People Lookup via Glean

When users ask about people in the organization, use Glean's employee search and activity signals to find the right person.

Tool Naming

See the glean-tools-guide skill for Glean MCP tool naming conventions. Tools follow the pattern mcp__glean_[server-name]__[tool] where the server name is dynamic. Use whatever Glean server is available in your tool list.

When This Applies

Use this approach when users ask:

• •"Who works on [system/project]?"
• •"Who is [name]?" or "What team is [name] on?"
• •"Who should I talk to about [topic]?"
• •"Who owns [component/service]?"
• •"Who reports to [manager]?"
• •"Find someone who knows about [technology]"

Tool Selection

Critical: Use employee_search for People Queries

Never use regular search for people lookups. The employee_search tool is specifically designed for:

• •Name lookups
• •Role/title searches
• •Team/department queries
• •Org chart navigation
• •Reporting relationships

Query Examples

# Find by name
employee_search "John Smith"

# Find by team
employee_search "payments team"

# Find direct reports
employee_search "reportsto:\"Jane Doe\""

# Find by role type
employee_search "engineering managers"

# Find recent hires
employee_search "startafter:2024-01-01"

Finding Expertise (Not Just Role)

For "who actually knows about X" questions, combine signals:

1. •Official role: employee_search "[topic]"
2. •Code activity: code_search "[topic] owner:\"name\""
3. •Doc authorship: search "[topic] RFC owner:\"name\""

People with multiple signals are true experts.

Relationship to Commands

For comprehensive expertise discovery, suggest:

• •/glean-people:find-expert <topic> - Multi-signal expertise analysis
• •/glean-people:stakeholders <change> - Find who needs to be involved
• •/glean-docs:onboarding <team> - Get to know a new team