--- name: find-management-consultant description: Use whenever the user wants to find, shortlist, vet, or enrich US management consultancies — strategy, operations, executive coaching, leadership development, org-development/change management, PMO/program management, sales/revenue operations consulting. Triggers on "find me three top strategy consultancies in California", "shortlist boutique ops-consulting firms with healthcare experience", "we need an executive coach for our new CEO", or "pull contact info for these 10 consulting firm domains", even when described indirectly (post-merger integration help, change-management partner, fractional COO). Drives the ServiceGraph API (api.servicegraph.co) — a 100k+ US firm catalog filterable by industry, services, location, size, ratings. Skip in-house strategy hires, "help me build a strategy" do-the-work asks, framework comparisons (Lean vs Agile, BCG matrix, etc.), academic/MBA-program questions, life/career coaching for individuals, non-US firms, individual freelancers. license: MIT metadata: api_base: https://api.servicegraph.co industry: management_consulting version: "0.2" --- # find-management-consultant Drive the **ServiceGraph API** (`https://api.servicegraph.co`) to find, shortlist, and enrich US management consulting firms. The catalog tags firms with `industry:management_consulting` and a 7-tag service sub-taxonomy: strategy, operations, executive-coaching, leadership-development, organizational-development, pmo-project-management, sales-revenue-consulting. **Always pin `industry:management_consulting`.** Sub-services are structured `service_provided` tags (`strategy-consulting`, `operations-consulting`, `executive-coaching`, `leadership-development`, `organizational-development`, `pmo-project-management`, `sales-revenue-consulting` — confirm exact names via `/v1/tags`). Any HTTP client works (curl, fetch, requests). Examples below use curl. ## When NOT to use this skill - "Help me build a strategy / write a plan / make a recommendation" — that's do-the-work, not procurement. - In-house strategy/operations hires (Chief Strategy Officer, COO). - **Life or career coaching for an individual** — the catalog's executive-coaching tag is for B2B (the firm hires the coach for their executives), not for the user themselves. - Framework explanations (Lean vs Agile, Porter's Five Forces, etc.). - MBA program questions, academic research. - Non-US firms. - Individual freelance consultants ("a freelance strategy consultant"). If the user is a *business* procuring consulting services, this skill applies — defaults to fire on B2B procurement intent. ## The four-tier funnel | Tier | Auth | Cost | Use it for | |---|---|---|---| | `GET /v1/tags` | none | free | **First call of every session.** Discover legal field names, kinds, operators, values. | | `GET /v1/check?filter=...` | none | free | Validate a filter before spending an explore/search call. | | `GET /v1/explore?filter=...` | none | free, IP-throttled | Scope: count + breakdowns. Use to size the candidate pool before quota-spending. | | `GET /v1/search?filter=...` | bearer | 200 unique firms / month free | Brief firm cards. **No url, no contact info.** Use for ranking / shortlisting. | | `GET /v1/get/:id` | bearer | 50 unique firms / month free | Full bundle: url, phone, email, social, legal name, address. **Only call for shortlisted firms.** | | `POST /v1/research` | paid | not in MVP | Deferred — skip. | **Quota rule that matters**: `/search` and `/get` charge per *unique firm viewed per calendar month*, not per call. Re-paging the same query is free. Two different filters that overlap charge once for the overlap. Re-fetching a firm you already pulled this month is free. ## Session-start ritual Before constructing any filter, call: ``` GET https://api.servicegraph.co/v1/tags?include_values=1 ``` Cache the response for the conversation. Confirm `management_consulting` is in the `industry` value list and that the relevant sub-service tags (`strategy-consulting`, `operations-consulting`, `executive-coaching`, etc.) are in `service_provided`. Field kinds you'll use most: - **categorical**: `industry` (always `management_consulting`), `state`, `pricing_model`, `company_size_signal`, `geography_served` — op `:` - **tag_set_with_evidence**: `service_provided` — Map. Op `:` with optional `@evidence` - **numeric**: `rating`, `review_count_total`, `founded_year` — ops `= >= <= > <` - **presence**: `has:phone`, `has:clutch`, `has:rating`, `has:linkedin_company`, … - **keyword**: free-text substring across firm name / brand / title / meta / legal_name. Bareword in the filter becomes a keyword. ## Auth `/tags`, `/check`, and `/explore` are anonymous. `/search` and `/get` require a bearer token. **Resolution rule** — try these sources in order before triggering OTP: 1. **Shell environment**: `$SERVICEGRAPH_TOKEN`. Most agent harnesses only inherit explicit `export`s, not dotenv files — so this catches the case where the user has it exported in `~/.bashrc` / `~/.zshrc`. 