Lessie — People Search & Enrichment#

Setup#

Lessie supports two modes: CLI (default, recommended) and MCP Server.

Mode A: CLI (default)#

Install the Lessie CLI binary:

bash

npm install -g @lessie/cli

Or use without installing:

bash

npx @lessie/cli --version

First-time authorization:

bash

lessie auth

This opens a browser for login/registration. Token is cached at ~/.lessie/oauth.json.

Verify connection:

bash

lessie status

Mode B: MCP Server#

Add to your MCP config (Claude Code ~/.claude/mcp.json, Cursor ~/.cursor/mcp.json, etc.):

json

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "lessie": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": ["-y", "@lessie/mcp-server"],
      "env": {
        "LESSIE_REMOTE_MCP_URL": "https://app.lessie.ai/mcp-server/mcp"
      }
    }
  }
}

Uninstall#

• CLI: npm uninstall -g @lessie/cli && rm -rf ~/.lessie/
• MCP: Remove the "lessie" entry from your .mcp.json and rm -rf ~/.lessie/

Quick start#

After setup, try saying to Claude:

• "Find Engineering Managers at Stripe in San Francisco"
• "Look up Sam Altman's contact info"
• "Research OpenAI — recent news and open job postings"

Mode detection#

Determine which mode to use at the start of each session:

1. Check if lessie CLI is available: run lessie status
2. If the command succeeds → use CLI mode (call tools via Bash)
3. If the command fails (not found) → attempt auto-install: npm install -g @lessie/cli
4. After install, run lessie status again to verify
5. If install succeeds → use CLI mode
6. If install fails (no npm, permission denied, network error, etc.) → check if MCP tools are available ( authorize, use_lessie)
7. If MCP tools are available → use MCP mode
8. If neither → inform the user that installation failed and suggest manual install or MCP setup

Credits & Pricing#

Lessie is a credit-based service.

New accounts receive free trial credits. View your balance and purchase more at https://lessie.ai/pricing.

The agent will disambiguate company names before searching to avoid wasting credits on wrong results.

Data & Privacy#

• Data sources: Contact and company information is aggregated from publicly available sources (business directories, social profiles, corporate websites).
• Query logging: Search queries are logged for service improvement and abuse prevention. No query data is shared with third parties.
• Data compliance: Lessie follows applicable data protection regulations. Users are responsible for using retrieved contact data in compliance with local laws (GDPR, CAN-SPAM, etc.).
• Privacy policy: https://lessie.ai/privacy
• Terms of service: https://lessie.ai/terms-of-service

Authorization#

CLI mode#

1. Run lessie status to check token validity.
2. If authorized: false → run lessie auth to open browser for login.
3. After the user completes login, run lessie status again to confirm.

MCP mode#

1. Call authorize to check connection status.

2. If already authorized → proceed to use tools directly.

3. If not authorized → authorize returns an authorization URL. Tell the user you need to open a browser for Lessie login/registration, and open it using the appropriate system command:

   • macOS: open "<url>"
   • Linux: xdg-open "<url>"
   • Windows: start "<url>"

4. Tell the user the browser has been opened and they need to complete login/registration.

5. After the user confirms, call authorize again to verify the connection.

6. If authorization fails (timeout, denied, port conflict), follow the diagnostic hints returned by authorize and retry.

Always inform the user before opening the browser — never silently redirect.

Agent behavior rules#

Entity disambiguation#

When a user mentions a company name that could refer to multiple entities (e.g., "Manus" could be Manus AI, Manus Bio, Manus Plus, etc.), disambiguate before searching:

1. Ask the user which company they mean, or present the top candidates and let them pick.
2. If context makes it unambiguous (e.g., user previously discussed AI agents), state your assumption and confirm: "你是指做 AI Agent 的 Manus AI (manus.im) 吗？"
3. Never silently assume one entity over another — wrong domain = wasted search credits and irrelevant results.

Tools overview#

People#

ToolCLI commandWhen to usefind_people``lessie find-peopleDiscover people by title, company, location, seniority, audience. Default strategy is hybrid. If a request times out or fails, retry with --strategy saas_only — it's faster (~30s vs ~60s) and more stable, though recall may be lowerenrich_people``lessie enrich-peopleFill missing profile data for known individuals (email, phone, LinkedIn, work history)review_people``lessie review-peopleDeep-qualify ambiguous candidates via web research — skip for obvious matches/mismatches

Companies#

ToolCLI commandWhen to usefind_organizations``lessie find-orgsDiscover companies by name, keyword, location, size, fundingenrich_organization``lessie enrich-orgGet full profile for known company domain(s) — industry, employees, funding, tech stackget_company_job_postings``lessie job-postingsView active job openings (needs organization_id from enrich)search_company_news``lessie company-newsFind recent news articles (needs organization_id from enrich)

Web research#

ToolCLI commandWhen to useweb_search``lessie web-searchGeneral web search; cached results make follow-up web_fetch freeweb_fetch``lessie web-fetchExtract specific info from a URL via AI summarization

Detailed references#

• CLI command examples & MCP calling: See references/cli-reference.md
• Workflow patterns (domain resolution, company research, search+qualify): See references/workflow-patterns.md
• Domain resolution decision tree: See references/domain-resolution.md

Key constraints#

• enrich_people / enrich_organization: max 10 per call; split larger lists into batches
• find_people / find_organizations: paginated — use --page for more results
• web_search caches page content; if a result has has_content: true, calling web_fetch on that URL is instant
• Seniority levels: owner, founder, c_suite, partner, vp, head, director, manager, senior, entry, intern
• For people enrichment, providing domain (company domain) alongside name greatly improves match accuracy
• CLI output is JSON on stdout, status messages on stderr — parse stdout for data