Issue with Lookalike Audiences and Circular Dependency Error in Ocean

Ruben K. · 2025-09-29T09:33:07.061Z

Hi folks Got a screen recording here about lookalike audiences using Ocean (a) not working as desired (b) and when I add a formula (which does the job better) then I get a circular dependency error Can you please help me solve this? Thanks

Issue with Lookalike Audiences and Circular Dependency Error in Ocean | Clay

15 comments

· Sorted by Oldest

Ruben K.
·
·
https://app.clay.com/workspaces/784835/workbooks/wb_0t3cc3zHSJ2gGkgaDrN/tables/t_0t3ccgvkndG4DYEdmgD/views/gv_0t3ccgxXxyJ5M87wNs7
Aditi S.
·
·
Hi Ruben - thanks so much for reaching out. Understood that these results aren't returning what you'd like and that adding the formula is creating a circular error.
Wondering if this could be solved if we be stricter with the Job Titles operator. Instead of "Any of," we can test "All of" to see if you get better responses this way
Ruben K.
·
·
Nope it didn’t work
Ruben K.
·
·
It didn’t find anyone when I changed to ALL of
Ruben K.
·
·
which makes sense
Ruben K.
·
·
Nobody has Director Head and VP of in the same job title…
Ruben K.
·
·
Mitch H. 100% still an issue. Quality of results vary dramatically from one cell to the other One cell it’s right and used the job titles, the other 0% And also, nobody’s helping me resolve the circular dependency
Ruben K.
·
·
Amazing, thanks a lot Sayli G. genuinely appreciate it I can see a 100 ways to improve Clay and would be happy working with your team closer to make this happen
Ruben K.
·
·
Sayli G. here’s another problem https://app.clay.com/workspaces/784835/workbooks/wb_0t3glpbvywY2oZqkipv/tables/t_0t3glq4dYoo2AGoWstr/views/gv_0t3glq4mNz2wRFJDa5n See I used Claygent and created a JSON output but as you see in this case the investment criteria appear as 1 line with a separated comma and not each an item, why is that and how could I fix it? And also, how can I then turn each item into a column now?
Sayli G.
·
·
Hey! Thanks for waiting patiently while I figured this out. Created a loom for you outlining my thought process and recommended solution for the circular dependency issue. Do let me know if I have misunderstood or if there is anything else that I can help you with! :) For the third issue you mentioned, you can tell it to output in different fields or also add in the fields in the section shown below:
You can 'Add output' and add how many fields you need for the investment areas. If the number could vary, you can add this as part of the prompt instead and see how the output changes.
Ruben K.
·
·
Ah!! This now makes a lot more sense, hadn’t realise this fields mapping functionality! Thanks
Ruben K.
·
·
And for the circular, makes a lot of sense
Ruben K.
·
·
Thanks
Ruben K.
·
·
And indeed it’s because of a bug 😅
Sayli G.
·
·
Good news! Happy to report that we heard back from the team and this issue should be fixed.
Try a quick refresh (Cmd/Ctrl + Shift + R) and let us know if the problem has been resolved on your end, or if you still have trouble.
Thank you for your patience as we worked on it.

Ruben K.
·
·
https://app.clay.com/workspaces/784835/workbooks/wb_0t3cc3zHSJ2gGkgaDrN/tables/t_0t3ccgvkndG4DYEdmgD/views/gv_0t3ccgxXxyJ5M87wNs7
Aditi S.
·
·
Hi Ruben - thanks so much for reaching out. Understood that these results aren't returning what you'd like and that adding the formula is creating a circular error.
Wondering if this could be solved if we be stricter with the Job Titles operator. Instead of "Any of," we can test "All of" to see if you get better responses this way
Ruben K.
·
·
Nope it didn’t work
Ruben K.
·
·
It didn’t find anyone when I changed to ALL of
Ruben K.
·
·
which makes sense
Ruben K.
·
·
Nobody has Director Head and VP of in the same job title…
Ruben K.
·
·
Mitch H. 100% still an issue. Quality of results vary dramatically from one cell to the other One cell it’s right and used the job titles, the other 0% And also, nobody’s helping me resolve the circular dependency
Ruben K.
·
·
Amazing, thanks a lot Sayli G. genuinely appreciate it I can see a 100 ways to improve Clay and would be happy working with your team closer to make this happen
Ruben K.
·
·
Sayli G. here’s another problem https://app.clay.com/workspaces/784835/workbooks/wb_0t3glpbvywY2oZqkipv/tables/t_0t3glq4dYoo2AGoWstr/views/gv_0t3glq4mNz2wRFJDa5n See I used Claygent and created a JSON output but as you see in this case the investment criteria appear as 1 line with a separated comma and not each an item, why is that and how could I fix it? And also, how can I then turn each item into a column now?
Sayli G.
·
·
Hey! Thanks for waiting patiently while I figured this out. Created a loom for you outlining my thought process and recommended solution for the circular dependency issue. Do let me know if I have misunderstood or if there is anything else that I can help you with! :) For the third issue you mentioned, you can tell it to output in different fields or also add in the fields in the section shown below:
You can 'Add output' and add how many fields you need for the investment areas. If the number could vary, you can add this as part of the prompt instead and see how the output changes.
Ruben K.
·
·
Ah!! This now makes a lot more sense, hadn’t realise this fields mapping functionality! Thanks
Ruben K.
·
·
And for the circular, makes a lot of sense
Ruben K.
·
·
Thanks
Ruben K.
·
·
And indeed it’s because of a bug 😅
Sayli G.
·
·
Good news! Happy to report that we heard back from the team and this issue should be fixed.
Try a quick refresh (Cmd/Ctrl + Shift + R) and let us know if the problem has been resolved on your end, or if you still have trouble.
Thank you for your patience as we worked on it.