Polyguard PreScreen for Greenhouse¶

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1. Overview¶

PreScreen gates every application on a Polyguard Trust Check: a short check, completed on the candidate's phone, that confirms a real person is applying. Unverified candidates are held in the first stage of your pipeline; verified ones are advanced automatically, with the verification recorded on the application.

How it works¶

Applications reach Greenhouse two ways, and PreScreen covers both.

Most applications arrive the second way, which is why the web hook in Section 5 is not optional.

What you will configure¶

• A PreScreen app in the Polyguard Console, with its own hostname
• Two Greenhouse API keys: Job Board (to submit) and Harvest (to advance)
• A custom application field that records the verification
• A Human Verification stage on each protected job
• A web hook from Greenhouse to Polyguard

Who does what¶

Steps marked (Polyguard) need a Polyguard staff account. Everything else an account admin can do.

2. Prerequisites¶

3. Collect your Greenhouse values¶

Everything in this section lives under Configure (⚙️) → Dev Center, except the custom field and the pipeline stage.

Work through 3a to 3f and keep the values to hand. You will paste them into the Console in Section 4.

3a. Job Board API key¶

1. Open API Credential Management in the Dev Center sidebar.

   

2. Click Create new API credentials, top right.

   

3. Fill in:

   • API Type: Job Board
   • Partner: Unlisted vendor, or Custom
   • Description: Polyguard: Job Board
4. Click Manage permissions and grant:
   • POST Submit Application
5. Copy the key, then click I have stored the API Key.

3b. Board token¶

The slug in your public board URL, job-boards.greenhouse.io/<your-board-token>. Confirm it returns your live roles. No key is needed, these endpoints are public:

curl -s "https://boards-api.greenhouse.io/v1/boards/<your-board-token>/jobs" | head -c 300

3c. Custom field for the verification token¶

One org-wide field, created once. See Greenhouse's Create a new custom application field.

1. Configure → Custom Options → Application → Add Field.
2. Fill in:
   • Name: Polyguard Verification Token
   • Field type: Single-line text
3. Save, reopen the field, and note the generated field key, for example polyguard_verification_token.

3d. The Human Verification stage¶

1. Open a job → Job Setup → Interview Plan → Add stage → Create a custom stage.
2. Fill in:
   • Stage name: Human Verification, spelled exactly
   • Position: second, immediately after the first stage
3. Save.

Greenhouse does not allow a custom first stage. Applications land in the first stage, unverified candidates are held there, and PreScreen advances them into Human Verification once they pass.

3e. On-behalf-of user¶

Greenhouse attributes every stage move to a real user. Pick one, ideally a dedicated recruiting-ops account.

1. Configure → Users and open that user.
2. Read the numeric id from the end of the URL. For example, app.greenhouse.io/account/user/12345 gives 12345.

3f. Harvest API key¶

1. API Credential Management → Create new API credentials.
2. Fill in:
   • API Type: Harvest, not Harvest V3, which is not supported
   • Partner: Unlisted vendor, or Custom
   • Description: Polyguard: Harvest
3. Click Manage permissions and grant only these:

1. Save, then copy the key.

4. Configure the app in Polyguard¶

4a. Create the PreScreen app (Polyguard)¶

Console → Create App → app type PreScreen.

Creating it reserves a hostname of the form {account-slug}.prescreen.polyguard.ai. A second tenant on the same account gets -2, -3, and so on.

4b. Check the hostname (Polyguard to change)¶

Settings → Prescreen → Hostnames shows the host this tenant is served on. Account admins can read it; only Polyguard staff can change it.

It matters beyond the address bar: the web hook URL in Section 5 is built from it, and so is the address Polyguard delivers verification results to.

4c. ATS connection¶

Settings → Prescreen → ATS connection, provider Greenhouse.

Click Save ATS configuration. Secrets clear from the form on save and show their last 4 characters afterwards; leaving a secret blank keeps the stored value rather than clearing it.

