ai-job-search/CHANGELOG.md

# Changelog

All notable changes to this project are documented here. The format is based on
[Keep a Changelog](https://keepachangelog.com/en/1.1.0/), and this project adheres
to [Semantic Versioning](https://semver.org/spec/v2.0.0.html).

Releases are vetted checkpoints of `master`. If you maintain a personalized fork,
prefer updating to a tagged release over pulling raw `master` (see
[SETUP.md, section 8](SETUP.md#8-pulling-upstream-updates-into-your-fork)). The
`framework_version` markers on methodology files tell you which of your customized
files a release touched; `python3 tools/check_upstream_updates.py` lists them with
per-file diff commands.

## [Unreleased]

### Changed

- **`freehire-search` documents the `OR` and `title:` query operators** (#674,
  `.agents/skills/freehire-search/SKILL.md`, `url-reference.md`, `cli/README.md`, `--help`) -
  freehire's search parses an uppercase `OR` between up to five alternatives and a leading `title:`
  per alternative, but nothing told the agent, so "Go or Rust" became two searches merged by hand
  or `-q "golang rust"`, which returns fewer jobs than `golang` alone. Measured live: `golang`
  3,550, `golang OR rust` 6,805. The CLI already passes `-q` through unchanged.

### Fixed

- **`freehire-search detail` no longer asks the API for a slug cut out of a URL on another
  host** (#623, fixes #622, `.agents/skills/freehire-search/cli/src/helpers.ts`, `tests/parsing.test.ts`,
  `tests/commands.test.ts`, `SKILL.md`) - `normalizeSlug` took the segment after `/jobs/` from
  *any* string, so a Greenhouse apply link - which is what a freehire search result's own `url`
  field carries - was reduced to its last path segment and `detail` requested
  `/api/v1/jobs/1`, then reported `NOT_FOUND` for a URL that was never a freehire posting.
  Every other portal CLI rejects an off-host detail URL with `BAD_ID` (#447, #430, #499);
  freehire was the last one trusting the path. URLs are now parsed for real: `freehire.me`
  (apex or any subdomain, scheme optional) or the host of `FREEHIRE_API_URL` for a self-hosted
  instance, plus a `/jobs/<slug>` path and nothing more, yields the slug; other hosts,
  look-alike and userinfo hosts, and non-job freehire pages exit 1 with `BAD_ID` before any
  request. Bare slugs are unchanged. Pinned by six new `normalizeSlug` cases and a
  handler-level test that pastes the search fixture's own apply URL into `detail` with fetch
  stubbed; the off-host cases fail on master.

- **`freehire-search detail` rejects `--description-format` instead of ignoring it**
  (#648, `.agents/skills/freehire-search/cli/src/cli.ts`, `tests/detail-flags.test.ts`) - the flag
  was on `detail`'s known-flag list, but `runDetail` never reads it and always prints the detail
  endpoint's HTML body stripped to plain text. So `detail <slug> --description-format markdown`
  passed the unknown-flag guard, exited 0 and printed text, which is the silently ignored flag
  that guard exists to prevent. `detail` now answers it with `UNKNOWN_FLAG` before any request;
  `search`, where the flag is documented and used, is unchanged.

- **`freehire-search` honours `Retry-After` on 429 and 503 within a 30-second budget** (#632,
  `.agents/skills/freehire-search/cli/src/helpers.ts`) - the retry loop backed off on its own
  schedule whatever the server asked for. It now waits for the longer of its backoff and
  `Retry-After`, under a 30-second total sleep budget per request, and a wait that would exceed the
  budget fails the request at once with a message naming the requested wait. Giving up on a
  persistent 5xx still takes about 25 s over 7 calls, as before.

- **`freehire-search` docs list the real `--region` buckets and send a country to `--country`**
  (#630, `.agents/skills/freehire-search/SKILL.md`, `url-reference.md`, `cli/README.md`, `--help`) -
  the docs and `--help` offered `us` as a region, but in freehire's vocabulary `us` is a country code
  and the macro-region that holds US postings is `north_america`. `--region us` returned 168
  software-engineer postings where `--country us` returned about 100,000, with nothing in the output
  to say why (reported in #616). The docs now list the nine buckets (`global`, `eu`, `uk`,
  `north_america`, `latam`, `apac`, `mena`, `africa`, `cis`) plus `none`, note that `eu` excludes
  the UK, and point single-country searches at `--country`.

- **`freehire-search search` warns when `--region` gets a value outside freehire's vocabulary**
  (#651, fixes #616, `.agents/skills/freehire-search/cli/src/commands/search.ts`, `SKILL.md`,
  `cli/README.md`) - an unknown region such as `us` or `europe` matches nothing, so the search read
  as "no postings" rather than "wrong parameter". `search` now checks `--region` and
  `--facet regions=` against the nine buckets plus `none`, case-insensitively, and prints one
  `REGION_VALUE_UNKNOWN` warning on stderr that lists the buckets and points a country at
  `--country`. Results, stdout and the exit code are unchanged, so a bucket freehire adds later
  still works.

- **`job_key.py --audit` reports an entry whose `url` is not a string** (#634, `tools/job_key.py`,
  `tests/test_job_key.py`) - a numeric, list or object `url` crashed the duplicate-URL pass with an
  `AttributeError` traceback on `.rstrip`, although the audit already reports other malformed state
  with a one-line error and exit 1. It now names the offending key the same way.

- **`rank_state.py apply` reports a malformed scoring result instead of crashing** (#635, `tools/rank_state.py`,
  `tests/test_rank_state.py`) - a result that is not an object, a `key` that is not a string, or a
  `scores` value that is not an object raised an `AttributeError`/`TypeError` traceback and discarded the
  whole batch, although `apply` already collects per-result problems in `errors`. Each now becomes an
  `errors` row (exit 1) and the valid results in the same file are still written.

- **`rank_state.py candidates` reports a tracker that is not UTF-8 instead of crashing** (#639, `tools/rank_state.py`,
  `tests/test_rank_state.py`) - a `job_search_tracker.csv` saved with a spreadsheet's plain "CSV" type is
  written in the ANSI code page (cp1252 on most Western installs), so one accented company name such as
  "Ørsted" raised a `UnicodeDecodeError` traceback and stopped `/rank` at Step 1. It now exits 1 with a
  one-line message naming the file and asking for a CSV UTF-8 save, as `load_state` does for invalid JSON.

- **`rank_state.py sweep --exclude` ignores spaces after the commas** (#641, `tools/rank_state.py`,
  `tests/test_rank_state.py`) - rank.md asks for the keys scored this run as a comma-separated list, and
  `"a_b, c_d"` kept every key after the first in the sweep, because `" c_d"` matched no entry. On an
  `--all` run, a re-scored entry whose stored deadline had passed was written `expired` and reported under
  "newly expired" by the sweep, then re-ranked by `apply` from its fresh deadline, so the same job appeared
  as both expired and shortlisted. Keys are now stripped before matching.

- **Salary workbook conversion handles wrapped header cells** (#643, `tools/convert_salary_excel.py`,
  `tests/test_salary_wrapped_header_cli.py`) - a header cell with a line break inside it
  ("Median⏎salary", "Løn-⏎indeks") kept the break in the derived category name, so the column no
  longer paired with its count column and `salary_lookup.py` printed the label across two lines.
  Header whitespace runs now collapse to one space, so a wrapped header converts like its one-line spelling.

- **Salary workbook conversion skips prose notes tabs** (#644, `tools/convert_salary_excel.py`,
  `tests/test_salary_notes_sheet_cli.py`) - a "Notes" tab mentioning "company" in a sentence was
  taken as a header row by the fallback pass, and every following sentence was emitted as a company
  in `salary_data.json` and `--list-all`. A fallback-detected header with no salary column beside it
  now skips the sheet with a warning; strictly detected headers are unchanged.

- **`convert_salary_excel.py` rejects a non-finite `--baseline`** (#665,
  `tools/convert_salary_excel.py`, `tests/test_salary_baseline_cli.py`) - `nan`, `inf`, `-inf` and
  an overflow such as `1e309` were accepted with exit 0 and written as `index_baseline`,
  overwriting a good `salary_data.json` with one that `salary_lookup.py --validate` rejects; every
  lookup then failed and `/apply` quietly dropped the benchmark. The converter now exits 2 before
  reading the workbook or opening the output, and `0` or a finite custom baseline still converts.

- **`linkedin-search` rejects a `--remote` mode it does not recognise instead of searching every
  workplace type** (#645, `.agents/skills/linkedin-search/cli/src/cli.ts`, `tests/remote-mode.test.ts`) -
  `workTypeFlag()` maps an unknown mode to `null` and the request then carries no `f_WT`, so
  `--remote remote,hybrid`, a misspelt mode or a bare `--remote` returned onsite postings too,
  with exit 0 and an empty stderr. Anything other than `remote`, `hybrid` or `onsite` (and the
  accepted `on-site` spelling) now exits 1 with `BAD_ARG` before any request is sent.

- **`linkedin-search` requires a value for `--query` instead of dropping the keywords**
  (#646, `.agents/skills/linkedin-search/cli/src/cli.ts`, `tests/required-query-value.test.ts`) - the
  flag parser stores a bare `-q` as `true` and `-q ""` as an empty string, and the search took
  `--query` only when it was a non-empty string, so a bare flag, an empty argument (an unset
  shell variable) or a blank query returned every posting in the location with exit 0. A present
  `--query` now needs a non-empty value or exits 1 with `BAD_ARG` before any request; omitting
  the flag is still a location-only search. The Danish portals (#573) and `freehire-search`
  (#568) already reject a value-less option.

- **`jobindex-search` rejects a `--sort` other than `score` or `date` instead of sending it to the
  portal** (#647, `.agents/skills/jobindex-search/cli/src/commands/search.ts`,
  `tests/sort-values.test.ts`) - the option was a free string, and jobindex does not reject an
  unknown sort: `--sort newest` returned exit 0 in an order that was neither relevance nor date,
  so the requested newest-first sort was silently not applied. The option is now an enum like
  `--format`, and any other value exits 1 with the CLI's validation error before any request.

- **`jobnet-search search --occupation` filters by the ESCO occupation that `occupations` prints**
  (#649, `.agents/skills/jobnet-search/cli/src/commands/search.ts`, `tests/occupation-filter-cli.test.ts`,
  `SKILL.md`, `cli/README.md`) - the skill and README said to pass the `conceptUriDa` UUID from
  `occupations` to `--occupation-area` / `--occupation-group`, but those take the numeric area and
  group codes (`10000`, `10060`); a UUID there returned a successful search with zero ads, while the
  API's `occupations` parameter returns the 830 nurse ads for the same UUID. The new flag sends that
  parameter and accepts the full URI or the bare UUID; the docs stop pointing at the numeric flags.

## [1.7.3] - 2026-10-19

### Added

- **One cross-platform command installs every portal CLI: `python3 tools/install_portal_clis.py`**
  (#540, `README.md` quick start step 2, `SETUP.md` section 3,
  `tests/test_install_portal_clis.py`) - the README and SETUP.md each carried a PowerShell and a
  Bash loop over a hand-copied list of the six shipped portals, four copies in all, while CI's
  `discover-clis` job globs `.agents/skills/*/cli/package.json` precisely so a portal added in a
  fork needs no list edit. A portal generated by `/add-portal` or borrowed from another fork was
  therefore skipped by the documented install on every fresh clone of that fork. The script uses
  CI's glob, installs each CLI independently so one failure does not stop the rest, and skips -
  with a message naming the reason - any manifest that declares a lifecycle script or
  `trustedDependencies`, the same set `security_guards.py` forbids in-tree, so a borrowed portal
  carrying one is read before it runs. `--dry-run` lists what it would install.

### Changed

- **`/apply` and `/rank` route matching portal URLs to installed CLI `detail` before `WebFetch`**
  (#535, `.claude/commands/apply.md` Step 0, `.claude/commands/rank.md` Step 2,
  `.claude/skills/job-application-assistant/09-web-research.md`) - job portal URLs pasted
  into `/apply` or evaluated in batch by `/rank` now invoke the matching installed portal CLI's
  `detail <url> --format plain` command first, avoiding bot-detection 403s and login walls on
  aggregator boards before falling back to `WebFetch`. Escalation order in `09-web-research.md`
  places portal CLI detail as the first rung (`framework_version: 1.1.1 -> 1.1.2`).

- **`/apply` Step 5e names explicit cleanup shell commands for build intermediates**
  (#531, `.claude/commands/apply.md`) - the step previously described deleting `.aux`/`.log`/`.out`
  in prose, leaving artifact cleanup vulnerable to being skipped by agents. It now specifies explicit
  `rm` commands for stock/custom LaTeX toolchains and redirected `build/` directories, timed after
  log-inspecting steps 5b-5d complete, and explicitly preserves template assets (`cover.cls`,
  `OpenFonts/`, custom template files).

