Rank engineers for a role or project by their verified open-source contributions and other public work.
Input: pass the richest context you have — (1) a full job description (most common), (2) a synthesized brief after reviewing a company's public repo (README + stack + role needs — preferred over a bare URL when you've evaluated the project), (3) a public github.com repo URL (server fetches README/topics; private repos → paste README as text), or (4) an informal role brief. Longer, more specific input ranks better. Optional `location` narrows to a city, country, or ISO country code.
Returns up to limit ranked candidates (default 20, max 20) with full inline profiles in structuredContent (view=candidates): login, name, bio, location, followers, reach (cross-platform audience percentile + reach), html_url, top_repos, signals, matched_projects, location_match, and contact (top_topics / top_domains / top_languages / top_subtopics are optional until software-topic backfill).
Results never include bots, CI, or service accounts — they are filtered out automatically. Use the optional `exclude` array (GitHub logins or org names) to drop additional accounts.
AGENT MODE: consume structuredContent only. HUMAN MODE: MCP App panel shows candidate cards; use server instructions for text-only hosts.
Do not call get_profile for handles already in these results unless the user asks for deeper detail.
Defense (SBIR), NRC filings, and mining QP consents are matched by lexical FTS over award titles, accessions, and consent letters — not abstract similarity. Publication, NTRS, repo, and TechPort roles still use description vectors. Do not claim a semantic abstract match for an NRC accession or a QP consent.