Every question, answered.
The master FAQ. Sixty questions, answered once, cited across the rest of the site.
Product basics
What is Rook Recruit?+
Rook Recruit is a modern applicant tracking system built by Rook. It verifies candidates via Social Score, scores role fit, drafts interview briefs, runs a kanban pipeline, and hosts a branded public careers page.
Who builds Rook Recruit?+
Rook, a venture of Rook Platforms. Rook Recruit is part of an ecosystem including Rook Dots, Rook Links, Rook Signal, Realm by Rook, and Rook ID.
Who is Rook Recruit for?+
Startups hiring their first ten, in-house recruiters, staffing agencies running many clients, and larger teams that want enterprise features. Some enterprise controls (SSO, SCIM, multi region data residency) are on the roadmap — we are honest about where we are.
Is there a free plan?+
Yes. Starter is free forever for small teams. It includes a workspace, the branded careers page, the pipeline, Social Score on every candidate, and up to five teammates.
What does Business cost?+
$89 per workspace per month. Seats are unlimited — pricing scales with workspaces, not with teammates.
Is Rook Recruit a background check service?+
No. Social Score is a trust layer — a live read of public signals. Background checks query gated databases under legal consent, typically post-offer. The two are complementary, not substitutes.
Social Score
How does Social Score work?+
Rook reads live public signals — LinkedIn, GitHub, portfolios, personal sites, writing, talks, press. Signals are weighted by strength (a shipping record weighs more than a follower count) and combined into one 0 to 100 score. Every point is traceable to a URL.
How long does Social Score take?+
Typically under ninety seconds per candidate.
Does Social Score decide who gets hired?+
No. It is a trust layer, not a judge. The verdict is a sentence, not a ruling. Recruiters always decide.
What if a candidate has no online presence?+
The score falls honestly when evidence is thin. It does not invent. Low volume is not low quality — Rook weighs signal strength, not post count.
Does Social Score include protected attributes?+
No. Age, gender, nationality, ethnicity, religion, marital status, and similar protected attributes are never inputs.
Can a candidate see their own Social Score?+
Yes, on the public profile surface via their Rook ID. Candidates can submit additional public URLs that Rook folds in on the next recomputation.
How does Social Score relate to GDPR?+
Social Score reads only public web sources — no gated databases, no bypassing of sign-in walls. We designed it with GDPR principles in mind, but we do not hold formal GDPR compliance certification today. Write to us if your team needs specifics for a procurement review.
Pipeline and candidates
How many pipeline stages can I create?+
Unlimited custom stages in the middle. Four system stages are position-locked (New, Screening Rejected, Shortlisted, Joined) so reporting stays comparable across teams.
Can I rename the system stages?+
No. The four locked stages keep their names by design. Middle system stages (Interviewing, Offer Extended, Offer Declined) can be renamed and reordered.
What happens to old candidates when I change the pipeline?+
Legacy decisions remap to the closest current stage. Old rows render in a sensible column without a data migration.
Can a candidate be in two pipelines at once?+
Yes. One profile, two stages. Moves in one pipeline do not affect the other, and the history shows both threads.
Can two people drag a card at the same time?+
Yes. Moves are live and merge cleanly. If two people drop the same card in two places, the later move wins and the history shows both.
Jobs and careers page
Does Rook write job descriptions for me?+
Only if you ask. Rook Intelligence drafts on request, saves every version, and lets you keep whichever lines belong to you.
Can I hide a role from the careers page but keep it in the pipeline?+
Yes. Roles have a public/private toggle. Keep them internal while you test the language, flip them public when you are ready.
Can I use my own domain for the careers page?+
Yes. Start on recruit.rookhq.com/<yourbrand> and point a CNAME when you are ready. Rook handles the certificate.
How are vacancies counted?+
Each job carries a positions number. Rook counts joins against it and closes the job when the count clears.
Interview Assist and Rook Intelligence
What is in an Interview Assist brief?+
Tailored questions (pulled from the resume and social signals, not a generic list), a scoring rubric per question, red flags tied to the exact source that raised them, and a plain-English summary.
Does Interview Assist score the interview for me?+
No. Rook prepares the rubric. You score. Rook keeps the numbers consistent across candidates so the decision stays fair.