- **`/rank` retries a posting it could not fetch instead of expiring it** (#534,
  `tools/rank_state.py`, `.claude/commands/rank.md`) - a data-model change: scoring agents
  now return a third status, `unreachable` (with a short `fetch_error`), when retrieval still
  fails after the `09-web-research.md` escalation order (401/403, login wall, 404, timeout,
  5xx, empty page), and keep `expired` for positive evidence the posting is closed (closed
  page, 410, redirect to a listing page, passed deadline). Before, both became `expired`,
  which `candidates` never selects again, so a transient failure on ranking day removed a
  live job from the pipeline and the report presented it as closed. `candidates` now selects
  `unreachable` alongside `new`; `apply` increments `fetch_attempts` and stores
  `last_fetch_error`, and after 3 attempts with at least 48 hours between the first and the
  last it writes `expired` with `expired_reason: "unreachable"` and reports the job once under
  "Gave up, check manually" with its URL, so a login-walled live posting is still seen by a
  human. The 48-hour floor keeps a scheduled run plus a manual one on the same day from
  burning every attempt on one outage. A failed fetch on a posting whose stored deadline has
  already passed still expires at once, as on the scored path, rather than being retried and
  listed as possibly live. `rank_state.py` owns the status set (`AGENT_STATUSES`) and a test
  pins `rank.md`'s JSON contract to it. `09-web-research.md`'s give-up step now marks a
  `/rank` entry `unreachable` rather than `expired` (`framework_version: 1.1.2 -> 1.1.3`), so
  an agent following it cannot write a 403 off as closed. No migration: no existing entry
  carries the new status. Reported by @ai-tvang, who also proposed the time floor and the
  give-up listing.

- **`freehire-search --no-description` calls the lighter web search, and `search` stops sending two
  parameters the API ignores** (#631, `.agents/skills/freehire-search/cli/src/commands/search.ts`,
  `SKILL.md`, `cli/README.md`, `url-reference.md`) - `semantic_ratio` and `include_description`
  came back in `meta.ignored_params`, so `--no-description` still made the API read every hit's
  full description and then dropped it client-side. It now calls `/api/v1/jobs/search` (same
  query, facets, ranking and pagination, preview-only hits), measured at roughly half the bytes
  per page and inside freehire's wider public rate budget. Default search is unchanged.

- **`freehire-search` names this project in its User-Agent** (#633,
  `.agents/skills/freehire-search/cli/src/helpers.ts`, `url-reference.md`) - the old
  `freehire-search-skill/1.0 (+https://freehire.me)` pointed at the API itself, so freehire's
  operators could not tell whose client it was. It now sends
  `MadsLorentzen/ai-job-search/1.0 (+https://github.com/MadsLorentzen/ai-job-search; freehire-search)`,
  the `owner/project` form freehire's API docs ask for. Nothing behaves differently; the API does
  not gate on it.

### Fixed

- **`.gitignore` ignores `node_modules` without a trailing slash, and `security_guards.py` fails on any tracked `node_modules` path** (`.gitignore`, `tools/security_guards.py`, `tests/test_security_guards.py`) - the old `node_modules/` rule matched directories only, so a symlink named `node_modules` pointing at a contributor's absolute path was committed in a PR, broke `bun install` in CI with a dangling link and checked out as a text file on Windows. The rule loses its slash, and the guard now lists every tracked path with a `node_modules` component (skipped quietly outside a git checkout). Also qualifies the one bare `seen_jobs.json` mention left in `README.md` after #617.

- **`job_key.py --audit` reports a state file that is not an object of entries** (#626) (`tools/job_key.py`,
  `tests/test_job_key.py`) - a top-level JSON array, or an entry that is a string or number, crashed the
  audit with an `AttributeError` traceback on `.get`, although the function already had a one-line error
  for an unusable `seen` value. Both now print a one-line message naming the problem and exit 1.

- **`freehire-search` emits the contract's `YYYY-MM-DD` date instead of the API's ISO timestamp** (#621)
  (`.agents/skills/freehire-search/cli/src/helpers.ts`, `tests/parsing.test.ts`,
  `tests/commands.test.ts`, `SKILL.md`) - `toResult` passed `posted_at` through verbatim, so
  search and detail JSON carried `"date": "2026-07-06T00:00:00Z"` while every other portal CLI
  emits the date part only and `/scrape` stores it as `posted_date: "YYYY-MM-DD"`. The table
  and plain renderers already cut the value to ten characters, so only JSON consumers - the
  `/scrape` path - saw the raw timestamp. A `contractDate()` helper now cuts the timestamp to
  its date part and yields `null` for an absent or non-date value; the two tests that pinned
  the raw timestamp now expect the date and fail on master, plus three cases on the helper.

- **`/rank`, `/notion-sync` and `/upskill` name `job_scraper/seen_jobs.json` by its full path** (#617)
  (follow-up to #608, `.claude/commands/rank.md`, `.claude/commands/notion-sync.md`,
  `.claude/skills/upskill/SKILL.md`, `tests/test_scrape_seen_jobs_path.py`) - #608 qualified the
  path in `/scrape`, where the file is written; the three readers still said the bare
  `seen_jobs.json`, which an agent can resolve to the repo root, outside the ignore rule. The
  guard test now covers all four specs, and `test_notion_sync_command.py` pins the qualified
  phrase.

- **Framework version checks compare marker values using Git-compatible paths on every platform** (#578, `tools/check_framework_version.py`) - quoting or spacing an unchanged version no longer exempts an accompanying guidance edit, hardening a latent bypass without changing legitimate version bumps.

- **`/reset documents` clears nested and hidden user entries while preserving scaffolds** - cleanup retains tracked `.gitkeep` files and the README, with the complete inventory shown before confirmation (#580).

- **`jobindex-search` examples follow the search CLI contract** - the posted-today example includes a required query, unsupported flags are removed, and regression checks accept LF and CRLF checkouts (#579).

- **`convert_salary_excel.py` converts the IDA workbook again** (#615, `tools/convert_salary_excel.py`,
  `tests/test_convert_salary_excel.py`) - the workbook heads its company column "Firmanavn og by",
  and since #75 made header matching whole-token only, "firma" no longer matched inside "Firmanavn",
  so both sheets were skipped with "Could not find header row" and the converter exited 1 on the
  repository's own demonstration data. "firma" is now a compound token, like the other glued Danish
  headers; every other workbook converts byte-identically.

- **`/scrape`'s entry schema lists the `unreachable` status** (#615, `.claude/skills/job-scraper/SKILL.md`) -
  follow-up to #564: the `status` enum in the `seen_jobs.json` schema block still read
  `new/skipped/ranked/expired` while the dedup rule two sections down already named `unreachable`.

- **`/scrape` names `job_scraper/seen_jobs.json` by its full path in every step** (#608,
  `.claude/skills/job-scraper/SKILL.md`, `tests/test_scrape_seen_jobs_path.py`) - seven references
  after Step 0, including the Step 4 write instruction, used the bare filename, and an assistant
  following them wrote the state file at the repository root, where the
  `**/job_scraper/seen_jobs.json` ignore rule does not reach it; one fork committed its scrape
  history that way. Every reference now carries the directory, and a test fails on any bare mention.

- **`salary_lookup.py` accepts a BOM-prefixed `salary_data.json`** (#594, #602, `salary_lookup.py`,
  `tests/test_salary_lookup.py`) - the data file is opened with `utf-8-sig`, so a file saved by
  Windows PowerShell `Out-File`/`Set-Content` or by an editor that prepends a byte-order mark now
  validates and loads instead of exiting 1 with "Unexpected UTF-8 BOM". Plain UTF-8 files read
  identically, and malformed JSON after a BOM still reports its line and column. Reported by
  rahul05ranjan; same class as #485 and #509.

- **Upstream triage emits cherry-pick suggestions in dependency order**
  (`tools/upstream_triage.py`) - ready-to-run commands now list ancestors before
  descendants, so a follow-up patch is not suggested before the change it edits.
  The report tables remain newest first; the tool still executes no Git mutations.

- **`/upskill` and `/notion-sync` now name the field ranked entries actually carry when joining
  them to tracker rows** (`.claude/skills/upskill/SKILL.md` Step 3, `.claude/commands/notion-sync.md`
  Step 2, `tests/test_upskill_skill.py`, `tests/test_notion_sync_command.py`) - both said to match
  "on company + role" with "casefold + strip on both fields", but a `seen_jobs.json` entry has
  `title` and no `role` key (the job-scraper schema), so read literally the lookup never matched:
  `/upskill` then weighted the same job twice, once as a tracker row and once as a ranked entry,
  the double-count its dedupe step exists to prevent, and `/notion-sync` split one job into two
  rows with different Keys. `tools/rank_state.py` already does the cross-name join (tracker
  `role` against entry `title`); both specs now say so. Two derived tests read the entry schema
  and require the join wording to name `title` for the entry and `role` for the tracker; they
  fail on master.

- **`/reset profile` keeps the `### Languages` table header under Identity**
  (`.claude/commands/reset.md` Step 3, `tests/test_reset_command.py`) - `04-job-evaluation.md`'s
  Language Gate and `job-scraper/search-queries.md`'s query-language generation both read "your
  Languages table" from `01-candidate-profile.md`, but the skeleton `/reset` wrote left
  `## Identity` empty, so after a reset `/rank` and `/scrape` looked for a table the file no
  longer had. The skeleton now carries `### Languages` and the table's header and separator
  rows, derived from the shipped file in the test; the placeholder data row is deliberately
  not reintroduced. Follow-up noted on #532.

- **`05-cv-templates.md` snippets write the `\cventry` date argument with an ASCII hyphen, as the same
  file's own rule requires** (`.claude/skills/job-application-assistant/05-cv-templates.md`,
  `framework_version: 1.4.6 -> 1.4.7`) - the in-progress-qualification snippet under "In-progress
  qualifications must say so explicitly" wrote `\cventry{2025--2026}`, the `\needspace` snippet
  under the orphaned-entry fix wrote `\cventry{YEAR--YEAR}`, and the in-progress section offered a date field
  of `2025–present` (U+2013) as an accepted alternative. All three are values copied straight into a
  CV, so an assistant following the file produced exactly the en-dash that **Date fields must be ASCII
  ranges** forbids 130 lines further down, and that `/apply` Step 5d then rejects: inserting the
  in-progress snippet as shipped into `cv/main_example.tex` and compiling with `lualatex` makes
  `python tools/verify_pdf.py cv/main_example.pdf --pages 2 --ascii-dates` exit 1 with
  `U+2013 in '... 2025–2026'`, where the unmodified template passes. #276 fixed the template's own
  date fields and added the rule section, but these snippets predate it (#210) and were missed. The
  deliberate negative example (`% en-dash, may not`) and the illustrations of the forms `--ascii-dates`
  catches are left as they are.

- **`verify_pdf.py --ascii-dates` no longer reads a numeric range with year-shaped ends as a
  date** - #512 bounded the year to four standalone digits, but `EUR 1500–2000 per month` and
  `2000–5000 requests per second` still failed `/apply` Step 5d: each has a four-digit number
  next to the dash that happens to fall in 1900-2099. A range whose two ends are both bare
  numbers (the whole whitespace-delimited token, outer punctuation stripped) now counts as a
  date only when both are years, so the salary band and the throughput range pass, while
  `2016–2024`, `1990–2010` and `2016 – Present` still fail as before and a numerically
  formatted range (`03/2016–07/2024`, `01.2016 – 12.2024`, `2016-03–2024-07`, `2016/17–2018/19`)
  is not a bare number on either side and is still caught. Three new `test_verify_pdf.py`
  cases; the quantity one fails on master.

- **`upstream_triage` forces UTF-8 stdout and decodes git output as UTF-8** (#544,
  `tools/upstream_triage.py`, `tests/test_tools_utf8_output.py`) - like the other Python tools,
  the triage report now calls `_force_utf8_output()` on startup and decodes git subprocess
  streams with `encoding="utf-8", errors="replace"`. Under Windows default ANSI code pages (such as
  `cp1252`), upstream commits with Cyrillic, CJK, or emoji characters in their subjects raised
  `UnicodeEncodeError` when writing stdout or `UnicodeDecodeError` in subprocess pipes, terminating
  triage runs before the report could be emitted.

- **`jobnet-search occupations` preserves full identifiers in table output** - ESCO URIs and UUIDs are no longer truncated, with documentation-based regression checks covering LF and CRLF checkouts (#586).

- **`jobnet-search` routes external ads to employer `jobAdUrl` rather than broken `find-job` links**
  (#538, `.agents/skills/jobnet-search/cli/src/commands/search.ts`, `.agents/skills/jobnet-search/cli/README.md`,
  `.agents/skills/jobnet-search/cli/tests/search-normalization.test.ts`) - external job postings on
  Jobnet (`isExternal: true`) point to `/find-job/{jobAdId}`, which returns 404, while the Jobnet API
  carries the destination in `jobAdUrl`. The search command now routes external ads to `jobAdUrl` when
  a valid http(s) destination is present, falling back to `/find-job/{jobAdId}` when missing or
  non-http(s) to preserve distinct URLs for `/scrape` deduplication. Both `url` and `jobAdUrl`
  validate the scheme the same way. Reported with live testing by NishilRathod.

- **Fork-skip guards no longer run on a fork during a local test run** (`tests/_upstream.py`,
  `tests/test_placeholder_integrity.py`, `tests/test_setup_command.py`,
  `tests/test_upstream_checkout.py`) - the fork skip read
  `os.environ.get("GITHUB_REPOSITORY", UPSTREAM)`, so with the variable unset a local
  run fell back to upstream and the placeholder guards fired on every personalized fork,
  leaving its suite permanently red after `/setup`. The three skips now share one helper:
  `GITHUB_REPOSITORY` decides when set, otherwise the checkout's `origin` remote is matched
  against the upstream repo (https and ssh forms, optional `.git` suffix), and an
  undeterminable checkout assumes upstream. Tests only, no `framework_version` bump.

- **Upstream companion commands retain the selected refs** (#591) - generated follow-up commands now preserve custom base and head references instead of silently comparing the defaults.

