> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://docs.recruitier.com/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

# Cloning a Search

> Clone an existing search to quickly create variations with different parameters.

## Why Clone a Search

Cloning allows you to create a copy of an existing search -- including all its results,
contact details, and metadata -- without affecting the original. This is useful in several
scenarios:

* **Testing different criteria** -- You want to see how adjusting filters (e.g., wider
  radius, different experience level) changes the results, without losing your original
  search.
* **Sharing with teammates** -- You found a great set of results and want a colleague on
  your agency team to have their own copy to work from independently.
* **Creating variations** -- You want to search for the same role in different locations
  or with different skill combinations, starting from a proven baseline.
* **Preserving a snapshot** -- Before making significant changes to a search, clone it
  to keep the current state as a reference.
* **Candidate handoffs** -- When transferring a candidate to a colleague, clone the
  associated search so they have immediate context and all the results you have already
  curated.

<Tip>
  Cloning is especially valuable for agency teams. Instead of asking a teammate to
  recreate your search from scratch, you can clone it directly to their account with
  all results intact. This saves significant time and ensures both recruiters work from
  the same baseline data.
</Tip>

## How to Clone a Search

Cloning is available from the search detail page:

<Steps>
  <Step title="Open the Search">
    Navigate to the search you want to clone by clicking on its card in the saved
    searches list.
  </Step>

  <Step title="Click Clone">
    On the search detail page, find the **Clone** action button in the toolbar. Click
    it to open the clone dialog.
  </Step>

  <Step title="Select the Target User">
    Choose which team member should receive the cloned search. You can clone to yourself
    or to any member of your agency.

    <Note>
      Cloning to teammates requires you to be part of an agency. Both you and the target
      user must be members of the same agency. If you are an independent recruiter without
      an agency, you can still clone searches to yourself.
    </Note>
  </Step>

  <Step title="Confirm and Clone">
    Click **Confirm** to create the clone. Recruitier copies the search, all its jobs,
    and associated contact details to the target user's account. The process typically
    takes a few seconds depending on the number of jobs.
  </Step>
</Steps>

## What Gets Copied

When you clone a search, the following data is duplicated:

| Data                | Copied? | Details                                                                                                               |
| ------------------- | ------- | --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
| **Search criteria** | Yes     | Name (with "\[Cloned]" prefix), description, keywords, experience level, flexibility, job type, location, when filter |
| **All active jobs** | Yes     | Each non-deleted job is copied as a new record linked to the same underlying scraped job data                         |
| **Contact details** | Yes     | All contact details associated with each job are duplicated for the target user                                       |
| **Match types**     | Yes     | Each job's AI classification (excellent, good, poor) is preserved                                                     |
| **Match scores**    | Yes     | Relevance scores are carried over from the original                                                                   |
| **Source keywords** | Yes     | The keywords that led to each job match are preserved                                                                 |

The following data is **not** copied:

| Data                   | Copied? | Reason                                                                          |
| ---------------------- | ------- | ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
| **Tags**               | No      | Tags are personal organizational tools and may not be relevant to the recipient |
| **Favorites**          | No      | Favorite status is reset -- the recipient starts fresh                          |
| **Project assignment** | No      | Projects are user-specific and not transferred                                  |
| **Internal notes**     | No      | Notes may contain private information not intended for sharing                  |
| **Outreach flows**     | No      | Outreach workflows are tied to individual user accounts                         |

<Info>
  The cloned search references the same underlying scraped job records as the original.
  This means if a scraped job is updated (e.g., marked as expired), the update is
  reflected in both the original and cloned search. The scraped job data is shared;
  only the user-specific metadata (tags, notes, outreach) is independent.
</Info>

## Cloned Search Identification

Cloned searches are clearly identified in the interface:

* The search name is prefixed with **"\[Cloned]"** (e.g., "\[Cloned] Python Developer")
* The search card and detail page show who cloned the search (name and email of the
  cloning user)
* A reference to the **original search ID** (`original_search_id`) is stored for
  traceability
* The **cloned by user ID** (`cloned_by_user_id`) records who performed the clone

If you clone a search that was already cloned (i.e., it already has the "\[Cloned]" prefix),
Recruitier does not add a second prefix. The name remains "\[Cloned] Original Name" to
keep it clean and readable.

## Editing a Cloned Search

Once a search is cloned, it behaves as a fully independent search. The recipient can:

* **View and sort results** just like any other search
* **Delete individual jobs** from the cloned search without affecting the original
* **Tag jobs** with their own personal tags
* **Add internal notes** to jobs
* **Start outreach flows** from the cloned search's contact details
* **Favorite jobs** independently from the original search

The cloned search is also independently **monitored** for new matching jobs, separate
from the original search's monitoring.

<Warning>
  Changes to a cloned search do not propagate back to the original, and vice versa.
  After cloning, the two searches are completely independent. Deleting a job from the
  clone does not delete it from the original, and new jobs found by the original's
  monitor are not automatically added to the clone.
</Warning>

## Agency Team Workflow

Cloning is designed primarily as a team collaboration feature. Here is a typical workflow
for agency teams:

1. **Recruiter A** creates a comprehensive search for "Senior React Developer" with
   carefully selected skills, location filters, and experience level
2. The search returns 150 results. Recruiter A reviews the top matches and tags the
   most promising ones
3. **Recruiter B** is working on a similar placement. Instead of creating a new search,
   Recruiter A clones the search to Recruiter B's account
4. Recruiter B receives the clone with all 150 results intact and can immediately
   begin their own review, tagging, and outreach -- without duplicating Recruiter A's
   effort
5. Both recruiters can now work the same opportunity set independently, with their own
   tags, notes, and outreach tracking

This workflow saves significant time and ensures both recruiters are working from the
same baseline data while maintaining independent tracking.

