Clay search

Search Clay's GTM database with advanced queries and return matching records — people or companies.

Audiences is the workspace's own people and companies — read and segment what they already have. Search is Clay's GTM database for net-new lists. This is not the tables entry-point skill (querying data already in a table) and not the workflows entry-point skill (automations). Reach for Search when the user wants to find prospects or accounts not in the workspace yet.

How it works

A search is a three-step, forward-only iterator:

1. Discover the query grammar and queryable fields.
2. Create the search and receive a searchId.
3. Run it to pull the next page of records. Repeat while hasMore is true.

There is no cursor: the iterator's position lives server-side and can't be replayed, so each run call returns the records after the previous one.

Before authoring a query, save the reference to a file in your working directory and read it from there — it is about 2,000 lines, far larger than one tool result can hold, so never print it to stdout or read it end to end:

clay searches query-mode reference | jq -r '.reference' > ./clay-search-reference.md
grep -n '^##' ./clay-search-reference.md

The grep lists every section with its line number. Read these sections by line offset, once per conversation:

1. Grammar, Operators, Where Semantics, and Query mode policy.
2. Common query guardrails plus the People or Companies query guardrails for the entity you are searching.
3. Your entity's field catalog in full — People fields and Experience fields for people searches, Companies fields for companies searches. Every field name and every allowed enum value is there; a value that is not listed fails validation.

Read a topic section (Location filtering, Dates/tenure/recency, Company identification, Products and services, Company size and revenue) only when the request needs it, and grep Examples for a field or phrase to see a worked query. Do not re-read sections already in your context. Queries return people or companies only; job-posting criteria are nested filters on those (jobs.exists(...), company.jobs.any(...)). Workspace audience references are covered in the Audiences section below.

Run clay searches --help (and clay searches <cmd> --help) for flags and output shapes. If clay isn't on PATH or clay whoami fails on auth, run the setup skill.

Audiences

The query language supports @audience_segment("segmentId") references; they resolve against the workspace when the search runs. clay searches query-mode reference also serves the Clay UI, so wherever it says to route an audience to a picker ("Resource selection required … in the Clay Search panel"), that applies only to the UI surface. When authoring a query here, resolve the audience yourself:

• To exclude everything the workspace already has — "exclude my existing contacts", "net-new accounts only", "not already in Clay", "exclude all my audiences" — use the built-in sentinel @audience_segment("ALL"), the whole Audiences dataset for the query's entity: clay.exclude_people_identifiers(@audience_segment("ALL")) or clay.exclude_company_identifiers(@audience_segment("ALL")). No lookup, no segment to create. Only resolve a specific segment when the user names a particular audience.
• clay audiences list --entity-type people|companies returns segment ids. Contact segments match people queries; Account segments match companies queries. Follow each response's cursor with --cursor until it is absent before matching a name or checking for duplicates. Write the id into @audience_segment("<segmentId>"). The reference's "Workspace resource references" section has the function signatures — e.g. clay.exclude_people_identifiers(@audience_segment("SEGMENT_ID")) to exclude a Contact audience, or clay.filter_to_companies(@audience_segment("SEGMENT_ID")) to target current employers from an Account audience.
• Never invent a segment id. If the user names an audience you cannot resolve, ask rather than guessing. Confirm with the user if multiple segments match the name.

When a criterion isn't supported

Check the reference before deciding whether it can express the criteria. Do not invent a field or operator that is not in the reference.

If the query can't express a criterion, split the request into what search can do and what a routine does:

1. Search on the closest available built-in criteria to get a candidate set (e.g. industry, size, or title criteria that approximate the intent).
2. Feed those results into a saved routine that enriches or scores each record for the attribute the user actually asked about, then filter or act on that routine's output.

Tell the user the field isn't a native search filter and offer this search → routine path rather than returning nothing. See the routines skill and "Next: enrich or persist the results" below for the handoff.

Warn before large generic searches

Before create, if the ask is generic and large — few criteria beyond something like industry + location (e.g. "all tech companies in NYC") — stop and suggest refining first. Offer 2–3 concrete narrowing options search can express (company size, title/seniority, open roles, tech stack, products and services, named companies/domains, or a small result limit). Do not create until they confirm or narrow; continue with the broad query only if they insist. Skip when the ask is already clearly bounded. After they insist, still apply Warn before near-exhaustion below when relevant.

