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Pipeline and Stages

Every job has a pipeline — a kanban board of stages that candidates move through from first contact to hire.

The pipeline at a glance#

Open any job and click Pipeline. You'll see a column for each stage, with candidate cards you can drag between them. Each card shows the candidate's name, role snapshot, and any recent activity (last email, interview score, etc.).

Moving a card to a new stage is the primary way candidates progress. Some stages also trigger automation on entry — for example, sending an AI screening invitation.

The default pipeline#

New jobs start with this pipeline:

  1. Leads — Inbound or sourced candidates you haven't yet qualified.
  2. Application Review — Candidates whose resume is being reviewed by AI.
  3. AI Interview — Candidates scheduled for or completing an AI voice screening.
  4. Hiring Manager Interview — Handed off to the hiring manager for a live interview.
  5. Final Interview — Final-round interview before an offer decision.

You can customize this pipeline per job — adding, removing, reordering, and renaming stages.

Stage types#

Every stage has a type that determines what happens when candidates enter it:

  • Leads — A holding area. No automation runs.
  • AI Application Review — Each candidate's resume is auto-reviewed against the job; a summary appears on the card.
  • AI Interview — Candidates are invited to a voice screening (see the Interviewer section).
  • Human Interview — A human interview stage. Meeting records attach automatically.

Adding, reordering, and removing stages#

In the pipeline view, click Edit stages (or the equivalent settings icon).

  • Add — Choose a type and name.
  • Reorder — Drag stages into the order you want.
  • Remove — Stages are soft-deleted; candidates in a deleted stage are moved to the previous stage.

Stage settings#

Each stage has settings you can tune, accessible from the stage header in the editor:

  • AI Application Review — The review prompt and what to emphasize (e.g., seniority, specific skills).
  • AI Interview — Interview duration, question list, scorecard template, and the automated email. See Setting Up AI Interviews.
  • Human stages — Email templates, scheduling defaults, scorecard template.

Automated stage emails#

Any stage except Leads can automatically email a candidate when they reach it.

To set one up, open the stage and go to the Email tab:

  1. Turn the email on.
  2. Choose who it's sent from — Elly (a built-in sender for AI stages) or one of your connected mailboxes.
  3. Write the subject and body, and personalize with variables like {{firstName}}, {{jobTitle}}, and {{companyName}}.

A few things to know:

  • AI stages come with ready-made copy. AI Application Review and AI Interview stages are pre-filled with an email sent from Elly. To change the wording, switch the sender to one of your connected mailboxes.
  • Human stages send from your own mailbox, so you'll need an email connected in Settings first.
  • The email goes out as soon as the candidate enters the stage and their card will show whether it sent successfully.

Hiding stages#

Some stages are required to exist in every pipeline, for example the Leads stage which holds candidates sourced from Elly. If you don't intend to use a particular stage, you can hide it so it doesn't show as a column.

Open a stage's settings and turn on Hide stage from board. Hiding is shared: a hidden stage is removed from the board for everyone viewing that job's pipeline, and candidates already in it stay put — they're just not shown until you unhide.

To bring a stage back, open the Stage filter in the pipeline toolbar. Hidden stages are listed in a Hidden section at the bottom (the filter also shows an "(X stages hidden)" count). Click one to open its settings and turn the toggle off.

Hiding is different from the Stage filter itself: the filter is a personal, per-device view that narrows which of the visible stages you see on your own board, and doesn't affect teammates. Hiding a stage applies to everyone.

ATS-connected jobs start with Leads, Application Review, and AI Interview hidden by default, so the board reflects the stages from your ATS. Unhide any of them anytime from the Stage filter.

Moving candidates between stages#

Drag a card to move a candidate. For stages with automation (AI Application Review, AI Interview), the automation runs immediately on entry — including sending invitation emails, if enabled.

You can also move candidates in bulk from the Candidates list. See Candidates for bulk actions.

Next steps#

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Pipeline and Stages · Elly Docs