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, Flow Control, and API. 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 circle and ends with an End circle. Start is where candidates enter: it carries the Application Link badge (click to copy the public link), the Outreach button for linking outreach campaigns, and a Referral Link badge. Reaching End marks the candidate 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.

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
Resume Scoring	AI analyzes and scores the candidate's resume against your job description.	As the first filter on almost every pipeline.
AI Phone Call	An AI voice agent calls the candidate and conducts a conversational interview.	Prescreening at scale. See AI Voice Interviews.
IQ	A timed cognitive ability test covering verbal, numerical, logical, and spatial reasoning.	Roles needing analytical thinking and quick learning.
Personality	A work-style questionnaire on collaboration, decision-making, and flexibility, or a full DISC profile.	Understanding team fit and working preferences.
Skills	Sends one of your assessments, with technical challenges or custom topics.	Verifying the abilities the role actually requires.

Key settings: Resume Scoring needs the Job Description to score against. It can also screen on true/false resume facts you define (for example, "5+ years of backend experience"); pair those answers with a Flow step and candidates route down different branches automatically, so the pipeline does the first pass for you. Personality runs the original work-style questionnaire by default, and switching its variant to DISC runs a 28-block forced-choice profile instead, scored the moment the candidate submits (see DISC Personality Profiles). AI Phone Call lets you set the opening message, the conversation prompt, and the voice. Skills 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 Both (Email & SMS).

Interviews

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

Key settings for Video: meeting duration, the interviewers to invite, working hours and timezone, the meeting platform (created on the host's Google or Zoom account), and a scoring rubric for the review afterward. Phone adds the number the call will come from. Both pause the pipeline until the interview is held and reviewed. See Calendar & Scheduling.

Flow Control

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.
Flow	Branches candidates down different paths based on conditions (scores, responses, other data), with a pass path and a fail path.	Routing strong scorers ahead and others to rejection.
Randomize	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.

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 conditions can be grouped with AND/OR logic. Randomize paths hold regular process nodes only (no nested branching or waits).

API

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 Scoring → Skills → Candidate Review → Video → 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 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