2. **Project dotenv files**: read `.env.local` then `.env` in the current working directory and look for a `SERVICEGRAPH_TOKEN=…` line. **This is the common case the agent will miss otherwise** — users frequently put the token in `.env.local` (gitignored) and expect it to "just work," but Claude Code and similar harnesses don't auto-load dotenv files. If you find it, use it; don't ask. If found in any of the above, set `Authorization: Bearer ` on every authed request and skip OTP. 3. **Otherwise, walk the user through OTP** (one-time, ~30 s): - Ask the user for their email address. - `POST /v1/auth/request-otp` with `{"email": "..."}`. Returns 204; a 6-digit code lands in their inbox. - Ask the user to paste the code. - `POST /v1/auth/verify-otp` with `{"email": "...", "code": "...", "name": ""}`. Returns `{"token": "vk_...", "expires_at": "...", "user": {...}}`. - Use that token for the rest of the session. - Tell the user: *"Save this as `SERVICEGRAPH_TOKEN` to skip this step next time — either `export SERVICEGRAPH_TOKEN=…` in your shell rc, or add `SERVICEGRAPH_TOKEN=…` to a `.env.local` file in your project (gitignored). The token is shown once and lasts 90 days."* If a `/search` or `/get` returns 401 mid-session, the token expired or was revoked — re-run the OTP flow. ```bash # 1. trigger the email curl -X POST 'https://api.servicegraph.co/v1/auth/request-otp' \ -H 'Content-Type: application/json' \ -d '{"email":"you@example.com"}' # 2. exchange the code curl -X POST 'https://api.servicegraph.co/v1/auth/verify-otp' \ -H 'Content-Type: application/json' \ -d '{"email":"you@example.com","code":"123456","name":"my-cli"}' # → { "token": "vk_…", "expires_at": "...", "user": {...} } ``` ## Filter DSL One query parameter, GitHub-search-style. ``` filter := orExpr orExpr := andExpr ("OR" andExpr)* andExpr := notExpr (("AND")? notExpr)* # whitespace = implicit AND notExpr := ("NOT" | "-") notExpr | atom atom := "(" filter ")" | predicate predicate:= IDENT op valueOrList | bareword op := ":" | "=" | ">=" | "<=" | ">" | "<" valueOrList := value ("," value)* value := IDENT | NUMBER | tagAtEvidence tagAtEvidence := IDENT "@" ("low"|"medium"|"high") bareword := IDENT | NUMBER # → keyword: ``` **Four rules that bite:** 1. **AND binds tighter than OR.** `a OR b c` parses as `a OR (b AND c)`. Use parens. 2. **Comma list = OR within one predicate.** `state:CA,NY,TX` matches any of the three. 3. **Negation is `-x` or `NOT x`.** Negative literals inside a comma list are **not** allowed: `state:CA,-NY` is rejected. Use `state:CA -state:NY`. 4. **Bareword = keyword search.** Any IDENT or NUMBER not followed by an operator becomes a free-text substring across name / brand / title / meta / legal_name. Multiple barewords AND. **Management-consulting examples** (validate yours with `/v1/check`): ``` industry:management_consulting service_provided:strategy-consulting@high industry:management_consulting service_provided:operations-consulting state:NY industry:management_consulting service_provided:executive-coaching industry:management_consulting (service_provided:strategy-consulting@high OR service_provided:operations-consulting@high) industry:management_consulting service_provided:organizational-development change industry:management_consulting service_provided:strategy-consulting@high rating>=4 has:clutch industry:management_consulting service_provided:pmo-project-management ``` When in doubt, hit `/v1/check?filter=...` first. **Sub-service tag → typical user phrasing**: | User asks for | Tag | |---|---| | Strategy / strategic planning | `service_provided:strategy-consulting` | | Operations / ops consulting | `service_provided:operations-consulting` | | Executive coach (for senior leaders) | `service_provided:executive-coaching` | | Leadership development programs | `service_provided:leadership-development` | | Org design / change management | `service_provided:organizational-development` | | PMO / program management | `service_provided:pmo-project-management` | | Sales/revenue ops | `service_provided:sales-revenue-consulting` | ## firm_id contract `firm_id` is a stable 12-hex-char handle: ``` firm_id = sha256(apex.lower().rstrip(".")).hexdigest()[:12] ``` `apex` is the registered domain (`mckinsey.com`, not `www.mckinsey.com/about`). ```python import hashlib def firm_id(apex): return hashlib.sha256(apex.lower().rstrip(".").encode()).hexdigest()[:12] ``` ```bash echo -n "mckinsey.com" | tr 'A-Z' 'a-z' \ | openssl dgst -sha256 -hex | awk '{print substr($2,1,12)}' ``` ## Recipes ### A. Strategy consultancy in a state User: *"Three top strategy consultancies in California for a Series-B SaaS."