Start a search

clay searches query-mode reference | jq -r '.reference' > ./clay-search-reference.md
clay searches query-mode create --query '<query>'

create returns { "searchId": "search_..." }.

Paging

run returns { "data": [ ... ], "hasMore": <boolean>, "periodQuota"?: { "limit", "used", "remaining", "resetsAt" } }. --limit is the page size. periodQuota appears on successful run responses only — not on create; do not invent values. Reuse the same searchId; each call returns the next page. Continue while hasMore is true, but after every run that returns periodQuota, apply Warn before near-exhaustion below before the next page. Stop when hasMore is false, or when the quota is near exhaustion — unless the user explicitly asks to continue.

clay searches query-mode run <searchId> [--limit <n>]

Warn before near-exhaustion

Keep routine quota checks internal under the shared cost policy in workflows-discover-actions/cost-and-budget.md. Do not announce a quota or seek approval merely because a search consumes results. The verified near-exhaustion condition below is an exception.

When periodQuota is present, before a create or run that will consume N results (the volume you plan to pull, not the full match set), check remaining − N. If that would leave under 15% of limit, stop and ask first:

This search will return {{N}} results and leave {{remaining − N}} of your period quota.

Continue only if they confirm. Otherwise offer a smaller pull that keeps at least 15% remaining, or stop. Skip when periodQuota is absent.

Example: limit 10,000, remaining 2,000, N 1,500 → 500 left (5% of cap) → warn.

Quotas

If a create or run fails with quota_exceeded (exit 1, HTTP 402), the workspace has hit a plan result cap (per-request, per-search, or period) or a credit/usage limit. Short backoff will not help. Read the error message and choose one of:

1. Per-request size — message names a "per request" limit. This is the only exception: reissue once with --limit ≤ that cap (e.g. free plans often allow 50 per request).
2. Per-search, period, or credits — anything else. Stop spending allowance: no further run at any --limit (including 1), and no new create to work around a per-search cap. The report is the finished deliverable. Give the short cap account from the error (upgrade, named period reset, or contact support). Always include the plan selector — resolve <workspaceId> with clay whoami | jq -r '.workspace.id' when the error has no URL: https://app.clay.com/workspaces/<workspaceId>/billing/plan-selector (bare URL; prefer a plan-selector URL from the error when present). If the error includes an upgrade URL or upgrade copy, make that selector extremely prominent: near the top of the reply and again as the last line (Upgrade your plan now at: <url>). If the error says to contact support, lead with that path and still add one plan-selector line so they can self-serve if they prefer. Also share the public search docs for follow-up questions: https://developers.clay.com/searches#result-limits. If the user asks to upgrade their plan, open the plan selector link for them. Pull a remainder only if they ask for it in a later message after that report; the original request for N results is not that ask.

validation_error (exit 2) means malformed input (bad flags/filters/query), not a quota. server_error (exit 1) on query-mode create/run can be a transient upstream fault (on run, e.g. the semantic-query embedding service timed out). On create, retry once after a short wait. On run, retry once only when no data came back — a retry re-serves the current page and can charge and count it again if the failure happened after billing. rate_limited (exit 4) is a short HTTP 429 backoff and may be retried after details.retryAfter.

Next: enrich or persist the results

Search only finds records. After paging results, offer one of two plugin paths — both via clay routines runs start. See the routines skill for sizing runs and fetching results.

Enrich without persisting

Prefer Clay-managed routines for standard enrichment. Before reaching for the raw action catalog or building a workflow, list the full, paginated routines set and check source: managed first. Clay ships managed routines that cover most enrichment — e.g. Work Email, Company Domain, Enrich Person, Enrich Person and Find Contact Details, Company Job Openings. Match on each routine's input schema (clay routines get <id>), not its name. Only fall through to the action catalog or a new workflow when no managed or custom routine fits.

clay routines list

clay routines get function:t_abc123

After Search has results, use the routines skill to start the run: list or get the routine schema, then clay routines runs start.

Persist into Audiences

When the user wants Search hits kept in the workspace, find or create a routine whose underlying workflow upserts with upsert-audiences-record. If none exists, build the workflow using the workflows skill's audiences.md, then to run in bulk see the routines skill.