Before you start
You need a Cornerstone administrator who can register applications in API Management and edit security roles. Cornerstone's Candidate API guide says the Edge Integrations - Manage and Edge Marketplace - Manage permissions apply to setting it up.
You need Cornerstone Recruiting. Production also needs Cornerstone's API package, called Cornerstone APIs (Foundational). To ask for it, go to Admin > Tools > Edge > Marketplace, search for "Cornerstone API", open the tile and select Purchase Inquiry (Getting API access). API use in your Pilot and Stage portals is free with no time limit: install it from the Edge Marketplace in that portal instead.
Each job you connect must be open and posted to at least one Cornerstone career site, with the posting active (Candidate API guide).
You will paste four things into Metaintro:
Your portal address
The client ID of the application you register
Its client secret
The scopes you gave it
Create the credential in Cornerstone
These steps follow Cornerstone's Authentication guide.
1. Choose the service user. Metaintro acts as one Cornerstone user, and Cornerstone checks that user's permissions on every call. Pick an active user, or create one only for Metaintro so its changes are easy to spot. Cornerstone's guide does not name the menu for creating users, so use the user setup you normally use. Note the user ID.
2. Give the service user its permission. To let Metaintro move candidates between statuses, the user needs the Applicants - Status Change permission (List of scopes and security permissions). Following Cornerstone's access control guide:
Go to Admin > Tools > Core Functions > Security Role Administration and select Create New Role. Follow the three steps, add the permission, and select Save.
Search for the role, select its Users icon, then Add Users.
In Select Criteria, choose Users, find the service user, add them, then select Done and Save.
3. Register the application.
jobrequisition:read, to read your job requisitions and look up applicants
jobapplicant:read, to look up applicants and their status
jobapplicant:update, to move applicants between statuses
applicationworkflow:read, to see whether a job's application asks for a résumé or cover letter
the Candidate API scope that creates candidates and applications. Cornerstone's public scope list does not name it, so search the window for "candidate".
To test first, register an application the same way in your Pilot or Stage portal and connect that portal.
Connect in Metaintro
In Metaintro, go to Settings > Integrations.
Choose Cornerstone Recruiting.
In Portal, enter the address you use to sign in to Cornerstone, such as acme.csod.com. For a test, enter your Pilot or Stage portal's address.
In Client ID, paste the client ID.
In Client secret, paste the client secret.
In Scopes, enter the scopes you selected, separated by spaces. If you ticked Cornerstone API, or want Metaintro to use every scope you selected, enter all.
Select Connect.
Metaintro signs in to check the details, then you map your jobs, set your rules, check the preview and go live.
What Metaintro sends and reads
Metaintro only sends people who chose to share their profile with you for a specific job.
Jobs: Metaintro reads your open and draft job requisitions, with their title, status and location, so you can map them.
Candidate and application: Metaintro first looks for an applicant with the person's email address, ignoring capital letters. If it finds more than one, it stops rather than guess. If the person has already applied to the job, Metaintro uses that application. Otherwise it submits an application to the mapped job with their first name, last name, email and phone, and sets the source to Metaintro. Cornerstone creates the candidate, or adds the application to the existing candidate with that email.
Résumé: attached when the person has one and the job's application asks for a résumé. Cornerstone accepts PDF, DOC, DOCX and TXT files. It does not parse résumés sent this way.
Proof card: Cornerstone's API cannot add notes. When the job's application asks for a cover letter, Metaintro sends the link to the person's proof card and their summary as the cover letter.
Stages: Metaintro checks each applicant's status regularly. Cornerstone does not notify Metaintro of changes. Hired is read as hired, and Closed is read as not selected.
Stage moves: Metaintro can move an applicant to Interview, Offer Letter or Hired. It does not close applicants, because Cornerstone needs a disposition to close one.
Limits
Metaintro cannot send a person without an email address.
Metaintro does not answer prescreening questions, compliance questions or disclaimers. Cornerstone's API does not check them, so those answers stay empty. If the application has a required custom integration or attachment, Cornerstone saves it as incomplete and your recruiters can invite the person to finish it.
If your portal requires a phone number, people without one cannot be sent. You set this in Admin > Tools > Recruit > General Recruitment: Requisition and Applicant Preferences > Applicant Preferences: Phone Required.
Cornerstone sends the person its usual application email.
A stage move fails if the applicant's current status is a required step that has not been completed. Move the applicant in Cornerstone instead.
Cornerstone allows 50 requests a minute for its Candidate API, and limits its other recruiting APIs per minute and per hour (Throttling). Limits apply to each portal separately. Metaintro paces its calls and waits when Cornerstone says the limit is reached.
If something goes wrong
Cornerstone refuses the connection: check the portal address, and that the client ID, secret and scopes are from the same application. Every scope you enter must be one you selected when you registered it. If you regenerated the secret, paste the new one.
Access is refused later: the token is missing a scope, or the service user lacks a permission or is no longer active. Check the application's scopes in API Management and the service user's security role.
A job does not accept applications: make sure the requisition is open and posted to an active career site posting.
Too many requests: Cornerstone has paused calls for the rest of the minute or hour. Metaintro waits and tries again by itself.
A stage move is skipped or fails: Metaintro moves only to Interview, Offer Letter and Hired. Close applicants, or complete required steps, in Cornerstone.