* ``` GET /v1/explore?filter=industry:management_consulting+state:CA+service_provided:strategy-consulting@high GET /v1/search?filter=industry:management_consulting+state:CA+service_provided:strategy-consulting@high&limit=10 GET /v1/get/ # ×3 ``` ### B. Boutique ops consulting + vertical User: *"Boutique operations consulting firms with healthcare experience."* ``` GET /v1/search?filter=industry:management_consulting+service_provided:operations-consulting+healthcare+-company_size_signal:large_50plus&limit=10 ``` ### C. Executive coach for a CEO User: *"Executive coach for our new CEO."* ``` GET /v1/search?filter=industry:management_consulting+service_provided:executive-coaching@high ``` ### D. Indirect intent — post-merger / change User: *"Change-management partners for a post-merger integration."* ``` GET /v1/search?filter=industry:management_consulting+service_provided:organizational-development+(merger OR integration) ``` If thin, drop the keywords and use `service_provided:organizational-development@high` alone — the tag itself captures change-management. ### E. Indirect intent — "fractional COO" User: *"Fractional COO support for the next 6 months."* ``` GET /v1/search?filter=industry:management_consulting+service_provided:operations-consulting+fractional ``` ### F. Quality threshold + Big-3 alumni User: *"Three management consulting firms with 4-star ratings and Big-3 alumni."* ``` GET /v1/search?filter=industry:management_consulting+service_provided:strategy-consulting@high+rating>=4+(mckinsey OR bcg OR bain)&limit=10 ``` The "alumni" angle isn't structured — keyword the firm names of the shops the alumni came from; many spinout consultancies advertise it in their bio text. ### G. BYO apex list — enrich domains User pastes 8–20 consulting-firm domains. For each: 1. Compute `firm_id` locally. 2. `GET /v1/get/` — full bundle if in catalog, 404 if not. 3. Aggregate, present, flag the not-found ones. ## Gotchas - **Always pin `industry:management_consulting`.** Without it, `service_provided:strategy-consulting` could surface marketing or IT firms that list "strategy" as a sub-service. - **`executive-coaching` is for B2B.** When a firm hires a coach for their executives, this skill applies. When an *individual* asks for a life coach or career coach for themselves, it's out of scope. - **"Help me build a strategy" is do-the-work, not procurement.** Refuse and offer to find a firm if the user wants to hire one. - **Framework comparisons** (Lean vs Agile, etc.) and **MBA-program questions** are knowledge, not procurement. - **`looks_not_pro_services` 404 is not a bug.** A `firm_id` may exist in `/search` but 404 on `/get` if it's been flagged. Skip and continue; not charged. - **`/v1/explore` k=20 suppression.** When fewer than 20 firms match, the response is `{"count": "<20", "suppressed": true, "breakdowns": {}}`. Drilling further makes the count smaller. Broaden or escalate to `/v1/search`. - **Briefs from `/search` do NOT include `apex`, `url`, `phone_primary`, `email_primary`, `legal_name`, or address.** If the user asks for contact info, you must `/get/:id`. - **In-house hires (CSO, COO, etc.) are NOT procurement.** - **Quota is per-user-per-month, deduped on first view.** Re-views are free; re-pagination is free. ## Errors All errors return JSON: `{"error": {"code": "...", "message": "..."}}`. | Status | Code | What to do | |---|---|---| | 400 | `filter_parse_error` | Payload includes `position`. Fix the filter, re-validate with `/v1/check`. | | 400 | `filter_required` | Empty filter where one is required. | | 400 | `invalid_firm_id` | firm_id must be 12 lowercase hex chars. Re-derive. | | 401 | `unauthorized` | Token missing/expired. Re-run OTP. | | 404 | `not_found` | Firm not in catalog or flagged. Not charged. Skip and continue. | | 429 | `rate_limited` | Honor `Retry-After` header / `retry_after` field. | | 429 | `monthly_quota_exhausted` | Switch to `/v1/explore`-only mode for the rest of the month. Tell the user. | ## End-to-end example User: *"Three top management-consulting firms in California focused on strategy, with strong third-party ratings."* ``` GET /v1/tags?include_values=1 GET /v1/check?filter=industry:management_consulting+state:CA+service_provided:strategy-consulting@high+rating>=4+review_count_total>=20 GET /v1/explore?filter=industry:management_consulting+state:CA+service_provided:strategy-consulting@high+rating>=4+review_count_total>=20 GET /v1/search?filter=...&limit=10 GET /v1/get/ # ×3 ``` End of session: report `X-Quota-Remaining-Month`.