Connect Ashby

Wire Prelim into Ashby so that moving a candidate to a chosen stage automatically triggers an AI screening interview. When the candidate finishes, the result lands back on their Ashby profile with score, recommendation, summary, and a link to the full transcript.

Setup is two paste operations and one dropdown. About five minutes end to end.

1. Enable the Prelim tile in Ashby

In Ashby admin, go to Admin → Integrations → Marketplace, find Prelim, and click Connect. Ashby generates a Public API key for the tile and shows it to you on the connect screen.

Use the marketplace tile's API key

Ashby generates a dedicated Public API key when you connect the Prelim tile. Use that one — don't create a separate Public API key under Admin → API Keys. The tile-generated key is scoped to Prelim and is what Ashby's integration logs attribute calls to.

Copy the API key shown on the tile. You'll paste it into Prelim in the next step.

2. Paste the API key into Prelim

In Prelim, go to Settings → Integrations → Ashby. Paste the Ashby API key from step 1 and save.

Prelim immediately generates two things for your org:

A unique webhook URL (one per organization).
A signing secret used to verify Ashby's webhook signatures.

Both are displayed on the same settings page. You'll need them for step 3.

3. Configure the webhook in Ashby

Back in Ashby admin, go to Admin → Webhooks → New Webhook. Set:

Event: Candidate stage change
URL: the webhook URL from step 2
Secret: the signing secret from step 2

Save the webhook. Ashby pings the URL to verify it's reachable; Prelim responds and the webhook goes live.

4. Pick the trigger stage

Back in Prelim Settings → Integrations → Ashby, set Trigger stage to the stage name in Ashby that should auto-fire a Prelim screen (commonly Recruiter Screen, Phone Screen, or AI Screen). Only stage changes into that exact stage name trigger Prelim; everything else is ignored.

What happens on each stage change

Ashby fires a signed webhook to your Prelim URL.
Prelim verifies the HMAC-SHA256 signature, then mirrors the Ashby job into Prelim if it doesn't exist yet (questions are auto-generated from the job description).
Prelim creates an interview for the candidate and emails them a unique link.
The candidate completes the AI screen at their own pace.
Prelim scores every answer, assigns a recommendation, and posts a note back to the candidate's Ashby profile feed with the score, recommendation, summary, and a link to the full transcript in Prelim.

Assessment marketplace flow (alternative)

The Prelim tile also implements Ashby's Assessment partner API. If your recruiters prefer to start a Prelim screen by selecting it as an assessment on a candidate (rather than via a stage change), use that flow instead. Both paths are live on the same tile; you don't need to choose at install time.

Test it end-to-end

The fastest sanity check: in Ashby, move any test candidate into your configured trigger stage. Within a few seconds you should see:

The candidate appear under Candidates in Prelim
An invite email arrive in the candidate's inbox

After the candidate finishes the screen, a Prelim AI Screen completed note will appear on their Ashby profile feed with the score and recommendation.

Troubleshooting

Webhook fires but no interview appears

Check Settings → Integrations → Ashby in Prelim. If Trigger stage doesn't exactly match the stage name in Ashby (whitespace and case included), the webhook is received but ignored on purpose. Update either side to match.

Note doesn't appear on the Ashby profile

Pushback uses the same Ashby API key from step 1. If you rotated the tile's key, paste the new one into Prelim Settings → Integrations → Ashby. Pushback failures are logged server-side but don't block scoring; check the dashboard screen view for the candidate's result.

Disconnecting

Remove the integration in two places: delete the webhook in Ashby (Admin → Webhooks), then click Disconnect in Prelim Settings → Integrations → Ashby. Existing interviews remain in Prelim; only the live wiring is removed.