A swipe direction is a shortcut for a list of things you would otherwise do by hand in your ATS. You define that list once per connection.
Open a connection, go to Settings, and you get three lists: right, left, and up. Each holds actions that run in order.
The action types
Advance stage. Moves the candidate to a stage you choose. On most systems the stages come from the requisition; on Lever, BambooHR, and SmartRecruiters they are account-wide, so the list you see is the account’s.
Apply tag. Tags the candidate. Where a provider replaces the whole tag list on write, we read the current tags and merge before writing, so you do not wipe someone else’s work.
Add note. Leaves a note on the candidate. You write the text once and it is used every time; {{date}} is filled in when the note is written.
Reject. Files a rejection, with the reason your ATS requires. On systems where rejection is really a status change, configure it as an advance to your rejected status instead — the app will tell you when that is the case.
Record only. Records the swipe here and writes nothing back. Useful for a first pass, or for a direction you want to mean “come back to this”.
Only what your provider supports
The picker is built from what each adapter reports it can do, not from a fixed menu. If Ashby cannot reject and Teamtailor cannot tag, those options are not on the list for those connections.
If you configure something and the provider later stops supporting it, the action is skipped with a stated reason rather than failing the whole swipe.
Order matters
Actions run top to bottom. A sensible right-swipe on Greenhouse might be:
- Advance stage to Interview
- Apply tag
swipe-shortlist - Add note “Shortlisted from the deck on {{date}}”
If the stage change fails, the later actions still run, and each is logged separately. You end up with a truthful record of what landed rather than an all-or-nothing guess.
Seeing what happened
The Activity view on a connection lists past swipes with the outcome of every action. The candidate profile shows the same thing for one person.
Teams
If you are on a team and swiping a connection someone else owns, you get your own action configuration. The owner’s setup is the default until you change it, so a new teammate starts with something sensible rather than nothing.