- **`linkedin-search` and `freehire-search` reject invalid `--format` flags with `BAD_ARG`** (#555,
  `.agents/skills/linkedin-search/cli/src/cli.ts`, `.agents/skills/freehire-search/cli/src/cli.ts`) -
  unrecognized `--format` flags previously fell back silently to `"json"` with exit code 0, masking
  formatting typos and violating the CLI contract. Both CLIs now validate format arguments strictly
  (`json|table|plain` for search, `json|plain` for detail) and exit 1 with `{ error, code: "BAD_ARG" }`
  on invalid options.

- **Upstream checks report incomplete comparisons** (#583) - missing base or head framework files now remain visible as incomplete comparisons instead of being reported as unchanged.

- **`jobdanmark-search detail` no longer keeps a malformed closing tag as text on the
  rendered-HTML branch** (#525, `detail.ts`, `tests/detail-parsing.test.ts`) - a live page wrote
  its Jobtype item as `Fuldtid </ li >`, and because `node-html-parser` does not recognise a
  closing tag with a space after the slash, the fragment reached the output verbatim:
  `employmentType: ["Fuldtid </ li >"]`, a value that matches none of the documented job-type
  vocabulary. The same `cleanText` feeds every text field on both branches, so any of them
  could carry it. `cleanText` now drops the closing-tag shape (`</ li >`, `</ li>`, `< /li>`)
  before collapsing whitespace - and only that shape, because the parser decodes entities
  before `cleanText` runs, so author text the page encoded as `&lt;div&gt;` or `&lt;T&gt;`
  arrives as a literal `<div>` / `<T>` and must survive. Two fixtures: the stray tag in both
  the Jobtype item and a description paragraph (fails on master), and an entity-encoded
  `<div>` in a description that stays in the text.

- **Upstream checks distinguish new files from fork deletions** (#585) - a path absent from the base is reported as newly added upstream instead of incorrectly treated as a deletion in the fork.

- **`/add-portal` includes the `.agents` prefix in generated `allowed-tools`** (#545,
  `.claude/commands/add-portal.md`, `tests/test_add_portal_command.py`) - the specification template
  for the new portal's `SKILL.md` frontmatter wrote `allowed-tools: Bash(bun run skills/<name>/cli/src/cli.ts *)`
  without `.agents/`, the one path in the file without it. A skill's `allowed-tools` grants the
  listed command when that skill is invoked, so a generated portal invoked on its own granted a
  command that does not exist and prompted instead; the string now names the real path, matching
  the six shipped `SKILL.md` files.

- **Salary workbook conversion accepts Unicode whitespace grouping** (#592) - numeric cells written as text with non-breaking or narrow non-breaking grouping spaces now parse without losing their values.

- **`robots_check` unquotes incoming query strings and restricts `$` anchors to pattern end**
  (#543, `tools/robots_check.py`, `tests/test_robots_check.py`) - two path-matching edge cases in
  the robots.txt gate failed open. First, `gate(url)` called `unquote(parts.path)` but concatenated
  `parts.query` raw, while `_match()` decodes the pattern: rules targeting encoded query parameters
  (such as `Disallow: /search?q=machine%20learning`) never matched the incoming URL, evaluating
  disallowed scraping targets as allowed. Query parameters are now decoded when assembling `path`.
  Second, `_match()` converted every `$` character unconditionally into a regular-expression
  end-of-string anchor, causing rules with an internal `$` (e.g. `/tag/$var`) to never match; under
  RFC 9309 section 2.2.3, `$` is an end anchor only at the end of the pattern, and internal `$`
  characters are now matched literally.

- **Salary workbook conversion prefers exact identity headers** (#571) - exact company column names take precedence over incidental substring matches in other headers.

- **CV template guidance aligns geometry scale with master template** (#553,
  `.claude/skills/job-application-assistant/05-cv-templates.md`, `tests/test_latex_guidance.py`) -
  the preamble snippet in `05-cv-templates.md` specified `\usepackage[scale=0.77]{geometry}`,
  whereas the master reference template `cv/main_example.tex` configures `scale=0.80`. The guide
  has been aligned to `scale=0.80`, preventing tighter margins and unwanted page overflow during
  CV generation, and a test now guards that the two files stay in sync.

- **Salary workbook conversion skips chart-only tabs** (#590) - chartsheets no longer cause iteration failures while worksheet data continues to be converted.

- **`.claude/settings.local.json` is ignored in `.gitignore` and pinned in security guards** (#551,
  `.gitignore`, `tools/security_guards.py`) - Claude Code stores machine-local settings and
  ad-hoc tool approvals in `.claude/settings.local.json`. The file is now excluded from version
  control in `.gitignore` and pinned in `REQUIRED_IGNORE_RULES` to prevent fork users from
  accidentally committing local session configurations.

- **Salary lookups distinguish missing indexes from suppression** (#584) - count-only data displays an unavailable index without implying that a privacy-suppression threshold was applied.

- **`/rank` retires scored jobs whose preserved deadline has passed**
  (`tools/rank_state.py`, `tests/test_rank_state.py`) - a fresh `null` deadline
  preserves the stored date, but `apply` previously wrote the job as `ranked`
  even after that date had passed. The later sweep excludes re-scored keys,
  so it could not correct the state or shortlist. Apply now expires the job
  before changing rank metadata; current-day deadlines, explicit future
  extensions, invalid dates, dry runs, and scoring errors keep their behavior.

- **Salary workbook conversion skips whitespace-only companies** (#576) - blank-looking company cells no longer produce empty company entries.

- **`/reset profile` keeps the `framework_version` frontmatter on the two files it rewrites**
  (`.claude/commands/reset.md` Step 3, `tests/test_reset_command.py`) - the full-file skeletons
  for `01-candidate-profile.md` and `02-behavioral-profile.md` started at the `#` title, while
  the shipped files open with a `---` block carrying `framework_version`. Applied as written,
  one `/reset profile` left both files failing `tools/check_framework_version.py` ("missing
  'framework_version' in frontmatter") and invisible to `tools/check_upstream_updates.py`,
  which records a configuration error for a file with no local version to compare - the fork
  update path the README sends every fork through. The step now says to keep the frontmatter
  block and replace only what follows, with a note under "Profile reset" that the marker is
  framework data, never candidate data; the version is not hardcoded into the skeleton, where
  it would go stale on the next bump. A derived test applies each skeleton the way the step
  says and asserts the shipped file's version still parses out unchanged; it fails on master.
  Found while re-checking #519's class of drift.


- **`/reset profile` now targets the headings the shipped skill files actually have**
  (`.claude/commands/reset.md` Step 3, `tests/test_reset_command.py`) - two of its Step 3
  targets had drifted. The `05-cv-templates.md` step anchored on a section beginning
  `**Profile statement templates`, a line the guide has never contained (its heading is
  `**Create 2-3 profile statement templates for your main role types:**`), so the wipe found
  nothing: the user's role-tailored profile statements, and any `*[Used for: ...]*`
  statements `/setup` Path A extracted from archived applications, survived a reset that
  reported success. The `02-behavioral-profile.md` skeleton used headings the shipped file
  does not have (`Strongest Behavioral Traits`, `How I Work Best`, a truncated `Growth Areas`)
  and dropped `## Core Behavioral Drives` - the assessment table the shipped file carries - so
  one reset left the file's headings permanently different
  from every other fork's, with nothing to recreate the table. The anchor now names the real
  heading and the replacement re-emits it; the skeleton carries the shipped headings in order.
  `01-candidate-profile.md` and `07-interview-prep.md` were already correct. Two new tests
  derive both checks from the shipped files, so a renamed heading fails until `/reset`
  follows it; both fail on master.

- **`freehire-search` rejects empty `--facet` filters before requesting jobs** (#561) -
  a bare flag (including one after a valid repeated facet), `salary_min=`, or a
  comma-separated value list containing only whitespace now returns `BAD_ARG` and
  exits 1 instead of silently dropping the filter and running a broader search.

- **Salary lookups validate metadata before rendering** (#575) - malformed metadata produces an actionable error instead of a rendering traceback.

- **The `/apply` host-check test derives its installed-portal hosts from the skills tree
  instead of a hand-copied set** (#497, `tests/test_apply_host_check.py`) - `SHIPPED_PORTAL_HOSTS`
  was six names typed into the test and nothing tied it to anything: a portal added by
  `/add-portal` fetches from a host the copy never heard of, so its postings reached `/apply`
  classified "unverified" while the suite stayed green, and a dropped portal left a stale
  name behind. Rule 1 in `apply.md` defines an installed portal as "any configured job portal
  in `.agents/skills/`", so that tree is now the source: the host literals in each
  `*-search/cli/src/**/*.ts` (one `BASE_URL` per shipped CLI, `www.` dropped so apex and
  subdomain both match), discovery by installation rather than by the `enabled:` flag
  because an installed-but-disabled board is still a legitimate source for a pasted posting.
  `classify_posting_host`'s default is that discovered set, and a new test class asserts that
  every installed portal has a discoverable host and that each host classifies as
  `installed_portal` at the apex, under `www.` and under a subdomain. The ATS apex list stays
  the fixed set it is; parsing `apply.md`'s example list was deliberately not done, since a
  parser keyed on prose wording is the next thing to go stale. Reported by Holo-Eter.

- **Danish portal CLIs reject missing option values** (#573) - value-taking flags followed by another option now fail before search dispatch instead of treating the next flag as the value.

- **`/expand` and `/setup` now append behavioral findings to sections `02-behavioral-profile.md`
  actually has** (`.claude/commands/expand.md` Step 5, `.claude/commands/setup.md` Step A7,
  `tests/test_expand_command.py`, `tests/test_setup_command.py`) - both told the model to add
  to "Strongest Behavioral Traits" and "How I Work Best" / "How [Candidate] Works Best" while
  also saying "match existing structure", but the shipped file's headings are "Strongest
  Behaviors" and "How You Work Best", so an inferred trait either opened a duplicate
  near-identical section or was dropped. The companion to #519, which fixed the same drift in
  `/reset`'s skeleton; the maintainer asked for this half as its own PR. Both bullets now name
  the shipped headings, and a derived test in each command's suite reads the quoted section
  names and requires each to be a `##` heading of the shipped file; both fail on master.

- **`freehire-search` rejects missing named-option values** (#568) - value-taking search options now reject a missing value or another flag before dispatch.

- **`jobnet-search` and `jobdanmark-search` search results now carry the contract's `id`
  field** (`search.ts` and `search-normalization.test.ts` in both CLIs, both `SKILL.md`s) -
  `/add-portal`'s contract says every search result has at least `id`, `title`, `company`,
  `location`, `date`, `url`, and the four other shipped CLIs emit `id`. When #340 added the
  `company`/`location`/`date`/`url` aliases to these two, `id` was left out: jobnet exposed the
  value only as `jobAdId`, jobdanmark only as `slug`, so a consumer reading every portal's
  JSON through one shape had to special-case both to call `detail`. Purely additive: `id`
  equals `jobAdId` on jobnet and `slug` on jobdanmark, the native keys stay, nothing is
  renamed. The additive-contract test in each CLI now asserts `id` and its equality with the
  native key; both fail on master.

- **Danish portal installation examples use the actual CLI directories** (#589) - documented install commands now include the `.agents/skills` prefix.

- **`jobdanmark-search detail` renders a JSON-LD description as text instead of passing
  the markup through** (`.agents/skills/jobdanmark-search/cli/src/commands/detail.ts`,
  `tests/detail-jsonld.test.ts`) - the JSON-LD branch emitted `jobPosting.description`
  verbatim, so `detail --format plain` printed
  `description: <p>Vi søger en udvikler til R&D.</p><ul><li>Python & Go</li>...` while the
  rendered-HTML branch of the same command printed one clean line per paragraph and bullet:
  two description shapes from one command depending on which page layout it hit, and the
  markup landed in `/scrape`'s stored snippet and `/rank`'s agent context as-is. The
  portal contract (`/add-portal` Step 4) asks for "readable text (entities decoded, tags
  stripped, paragraph breaks preserved)". The JSON-LD branch now renders the HTML through
  `node-html-parser`'s `structuredText` - one line per block element, entities decoded, tags
  gone - which is the shape the fallback already produces. A plain-text description is
  unchanged, an absent one stays `""`. The JSON-LD test that pinned the raw `<p>...</p>` now
  expects the text, plus two new cases; the HTML case fails on master.

- **Valid portal flag tests stay offline** (#581) - success controls use local fixtures instead of depending on live job portals or their credentials.

- **`job_key.py` no longer gives two postings one key when a title or company is partly
  non-Latin** (`tools/job_key.py`, `tests/test_job_key.py`) - the hash fallbacks from #487
  and #502 fired only when the slug was completely empty, so a mixed-script name kept its
  Latin or digit fragment and skipped them: `Программист 1С` and `Аналитик 1С` at one company
  both keyed as `company-6d769a_1`, `Python-разработчик` and `Python-аналитик` as `..._python`,
  `Сбер AI` and `Яндекс AI` as `ai_...`. `/scrape` Step 4 then dropped the second posting as
  already seen, and because the dict key is overwritten, `--audit` could not report the
  collision as a duplicate URL either. "1С" titles and "N категории" grade suffixes are
  everyday Russian listings on freehire, the shipped multi-market portal. The fold is now
  treated as lossy whenever it drops a letter outside the Latin script, and the existing
  fallbacks take over: the title half uses the portal's numeric id or the URL hash with the
  fragment kept as a readable prefix (`1-4461771225`, `python-fb29d7`), the company half uses
  the NFC-casefold name hash with the fragment as prefix (`ai-d35210`). Latin letters that
  also lack a decomposition (`ø`, `æ`, `ß`, `ł`) are deliberately not counted, so `Ørsted`
  still keys as `rsted` and a live Danish `seen_jobs.json` does not re-key; an existing
  mixed-script entry re-keys once on the next scrape and `--audit` lists it under
  `keys_not_matching_current_rule`, the same one-time drift #502 accepted. Seven new cases;
  the four collision cases fail on master. A follow-up keeps the rule inside its own case:
  an empty title whose URL carries no six-digit run keys on the URL-derived basis alone
  (`acme_https-example-com-jobs-abc-xyz`) exactly as before, where the first cut had started
  appending the digest - unreachable from `/scrape`, which always passes a title, but a key
  is a pure function of the posting and should not move for a case the rule was never about.

