness Reference: How Fast Each Field Decays](https://www.refolk.ai/guides/data-freshness-field-decay-reference) ([Markdown](https://www.refolk.ai/guides/data-freshness-field-decay-reference.md)) - A field-level lookup for B2B data decay: per-field decay rates, staleness tells, and defensible re-verify intervals for people and company records. - [The Candidate Record Retention and Deletion Reference](https://www.refolk.ai/guides/candidate-record-retention-deletion-reference) ([Markdown](https://www.refolk.ai/guides/candidate-record-retention-deletion-reference.md)) - Look up the retention clock, start trigger, lawful basis, and required deletion action for every candidate record type you hold, including sourced prospects who never applied. - [The Company Record Match Rubric: Merge, Link, or Keep Separate](https://www.refolk.ai/guides/company-record-match-rubric) ([Markdown](https://www.refolk.ai/guides/company-record-match-rubric.md)) - Score any pair of company records on a fixed set of signals and land on a defensible merge, link, or keep-separate decision another operator would reach the same way. - [Scoring an Outbound Contact List for Lawful Send](https://www.refolk.ai/guides/scoring-outbound-list-lawful-send) ([Markdown](https://www.refolk.ai/guides/scoring-outbound-list-lawful-send.md)) - A per-list scoring rubric for RevOps owners to grade provenance, lawful basis, jurisdiction, and retention, then land a defensible send, fix, or hold decision. - [The Candidate Database Cleanup and Deduplication Playbook](https://www.refolk.ai/guides/candidate-database-cleanup-deduplication) ([Markdown](https://www.refolk.ai/guides/candidate-database-cleanup-deduplication.md)) - Run a full candidate database cleanup: measure the real duplicate rate, merge without false positives, purge by retention window, and set an audit cadence. - [The Lawful Sourcing Standard for Candidate Data](https://www.refolk.ai/guides/lawful-sourcing-standard-candidate-data) ([Markdown](https://www.refolk.ai/guides/lawful-sourcing-standard-candidate-data.md)) - Set a candidate sourcing data policy legal will sign off and recruiters will follow, and grade any record against fixed pass and fail criteria. ## Definitions and explainers - [What is a people search engine?](https://www.refolk.ai/guides/what-is-people-search) ([Markdown](https://www.refolk.ai/guides/what-is-people-search.md)) - A plain-English guide to people search engines: what they are, how they work, what they're used for, and how AI changed them.