Pipeline Nodes Reference

Every step in a pipeline is a node you drag onto the canvas from the palette on the left of the editor. The palette groups nodes into Communication, Automated Assessment, Interviews, Reviews, Flow Control, and Integrations. Each step type has its own icon, shown the same way in the palette and on the canvas. This page covers all of them, plus the built-in steps every pipeline has. For how the editor itself works, see the Pipelines Overview.

Built-in steps

Every pipeline begins with a Start card. It's where candidates enter, and it has three rows: Application link (click to copy the public link), Outreach for linking outreach campaigns, and Referral link, which opens the referral settings. Empty Drag a step here slots show where the next step can go. When a candidate finishes the last step on their path, they're marked as completed.

Right after Start sits the Application Form, the form applicants fill in on your public application page. By default it collects name, email, Phone Number, a resume upload, and LinkedIn Profile, and you can customize its fields.

Communication

Node	What it does
Email	Sends a customized email to the candidate, with placeholders like first name, last name, and company name.
SMS	Sends a personalized text message to the candidate's phone.

Use these to confirm receipt of an application, share prep material before an interview, or deliver good (or bad) news between stages. Key settings: the Subject (email only) and Message, plus which connected mailbox sends the email. Insert placeholders with the Variables picker beside each field, or press Ctrl+/ (⌘/ on Mac) while typing. Its Custom group holds your company's message variables (set under Settings → Workspace Settings → Message Variables), and a variable can carry a fallback after a pipe, like {city|your area}, for when there's nothing to fill in. See Outreach Campaigns for more on variables.

Automated Assessment

These steps evaluate candidates without you lifting a finger. Most of them email the candidate a personal link and wait for a response before advancing.

Node	What it does	When to use it
Personality Test	A Work Style Interview (a conversational AI interview on collaboration, decision-making, and work style) or a DISC Profile questionnaire.	Understanding team fit and working preferences.
Skills Assessment	Sends one of your assessments, with technical challenges or custom topics.	Verifying the abilities the role actually requires.
Resume Screening	AI analyzes and scores the candidate's resume against your job description.	As the first filter on almost every pipeline.
IQ Test	A timed cognitive ability test covering verbal, numerical, logical, and spatial reasoning.	Roles needing analytical thinking and quick learning.
AI Phone Screen	An AI voice agent calls the candidate and conducts a conversational interview.	Prescreening at scale. See AI Voice Interviews.

Key settings: Resume Screening scores each resume out of 100 against its Evaluation criteria (typically your job description). It can also screen on true/false resume facts you define (for example, "5+ years of backend experience"); branch on those answers with a Choice step and candidates route down different paths automatically, so the pipeline does the first pass for you. Personality Test asks you to choose a variant once the step is added: the Work Style Interview (15–20 minutes, needs a microphone) or the DISC Profile, a 28-question forced-choice profile (6–8 minutes, any device) scored the moment the candidate submits (see DISC Personality Profiles). AI Phone Screen lets you set the opening message, the conversation prompt, and the voice. Skills Assessment links to an assessment you've built (a coding-focused variant appears as Coding Assessment on the canvas). The assessment and call steps all include Smart follow-up reminders: up to three automatic nudges after a set number of days, sent by Email, SMS, or Email & SMS.

Interviews

Node	What it does
Video Interview	Collects the candidate's availability, matches it against your team's working hours, and schedules a live video interview.
Phone Interview	Collects availability the same way, for a phone call your team makes at the scheduled time.

Key settings for Video Interview: the Meeting platform (Google Meet, Zoom, or Microsoft Teams), the Interviewer Pool, Meeting Owner, and Other Interviewers, working hours and Timezone, and an Evaluation Rubric for the review afterward. Each interviewer hosts on their own connected account; teammates connect their platforms under Calendar → Connections, and only people who have the chosen platform connected can be picked. Phone Interview adds the Twilio phone number the call comes from. Both pause the pipeline until the interview is held and reviewed. See Calendar & Scheduling.

Reviews

Both of these hold the candidate until a person signs off.

Node	What it does	When to use it
Candidate Review	Pauses the candidate until someone on your team clicks Approve or Disapprove.	A human checkpoint before expensive or final stages.
Offer Letter	Sends a generated offer for multi-party signing (internal approvers plus the candidate) and auto-advances when fully signed.	Closing the hire. See Offers.

Offer Letter has three built-in terms on every offer (Position, Salary, and Start date), and you can add your own fields and internal signers.

Flow Control

Node	What it does	When to use it
Choice	Branches candidates down different paths based on conditions (scores, responses, other data).	Routing strong scorers ahead and others to rejection.
Randomization	Randomly distributes candidates across up to four paths, with a weight per path.	A/B testing different processes or messaging.
Wait	Pauses the candidate for a delay you set in hours.	Spacing out communications or giving breathing room.

Choice works through Branches: candidates are checked against each branch in order and take the first one they match. A new Choice starts with one branch called Meets criteria; rename it, click Add condition under Send candidates where, and choose whether a candidate must match All or Any of the conditions. Click Add a branch for more (up to four). An Everyone else branch is always there and can't be removed: anyone who matches none of the branches above ends up on it. On the canvas, each branch's name appears as a colored label on the step it leads to, and Everyone else is always red. Randomization paths hold regular process nodes only (no nested branching or waits).

Integrations

Node	What it does
Webhook	Waits for data from an external service, then matches it to the candidate and records the results.
API Call	Sends a custom HTTP request: method, URL, headers, parameters, and body are all yours to define.

Use these to plug in outside tools: an external testing platform, your HRIS, or anything with an API. Details in Webhooks and Integrations Overview. A Zapier step may also appear in older pipelines for Zapier-based hand-offs.

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Not sure where to start? A strong default is Resume Screening → Skills Assessment → Candidate Review → Video Interview → Offer Letter. That's essentially what the Hive templates build for you.

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Every node must be fully configured before you can activate the pipeline; empty or incomplete nodes block activation with a validation error.

What's next

Assemble these blocks in Creating a Pipeline
Build the tests behind the Skills Assessment step in Assessments Overview
Handle review checkpoints in Managing Candidates in a Pipeline
Configure AI calls in AI Voice Interviews
Read a behavioural profile in DISC Personality Profiles