- **`verify_pdf.py --ascii-dates` no longer reads a year-like run inside a longer number as a
  date** - the year pattern had no digit boundaries, so `2000` inside `120000` or `12000` made
  `Grew budget DKK 120000–200000` and `12000–15000 events/s` fail `/apply` Step 5d as
  en-dashed date ranges, and the agent was sent to fix a "date argument" that does not exist.
  The guide promises a numeric range with no year is left alone; now it is. `2016–2024` next to
  a longer number is still caught. Two new `test_verify_pdf.py` cases; the numeric one fails
  on the unbounded pattern.

- **`jobbank-search` preserves repeated filter values** (#577) - repeated documented filter options now retain all supplied values instead of only the last value.

- **`check_framework_version.py`'s git diff read no longer crashes on non-ASCII framework-file
  content** (`tools/check_framework_version.py`) - `run_git()` called
  `subprocess.run(text=True)` without an explicit `encoding`, so output decoded via the host
  locale's default codec instead of UTF-8. On a real Windows checkout (cp1252 default) this
  raised `UnicodeDecodeError` on any byte cp1252 leaves undefined - Cyrillic Ё/ё, much CJK,
  Á-class Latin - appearing in a framework file's diff, crashing the version gate before it
  ever evaluated the change. `run_git()` now passes `encoding="utf-8"` and `errors="replace"`
  (matching the convention already used elsewhere in this repo, e.g. `robots_check.py`),
  decoding deterministically regardless of host locale. Pinned by `RunGitEncodingTests` in
  `tests/test_check_framework_version.py`, which fails against the original un-pinned call.

- **`/rank` still sweeps deadlines when there is nothing new to score** (`.claude/commands/rank.md`
  Step 1, `tests/test_rank_command.py`) - when `rank_state.py candidates` reported no eligible
  jobs, Step 1 said "Nothing new to rank" and stopped before Step 3's rule 6 expiry sweep ever
  ran. Once a backlog has been ranked, that is the path every later `/rank` takes, so
  past-deadline jobs stayed `ranked` and approaching-deadline reminders were never shown.
  Reproduced on the real CLI with four `ranked` entries (deadlines 2026-09-22, 2026-09-28,
  null, `ASAP`): `candidates --today 2026-09-25` returns `eligible: 0` and master stops there,
  while `sweep --write` on the same state expires the 09-22 entry, lists 09-28 under
  `closing_soon` and `ASAP` under `unparseable_deadlines`, and leaves the null one alone. The
  empty-candidate branch of Step 1 now runs `python3 tools/rank_state.py sweep --write`, skips
  profile loading and Steps 2-4 (nothing to fetch or score; the tracker is untouched), and
  presents a sweep-only Step 5 summary - `swept`, `newly_expired`, `closing_soon` with deadlines
  and URLs, `unparseable_deadlines` with portals - before suggesting `/scrape`. An empty batch
  caused by a focus filter or tracker exclusion takes the same path. Pinned by
  `test_step1_empty_candidates_still_sweeps_and_reports`, which fails against master's `rank.md`.

- **`linkedin-search` preserves description structure** (#567) - job descriptions retain paragraph and list breaks instead of flattening them into one text block.

- **`robots_check` no longer reads a leading BOM or an undecodable rule as permission**
  (`tools/robots_check.py`, `tests/test_robots_check.py`) - two decoding edge cases failed
  open, both flagged as follow-ups in #506. A robots.txt saved with a UTF-8 byte-order mark
  decodes to a body that starts with U+FEFF, so its first field was not `user-agent`: a
  leading `User-agent: *` went unseen, every rule in that group was dropped for want of an
  agent, and the gate read the file as allow-all. Reproduced through the CLI on real hosts:
  cnnturk.com and sakarya.edu.tr serve `EF BB BF` + `User-agent: *`, and master printed
  `ALLOWED` for their disallowed `/hesap/` and `/bin/`. `_groups()` and `is_robots_body()`
  now skip one leading U+FEFF, as Google's reference parser does, so every caller of
  `allowed()` is covered (a BOM-only body is now the empty file it is, allow-all, rather than
  a soft 200). Separately, #506's `errors='replace'` turns raw non-ASCII bytes in a
  non-conformant robots.txt saved in a legacy code page (cp1254, ISO-8859-9) into U+FFFD, so
  a rule such as `Disallow: /şirket/` could never match and was silently skipped. A
  User-agent, Allow or Disallow line holding U+FFFD now makes the body unreadable, and the
  gate prints `UNCONFIRMED`. The field is named with U+FFFD removed, so a stray byte before
  `Disallow` cannot hide the line either; U+FFFD in a comment or another field stays
  harmless, and valid UTF-8 rules decide as before. Nine new tests; the seven that pin the
  fail-opens fail on master.

- **Salary workbook conversion rejects non-finite text cells** (#572) - hand-typed `Infinity` or `NaN` text cells now produce validation errors instead of numeric-conversion tracebacks.

- **`verify_layout.py` finds an orphaned entry header by where the text starts**
  (`tools/verify_layout.py`, `tests/test_verify_layout.py`) - the orphan rule compared line
  left edges against the document margin, and a list marker moves a line's left edge without
  moving its text. A template that merges each bullet's marker into its first line (#481) got
  a bullet wrapping across the page break reported as an orphaned header, and a real orphaned
  header followed by such bullets not reported at all. On the stock CV, when the outer marker
  extracts as a line of its own, a `[Job Title]` header left at the foot of a page with its
  bullets overleaf was not reported (its text at x70.4 counted as indented), and a list item
  whose outer marker is set 1.3pt below its line was reported as a split bullet. The rule now
  compares where the text of the page's last printed line starts - after any leading bullet
  glyph from `• ‣ ▪ ● ·` (ASCII, dashes and other glyphs are text) - with where the text of
  the next page's first printed line starts, and reports an orphaned header when the latter
  is set further in. Bbox lines whose tops are within 3pt count as one printed line, and a
  line whose text starts more than 60pt past the margin (a running header, a right-set date)
  is not where the next page resumes. A lone marker with no text beside it keeps the
  split-bullet report. On 304 builds of the stock CV (`\vspace*` 0-600pt before four
  entries) this adds 15 reports, each a `[Job Title]` header at the foot of a page with its
  bullets overleaf, and the other 289 builds give the same output as before.

- **One posting on a portal without a numeric id no longer gets a second key when its
  title is re-listed with different casing** (#501, `tools/job_key.py`,
  `tests/test_job_key.py`) - the key hashed a slugified title alongside the URL whenever
  `normalizeId` found no six-digit run in the path, which is every freehire posting. The
  live API returns both `Инженер` and `инженер` across rows, and the slugifier maps those
  to different slugs, so one URL could be stored under several keys. `/rank` builds its
  exclusion set from `seen_jobs.json`, so a posting already seen could be presented again.
  The key is now a hash of the URL alone: the URL is the identity `/scrape` stores, and
  the title was never a stable half of it. **Entries written before this fix for a
  non-Latin title on a portal without a numeric id will re-key once on the next scrape.**
  `python3 tools/job_key.py --audit` reports those entries under
  `keys_not_matching_current_rule`; it never rewrites them.

- **Salary lookups preserve Unicode company identities and match ASCII-typed accented names such as `Nestle` to `Nestlé`, while retaining Nordic spelling variants** (#570).

### Security

- **Skill frontmatter no longer grants bare `Bash` or a portal-CLI glob**
  (#642, `.claude/skills/job-application-assistant/SKILL.md` `framework_version: 1.3.4 -> 1.3.5`,
  `.claude/skills/job-scraper/SKILL.md`, `.claude/commands/add-portal.md` Step 5) - a skill's
  `allowed-tools` pre-approves the listed tools for the turn that invokes it, with no prompt and
  regardless of workspace trust. The job-application skill granted `Bash`, `Edit`, `Write`
  outright, and the scraper granted `bun run` on any `.agents/skills/*/cli/src/cli.ts`, while
  `.claude/settings.json` carefully enumerated six portals - a public review by an AI agent
  (shared on Reddit) read exactly that and concluded local use was unsafe as configured. The
  tools scripts, salary lookup, `pdftotext` and the portal CLIs were already allowlisted per
  command in `settings.json`, so no new standing grant is needed. What the bare grant did cover,
  in a turn where the skill fired, was compile (`lualatex`/`xelatex`) and the `rm -f` of build
  intermediates; those now prompt in default mode, as the SECURITY.md table says - a
  `lualatex:*` grant would also approve `-shell-escape`, so they are deliberately not
  pre-approved. The per-portal grants stay in `settings.json`; `/add-portal` now says a new
  portal is pre-approved only once its own entry is there and in `ALLOWED_PERMISSIONS`.

- **`.claude/settings.json` ships `ask` and `deny` rules, and the guard requires them**
  (#642, `tools/security_guards.py` `REQUIRED_ASK_RULES` / `REQUIRED_DENY_RULES`,
  `tests/test_security_guards.py`) - deny rules block in every permission mode including
  `bypassPermissions` and override any allow rule or skill grant; ask rules force a prompt even
  when a skill's `allowed-tools` would pre-approve the call. Denied: `curl`/`wget` with data,
  form or upload flags, `scp`, `sftp`, `ssh`, `nc`, and reads of `.env`, `.env.*`, `~/.ssh/**`,
  `~/.aws/**`, `~/.gnupg/**`. Always asked: edits to `settings.json`, `settings.local.json`,
  `.claude/skills/*/SKILL.md`, `.claude/agents/**`, `.github/**`, `tools/security_guards.py`, and
  `git push` - the files whose content is the permission surface cannot be widened silently from
  inside a session. Prefix rules are tripwires, not walls; `SECURITY.md` says so.

- **The security guard now reads skill and command frontmatter** (#642, `tools/security_guards.py`
  check 4, `ALLOWED_SKILL_TOOLS`) - it allowlisted `settings.json` permissions and hooks but never
  looked at `allowed-tools`, so the narrow settings allowlist sat next to a bare `Bash` grant it
  could not see. Every `.claude/skills/*/SKILL.md`, `.agents/skills/*/SKILL.md` and
  `.claude/commands/*.md` frontmatter is now held to an exact allowlist; a portal skill may
  additionally grant exactly its own `cli/src/cli.ts`, matched by path so no portal name is
  hardcoded. Bare tools and mid-pattern wildcards fail CI with their own message. On the previous
  frontmatter this check reports two failures.

- **The browser-header 403 retry is `python3 tools/fetch_page.py`, not a documented `curl`**
  (#642, `tools/fetch_page.py`, `tests/test_fetch_page.py`,
  `.claude/skills/job-application-assistant/09-web-research.md` `framework_version: 1.1.3 -> 1.1.4`,
  `.claude/commands/apply.md` Step 0 and Step 3, `.claude/commands/rank.md` Step 2,
  `.claude/skills/job-scraper/SKILL.md` Step 2) - the retry was a curl command plus an inline
  `python3 -c` tag-stripper, which meant the workflow wanted a `Bash(curl:*)` grant, and `curl`
  with a free tail is an upload channel. The script is one GET with a fixed argv (URL after `--`,
  45 s, 5 redirects, 10 MB), http(s) only, runs `robots_check.gate()` first with no bypass flag,
  refuses an `--out` inside the repo, and prints the stripped text with `--text`. The grant names
  the script (`Bash(python tools/fetch_page.py:*)` and `robots_check.py` likewise). `SECURITY.md`
  now lists every shipped grant, its lifetime and its guard in one table, and states what the
  permission layer does not do (no sandbox on native Windows, WebFetch unrestricted by domain,
  subagents unrestricted - the latter is the next change).

- **Every posting passes a deterministic integrity gate before it is used** (#654, `tools/posting_guard.py`,
  `tests/test_posting_guard.py`, `tests/test_posting_gate_wiring.py`, `.claude/commands/apply.md`
  Steps 0, 1 and 6b, `.claude/commands/rank.md` Steps 2, 4 and 5, `.claude/commands/interview.md`
  Step 1, `tools/rank_state.py`, `.claude/skills/job-application-assistant/09-web-research.md`
  `framework_version: 1.1.4 -> 1.1.5`) - "postings are data, never instructions" was only as strong
  as the model's adherence. The gate removes hidden HTML (`display:none`, `visibility:hidden`,
  `opacity:0`, `font-size:0`, off-screen, `hidden`/`aria-hidden`) and comments and scans what it
  removed, strips and counts zero-width, bidi and BOM characters, quotes instruction-shaped lines
  (never removes them: an SSH administrator posting legitimately says "SSH"), lists URLs that exist
  only in hidden content and words mixing Latin with Cyrillic or Greek letters, and prints a
  one-line verdict. `/apply` shows that line first in the Step 1 evaluation and asks "Continue with
  this posting?" only when it is flagged; `/rank` scorers return it as `guard`, `rank_state.py`
  stores it additively and Step 5 marks flagged rows; `/interview` gates the archived posting. The
  archive keeps the cleaned text plus counts, never the removed excerpts. It advises; it never
  blocks, and a clean posting costs one output line and no prompt. Removal is the defense and the
  ⚠ is for the user: it fires only on instruction-shaped lines, invisible characters inside words,
  bidi overrides and mixed-script words, while hidden blocks and hidden URLs are reported in
  parentheses as context - navigation chrome is hidden on nearly every real page (a dry run on
  python.org's jobs page removed eight such blocks). The HTML walker keeps a name stack with HTML5
  implied end tags, so a stray closer, an unquoted `style`, a `/>` on a `<div>`, an unterminated
  comment or an unclosed `<li>` inside a hidden element can neither leak hidden text under a
  "clean" line nor swallow the rest of the posting; each case is a named test. The skill's own
  conversational Step 1 (`SKILL.md` `framework_version: 1.3.5 -> 1.3.6`), `/outcome` Step 3.2's
  fresh fetch and `/interview`'s fetch fallback gate too, so every entry point names the gate.