## Permissions

Cloning requires the following conditions to be met:

* You must **own** the search you want to clone (you created it or it was previously
  cloned to you)
* To clone to a teammate, both you and the target must be members of the **same agency**
* You do not need any special role (admin or member) -- all agency members can clone
* The clone target must be an active user in the same agency

<Note>
  If you are not part of an agency, you can only clone searches to yourself. This is
  still useful for creating search variations without modifying your original -- for
  example, cloning a search and then bulk-deleting poor matches from the clone while
  keeping the original intact.
</Note>

## Best Practices

* **Clone before making major changes** -- If you want to significantly adjust a search's
  result set (e.g., bulk deleting poor matches), clone it first to preserve the original
* **Use cloning for candidate handoffs** -- When transferring a candidate to a colleague,
  clone the associated search so they have immediate context
* **Clone to yourself for A/B testing** -- Create two versions of a search with slightly
  different criteria to compare which produces better results
* **Keep names descriptive** -- After cloning, consider adding context to help identify
  the purpose (the "\[Cloned]" prefix helps distinguish it, but adding the candidate name
  or variation description makes it even clearer)
* **Clone early, not late** -- Clone when the result set is fresh and unmodified. Cloning
  after heavy tag/delete operations means the recipient gets a partially curated set
  rather than the full original

## Advanced

### Clone Implementation Details

The clone operation works at the database level as follows:

1. **Search record duplication** -- A new search entity is created with all criteria
   fields copied from the original. The `user_id` is set to the target user, the name
   gets the "\[Cloned]" prefix, and `original_search_id` and `cloned_by_user_id` are
   set for traceability.

2. **Job record duplication** -- Each non-deleted job in the original search is copied
   as a new Job entity. The new job record has a new ID and the target user's `user_id`,
   but references the same `scraped_job_id` as the original. This means both the original
   and cloned jobs point to the same underlying ScrapedJob record.

3. **Contact detail duplication** -- All contact details associated with each cloned job
   are duplicated as new records for the target user. This ensures the recipient has
   immediate access to all contact information without needing a separate enrichment step.

4. **Metadata preservation** -- Match scores, match classifications, and source keywords
   are copied to the new job records. The recipient sees the same scoring and classification
   as the original.

5. **Metadata exclusion** -- Tags, favorites, project assignments, internal notes, and
   outreach flows are deliberately not copied. These are personal/team-specific data
   that should not be assumed transferable.

### How Cloning Interacts with Monitoring

The cloned search inherits the monitoring state from the original at the time of cloning.
If the original had `is_monitored = true`, the clone will also be monitored. However,
from that point forward, monitoring runs independently:

* New jobs found by the original's monitor are **not** added to the clone
* New jobs found by the clone's monitor are **not** added to the original
* Each search maintains its own `new_jobs_count`
* SSE notifications for new matches are sent to the respective search owner

This independence is by design -- it prevents confusion about where new results came from
and keeps each recruiter's pipeline cleanly separated.

### Edge Cases

<Accordion title="Cloning a search with deleted jobs">
  Only non-deleted (active) jobs are included in the clone. If you deleted 50 out of 150
  jobs from the original, the clone will contain 100 jobs. The deleted jobs are not
  recoverable through cloning.
</Accordion>

<Accordion title="Cloning a search that was already cloned">
  You can clone a clone. The new clone gets the "\[Cloned]" prefix (only one level -- it
  does not become "\[Cloned] \[Cloned] Name"). The `original_search_id` points to the
  immediate parent, and `cloned_by_user_id` records who performed this specific clone.
</Accordion>

<Accordion title="Cloning a search with expired jobs">
  Expired jobs are included in the clone because they may still have value for reference.
  The expiration status comes from the shared ScrapedJob record, so if a job expires after
  cloning, it appears as expired in both the original and the clone.
</Accordion>

<Accordion title="Cloning to a user who already has the same jobs">
  If the target user already has some of the same underlying scraped jobs in their
  collection (from a different search), the clone creates additional Job records for those
  same ScrapedJobs. The user may see the same listing in multiple searches, which is
  expected behavior -- each search maintains its own independent set of job records.
</Accordion>

### Business Rules

* **Agency boundary enforcement**: Cloning is strictly limited to users within the same
  agency. Cross-agency cloning is not supported for data privacy reasons.
* **No cascading updates**: After cloning, the original and clone are independent. There
  is no sync mechanism between them.
* **Soft data references**: Both the original and clone reference the same ScrapedJob
  records. If a ScrapedJob is updated (new contact info, expiration, description update),
  both searches reflect the change because they share the same underlying data.

## Related

* [Saved Searches](/jobs/search/saved-searches) -- Managing your search collection
* [Creating a Search](/jobs/search/creating-a-search) -- Creating new searches from scratch
* [Saving & Managing Jobs](/jobs/saving-and-managing) -- Working with jobs across searches