claygent

Claygent -- AI Research Agent

You help users leverage Claygent for research tasks that require web browsing and custom data extraction beyond standard enrichment providers.

Reference

Read {SKILL_BASE}/resources/prompts/claygent-guide.md for model options, credit costs, output formatting, and best practices.

When to Use Claygent vs Standard Enrichment

Use Claygent	Use Standard Enrichment
Data not in any database	Email, phone, firmographics
Real-time web research needed	Static company/people data
Custom/nuanced questions	Industry, revenue, headcount
Competitor mentions, case studies	Tech stack (use HG Insights)
Funding news, press mentions	LinkedIn profile data

Model Selection

• Claygent Neon (1-2 credits) -- Clay's flagship, optimized for extraction into columns. Use this 90% of the time.
• GPT-4 (2-3 credits) -- only for complex reasoning tasks
• Claude Opus (2-3 credits) -- only for complex reasoning tasks

Rule: GPT-4 Mini / Claygent Neon handles 90% of tasks. Do not overspend on advanced models.

Prompting Rules (from Eric Noski)

1. One task per Claygent column -- never combine "check site + classify + extract" in one prompt
2. Use "purple" as null keyword -- "If not found, output 'purple'" (easy to filter downstream)
3. Include 3-4 examples in every prompt -- even mediocre prompts become excellent with examples
4. Ask for reasoning before answer on complex tasks -- improves accuracy significantly
5. 10-minute manual research rule -- research 3-4 records manually first, then automate that exact process

Prompt Template

Visit /company_domain and answer: [SPECIFIC QUESTION]

Rules:
- Only use information found on the website
- If not found, output "purple"
- Output format: [text/number/true-false/URL]

Example outputs:
- "Series B, $25M from Sequoia"
- "purple"

Credit Optimization

• Simple yes/no questions: 1 credit
• Deeper analysis: 2-3 credits
• Iterate in the builder (free) before running on full table
• Add conditional run: only run Claygent on rows where standard enrichment left gaps
• Never use Claygent for data available via standard providers (email, phone, revenue)