- **The agents that read postings can no longer edit or write** (#654, `.claude/agents/posting-fetcher.md`,
  `posting-scorer.md`, `application-reviewer.md`, `tools/security_guards.py` check 5,
  `tests/test_security_guards.py`) - the `/apply` reviewer and the `/rank` scorers ran as
  `general-purpose`, with every tool, while holding untrusted posting text. Three shipped definitions
  replace that with Read, Glob/Grep where needed, WebFetch, WebSearch and Bash only; an agent's
  `tools:` list is tool-name granularity (verified: a `Bash(echo *)` entry gives plain Bash), so
  Bash stays scoped by `settings.json`'s allow list. The reviewer returns its edits and the company
  research cache as text and the orchestrator writes them. Guard check 5 requires every
  `.claude/agents/*.md` to declare `tools:` from `ALLOWED_AGENT_TOOLS` and rejects a missing key
  (which means every tool) or a patterned entry. `/scrape`'s portal-search agents stay
  `general-purpose` for now.

### Removed

- **`.claude/agents/gemini-research-expert.md`** (#654; found independently by @MaverickHQ in #659) -
  a personal helper that shipped in the initial release with no `tools:` list (every tool) and whose
  only function is piping arbitrary text to a third-party model via `gemini -p`. Nothing in the tree
  referenced it, yet Claude Code registered it in every session opened in a clone, where its
  open-ended description made it a candidate for automatic delegation during company research.
  Guard check 5 would reject it. Restore it in your own fork from git history if you used it.

## [1.7.2] - 2026-09-29

### Added

- **`verify_pdf.py --ascii-dates` makes the documented date-range rule executable**
  (`tools/verify_pdf.py`, `/apply` Step 5d, `05-cv-templates.md`, CI) - "Date fields must be
  ASCII ranges" records a real Workday import that dropped a role's end date because
  `2016--2024` reaches the text layer as `2016<U+2013>2024`, and told Step 5d to confirm every
  entry's years are joined by an ASCII hyphen. Nothing executed that: the natural probe,
  `--contains "2016-2024"`, failed identically for "en-dashed" and "absent" before #458 and
  passes on both since, because the fold maps the en-dash back to `-` on purpose. The new flag
  reads the raw layer (never the fold), fails on a year joined to any Unicode dash or the
  minus sign, and names each hit with its line and code point. A year on either side is
  enough (`Mar 2016 – Jul 2016`, `2016 – Present`); a numeric range with no year is not a
  date. Step 5d's extraction command now carries the flag (the dump is still written before
  the check fails), the "Dates recognizable" checklist item points at it and keeps the bare
  single-year half as a read-through, the guide's "add this to the step 5d checks" paragraph
  names the command, and the upstream-only CI assertion runs it on the stock CV. Demonstrated
  on the stock template: a `\cventry{2016--2024}` build fails with `U+2013`, the
  `\cventry{2016-2024}` build passes, and `--contains "2016-2024"` passes on both. Only
  horizontal whitespace may sit between the year and the dash, so a year ending one line is
  not joined to a dash that opens the next (a bullet, a wrapped prose line) - yang2632's
  catch in review, with the regex and fixture. Thirteen new `test_verify_pdf.py` cases.
  Proposed by 9scorp4 in Discussion #385.

- **Real Excel workbook integration tests for the salary converter**
  (`tests/test_convert_salary_excel_integration.py`, `.github/workflows/ci.yml`) -
  generate temporary `.xlsx` files and invoke the documented converter CLI,
  checking multiple worksheets, metadata options, Unicode text, localized
  numbers, and compatibility with salary lookup. A workbook without salary
  headers must fail without creating an output file. CI installs `openpyxl`
  across the Python matrix; local runs without this optional dependency skip
  the two integration cases while retaining the existing dependency-free tests.

- **`documents/projects/` portfolio ingestion in `/setup` (Path A)** (`documents/README.md`,
  `.claude/commands/setup.md`, `.claude/commands/reset.md`, `tests/test_setup_command.py`) -
  onboards project writeups, case studies, and documentation (`.md`, `.txt`, `.pdf`)
  from `documents/projects/`, extracting structured summaries (problem domain, tech stack,
  technical challenges, and measurable outcomes) to populate `## Independent Projects`
  in `01-candidate-profile.md`.

- **Source host verification in `/apply` Step 1** (#431, `.claude/commands/apply.md`,
  `tests/test_apply_host_check.py`) - before proceeding to draft CV and cover letters,
  Step 1 verifies the posting URL's provenance against installed portal boards and the
  six standard ATS apex domains (`greenhouse.io`, `lever.co`, `myworkdayjobs.com`/`workday.com`,
  `ashbyhq.com`, `smartrecruiters.com`, `workable.com`). Look-alike prefix/suffix spoofing
  fails closed, and unrecognized hosts are plainly flagged as unverified in the evaluation
  output (`⚠ Unverified source host: <hostname>`) before drafting tokens are spent.

- **`/expand` project and portfolio expansion** (`.claude/commands/expand.md`,
  `tests/test_expand_command.py`) - expands candidate discovery
  to technical projects from public GitHub repositories, extracting structured summaries
  (problem domain, tech stack, key technical challenges, and verifiable outcomes) to
  populate the `## Independent Projects` section of `01-candidate-profile.md`.

- **Stale sweep branch in `/outcome`** (`.claude/commands/outcome.md`,
  `tests/test_outcome_stale.py`) - introduces `/outcome stale [N]` (and `/outcome sweep [N]`)
  to batch-resolve open applications quiet for 60+ (or N) days. Displays a numbered summary
  of qualifying applications, requires explicit user confirmation (`all`, `select`, or `skip`),
  resolves confirmed rows to `no_response`, logs dated entries to `notes`, updates archive
  `outcome.md` files, and hands off to calibration when 3+ applications are resolved.

- **Mechanical layout verification for compiled PDFs** - `tools/verify_layout.py` measures
  what `/apply` Step 5b previously only eyeballed: per-page text extent, bottom whitespace,
  the largest internal vertical gap, footer collisions, and entry headers or section
  headings stranded at a page break. It exists for a failure that survives every existing
  check - a moderncv `\cventry` is an unbreakable `tabular`, so an entry that does not fit
  jumps to the next page and leaves a hole behind (observed at 273pt, roughly 19 blank
  lines) while the document still compiles, still reports the correct page count, and still
  passes `tools/verify_pdf.py`. Geometry comes from Poppler `pdftotext -bbox`; Poppler is
  optional repo-wide (since #369 `verify_pdf.py` prefers pypdf), and word bounding boxes
  have no pypdf equivalent, so this is the one step that still wants it. A missing Poppler
  - or the xpdf-based `pdftotext` Git for Windows puts ahead of it in PATH, which rejects
  `-bbox` - degrades to a `skipped:` exit 2 rather than reporting a phantom layout failure.
  Page count is deliberately left to `verify_pdf.py --pages` so that one rule keeps one
  implementation. Thresholds are calibrated for the stock moderncv and `cover.cls`
  geometry. Tests use synthetic page geometry, so they need neither Poppler nor a
  LaTeX toolchain.

### Changed

- **`/add-template` keeps a registered template's intermediates in `build/`**
  (#473, `.claude/commands/add-template.md`, `.gitignore`,
  `tests/test_add_template_build_dir.py`) - the elicited compile command
  now redirects intermediates (`.aux`, `.log`, ...) to a `build/` folder beside the source
  and moves the PDF back, so Step 4's test-compile cleanup deletes one folder instead of
  enumerating LaTeX extensions. The LaTeX command deletes the previous PDF first, so a
  failed compile leaves no stale PDF for `/apply` to inspect. Toolchains with nothing to
  redirect (`typst compile`) keep their command unchanged. The `ACTIVE-TEMPLATE` block now
  tells `/apply` to run the command from the output directory and to delete `build/` in
  its Step 5e cleanup. Stock templates are unchanged.

### Fixed

- **`freehire-search` titles no longer carry HTML entities or stray whitespace**
  (`.agents/skills/freehire-search/cli/src/helpers.ts`) - titles are indexed as the source ATS
  wrote them and `toResult` passed them through untouched, so `detail
  intern-fullstack-amp-ai-innovation-noise-edaawqq2` printed `Intern - Fullstack &amp; AI
  Innovation ` (trailing space included), and the same title reached `search` output. In a
  93-result `/scrape` batch (`--country IN --seniority intern`), 1 title carried `&amp;` and 3
  ended in whitespace. `/scrape` Step 4.75 reads undecoded entities in titles as a
  half-working parser, so by that rule a single such posting marks a healthy portal
  degraded. The title now goes through the CLI's existing `decodeHtmlEntities` (already used
  for `detail` descriptions) and is trimmed; an empty or whitespace-only title still falls
  back to `(untitled)`. Pinned by three new `parsing.test.ts` cases, which fail on the old
  pass-through.

- **`freehire-search detail` keeps the salary period, so a yearly figure no longer reads as
  monthly** (`.agents/skills/freehire-search/cli/src/helpers.ts`, `SKILL.md`) - `formatSalary`
  printed only the currency and amounts, although freehire's enrichment records the period:
  `detail software-developer-trainee-codifi-fra635ux` printed `INR 300000–300000` while the
  API returns `salary_period: "year"` for that posting, so anyone screening pay against a
  monthly figure read a yearly salary as a monthly one, twelve times its real monthly value.
  The period is now appended when freehire records one (`INR 300000–300000/year`,
  `INR 12000/month`); a record without a period prints exactly as before. Pinned by two new
  `parsing.test.ts` cases, both failing on the old formatter.

- **`robots_check` decodes curl output as UTF-8, so a non-ASCII response no longer reads as
  UNCONFIRMED on Windows** (`tools/robots_check.py`, `tests/test_robots_check.py`) -
  `_fetch()` ran curl with `text=True` and no encoding, so Python decoded the response with
  the ANSI code page. On a byte that code page leaves undefined (0x81 in cp1252 and cp1254,
  0x9e in cp1254) subprocess's pipe reader thread died, `stdout` came back `None`, and the
  gate printed `UNCONFIRMED (AttributeError)` - failing closed, but blocking the
  browser-header retry `09-web-research.md` permits. Reproduced through the CLI on real
  hosts: tr.indeed.com's robots.txt carries `Disallow: /職涯貼士/` (職 is `e8 81 b7`), and
  kap.org.tr answers `/robots.txt` with a UTF-8 HTML 404 whose "A.Ş." carries `c5 9e`. The
  call now pins `encoding='utf-8', errors='replace'` (RFC 9309: robots.txt is UTF-8), as
  `verify_pdf.py` and `verify_layout.py` already do. That also closes a silent fail-open: a
  UTF-8 rule whose bytes the code page does define (`Disallow: /şirket/` under cp1254)
  decoded as `/ÅŸirket/`, never matched, and read as allowed. Decision rules are unchanged.
  Two new tests swap curl for a child process that prints those bytes and pin cp1254 when no
  encoding is passed, so the failure does not depend on the host's locale; both fail without
  the fix.

- **The compile-warning check covers `tests/*.py` too** (`tests/test_verify_pdf.py`,
  `tests/test_verify_layout.py`) - `FindNonAsciiDateRangesTests`' docstring quotes the regex
  `\s*` unescaped, so Python 3.12+ prints a `SyntaxWarning` for the invalid escape `\s` when
  the test module is compiled. It shows up in this repo's own CI log on 3.12, 3.13 and 3.14 while
  the run stays green, and under `-W error::SyntaxWarning` the module fails to import. Escaped
  in the docstring; `ToolsCompileWithoutWarnings` now compiles `tests/*.py` as well as
  `tools/*.py` and fails on the unescaped version.

- **`linkedin-search detail` no longer fetches an unrelated posting for a URL on another
  host** - `normalizeId` took the first 6+-digit path segment from *any* URL, so a
  Greenhouse or Lever apply link (the kind a posting's own page hands out, and what a user
  pastes back into `detail`) was reduced to that number and the handler fetched
  `jobPosting/<number>` from LinkedIn: whatever job carried that id came back, printed with
  exit 0, or `NOT_FOUND` if none did - never an error about the input. Demonstrated by driving
  the real handler with a stubbed fetch: `https://boards.greenhouse.io/acme/jobs/4567890`
  requested `.../jobPosting/4567890`. Every other portal CLI rejects an off-host detail URL
  with `BAD_ID` (the #447 shape); linkedin was the one still trusting the digits. URLs are
  now parsed for real: a `linkedin.com` host (apex or any subdomain, scheme optional) plus a
  `/jobs/view/<slug-><id>` path yields the id, and anything else - other hosts, look-alike and
  userinfo hosts, a linkedin.com profile or search URL - exits 1 with the stderr-JSON
  `BAD_ID` contract before any request. Bare ids, URNs, and slash-free title slugs are
  unchanged. Pinned by four new `normalizeId` cases and a new `detail-input.test.ts` that
  drives `runDetail` and the CLI with fetch stubbed; the off-host cases fail on the old
  pattern.

