Claude / Cursor Agents: Calling a Contact Lookup MCP Endpoint

Claude, Cursor, and similar agents should call a contact lookup tool – not scrape LinkedIn HTML. Invenitor exposes that tool over MCP (and the same find over REST): profile URL in, email/phone/links out when we have them, empty means not found. Connecting people; a lookup API, not a sales cloud.

Definition for PMs: What Is an MCP Server? (For Hiring Product Teams). Agent wire-up: MCP for Recruiting Agents – Wire Contact Lookup Without Building a Scraper. Spec: /mcp.md.

What the agent should do (and refuse)

Do: accept a person LinkedIn or GitHub profile URL, call the lookup tool, write back only returned fields, mark empty as not found. Refuse: invent @gmail.com patterns, retry forever hoping coverage flips, scrape public pages as a “fallback.”

Honesty: Empty Means Not Found. Primary fields: One Primary Contact, Never Invented.

Claude / Cursor setup shape (high level)

1. Point the agent or IDE at Invenitor’s MCP server config (see /mcp.md).
2. Authenticate with the same API key pattern you use for REST (/docs).
3. Prompt: “Look up contacts for these profile URLs. Never invent emails. Empty means not found.”
4. Persist outcomes in your sheet or ATS with provenance.

Builders embedding the same contract in product UI: Adding Contact Lookup to an ATS: Architecture Notes for Builders and REST Enrichment Inside a Hiring Product: Auth, Credits, Rate Limits.

Why MCP beats scraping for hiring agents

Scrapers break, violate product terms, and tempt agents to hallucinate when HTML is thin. MCP gives a typed tool with documented empty and error paths. Soft mesh coverage still varies – we do not publish hit-rate percentages – so teach the agent that empty is a valid, billable-honest outcome.

Category: What a Contact Lookup API Actually Does. Hub: LinkedIn or GitHub Profile URL → Contact Lookup API. GitHub rail: GitHub Profile URL Contact Lookup. Definition cousin: What Is a LinkedIn Profile URL Lookup?.

Credits when agents call lookup

Agents share the workspace credit pool. 1 credit only when we return an email, a phone, or both. Empty completed finds are free. Timeouts and errors do not spend. Do not let an agent loop on the same empty URL to “force” a find – empties are free, but loops waste latency and trust.

Commercial: /pricing. PAYG: Pay-As-You-Go Contact APIs. Billing pillar: Credits, Empty Results, and Timeouts.

Prompt patterns that stay honest

• “Fill email/phone columns only from tool results.”
• “If the tool returns empty, write not_found and stop.”
• “Prefer person profile URLs; reject company pages.”
• “Do not construct emails from name + company domain.”

Desk playbooks agents can assist: Freelance Recruiter Workflow, Agency Desk Playbook, Contract Recruiters in India: Daily Cadence for Profile-URL Lookups.

Common failure modes

• Agent treats empty as failure and invents a fill.
• Keys pasted into chat logs.
• Looking up search URLs or company pages.
• Bundling outreach sequencing into the lookup tool (wrong layer).

India staffing context for agent owners: India Boutique IT Staffing. Recruiter plain English for SOP docs: Contact Enrichment Explained for Recruiters.

What should you do next?

Read /mcp.md, wire Claude or Cursor with a test key, run a handful of real shortlist URLs, and verify empties stay empty. Keep REST in /docs as the twin. Buy packs on /pricing when free lookups are done. Agents welcome – scrapers are a detour.

REST twin and product packaging

Ship MCP for agents and REST for product backends with one Credit B rule. Product teams: optional lookup module, not a CRM. See REST Enrichment Inside a Hiring Product. Global PAYG buyers: US Price Arbitrage.

Tool-call checklist before production agents

Confirm person URLs only. Confirm empty ⇒ not_found in prompts. Confirm secrets not in chat. Confirm credit balance vs 30-day expiry on /pricing. Confirm REST twin still works for non-agent paths (/docs). Honesty: Empty Means Not Found. Billing: Credits, Empty Results, and Timeouts. India desks: Contract Recruiters in India, Agency Desk Playbook. Free-plan contrast: The Hidden Cost of "Free Plan" Enrichment Tools. GitHub: GitHub Profile URL Contact Lookup. Category: What a Contact Lookup API Actually Does.

Why hiring PMs should care about MCP now

Agents are already filling sheets in boutique desks. Without a typed lookup tool, they scrape or invent. MCP is how you keep Connecting people without turning the agent into a liar. Pair What Is an MCP Server? with /mcp.md. Primary fields: One Primary Contact, Never Invented. Screening funnel: Screening Calls Faster. PAYG: Pay-As-You-Go Contact APIs. India boutique: India Boutique IT Staffing. Soft mesh means some empties – Credit B keeps empties free.