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

# What is Beacon

> HelloSky's AI research agent: describe the role, get an evaluated, ranked shortlist.

Beacon is HelloSky's AI-powered search agent. You describe the role the way you would brief a researcher; Beacon searches, evaluates and ranks the market, then refines the shortlist with you.

<Frame>
  <img src="https://mintcdn.com/skyminyr/9Zwx1DmXdwqO-Frl/images/beacon/beacon-landing.png?fit=max&auto=format&n=9Zwx1DmXdwqO-Frl&q=85&s=33659ecade7adde504ffe14af871e844" alt="The Beacon landing page" width="1440" height="900" data-path="images/beacon/beacon-landing.png" />
</Frame>

## What Beacon does

Where a normal search returns everyone who matches your filters, Beacon works the market the way a researcher would:

1. **Interprets the brief.** It restates your requirements so you can confirm it understood the role, the context (ownership, stage, sector), and the location.
2. **Runs multiple search sweeps.** Several parallel searches from different angles: by title and sector, by geography, by exit history, and firm-by-firm through relevant companies.
3. **Evaluates candidates individually.** It reads profiles, weighs them against your qualifications, and explains its reasoning as it goes; you can watch every step live.
4. **Ranks with SmartRank.** The pool is scored against the explicit qualifications in your brief.
5. **Verifies freshness.** Before finalizing, it re-checks that shortlisted candidates are still in the roles that made them relevant, and drops or demotes the ones that are not.
6. **Delivers a shortlist and a market map.** A ranked shortlist with fit scores and evidence, plus a map of the companies that define the talent market for the role.

## When to use Beacon versus regular search

* **Use Beacon** when you have a role to fill and want an evaluated shortlist: a brief with judgment applied, not just a filtered set.
* **Use People or Company Search** when you want to define the universe yourself, need precise control over every filter, or are doing broad market exploration rather than filling a specific seat.

## Where results live

Each Beacon run works inside a folder. The shortlist is saved as a people list and the market map as a company list, so everything Beacon produces plugs into the same lists, stages, sharing, and newsfeeds as the rest of HelloSky.

<Note>
  Beacon runs take several minutes; that time is spent actually evaluating candidates. You can watch it work, interrupt with follow-ups, or leave and come back: runs continue in the background and appear in your Beacon history.
</Note>