- **`/rank` tracker matching preserves Unicode company and role names**
  (`tools/rank_state.py`, `tests/test_rank_state.py`) - ASCII-only normalization
  collapsed distinct non-Latin roles to the same empty value and dropped
  entirely non-Latin companies from tracker exclusions. Match using Unicode
  case folding and NFC normalization, retaining letters, numbers, and combining
  marks while continuing to ignore punctuation and spacing. CLI regressions
  use the standard tracker header and cover distinct names, tracked matches,
  equivalent accent encodings, and the existing ASCII matching behavior.

- **The Python tools no longer crash on Windows when a posting, company, CV line or file
  name falls outside the ANSI code page** (`tools/rank_state.py`, `tools/job_key.py`,
  `tools/verify_pdf.py`, `tools/verify_layout.py`, `tools/convert_salary_excel.py`,
  `salary_lookup.py`, `tests/test_tools_utf8_output.py`) - a piped stdout on Windows
  defaults to the ANSI code page (cp1252 on most Western installs), and that is how Claude
  Code runs every tool. `/rank`'s candidate listing printed titles and companies with
  `ensure_ascii=False`, so a single Cyrillic, CJK, Devanagari, Polish or Turkish posting
  ended the run with `UnicodeEncodeError` before any output reached the workflow; the key
  audit, the salary lookup, the salary converter and the layout report failed the same way.
  Each tool now switches stdout and stderr to UTF-8 at entry, which also stops Danish and
  other Western accents from arriving as cp1252 bytes. The regression tests run every
  tool in a child process with a cp1252 stdout forced through `PYTHONIOENCODING`, so the
  Linux CI job reproduces the Windows failure; all seven fail without the fix. The
  subprocess helpers in `tests/test_rank_state.py` and `tests/test_job_key.py` now decode
  child output as UTF-8 to match.

- **`/rank` rejects invalid score dimensions before updating an entry**
  (`tools/rank_state.py`, `tests/test_rank_state.py`) - enforce the rubric's
  inclusive 0-100 range and reject booleans, NaN, and infinities. Invalid results
  now use the existing per-job error report, leaving the rejected entry intact
  while valid results in the same batch are saved. CLI tests cover every score
  dimension, oversized integers, boundary values, and fractional-score rounding.

- **Distinct non-Latin company names no longer share the unknown-company job key**
  (`tools/job_key.py`, `tests/test_job_key.py`) - when a non-empty company name
  has no ASCII slug, derive its fallback from a hash of the normalized name.
  Missing names retain `unknown-company`, and existing ASCII keys are unchanged.
  CLI tests cover distinct companies, case and canonical Unicode equivalence,
  and stable keys across posting URLs. Existing state is not rewritten; `/scrape`
  already recognizes stored postings by URL regardless of their previous key.

- **`/rank` tracker exclusion handles UTF-8 BOMs on reordered CSV headers**
  (`tools/rank_state.py`, `tests/test_rank_state.py`) - when `company` or `role`
  is the first column, a leading BOM becomes part of the header name and an
  already-tracked application is selected for ranking again. Read with
  `utf-8-sig` so both BOM-prefixed and plain UTF-8 trackers match correctly.
  The standard `date`-first header already worked; regression coverage checks
  all three column orders with and without a BOM.

- **`verify_layout.py` no longer emits a `SyntaxWarning` on every run** (`tools/verify_layout.py`,
  `tests/test_verify_layout.py`) - the module docstring names the macro whose absence triggers the
  Poppler `-bbox` crash, `\hypersetup{pdftitle=...}`, and a bare `\h` in a non-raw docstring is an
  invalid escape sequence. Python 3.12+ prints `SyntaxWarning: "\h" is an invalid escape sequence`
  the first time the module is compiled (CPython gh-98401) - it shows up in this repo's own CI log,
  and in the middle of `/apply` Step 5b's layout report. The 3.15 language reference still
  documents the sequence as a `SyntaxWarning`, with a `SyntaxError` only in a future Python
  version. Escaped in the docstring; the new `ToolsCompileWithoutWarnings` case compiles the
  source of every `tools/*.py` with warnings captured and fails on the unescaped version, so the
  next docstring that quotes a LaTeX macro is caught too.

- **`/apply` Step 5b now actually runs the page-count check it claimed Step 5d ran**
  (`.claude/commands/apply.md`, `tests/test_apply_page_count.py`) - the 5b prose said
  "Page count is not checked here - that is `verify_pdf.py --pages`'s job, and Step 5d already
  runs it", and `verify_layout.py`'s docstring declines to measure page count for the same
  reason. Step 5d's only `verify_pdf.py` call is `--dump-text`, and no step in the workflow
  passed `--pages` at all (only the upstream-only CI assertion on the stock examples does),
  so the hard 2-page CV and 1-page cover letter limits were enforced by nothing but the
  visual PDF read - the "measure first, then look" failure 5b was written to stop. 5b now
  runs `verify_pdf.py --pages 2` on the CV and `--pages 1` on the cover letter ahead of
  `verify_layout.py`, names the `ACTIVE-TEMPLATE` page limit as the substitute for a custom
  template, and the deferral sentence points at those lines. Four spec tests pin the
  invocations, their counts, their order relative to the layout measurement, and that no
  prose defers the check to a step that does not run it; all four fail on master.

- **`salary_lookup.py` prints the privacy footnote only when a row actually carries `N/A*`**
  - the `* N/A = Too few employees to publish (privacy)` line was appended under every
  category table, including one where every row has an index, so the output asserted a
  suppression that never happened (the residual noted on #470). The footnote now follows a
  flag set by the `N/A*` branch; a table with a suppressed row renders exactly as before.
  Two `FormatEntryTests` cases pin both directions; the "omitted" one fails on master.

- **`convert_salary_excel.py` pairs a bare `Count`/`Index` column pair instead of
  splitting it, so `salary_lookup.py` no longer labels a published headcount as
  privacy-suppressed** - the pairing loop required a non-empty derived category name on
  both sides, but a header with no category word (`Count` + `Index`, Danish `Antal` +
  `Lønindeks`) strips to an empty name, so the simplest layout the README advertises
  ("auto-pairs count/index columns") came out as two unrelated standalone categories:
  `{"count": {"count": 500}, "index": {"index": 108.5}}`. `salary_lookup` then rendered
  a `Count  500  N/A*` row above an `Index  -  108.5` row, and the footnote read the
  `N/A*` as "too few employees to publish (privacy)" - a false statement about a company
  whose headcount is in the file, shown during `/apply`'s salary step. Demonstrated
  through the documented Excel -> JSON -> lookup path with `openpyxl`; adding any suffix
  (`Antal alle`) made pairing work, which is why the shipped tests, all suffixed, never
  saw it. Bare pairs now pair under the README's top-level category name
  (`all_employees`); a bare `Antal` with no bare index column still stays a standalone
  count, and named pairs alongside are untouched. Four new cases in
  `test_convert_salary_excel.py`, including one that renders the converter's output
  through `salary_lookup.format_entry`; all four fail on the old pairing rule.

- **`tools/verify_layout.py`'s `skipped:` message named only one cause of a broken
  extractor when there are two** (#451) - it blamed the xpdf-based `pdftotext` Git for
  Windows puts ahead of Poppler in PATH (no `-bbox` flag, exits 99), but a real Poppler
  can abort `-bbox`/`-bbox-layout`/`-htmlmeta` too: Poppler 26.0x before 26.05 crashes on
  any PDF whose Info dictionary carries an empty string in any field, and `hyperref`
  writes exactly that for every field it does not set. A `lualatex`/`pdflatex` document
  built with `hyperref` and no `\hypersetup{pdftitle=...}` - an ordinary `/add-template`
  CV template, not a malformed one - hits this with a working Poppler installed, and the
  old message sent the reader to check their PATH when nothing was wrong with it. The
  message now names both causes; behavior is unchanged, degrading to `skipped:` exit 2
  either way, since a broken extractor is still not a broken document.

- **The template-placeholder guard in `test_setup_command.py` now skips on forks** (#463) -
  `TemplatesStillCarryThePlaceholders` asserts that `05-cv-templates.md` and
  `06-cover-letter-templates.md` still contain `[FIRST_NAME]`, `[LAST_NAME]`, `[YOUR_EMAIL]`,
  `[YOUR_PHONE]`, `[YOUR_NAME]`, and `[YOUR_LINKEDIN_URL]`. Running `/setup` - the documented
  path, and what Step 3.5/3.6 of that command exist to do - replaces exactly those tokens, so on
  a personalized fork `python3 -m unittest discover -s tests` fails both checks permanently and
  marks every push red. The class now uses the same `@unittest.skipIf` on `GITHUB_REPOSITORY`
  (defaulting to upstream when unset, so local pristine-template runs still execute the guards)
  that `test_placeholder_integrity.py` received in #407. The guard landed three days after that
  fix and did not pick up the pattern; the `placeholder-integrity` CI job is upstream-gated and
  does not cover the `05`/`06` tokens, so `python-tests` was their only check.
- **`verify_pdf.py --contains` now sees through LaTeX's typographic substitutions and
  the pdflatex text layer keeps accents precomposed** (Discussions #385, #384) - the
  comparison folded whitespace only, but LaTeX ligatures `'` into U+2019 and `--` into
  U+2013, so on the stock CV compiled with the documented `lualatex` command
  `--contains "Master's degree"` and `--contains "2016-2024"` both reported the keyword
  missing from a document that plainly contains it (measured through both extractors;
  `Six Sigma` and `Statistics` on the same page passed). The documented remedy for a
  missing keyword is to add it, so the false negative nudged toward the one thing the ATS
  section forbids. `normalize_text()` now folds both sides - NFC, then curly
  apostrophes/quotes to ASCII, en/em dashes to `-`, no-break space to space - at
  comparison time only; `--dump-text` still writes the raw layer, because that is what an
  ATS parses and the date-range rule in `05-cv-templates.md` needs the raw en-dash visible
  there. Separately, pdflatex without T1 font encoding stores accents decomposed
  (`e` + U+0300; pypdf reads it as a stray spacing accent), which NFC cannot fully
  repair - moderncv 2.5 loads T1 itself under pdflatex but the apt-packaged 2.3.1 does
  not, so `cv/main_example.tex` and the guide's preamble gain
  `\ifpdftex\usepackage[T1]{fontenc}\fi`, a no-op on the lualatex path. Pinned by
  ten new `test_verify_pdf.py` cases (the fold-through ones fail on the whitespace-only
  code) and a `test_latex_guidance.py` guard that the line exists and stays
  pdflatex-only. Reported and diagnosed by 9scorp4. Fork users: your
  personalized `cv/main_example.tex` gains the one guarded preamble line on rebase (a clean
  3-way merge unless you edited the preamble); tailored CVs compiled with lualatex need nothing.
- **`jobdanmark-search detail` now backs off on 429/5xx like every other portal's detail
  command** - the handler called `fetch()` directly instead of going through the CLI's own
  request wrappers, so it carried none of the three things `apiFetch`/`apiPost` guarantee:
  no 429/5xx retry loop (a rate-limited detail page wrote `API_ERROR` and exited after one
  attempt, where jobnet, jobbank, jobindex, linkedin, and freehire all retry up to six
  times), a hand-inlined User-Agent string that would drift from the exported `USER_AGENT`,
  and a timeout the wrappers' tests never saw. `/scrape` calls `detail` once per
  shortlisted posting, so a burst that tripped jobdanmark's rate limiter dropped those
  postings outright - no description, no deadline - while the same burst on any other
  portal rode it out. Demonstrated by driving the real command handler with a stubbed 429:
  1 fetch attempt and exit 1 before, 7 attempts after (the contract's initial try plus six
  retries). Fixed by adding `htmlFetch` to `helpers.ts` with the same backoff schedule,
  timeout, and shared User-Agent as the JSON wrappers (404 returns `null` so `detail` keeps
  its `NOT_FOUND` contract) and routing `detail` through it. Pinned in the existing
  `retry-backoff`, `user-agent`, and `request-timeout` suites, which now cover all three
  wrappers, plus a new `detail-backoff.test.ts` that exercises the handler path itself -
  its retry cases fail against the bare `fetch()`.

- **Free-form tracker notes no longer break the CSV row** (#454) (`.claude/commands/gmail-sync.md`,
  `.claude/commands/outcome.md`, `tests/test_tracker_notes_csv_safe.py`) - two writers put
  free-form text into the `notes` column of `job_search_tracker.csv`: `/gmail-sync` Step 7a
  copied the raw subject of a received email, and `/outcome` Step 4 appended "a short dated
  note" with no constraint on its content. No writer in the framework emits a quoted tracker
  field, so an unescaped comma splits the row for a naive split and for `csv.DictReader` alike -
  the latter being what the repo's only machine reader of the tracker uses
  (`tools/rank_state.py`). `notes` is column 10 of 14, so a subject as ordinary as
  `Re: Your application, Data Scientist`, or a note as natural as `rejected, no feedback given`,
  shifted `cv_file`, `cover_letter_file` and `source` a column left. A line break is worse: it
  ends the row and starts a second one. Nothing validated the row afterwards, and the
  `/gmail-sync` half was written unattended, so the corruption was silent. Both append
  instructions now carry the rule themselves - `/gmail-sync` deletes commas, double quotes and
  line breaks from the subject, `/outcome` writes its note without them - rather than a general
  note a writer can miss. Nothing is lost on the `/gmail-sync` side: Step 7a item 2 still
  records the subject verbatim in the archive's `outcome.md`, which is Markdown and carries no
  such constraint. The fixed-format writers (`followed up YYYY-MM-DD`,
  `stale resolved no_response (YYYY-MM-DD)`, `redrafted`) could never contain these characters
  and are unchanged.