Who is Lila Morgan?+
Lila Morgan is the Rook People Partner — Agent Pink in the Rook Intelligence council. She is the conversational surface you ask about your pipeline in plain English.
Does Rook train AI models on my data?+
No. Your data is used to answer your questions and nothing else. Training sets are built from public, opt-in, or synthetic data only.
Does Rook Recruit call itself an AI ATS?+
No. Rook uses the term "Rook Intelligence" for the reasoning layer. AI is a capability, not a brand.
Bulk uploads and duplicates
How many resumes can I upload at once?+
We have tested batches over a hundred. Practical limit is bandwidth, not the platform.
What formats are supported?+
PDF, DOCX, and TXT for files. You can also paste a list of links, one per line.
What if the same person shows up twice?+
Duplicates are caught before analysis runs. The second upload merges into the existing profile and the new resume becomes an attachment.
Does Rook notify me when a batch is done?+
Yes. A single notification once the whole batch is parsed, scored, and filed.
Calendar and integrations
What calendar providers are supported?+
Google Workspace and Microsoft 365. Sync is bidirectional; Rook interviews live natively and show up in your main calendar as well.
What does Rook ask for on Google?+
Read access to the calendars you pick and scoped send access from a Rook alias. Nothing more.
Can I hide personal events?+
Yes. Personal calendars come across as busy blocks by default. Open the source settings to change what Rook shows.
Does the candidate see my calendar?+
Never. They see the slots you offer, nothing more.
Does Rook scrape LinkedIn?+
Rook only reads what is public. No scraping of gated content, no bypassing sign-in walls.
Can I disconnect an integration?+
Yes. One click in connections revokes the token and clears the sync. Existing events stay, future ones stop.
Workspaces, clients, and vendors
How are workspaces billed?+
Per workspace. Free for small spaces, paid plans scale with volume, not seats.
Can one person belong to many workspaces?+
Yes. One Rook ID, many memberships. The switcher is always a keystroke away.
Can I move a candidate between workspaces?+
Yes, with consent. Rook keeps the provenance so the audit shows the move.
Does my client see my internal notes?+
Never. Internal notes stay internal. Curated client views toggle fields per client.
How does the vendor conflict check work?+
Every submission is matched by email, LinkedIn, and phone against every active engagement. Duplicates stop before the client sees them.
Security and posture
Are you SOC 2 certified?+
No. Rook Recruit is an early stage product and does not hold SOC 2 today. We are documenting our controls and intend to pursue SOC 2 as we grow. Contact us for our current security posture before a procurement review.
Are you GDPR compliant?+
We designed Rook Recruit with GDPR principles in mind, but we do not hold formal GDPR certification. If you need to procure us for a regulated workflow, talk to us first.
Do you have ISO 27001, HIPAA, PCI, or similar certifications?+
No. We do not hold those certifications today. We will tell you this in any procurement review rather than overpromise.
Is data encrypted?+
Requests travel over TLS. Data at rest is encrypted through our cloud provider. Keys rotate on the provider schedule. We do not maintain our own bespoke encryption layer at this stage.
Do you offer SSO?+
Not today. Authentication is via Rook ID. SAML and OIDC SSO are on the roadmap.
Do you offer SCIM?+
Not today. SCIM provisioning is on the roadmap.
Where is my data hosted?+
In our cloud provider's primary region. Multi region pinning is on the roadmap.
Do you offer a DPA?+
A data processing agreement is on the roadmap. If your procurement team needs one before we ship a standard version, write in — we will work with you on contract language that reflects our current controls honestly.
How can a candidate exercise data rights?+
Candidates can contact us to request access, correction, or deletion. We aim to respond within 30 days.
Migration and pricing
Can I migrate from another ATS?+
Yes. CSV import or import API. Social Score recomputes on ingest. Pipeline stages map cleanly. We help with migration on Business and Enterprise plans.
Can I change plans at any time?+
Upgrade any time. Downgrade at the next renewal. No lock-in.
Do you charge per seat?+
No. Business scales per workspace, not per teammate. Invite the whole team without a meter.
Is there an annual discount?+
Yes. Contact sales for annual pricing on Business and Enterprise plans.