Boolean Search String Builder

Describe who you are looking for in plain English. You get a nested boolean string with synonyms expanded, parsed and repaired locally, then written in the syntax of each of eight platforms. No sign-up.

Try:

Stop hand-writing boolean strings

Good boolean is fiddly: nest one bracket wrong or forget an OR group and the search quietly returns the wrong people. Describe the role the way you would to a colleague, and this builder produces a clean string, with titles and skills already expanded into synonym groups, plus a short explanation of what each block matches.

Boolean operators, quickly

  • "quoted phrase" forces an exact match, e.g. "product designer".
  • OR widens: ("developer" OR "engineer").
  • AND narrows: "react" AND "typescript".
  • NOT or - excludes: NOT "recruiter".

From a string to real candidates

A boolean string is only as useful as the index you run it on. Run this exact query inside HeroHunt to search a live candidate index, screen every match against your role, and go straight from search to outreach with verified contact details.

The rest of the free recruiter toolkit

X-ray Search Builder

Turn a role into a Google or Bing query that searches public profiles across eleven networks, including LinkedIn, GitHub and Google Scholar.

Job Title & Skill Synonym Expander

Expand one title into every alternative title, adjacent skill and abbreviation your search should cover.

Boolean Search Checker & Converter

Paste a string, fix what silently breaks it, and rewrite it for the platform you are searching on.

Frequently asked questions

A boolean string combines keywords with the operators AND, OR and NOT to precisely describe who you want to find. Recruiters use them on LinkedIn Recruiter, in an ATS, on job boards, and in Google X-ray searches. This builder turns a plain-English brief into a correct, well-nested string with synonyms already expanded.

It is free and needs no sign-up. Describe who you are looking for and it returns a ready-to-copy boolean string plus an explanation. There is a fair-use limit; after that, sign in to keep building.

Most generators just concatenate the words you type. This one uses an intelligent model to expand titles and skills with real synonyms, nest the logic correctly, and explain what each block matches, so the string actually works. It never returns any real person's profile or contact data.

A boolean string only searches the platforms you already pay a seat on. Sign in to HeroHunt to run the exact query against a live candidate index, screen the results against your role, and reveal contact details in one place.

Yes. Generated strings can carry unbalanced brackets or stray operators, so the output is parsed by the same engine that powers our boolean checker, repaired if needed, and the repairs are listed. You never copy a string that fails to parse.

Because the platforms genuinely differ. LinkedIn states it does not support the asterisk wildcard and that the minus sign is not officially supported, so exclusions are written as NOT. Google treats a space as AND and excludes with a minus. Ashby documents that the word NOT does not work at all and that you must use an exclamation mark. Indeed documents only the minus sign. One string cannot be correct everywhere.