- **`jobindex-search detail` no longer fetches arbitrary URLs or invents posting-shaped
  output** (#447) - the command fetched any `http(s)` input verbatim (no host check) and,
  when the path didn't match its one pattern, silently used the whole input URL as the job
  id; the only net was "the fetched page has a title", so a non-posting page came back as
  a well-formed fake posting with exit 0 (demonstrated with jobindex's own homepage:
  `id` = the URL, `title` = the site's tagline, `description` = navigation chrome). Every
  other portal CLI rejects unparseable detail input with `BAD_ID` and constructs its fetch
  URL from the extracted id; jobindex was the one CLI trusting the raw string - and
  `/scrape`/`/rank` agents feed it stored URLs, so a ghost or redirected URL (the #331
  class) yielded plausible garbage instead of an error. `buildUrl` now requires a
  jobindex.dk host (apex or subdomain - look-alike and userinfo tricks rejected via real
  URL parsing) plus a `/jobannonce/<id>` path, rebuilds the fetch URL from the extracted
  id (the canonical short form the bare-id path always used), and exits 1 with the
  stderr-JSON `BAD_ID` contract otherwise; bare ids stay permissive scheme- and
  slash-free tokens (the jobnet precedent - the server 404s unknowns loudly). Pinned by
  eight cases in the new `detail-input.test.ts`; the five rejection/canonicalization
  cases fail against the verbatim unguarded extraction. Complementary to the `/apply`
  host-check rule proposed in #431, which stays with its proposer.

- **`/outcome` and `/interview` no longer confuse two roles at the same company** (#443)
  (`.claude/commands/outcome.md`, `.claude/commands/interview.md`,
  `tests/test_apply_records_application.py`) - when a tracker row's `cv_file` /
  `cover_letter_file` columns are empty, both commands fell back to a company-prefix glob
  (`cv/main_<company>*.tex`). Two roles at one company both match it, so `/outcome` copied
  whichever the filesystem returned first into the archive as `cv_draft.tex` - the file whose
  purpose is to record what was actually submitted - and its own "leave an existing archived
  file" rule then made the wrong copy permanent. Both fallbacks now glob the full
  `<company>_<role>` stem, derived by the **Subfolder naming** rule in `documents/README.md`
  rather than restated, and skip with a note instead of widening the search. Dropping the
  hardcoded `.tex` also makes a template registered by `/add-template` findable.

- **`jobnet-search detail` no longer reports an externally hosted ad as not found** (#432) -
  Jobnet's `/FindJob/JobAdDetails/<id>` returns 404 for ads with `isExternal: true`, so `detail`
  on an ad `search` had just listed exited 1 with `NOT_FOUND`, and `/scrape` read the posting as
  gone rather than hosted elsewhere (2 of 3 ads in a fresh sample). On that 404 the command now
  falls back to the search endpoint, which does carry the ad's description and the external
  application URL, and returns the record marked `isExternal: true` with a stderr note; fields the
  search payload does not carry (`views`, `approvalStatus`, the boolean flags) are `null`, never
  guessed. Verified live on two external ads.

- **`09-web-research.md`'s curl snippets no longer write into the repo when `$SCRATCHPAD`
  is unset** - both runnable blocks in the 403-escalation path start with `cd "$SCRATCHPAD"`,
  and nothing in the repository ever sets that variable (`git grep 'SCRATCHPAD='` returns
  nothing). Unset, it expands to `cd ""`, which succeeds and leaves the shell where it
  started, so the `&&` chain proceeds and `curl -o page.html` writes to the working
  directory - in practice the checkout, which is exactly what the paragraph directly beneath
  the curl block forbids ("Write to the session scratchpad directory, never into the repo").
  The file's instruction and its own snippet disagreed, and the snippet won silently.
  Both expansions are now guarded with `${SCRATCHPAD:?...}`, turning a silent repo write into
  an immediate failure whose message names where the value comes from. Behaviour is unchanged
  wherever the variable is set. The same undefined reference in `.claude/commands/rank.md`
  was removed by #425 as a side effect of rewriting Step 2/4; this is the remaining instance.

- **`seen_jobs.json` keys are now a pure function of the posting** - `/scrape` Step 4 described
  the key as prose (`"<url_or_company_title_key>"`) and nothing said how to derive it, so each
  run slugified in its own way. Two failures followed, both observed in a live state file. Keys
  carried characters that break the path they later become: `/apply` and `/outcome` derive an
  archive folder from the same company+role pair, which is why `documents/README.md` has a
  subfolder rule, and keys like `deloitte_junior-cybersecurity-analyst-(ot/iot)` and
  `neverhack-estonia_penetration-tester-/-red-teamer` violate it. And the same posting was
  stored twice when two runs truncated one title at different points
  (`deloitte_cyber-intelligence-center-security-analy` and
  `...-security-analyst-at` are one job, one URL, two entries) - which defeats the dedup the
  file exists for. `tools/job_key.py` now owns the derivation: the slug is normalised, and
  truncation is length-capped *and* disambiguated by a hash of the full slug, so a long title
  always produces the same key and two long titles sharing a prefix cannot collide. Step 4
  calls the helper instead of describing it. `--audit` reports non-conforming entries in an
  existing state file and deliberately never rewrites them: stored keys are matched against
  `job_search_tracker.csv` by company+role elsewhere, so a silent rewrite would break the link
  between a stored job and its application record.
  Existing state files need no migration: Step 2's candidate filter matches a posting to a stored
  entry by URL regardless of that entry's key, so a workspace whose entries predate the helper does
  not see its still-live postings re-presented as new.

## [1.7.1] - 2026-09-06

### Added

- **CHANGELOG structure guard** (`tests/test_changelog_structure.py`) - every PR edits this one
  shared file by hand near the same line, and nothing checked the result: a second `### Fixed`
  heading landed directly under `[Unreleased]`, above `### Added`, on #425 and was fixed by hand
  at merge time. The `[Unreleased]` section is now checked on every PR for duplicate headings,
  headings outside the Keep a Changelog set, entries above any heading, and leftover conflict
  markers. Released sections are history and are not inspected.

- **`/rank` now consumes the `posted_date` #391 persists** (#390, the deferred second
  half) - Step 3 gains a staleness flag: a posting whose stored `posted_date` is more
  than 30 days old at rank time carries a visible ⚠ marker with its age spelled out
  alongside the score ("⚠ posted 2024-05-13, 27 months ago"), the same FLAG treatment as
  location and language - in the ranking, for the user to judge, never an exclusion (the
  #390 posting was 27 months old *and still live*; age is a signal, not a veto, and a
  future stored `deadline` outranks it). Costs no fetch: age is re-derived each run from
  the stored value and never persisted. Boundary rules carried over verbatim from the
  schema and rule 6: no `posted_date` or `null` means no flag and no guess (never
  inferred from `first_seen`), and unparseable values are treated as absent and reported
  once with their portal. Pinned by four new cases in `test_rank_command.py`, each
  verified to fail against the rule-less spec.

### Security

- **`settings.json` no longer pre-approves `bun run` on arbitrary files** (#396) - the
  template's permission allowlist granted `Bash(bun run:*)`, which auto-approved
  `bun run <any file on disk>` in every fork. It is now one path-scoped entry per shipped
  portal CLI, matching what each portal SKILL.md already declares. `/scrape` is unaffected
  for all portals, including ones added by `/add-portal` - the job-scraper skill's own
  `allowed-tools` carries the path-scoped wildcard that covers them during the workflow.
  Running a portal CLI ad hoc outside a skill now prompts once, which is the intended
  behavior for anything not on the reviewed list. Thanks @vkotaru.

### Fixed

- **`/setup` now fills the contact blocks inside `05-cv-templates.md` and
  `06-cover-letter-templates.md`, and `/reset` restores them** - Step 3 personalised
  `cv/main_example.tex` but never the LaTeX contact blocks embedded in the two template files
  `/apply` actually compiles from, so a full Path B or C run left `[YOUR_NAME]`, `[YOUR_EMAIL]`
  and `[YOUR_PHONE]` in both, and whether they reached a document depended on the drafter
  noticing (a real user ran `/setup` and then hand-edited both files, #420).
  `06-cover-letter-templates.md` was not a Step 3 target at all. Step 3.5 now names the `05`
  contact tokens, a new Step 3.6 covers the `06` contact line and signature (Path A never fills
  it, so it runs for every path), the completion summary lists `06`, and `/reset` clears both
  blocks instead of listing `06` as framework-only. Pinned by `tests/test_setup_command.py`; the
  existing `/reset` coverage test is what forced the `reset.md` half.

- **`/rank` no longer reads or rewrites the whole of `seen_jobs.json` on every run** (#395) -
  Step 1 used to read the entire state file into the conversation to select candidates by
  eye, and Step 4 emitted it back to record scores: a cost paid on every run regardless of
  batch size, growing for the life of the workspace. `tools/rank_state.py` now owns that
  traffic - `candidates` selects and projects only the fields a scoring agent needs, `sweep`
  runs rule 6's expiry pass on disk, and `apply` writes results back atomically and prints
  the rows Step 5's report is built from. Preserves Step 4's existing write-back rules
  exactly: the `location` → `location_verdict` legacy migration, the deadline
  null-is-not-a-correction rule, and verbatim strengths/gaps persistence. No scoring policy
  changes - no new status value, no new persisted field.

- **`jobbank-search`, `jobdanmark-search`, and `jobnet-search` detail commands now accept full URLs** -
  the portal contract specifies `detail <id|url>`. Passing a full posting URL (with or without
  trailing slashes, slug segments, or query parameters) previously caused `jobbank-search` and
  `jobdanmark-search` to construct invalid double-URL strings, and `jobnet-search` to interpolate the
  full URL into the API endpoint path. All three detail handlers now extract and normalize the
  underlying ID or slug via dedicated helper functions, and exit 1 with code `BAD_ID` on unparseable
  inputs, matching `linkedin-search` and `freehire-search`. Pinned by 24 unit tests across the three
  CLIs' `detail-url-normalization.test.ts`.

- **`/rank` now bounds each scoring batch** (#395) - a bare run scores at most 10
  eligible jobs instead of attempting the entire backlog. `--limit <N>` controls
  scoring independently of `--top`, and the report makes deferred work visible so
  re-running `/rank` can continue it.

- **The portal CLIs' unknown-flag guard no longer lets a single-dash flag through** (#426) -
  the guard in the four bunli-based CLIs (`jobnet`, `jobbank`, `jobindex`, `jobdanmark`) inspected
  only tokens starting with `--`, so an undefined *short* flag bypassed it entirely: bunli
  discarded it, the search ran unfiltered, and the CLI exited 0 with no error. Live against
  jobnet, `search -q "sygeplejerske"` returned all 18,179 ads as a successful search against 667
  for the real `--search-string` query - the same shape as review finding F13 (jobdanmark, 13,862
  results) that motivated the guard in the first place, reached by the likelier route: `-q` is the
  documented short for the keyword search in `linkedin-search`, `freehire-search` and
  `jobindex-search`, so a cross-portal habit produces it. Both dash forms are now checked, with
  declared shorts (`jobindex`'s `-q`) and bunli's built-in `-h`/`-v` still valid. A negative number
  is rejected too rather than skipped: bunli does not consume a `-`-prefixed token as the previous
  flag's value, so `--radius -5` silently fell back to the default radius instead of failing its
  own `min(1)` schema - erroring on it is the trade `linkedin-search` already makes, and a value
  that must begin with a dash uses the `--flag=value` form. `linkedin-search` and
  `freehire-search` were unaffected; they normalize `-x` to a long name before checking it. Pinned
  by thirteen new cases across the four CLIs' `cli-flag-validation.test.ts`, network-free because
  the guard runs before dispatch: eight bug-pinning cases (the short flag and the negative number,
  per CLI), each verified to fail on the unfixed guard, plus five regression guards that pass on
  both and exist to keep the fix from over-rejecting - `-h` in each CLI, and `jobindex`'s declared
  `-q`.

- **`jobdanmark-search` autocomplete no longer dies over one suggestion without text**
  (#421, closing out the #416/#418 audit - every other deref site in the six CLIs
  checked and confirmed guarded) - the filter derefed `item.text.toLowerCase()` from a
  cast API response on the same line that already guards `g.items ?? []`, so one item
  with a null or missing `text` threw `TypeError` and the whole command exited 1 as
  `API_ERROR`. The filter now lives in an exported `filterAutocompleteGroups` (the
  jobnet testability pattern), `text` is typed nullable so the compiler enforces the
  guard, and an item without usable text is skipped - it can never match the required
  non-empty query, so downstream output never sees one. Pinned by three cases in the
  new `autocomplete-filtering.test.ts`; the null-text case fails against the verbatim
  unguarded extraction with the exact production TypeError.

- **`jobnet-search` no longer dies over one ad with a null publication date** (#418, the
  sibling of #416 from the same audit) - `date: job.publicationDate.slice(0, 10)` trusted
  a TypeScript interface claim (`publicationDate: string`) that nothing validates at
  runtime: `apiFetch` casts the JSON body, so one `null` threw `TypeError` inside the
  `jobAds` map and the whole search of a default-ON portal exited 1 as `API_ERROR` - while
  the neighboring `applicationDeadline` field was already null-guarded with a `1900-01-01`
  sentinel check. The field is now typed nullable (so the compiler enforces the guard) and
  degrades per-item to `date: null`, the shape the `seen_jobs.json` contract documents.
  Pinned by a new case in `search-normalization.test.ts`, verified to fail on the unfixed
  code with the exact production TypeError.

