Specter CLI – AI powered startup and deal sourcing

Enrich, search, and manage company and professional data, lists, saved searches, and signals using the Specter intelligence platform via CLI.

Security Scan

The skill's instructions match a Specter CLI that legitimately needs an API key, but the package metadata omits that required environment variable and the install instructions point to a third‑party repo (SSH clone + npm install) — verify the repo and API key handling before installing.

Purpose & Capability

SKILL.md describes a CLI that calls the Specter API (company/person enrichment, lists, saved searches). The commands and the need for an API key are coherent with that purpose.

Instruction Scope

The instructions instruct installing and linking a third‑party npm CLI and advise storing SPECTER_API_KEY in files like ~/.claude/.env or shell rc files. The skill also documents commands that accept --file <path> (reading user files). The SKILL.md requires SPECTER_API_KEY in practice, but the registry metadata did not declare any required env vars — this mismatch reduces trust and may lead to accidental exposure of the key if users follow the suggestion to store it in shared or agent-visible files.

Install Mechanism

This is an instruction-only skill (no install spec in registry). SKILL.md tells users to git clone [e-mail]:FroeMic/tryspecter-cli.git and run npm install/build/link. That workflow will execute third‑party code on the user's machine (including any npm lifecycle scripts). The repo is a non-obvious third party (FroeMic) rather than an official specter release; cloning via SSH requires an SSH key and may be unexpected. This is not inherently malicious but requires verification of the repo and package contents before running npm install.

Credentials

The CLI legitimately needs an API key (SPECTER_API_KEY) for auth, and SKILL.md explains this. However, the registry's declared requirements list zero env vars/credentials — the missing declaration is an inconsistency. The only sensitive item referenced is SPECTER_API_KEY; no unrelated credentials are requested.

Persistence & Privilege

The skill is not always-enabled and does not request persistent system-wide privileges. It does recommend adding the API key to ~/.claude/.env or shell rc files, which affects persistence of the credential but is a user-level choice rather than an automatic modification by the skill.

What to consider before installing

What to check before installing/use: - The SKILL.md expects SPECTER_API_KEY but the registry metadata doesn't list any required env vars — treat that as a packaging oversight and assume you must provide an API key. - Verify the repository ([e-mail]:FroeMic/tryspecter-cli.git). Prefer official repos or releases; inspect the package.json and any postinstall/build scripts before running npm install to avoid executing malicious code. - Consider cloning via HTTPS if you don't want to use an SSH key, or audit the code in a sandboxed environment (container/VM) before installing globally (npm link). - Don't store the API key in files readable by other users or untrusted agents; prefer a credential store or a key with least privilege and short lifetime if possible. Be cautious about adding it to an agent-visible file (e.g., ~/.claude/.env) if that agent has access to other data. - The CLI can read files via --file <path>; avoid passing sensitive files unless you understand where results are sent and who has access to them. - If you rely on this skill for handling personal or candidate data, confirm compliance with your data-privacy policies and Specter terms. If you want a safer install path, ask the skill author for an official release tarball or a published npm package and for explicit documentation of required env vars in the registry metadata.

SKILL.md specter-cli Enrich, search, and manage company and people data from the Specter intelligence platform via the specter-cli. Look up companies by domain, enrich professionals via LinkedIn, manage lists, query saved searches, and track talent and investor signals.

Install

Clone and install the CLI:

git clone [e-mail]:FroeMic/tryspecter-cli.git
cd tryspecter-cli
npm install
npm run build
npm link

Set SPECTER_API_KEY environment variable (get it from Specter Settings > API Console):

• Recommended: Add to ~/.claude/.env for Claude Code
• Alternative: Add to ~/.bashrc or ~/.zshrc: export SPECTER_API_KEY="your-api-key"

Repository: [e-mail]:FroeMic/tryspecter-cli.git

Commands

Company enrichment and lookup:

specter companies enrich --domain <domain>            # Enrich company by domain
specter companies enrich --linkedin <url>             # Enrich company by LinkedIn URL
specter companies enrich --website <url>              # Enrich company by website
specter companies get <companyId>                     # Get company details by Specter ID
specter companies similar <companyId>                 # Find similar companies
specter companies people <companyId>                  # Get team members
specter companies search <query>                      # Search companies by name or domain

People enrichment and lookup:

specter people enrich --linkedin <url>                # Enrich person by LinkedIn identifier
specter people get <personId>                         # Get person details by Specter ID
specter people email <personId>                       # Get person's email address
specter people find-by-email <email>                  # Reverse lookup person by email

List management:

specter lists companies list                          # List all company lists
specter lists companies create <name>                 # Create a company list
specter lists companies get <listId>                  # Get list metadata
specter lists companies results <listId>              # Get companies in a list
specter lists companies add <listId>                  # Add companies to a list
specter lists companies remove <listId>               # Remove companies from a list
specter lists companies delete <listId>               # Delete a company list
specter lists people list                             # List all people lists
specter lists people create <name>                    # Create a people list
specter lists people results <listId>                 # Get people in a list
specter lists people delete <listId>                  # Delete a people list

Saved searches:

specter searches list                                 # List all saved searches
specter searches delete <searchId>                    # Delete a saved search
specter searches companies get <searchId>             # Get company search details
specter searches companies results <searchId>         # Get company search results
specter searches people get <searchId>                # Get people search details
specter searches people results <searchId>            # Get people search results
specter searches talent get <searchId>                # Get talent search details
specter searches talent results <searchId>            # Get talent signal results
specter searches investor-interest get <searchId>     # Get investor interest details
specter searches investor-interest results <searchId> # Get investor interest results

Signals:

specter talent get <signalId>                         # Get talent signal details
specter investor-interest get <signalId>              # Get investor interest signal

Entity extraction:

specter entities search --text "..."                  # Extract companies/investors from text
specter entities search --file <path>                 # Extract entities from a file (max 1000 chars)

Global options:

--api-key <key>       # Override SPECTER_API_KEY
--format <format>     # Output format: json (default), table, csv
--help                # Show help
--version             # Show version

Key Concepts

Concept	Purpose	Example
Companies	Company intelligence records	Enriched company profiles with funding, team
People	Professional profiles	LinkedIn-enriched person data
Lists	Curated collections of companies/people	"Target Accounts", "Hiring Pipeline"
Saved Searches	Persisted search queries on Specter	Company or people searches from the platform
Talent Signals	Job-move indicators	Person moved to a new company
Investor Interest	Investment activity signals	Company attracting investor attention
Entities	Extracted mentions from text	Company/investor names in unstructured text

API Reference

• Base URL: https://app.tryspecter.com/api/v1
• Auth: X-API-KEY: $SPECTER_API_KEY
• Rate Limits: 15 requests per second per API key (auto-retry with exponential backoff)
• Credits: Per-team allocation, 1 credit per successful result, resets monthly

Common API Operations

Enrich a company by domain:

curl -X POST https://app.tryspecter.com/api/v1/companies/enrich \
  -H "X-API-KEY: $SPECTER_API_KEY" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{"domain": "example.com"}'

Enrich a person by LinkedIn:

curl -X POST https://app.tryspecter.com/api/v1/people/enrich \
  -H "X-API-KEY: $SPECTER_API_KEY" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{"linkedin": "https://www.linkedin.com/in/johndoe"}'

Search companies:

curl -X GET "https://app.tryspecter.com/api/v1/companies/search?query=acme" \
  -H "X-API-KEY: $SPECTER_API_KEY"

Get company search results:

curl -X GET "https://app.tryspecter.com/api/v1/searches/companies/<searchId>/results?page=0&limit=50" \
  -H "X-API-KEY: $SPECTER_API_KEY"

Notes

• Saved searches must have "Share with API" enabled on the Specter platform before they appear via the API.
• API-created lists are automatically shareable; platform-created lists need "Share with API" toggled on.
• Saved searches cannot be created through the API, only queried and deleted.
• Company IDs use the format comp_*, people IDs use per_*.
• Pagination uses 0-indexed page and limit (max 5000) query parameters.
• The CLI automatically retries rate-limited requests up to 3 times with exponential backoff.
• Set DEBUG_API_ERRORS=true for detailed error logging during troubleshooting.