5. Register the web hook in Greenhouse¶

Greenhouse notifies Polyguard whenever a candidate submits an application. This is what gates direct applies, and what advances hosted ones.

5a. Get the URL and secret from the Console¶

In the ATS connection form, directly above Harvest webhook secret:

1. Copy the web hook URL.
2. Click Generate next to Harvest webhook secret, then copy the value.
3. Click Save ATS configuration.

5b. Create the web hook¶

Configure (⚙️) → Dev Center → Web Hooks → Create a new web hook:

Click Create Web hook.

6. Verification¶

Run all four before going live.

6.1 Listings¶

Open the careers site at your hostname. Your live Greenhouse roles should appear, in your brand.

6.2 Hosted apply¶

1. Apply through the careers site and complete the Trust Check on a phone.
2. In Greenhouse, confirm the candidate appears, sits in Human Verification, and has the Polyguard Verification Token field populated.

6.3 Direct apply¶

1. Apply through your public Greenhouse board, using a different email address than 6.2.
2. Confirm the Trust Check email arrives.
3. Complete it and confirm the application advances into Human Verification.

6.4 Manual override¶

Tools → Manual verify, with the link id of a candidate you confirmed some other way, advances that application. One use per link.

7. Using PreScreen¶

Day to day¶

Nothing to do. Applications arrive, candidates verify, and verified candidates advance into Human Verification with the token recorded on the application. Candidates who never verify stay in the first stage until their Trust Check expires.

Operator tools¶

Adding a job later¶

New jobs need the Human Verification stage in second position (3d). Everything else is account-wide and already configured.

8. Troubleshooting¶

Applications never advance, and Greenhouse reports no errors¶

Both receivers answer HTTP 200 even when they reject a delivery, because a non-2xx would make Greenhouse disable the web hook. A wrong secret therefore looks identical to a working one from the Greenhouse side. Check the web hook's recent deliveries, then confirm the secret matches character for character on both sides.

The candidate advances but the token field stays empty¶

The Harvest key is missing Applications → Patch: Edit Application (3f). The write is refused with a 403 while the stage move still succeeds.

Nothing reaches Polyguard at all¶

Confirm the web hook endpoint is exactly the URL the Console shows. A URL with /<your-board-token> appended resolves its settings from the deployment's own store rather than from the Console, so every delivery fails its signature check.

A change in the Console has not taken effect¶

Configuration is cached for 60 seconds. Wait a minute and retry. Branding is the exception: see below.

Branding changes do not appear on the careers site¶

Give it up to an hour. The careers index and the job pages are rendered ahead of time and refreshed hourly, so a branding change is picked up at the next refresh rather than on the next page load.

A field left blank in the Console falls back to the deployment's own configuration, and a value the site rejects as unsafe (a logo or site URL that is not https://, a color that is not a valid CSS color) falls back the same way, so check the value if one field stays on the old branding while the rest update.

The Trust Check invitation email still takes its company name from the deployment configuration, not from these fields.

The careers site shows no roles¶

Either the board token is wrong (3b), or the provider selected in the Console does not match the one the deployment is running. A mismatch is silent: the Console settings are simply ignored.

A candidate was never emailed a Trust Check¶

Applications with no source, or with a source listed in Manual source names, are treated as recruiter entries and deliberately never emailed. A recruiter adding a candidate by hand has already decided they belong in the pipeline.

9. Support¶

• Email: [email protected]
• Console: console.polyguard.ai
• Sending Trust Check emails from your own domain: Sending From Your Domain

Greenhouse documentation¶

• Create a job board API key for an integration
• Create Harvest API credentials for an integration
• Manage Harvest API credentials permissions
• Create a new custom application field
• Interview plan overview
• Edit job stage in bulk
• Find your Greenhouse Recruiting user ID
• Create a webhook
• Recruiting Webhooks: signature and events
• Harvest API
• Job Board API

For Greenhouse platform issues unrelated to Polyguard, contact your Greenhouse administrator or Greenhouse Support.