Writing a brief

Write the brief the way you'd describe the role to a colleague — not a database query.

The components

Who — role, seniority, specialization: "Senior ML engineer", "VP of Sales", "Founding designer"

Where — city, region, or remote: "in Berlin", "London or remote", "DACH region"

Signals — what matters for this search: "fintech background", "open-source contributor", "sold to enterprises"

Count target — include a number to set a target; Orbit stops when it reaches it:

Senior software engineers with payments experience in Berlin — find 25

Examples

CTOs and VPs of Engineering at Series A–C SaaS startups in London,
fintech or devtools background

Founding product designers at consumer mobile startups in NYC,
ex-Airbnb or ex-Spotify preferred

Go engineers with distributed systems experience, remote OK,
open-source contributors

Iteration

Orbit evaluates every result and assigns a verdict with a reason. Use the verdicts to refine:

• Too many irrelevant → add a disqualifier: "not recruiting agencies", "must have shipped production code"
• Too many unknown → add clarifying signals: "must be currently employed", "fintech not crypto"
• Too few results → broaden: drop a constraint, expand geography, add or between roles

Clarification questions

If Orbit isn't confident, it pauses the project (status: "awaiting_input", clarificationQuestion populated). Answer in the Orbit UI — the search resumes automatically.