Find buyers

Buyer discovery finds companies that are not already in the corpus. That is what makes it the one genuinely expensive step in the toolkit, and why it is worth doing in the right order.

1. Ground in the profile

eximagent profile get

The profile supplies product, target markets, and defaults. If it is empty, the search has nothing to anchor on and you should fill in the details explicitly.

2. Settle the HS code

eximagent hscode search --query "roasted arabica coffee beans"

Choose the code deliberately. A search run against the wrong code returns a clean, plausible list of the wrong companies.

3. Preview

eximagent --dry-run search run \
  --product "roasted coffee" \
  --location DE \
  --hsCode 090111 \
  --direction buyers

Read the plan and the cost. This is the last free checkpoint.

4. Run and stream

eximagent search run --product "roasted coffee" --location DE --hsCode 090111 --confirmed

Capture the runId from the kickoff response, then block on the stream until the terminal complete event:

eximagent stream --run-id <runId>

5. Shortlist before spending more

eximagent collection get --name <name>

This is the step people skip, and skipping it is what makes a run expensive. Enrichment and contact discovery should only ever touch companies you have already decided are worth contacting.

When the list is large or the criteria are fuzzy, rank it with reasoning instead of eyeballing it:

eximagent collection analyze --collectionId <id> \
  --question "which of these actually import at scale and would buy from a mid-size Vietnamese roaster?"

The response ranks the collection with auditable evidence per rank, so you can check the reasoning rather than trusting the order.

6. Refine rather than re-run

If the shape of the results is wrong, refine the existing run before paying for a new one:

eximagent search refine --run-id <runId> --product "specialty green coffee"