- **Placeholder-integrity tests in `python-tests` now skip on forks** (#405) - the dedicated
  `placeholder-integrity` job already gates on the upstream repo name, but `python-tests` ran
  `unittest discover` with no such guard, so forks that personalized files via `/setup` failed
  three sentinel checks permanently. Both test classes now use `@unittest.skipIf` on
  `GITHUB_REPOSITORY` (defaulting to upstream when unset so local pristine-template runs still
  execute).
- **`convert_salary_excel.py` no longer mistakes a title/citation row for the header row**
  (#414) - header-row detection accepted the first row in the first 10 where *any* cell merely
  contained a company-pattern word, with no check that the row actually looked like a header. A
  source-citation line above the real header table - standard in real Danish union/statistics
  exports, e.g. "Kilde: ... opdelt efter arbejdsgiver ..." - tripped it purely because
  "arbejdsgiver" (employer) appeared in prose. The real header row then got parsed as a data row
  (its "Firma" cell became a bogus company entry), and every genuine company lost all its salary
  data, silently: exit 0, "Done! Wrote N company entries," with `categories: {}` on every one. A
  candidate row is now accepted only when a *different* cell in the same row also matches a
  city/count/index pattern - same-cell corroboration doesn't count, since a citation sentence can
  pack a count-pattern word into the same sentence as the company-pattern one (e.g. "...opdelt
  efter arbejdsgiver, antal svar 1234"). Sheets whose only real header has purely untyped salary
  columns (e.g. "Base pay 2025" / "Bonus 2025", neither of which matches a known city/count/index
  pattern) have nothing to corroborate against in any row, so detection falls back to the original
  any-cell-mentions-company rule when the strict pass finds nothing in the first 10 rows. As a
  backstop independent of either pass, a sheet that ends up with zero detected salary columns now
  prints a warning instead of reporting success silently. Pinned by four cases in
  `tests/test_convert_salary_excel.py`: the original citation-row and zero-columns cases fail
  against the pre-fix script; the same-cell-corroboration and untyped-column-fallback cases each
  fail against the single-pass version of this fix that came before the fallback was added.

- **`jobbank-search` no longer dies over one malformed feed date** (#416) - `new Date()`
  on a present-but-unparseable `pubDate` yields an Invalid Date whose `toISOString()`
  throws `RangeError`, and `normalizeSearchItem` runs inside an unguarded `items.map()`,
  so a single bad RSS item killed the entire search with `{"error": "Invalid Date",
  "code": "API_ERROR"}` and exit 1 - a whole default-ON portal lost to one item, with
  the error pointing at the API. The un-CDATA'd fallback capture in `parseRssItems` can
  deliver exactly such a value. An unparseable `pubDate` now degrades to the same shape
  as an absent one (`posted` empty, `date: null`, per the `seen_jobs.json` contract that
  #391 put this field on), and every other item survives. Pinned by three new cases in
  `search-normalization.test.ts`, each verified to fail on the unfixed code.

- **`linkedin-search` rejects fractional numeric flags instead of silently changing
  the query** (#371) - bare `parseInt` truncated values before validation, so
  `--jobage 0.5` became `0` and silently omitted LinkedIn's `f_TPR` freshness filter
  while the CLI reported no argument error. `--jobage`, `--jobage-minutes`, `--page`,
  and `--limit` now accept whole numbers >= 1 only and reject fractions and zero with
  the stderr-JSON `BAD_ARG` contract, matching the other portal CLIs. Pinned by eight
  cases verified to fail on the unfixed CLI. Reported by @Meet6338-X.

- **`linkedin-search detail` accepts LinkedIn job URLs with trailing slashes** (#411) -
  passing a job URL with a trailing slash (e.g., `https://www.linkedin.com/jobs/view/<id>/`
  or a slugged variant with or without query strings) failed validation and exited 1 with
  `BAD_ID` before any network request because the regex delimiter strictly expected `?`
  or end-of-string immediately after the numeric ID. The boundary check now matches
  `[\/?]`, correctly extracting IDs from browser-copied URLs, regional subdomains, and
  links with tracking parameters. Pinned by eleven new cases in `parsing.test.ts`.

- **The `documents/interview/**` ignore rule no longer claims interview prep is written there**
  (#336). `/interview` saves its pack to
  `documents/applications/<company>_<role>/interview_prep_<stage>.md`, already ignored by
  `documents/applications/**`; nothing has ever written to `documents/interview/`. Nothing leaked -
  but it was the personal-data block's one dedicated line about interview material, so an auditor
  checking the framework's most sensitive artifact had every reason to read it and stop, at the
  only path in the block with no writer. The protection rationale now sits above
  `documents/applications/**`, the rule that actually provides it, so the next reader finds it
  where it lives; `documents/interview/**` stays, relabelled belt-and-braces rather than primary
  guard (`REQUIRED_IGNORE_RULES` pins it, so removing it from `.gitignore` alone fails the guard).
  Pinned by `tests/test_security_guards.py`, which derives the prep-pack path from
  `/interview`'s own spec instead of hardcoding it - so moving that path fails CI rather than
  quietly re-staling the comment.

- **`/scrape` now persists each posting's publication date** (#390) - Step 2's contract guarantees a
  `date` on every portal CLI's search output (CI enforces it in `test_scrape_contract.py`) and
  Step 1b uses that date to scope a run to the last 14 days, but Step 4's `seen_jobs.json` schema
  stored no posting date at all: `first_seen` is when the scraper saw an entry, not when the
  employer posted it. The freshness window was therefore unauditable the moment a run ended, and
  `/rank` - which reads the stored entry, not the run - had no age signal to weigh. A
  `freehire-search` posting dated 2024-05-13 was scraped 27 months later and ranked Strong Fit at
  position 1 of 133; the scoring note recorded that the listing "may be long stale" in prose
  nothing reads, and an `/apply` run drafted a tailored CV and cover letter against it. The schema
  gains `posted_date` (`null` when the portal returned no date, never inferred or backfilled).
  Pinned by three new cases in `test_scrape_contract.py`, each verified to fail on the unfixed
  spec. Reported and diagnosed from a real run by @sandunwijerathne.

- **`salary_lookup.py` no longer crashes on a `null` `metadata` or `categories`** - `--validate`
  treats an explicit `"metadata": null` / `"categories": null` the same as an omitted key (the
  shape checks are "...must be an object *when provided*" and skip `None`), but the renderer read
  both through `dict.get(key, {})`, which only substitutes the default for an *absent* key - a
  present-but-null value passed straight through. `format_entry` then hit `None.get("index_label",
  ...)` (`AttributeError`) or, via the numeric-field fallback, `None[key] = value` (`TypeError`),
  so a hand-maintained `salary_data.json` using `null` for "no value here" died with an uncaught
  traceback right after printing `Found 1 match(es)`. `format_entry` now coerces both to `{}` up
  front, so `null`, absent, and `{}` behave identically. Pinned by four cases in
  `test_salary_lookup.py` - two unit calls into `format_entry` and two end-to-end (`main()
  --validate` blesses the file, then the lookup path renders it), one per null shape, all verified
  to fail on the unfixed renderer.

## [1.7.0] - 2026-08-29

### Fixed

- **Fork clones no longer point `gh issue create` at the upstream public tracker
  undetected** (#389) - `gh repo fork --clone`, the exact command SETUP.md's fork step
  recommends, sets the *upstream* repo as gh's default repository, and gh uses the
  default for creating issues and PRs - so a user's own automation ("file a tracking
  issue per application") silently published personal job-search data on the upstream
  repo, under the user's identity, where they cannot delete it (four live instances from
  two users in one week). SETUP.md section 2 now adds `gh repo set-default
  <your-username>/ai-job-search` directly to the fork commands with a warning at the
  point of decision (the #348 pattern), and a new `.github/ISSUE_TEMPLATE/` carries the
  same heads-up the PR template already had, for the web-UI path. Blank issues stay
  enabled - the template warns, it does not gatekeep.
- **`freehire-search` fractional numeric flags no longer silently change the query** (#373) -
  `parseIntFlag` used bare `parseInt`, so a fractional value was truncated instead of
  rejected: `--jobage 0.5` became `0`, failed the `jobage > 0` guard, and the
  `posted_within_days` freshness filter was silently omitted from the outbound request
  while the CLI exited 0 - on a default-ON `/scrape` portal, exactly the
  discarded-filter failure the CLI's own `UNKNOWN_FLAG` guard documents. Numeric flags
  (`--jobage`/`--page`/`--limit`) now accept whole numbers >= 1 only, mirroring the
  Danish CLIs' `z.coerce.number().int().min(1)` contract, and reject everything else
  with the stderr-JSON `BAD_ARG` error. The sibling of #371 (`linkedin-search`), which
  remains with its reporter. Pinned by five new cases in `cli-flag-validation.test.ts`,
  each verified to fail on the unfixed code.

### Added

- **`linkedin-search detail` reports closed postings** (#280, adopted with the original
  author's commit preserved) - a new `isActive` field: `false` when the posting page
  renders LinkedIn's own "No longer accepting applications" top-card banner. Detection
  is scoped to the top card and pinned by fixture tests in both directions, including
  the false-positive case the review required (recruiter boilerplate quoting the closed
  phrase in a *description* must not flag a live job - on the unscoped first version it
  did, and the new tests fail there). Only the two markers real closed pages carry are
  matched (`closed-job__flavor` and the banner text, verified against live guest
  pages); three speculative phrases from the first version were dropped as
  false-positive-only risk. `/scrape` Step 2 now consumes the signal: a closed-at-source
  job is recorded in `seen_jobs.json` as `"status": "expired"` - marked, never silently
  dropped, per the `/rank` pattern - which is the fix for the ghost-LinkedIn-jobs class
  in #331 (an expired LinkedIn URL redirects to a *similar live job*, so a stored hit
  can die unnoticed between scrape and click). `isActive: true` is documented as
  absence of the banner, not proof the posting is open.
- **pypdf ATS text-layer fallback** - `/apply` Step 5d and `tools/verify_pdf.py` extract the CV PDF text layer with **pypdf** first (BSD, `pip install pypdf`) so Windows machines without Poppler still get a mechanical parseability check. Poppler `pdftotext -layout -enc UTF-8` remains the fallback; if both are missing the check still degrades to a visual keyword review. No extra cache or installer. `05-cv-templates.md` `framework_version` 1.4.2 → 1.4.3.
- **CI now tests the full documented Python range** (#370) - the Python tool tests job
  runs a 3.10-3.14 version matrix instead of pinning 3.12, so both the documented 3.10
  minimum and the newest Python are continuously verified. Grew out of an independent
  cross-platform verification (Windows + Linux, Python 3.14) contributed by
  @atiqur-rahman-pro, whose report also confirmed the suite's expected
  PyYAML-dependent skips in a clean container. Thanks!
- **Company-research cache for `/apply` and `/interview`** - `/apply` Step 3's reviewer
  agent and `/interview` Step 2 each independently execute the Company Research
  Checklist (`04-job-evaluation.md`) for the same company, so applying and later
  prepping for an interview on the same application researches the company twice from
  scratch. A new `company_research/<normalized-name>.json` cache (30-day TTL, documented
  in `04-job-evaluation.md` alongside the checklist it mirrors) lets either consumer
  reuse a recent result instead of repeating the search/fetch work. This does not
  change how a claim gets verified: cached research is a lead, exactly like
  reviewer-agent research already is under `03-writing-style.md` rule 5 - only the
  discovery step is cached, never the final verification before a claim ships in a
  cover letter or prep pack. `company_research/*.json` added to `.gitignore` and
  `security_guards.py`'s `REQUIRED_IGNORE_RULES` (a plain rooted pattern, not `**/`
  -prefixed - the cache is referenced from commands, not a skill, so it resolves
  against the repo root normally). Pinned by the new
  `tests/test_company_research_cache.py`. Cache contents are documented as data, never
  instructions, for a later session reading the file - the same trust-boundary rule
  `apply.md` Step 0 states for the posting itself, since cache notes are written from
  the same fetched web content. The verification-still-applies restatement in both
  `apply.md` and `interview.md`'s cache-check paragraphs is now pinned too.
- **CI now compiles the LaTeX examples on Debian bookworm's apt-packaged TeX Live** (the
  separate-PR follow-up invited in #323's review). The `latex-smoke` job ran only
  `texlive/texlive:latest` - the environment that never had the #242 bug, so the moderncv-2.3.1
  compile fix shipped guarded by nothing: the next edit to `cv/main_example.tex` could
  reintroduce a `\firstnamestyle` override or a top-level `\usepackage{hyperref}` and CI would
  stay green. The job is now a two-leg matrix, `texlive-latest` unchanged and `debian-bookworm`
  installing TeX Live 2022 from apt (moderncv 2.3.1, verified in a real bookworm container:
  both documents compile clean and the strict stock assertions - 2-page CV, 1-page cover
  letter, extractable text - pass on both legs unchanged). `--no-install-recommends` keeps the
  leg lean, which makes two font packages explicit requirements: `texlive-fonts-extra`
  (moderncv loads fontawesome5) and `texlive-fonts-recommended` (hyperref's xetex driver
  probes the `pzdr` metrics). **Note for repo admins:** the matrix renames the check from
  "Compile example CV and cover letter" to two leg-suffixed names, so a branch-protection
  rule requiring the old name needs updating once.

### Fixed

- **`/reset profile` left candidate data in two of the skill files it claims to clear**
  (#364) - `/setup` