# How Truffle works

> What Truffle is, what it is not, and how it screens resumes, one-way interviews and assessments against the criteria you set. Checked against the live product.

Source: https://www.hiretruffle.com/how-it-works  
Last checked against the live product: 2026-10-05

Truffle is an AI screening platform for small teams doing high-volume hiring. It screens resumes, one-way video interviews and assessments against criteria you set, and shows you the evidence. You make every decision.

You describe a role once. Truffle turns it into a screening and a Position Link. Candidates complete the screening on their own time. When they finish, Truffle scores what they submitted against your criteria and puts the result on their row, with the reasoning attached.

*Figure: Build position: Truffle suggests which methods to switch on, with a reason drawn from your description. Each shows its credit cost.*

## How a role goes live

A role goes live in about 10 minutes, in four steps.

1. **Define the role.** Paste the job description and answer the short role brief. The brief is what tailors the AI to this position.
2. **Build the position.** Switch on the screening methods you want: resume, one-way interview, assessments, or any mix. You need at least one.
3. **Configure screening.** Truffle drafts interview questions and resume criteria from the job description. Keep them, swap questions from the question bank, or write your own. Every question carries a rubric: why we ask this, what we look for, and what a strong or weak answer looks like.
4. **Review and activate.** Check the setup and go live. You get the link to share.

## Where candidates come from

Most candidates arrive through the Position Link, from a hosted job page or your company's careers page. You can also upload resumes you already have, invite people directly, or give a job board the position's own email address so applications land in Truffle on their own. Ashby, Breezy HR, Workable, Bullhorn, JazzHR, Recruitee, Teamtailor, Pinpoint and Indeed connect natively, and thousands of other apps connect through Zapier or the REST API.

## The three screening methods

A position can use one method or all three. Each one produces its own signal. When two or more are on, Truffle adds an Overall signal of Strong, Mixed or Weak, which leads the row.

| Method | What happens | What you see |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Resume | The resume is parsed into a readable CV and checked against criteria you write. PDFs, Word files and scanned images are read. | High, Mid or Low, with a criterion-by-criterion breakdown |
| One-way interview | The candidate answers your questions by video or audio, on their own schedule. Each answer is transcribed and scored against its rubric. | A match score shown as a percentage, a summary with gaps, and Candidate Shorts |
| Assessments | Personality, Work scenarios and Environment fit, each scored on its own. | High, Mid or Low for each, with the reasoning |

Qualification questions sit in front of all three. Each one collects an answer and does one of three things with it: `Reject automatically`, `Flag for review` or `Just collect it`.

## What candidates see

Candidates see your logo and colours, the role, what they will complete and roughly how long it takes, and a notice that AI is used in the screening. It is designed to be finished in one sitting, and applying needs no account. A typical one-way interview takes 10 to 15 minutes. Anyone can ask for a different selection process from the invitation, and that request comes to you to handle.

## Reviewing

Finished screenings land in `Ready for review` on your home screen, grouped by position. Magic Review keeps the candidate list on one side and opens each profile on the other, with keyboard shortcuts to advance, hold or reject. Every row also has a Decide menu with Advance, Hold, Reject and Hire. Teammates rate and leave notes on the same record, and you can send a read-only link to someone without a Truffle account.

## How the AI is used

Truffle transcribes every answer, scores it against a rubric built from your job description and role brief, writes a summary with a section on gaps, and picks highlight clips. Every score links to the evidence behind it.

Scores sort and summarize. They never reject anyone. The only automatic rejection in the product is a qualification rule you write yourself, such as "must hold a valid driver's license", and it is fixed logic, not an AI judgement. [How scoring works](https://www.hiretruffle.com/how-it-works/scoring) covers this in full.

## What Truffle is not

Truffle is not an applicant tracking system. It holds candidates for a position while they are being screened, then hands them on to the tools you already use. Candidates export as CSV or PDF, and the [integrations](https://www.hiretruffle.com/how-it-works/integrations) carry results back to your ATS.

## Plans and credits

Every feature is on every plan, and there are no per-seat fees. You buy a monthly pool of credits shared across all three methods: 1 credit per resume, 2 per candidate assessed, 5 per one-way interview. Plans run from $49 to $599 a month, plus a custom plan. The free trial is 7 days and 30 credits, with no credit card. [Plans and credits](https://www.hiretruffle.com/how-it-works/credits) has the detail.

## Related

- [Quick start](https://www.hiretruffle.com/how-it-works/quick-start): from a job description to a live link.
- [How scoring works](https://www.hiretruffle.com/how-it-works/scoring): what gets scored, against what, and what scores never do.
- [What candidates see](https://www.hiretruffle.com/how-it-works/what-candidates-see): the screening from the candidate's side.
- [Guides](https://www.hiretruffle.com/how-it-works/guides): step-by-step walkthroughs captured from the live product.

---

Truffle is an AI screening platform for small teams doing high-volume hiring: resume screening, one-way video interviews and talent assessments. AI surfaces the evidence and you make every decision. Scores never reject a candidate; the only automatic rejection is a qualification rule the employer writes. https://www.hiretruffle.com