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Every 15 minutes

Screen CVs from email into an Airtable candidate list

Application emails become Airtable records with the candidate's details and a score for the role.

Runs
Every 15 minutes
Apps
Airtable, Gmail
AI
Yes, uses the built-in AI allowance
Access
Gmail gmail.readonly; Airtable write

Send this to your assistant

Create a ClickRuntime automation: when an application email with a CV arrives, pull out the candidate's details, score them for the role and add them to my Candidates table in Airtable.

Paste it into your assistant. It tells you what it will send or change before it runs live.

First time? Adding ClickRuntime to your assistant takes about two minutes.

Why use it

Why teams use this automation

A café group is hiring three shift managers and asks people to email their CV. The owner's inbox fills with applications mixed in with supplier emails, and tracking who has been contacted means scrolling and flagging.

Turning each application into a row with name, contact details, experience and a score gives the owner a sortable shortlist and a place to track every candidate's progress.

What you get out of it

  • A shortlist you can sort

    Scores and key details in columns let you see the strongest applicants first instead of reading in arrival order.

  • Track every candidate's status

    Add a status column for contacted, interviewed or offered, so nobody is forgotten or contacted twice.

  • Applications out of your inbox

    Hiring no longer competes with day-to-day email, and everything for the role sits in one table.

  • Easy to share with interviewers

    Anyone helping with interviews can see the table without needing access to your email.

How it works

What happens, step by step

  1. Every few minutes ClickRuntime checks your Gmail for new application emails with a CV attached.

  2. It skips any email it has already added.

  3. AI reads the CV, pulls out the candidate's details and scores them against the role you described.

  4. A new record with the details and score is added to your Candidates table in Airtable.

Before it runs live

  • Connect Airtable
  • Connect Google through your own Google app (a one-time, 10-minute setup), so it works with your own Gmail

What you get

RunsEvery 15 minutes
Screen CVs from email into an Airtable candidate listtoday, 9:00Succeeded
Airtable · CandidatesNew record: Jordan Lee, 4 years at Northwind Café, weekend availability. Score 8/10.

Build your own

Need it to work differently?

This template is a starting point. Copy the prompt and change it, or describe a different automation from scratch, with your own conditions, more apps or an AI step. Your assistant writes it, tests it and runs it on ClickRuntime.
  • Your own rules

    Conditions, thresholds, filters and exceptions, written the way you'd explain them to a colleague.

  • Any number of apps

    One automation can read from one app and update several others. Over 248 apps are ready, and anything with an API works too.

  • AI where it helps

    Summaries, classification, extraction and drafts use ClickRuntime's built-in AI, with no extra key.

  • On a schedule or on each event

    Runs as often as every 5 minutes, or the moment an app sends an event, and keeps track of what it already handled.

Changes you can ask for

  • Act only on the items that match your own rules, and skip the rest
  • Change what the AI looks for, or how it writes the result
  • Add another app, for example also send it to Slack
  • Combine it with other Airtable and Gmail steps into one automation

Under the hood

The code that runs this automation

This is the Python script that runs each time the automation starts. Your AI assistant writes it for you when you send the prompt, and you allow each step in your assistant. To change how the automation works, describe the change to your assistant and it updates the script for you. For every function it can use, see the script reference.
screen_cvs_from_gmail_into_airtable.pyexample
from googleapiclient.discovery import build
from google.oauth2.credentials import Credentials
from clickruntime import on_trigger, credentials, state, ai, report_fetched, http

ROLE = "Shift manager: 2+ years in hospitality, team leadership, weekend availability."
SCHEMA = {"type": "object", "properties": {k: {"type": "string"} for k in ["Name", "Email", "Phone", "Experience", "Score"]}}

@on_trigger
def run(event):
    gmail = build("gmail", "v1", credentials=Credentials(credentials.connection("google", "work")), cache_discovery=False).users()
    seen = state.get("seen") or []
    msgs = [m for m in gmail.messages().list(userId="me", q="label:applications has:attachment newer_than:2d").execute().get("messages", [])
            if m["id"] not in seen]
    report_fetched(len(msgs))
    if not msgs:
        return {"summary": "No new applications"}
    records = []
    for m in msgs:
        msg = gmail.messages().get(userId="me", id=m["id"]).execute()
        part = next(p for p in msg["payload"]["parts"] if p.get("filename"))
        cv = gmail.messages().attachments().get(userId="me", messageId=m["id"], id=part["body"]["attachmentId"]).execute()["data"]
        r = ai.generate(f"Role: {ROLE}\nEmail: {msg['snippet']}\nCV (base64 text): {cv[:6000]}\nExtract fields and Score 1-10.", json_schema=SCHEMA, max_output_tokens=200)
        records.append({"fields": r.json})
        seen.append(m["id"])
    http.post("https://api.airtable.com/v0/appXXXXXXXX/Candidates", headers={"Authorization": f"Bearer {credentials.secret('AIRTABLE_API_KEY')}"},
              json={"records": records[:10]})
    state.set("seen", seen[-500:])
    return {"added": len(records)}

FAQ

Common questions

How does it tell an application from other email?
It looks at emails sent to a jobs address or with a label you set, and only those with a CV attached.
Which details are extracted?
Name, email, phone, location, current role and years of experience by default. You can add fields such as languages or a driving licence.
Does it reply to the candidate?
Not by default. A short acknowledgement email can be added so applicants know their CV was received.
What permissions does it need?
Gmail gmail.readonly; Airtable write. Nothing else in your accounts is used.
Does it need AI?
Yes. It uses ClickRuntime's built-in AI, so you don't need an OpenAI or Anthropic key. Every plan includes a monthly AI allowance.
How many runs does it use?
One run each time it checks. Checks that find nothing new and stop right away aren't counted.
Can I change how it works?
Yes. Describe the change to your AI assistant, for example a different schedule, channel or filter. It updates the automation, tests it and tells you what changed.

Set up “Screen CVs from email into an Airtable candidate list” from your assistant

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