Referral: Priya Nair - Backend Engineer
Referred by team lead; strong distributed systems background. Awaiting resume review.
Operations & Personal
Hiring Pipeline Board
Track candidates from sourcing to onboarding on one Kanban board
Recruiting shouldn't live in scattered spreadsheets and email threads. The Hiring Pipeline Board gives founders, recruiters, and hiring managers a single kanban board to move candidates through every stage of the process. Each column represents a real hiring milestone, and every task is a candidate profile that carries notes, interview feedback, and next steps. Use the MCP server or REST API to sync candidate updates from your inbox or ATS, or manage everything by hand with keyboard shortcuts and the command palette for fast triage between roles.
kanboard.io/templates/hiring-pipeline
Template preview
Hiring Pipeline Board
5 columns
Sourced
3Candidates identified through outbound sourcing, referrals, or inbound applications who haven't been screened yet.
LinkedIn outreach: Marcus Chen - Product Designer
Responded to cold outreach, portfolio looks promising for the design role.
Inbound application: Sofia Alvarez - Sales Lead
Applied via careers page, 6 years SaaS sales experience, needs recruiter screen.
Screening
3Candidates in recruiter phone screens or initial qualification calls to confirm fit and interest.
Phone screen: Priya Nair
30-min call scheduled Thursday to discuss compensation expectations and availability.
Recruiter call: David Osei - Customer Success
Confirm notice period and salary range before advancing to hiring manager round.
Screen scheduled: Lena Kowalski - Marketing Manager
Verify years of B2B experience and portfolio of campaign results.
Interviewing
4Candidates actively going through technical, panel, or onsite interview rounds.
Technical round: Marcus Chen
Design challenge scheduled with product team; feedback due within 48 hours.
Panel interview: Sofia Alvarez
Meeting with VP Sales and two account executives, focus on objection handling.
Final round: David Osei
Culture fit interview with CEO, last step before reference checks.
Case study review: Lena Kowalski
Evaluate submitted go-to-market case study with marketing director.
Offer
2Candidates who cleared interviews and are receiving or negotiating an offer.
Offer extended: Marcus Chen
Offer letter sent, awaiting response by end of week, includes equity details.
Negotiating: Sofia Alvarez
Candidate requesting higher base salary, reviewing counter with finance.
Onboarding
2Signed candidates preparing for their start date, including paperwork and equipment setup.
Start date confirmed: Marcus Chen
Laptop ordered, IT access requested, start date set for the 15th.
Paperwork pending: Sofia Alvarez
Waiting on signed offer letter and background check completion.
How to run this board
Step 1
Add new candidates as tasks in the Sourced column as they come in from referrals, outbound, or applications
Step 2
Move a candidate to Screening once a recruiter call is scheduled, logging notes directly on the task
Step 3
Advance to Interviewing when technical or panel rounds are booked, tracking feedback per round in task comments
Step 4
Shift qualifying candidates to Offer and record negotiation details until the offer is signed
Step 5
Move signed candidates to Onboarding and track start-date logistics until their first day
AI agent usage
Run it with AI agents
This playbook lets an AI agent manage a hiring pipeline kanban board via MCP tools, moving candidate tasks between Sourced, Screening, Interviewing, Offer, and Onboarding columns as recruiting events happen, keeping the board a live single source of truth without manual re-entry.
# Hiring Pipeline Board Agent Instructions
This board has five columns: Sourced, Screening, Interviewing, Offer, and Onboarding.
- When a new candidate is identified, create a task in Sourced with name and source (referral, outbound, inbound).
- When a recruiter call is booked, move the task from Sourced to Screening.
- When interview rounds are scheduled, move the task to Interviewing and add round details to the task description.
- When an offer is extended, move the task to Offer and log compensation notes.
- When the candidate signs, move the task to Onboarding and track start-date logistics.
Use move_task for stage changes and update_task to log notes. Respect the free plan limit of 25 tasks total across the board.Add a new candidate named Alex Rivera to Sourced who was referred by the engineering team for a DevOps role.
Move Priya Nair from Screening to Interviewing and note that her first technical round is scheduled for Friday.
Show me all candidates currently sitting in the Offer column so I can follow up on pending negotiations.
Learn more about the board-centric workflow in Kanban for AI Agents or open the MCP guide.
Frequently asked questions
Can I customize the column names for a different hiring process?
Yes, columns like Sourced, Screening, Interviewing, Offer, and Onboarding are fully editable to match your own recruiting stages.
How many candidates can I track on the free plan?
The free plan supports 1 project with up to 25 tasks total, which works well for tracking a handful of open roles at once.
What happens if I need more than 25 candidate tasks?
Upgrade to the pro plan for $12/month or $96/year to remove the task cap and add more projects for additional hiring pipelines.
Can an AI agent update this board automatically?
Yes, the MCP server lets agents create, move, and update candidate tasks programmatically as recruiting events happen, following the AGENTS.md instructions.
Is there a way to manage this board without a mouse?
Yes, keyboard shortcuts and the command palette let you create tasks and move candidates between columns quickly.
Does this board integrate with an existing ATS?
You can sync candidate data using the REST API or MCP server, though the board itself does not replace a dedicated applicant tracking system.
Related templates
Ready to create this board?
Sign in and use the template to create a project with columns and sample tasks.