Lead gen tool builder skill

Lead Gen Tool Builder

Scaffolds a working, self-hostable lead generation tool: a ZoomInfo-style web app with a left filter rail, a sortable company/contact results table, and a CRM push bar — backed by the Explorium data API, with CSV import/export and field-mapped push to HubSpot and Salesforce.

Unlike the other skills in this repo, which run a prospecting or enrichment workflow inside your current Claude Code session via the Vibe Prospecting MCP server, this skill produces a standalone app the user can run, deploy, and hand to their team — a real lead-gen tool, not a one-off list. Reach for list-builder or enrich-company when the user wants a prospect list right now; reach for this skill when they want a tool they can keep using, host, demo, or white-label.

No personal keys are stored in this skill. The bundled backend reads every credential from a local .env file at runtime — nothing is hardcoded, so the generated app is safe to fork, self-host, and share outside your org.

When to use

Trigger this for any request to build a lead-gen / prospecting / sales- intelligence app, a company-or-contact search interface, an Explorium-powered app, a self-hosted ZoomInfo/Apollo.io/Clearbit alternative, or a "find leads → enrich → push to CRM" tool that should exist as its own app rather than a single list. Example phrasings: "build me a lead gen tool", "I want something like ZoomInfo but self-hosted", "scaffold a prospecting app with HubSpot push", "give my team a company search tool backed by Explorium".

What you get

The bundled template (assets/leadgen-starter/) is a ready-to-run app:

• Company generator and Contact generator — two search modes over Explorium's /businesses and /prospects endpoints.
• Filter rail mapped 1:1 to Explorium fields: industry, employee count, revenue, company age, HQ country/region/city, tech stack, keywords, business events (funding, hiring, M&A…); for people — job title, seniority, department, has-email / has-phone availability.
• Sample-aware results table — sortable columns, bulk select, detail panel; the UI is explicit when Explorium returns a capped sample vs. every match.
• Import a list — upload a CSV of companies or contacts, match it against Explorium, and enrich it.
• CSV export of any result set or selection.
• Push to CRM with a reviewable, editable field-mapping modal — Contacts → Salesforce Leads / HubSpot Contacts; Companies → Salesforce Accounts / HubSpot Companies.

Workflow

1. Copy the template into the user's workspace

cp -R "<this-skill-dir>/assets/leadgen-starter" ./leadgen-app
cd leadgen-app

Don't copy node_modules, dist, or .env — the template ships without them.

2. Get API keys

Only Explorium is required to search; HubSpot/Salesforce are optional and only needed for CRM push. Summarize from assets/leadgen-starter/README.md:

• Explorium (required): sign up at developers.explorium.ai → API Keys.
• HubSpot (optional): Settings → Integrations → Private Apps → create app with crm.objects.contacts.write + crm.objects.companies.write scopes.
• Salesforce (optional): a Connected App using the OAuth 2.0 JWT Bearer flow — the bundled README has the exact openssl + Connected App steps.

3. Configure and run

cp .env.example .env      # paste in the keys from step 2
npm install
npm run dev                # API on :4000, web app on :5173

Open http://localhost:5173. Search works with just the Explorium key; the HubSpot/Salesforce push buttons activate once those keys are present.

4. Verify

Run a small company search (e.g. Country = US, Employees = 51-200) and confirm real results load. If CRM keys were provided, select a couple of rows and push to confirm the success modal returns real created-record IDs.

Architecture

• server/ — Node/Express backend; the only place API keys ever live. explorium.js is the REST client (search, match, bulk-enrich, autocomplete — note several filter fields have distinct Explorium filter types, e.g. job_title is any_match_phrase and has_email is exists, handled in buildFilters). salesforce.js / hubspot.js do CRM auth plus mapping-driven record creation.
• src/ — React + Vite + Tailwind frontend that only calls /api/* — it never sees a credential. config/filters.ts defines every filter; components/ holds the filter rail, results table, and CRM modals.

Customizing

• Filters: edit src/config/filters.ts. Field names and value enums must match Explorium's API — the client surfaces the API's own validation errors (which list permitted values) if a field or value is wrong.
• Branding: product name in src/components/TopBar.tsx, logo mark in src/components/icons.tsx, palette in tailwind.config.js, tab title/ favicon in index.html.
• CRM field maps: defaults live in SF_DEFAULT_MAPPING (server/ salesforce.js) and HS_DEFAULT_MAPPING (server/hubspot.js). Note Salesforce Industry and HubSpot industry are restricted picklists, so free-text industry is mapped to a description field by default — adjust if your org has custom picklist values.
• Swap the data layer: the template calls Explorium's REST API directly. To reuse the same MCP-native data layer as the rest of this repo, point the backend at the Vibe Prospecting MCP server (https://vibeprospecting. explorium.ai/mcp) instead of raw REST calls.

Limitations

• Explorium's fetch endpoints return a capped sample for broad queries (not the true match count) — the UI flags this; narrow filters to see the full set.
• Enrichment (contact reveals, list-import match/enrich) consumes Explorium credits — the app only enriches selected rows or rows being pushed, never whole result pages.
• This is a starter, not a production deployment: for real usage, move secrets to a managed vault and add auth, rate-limiting, and logging.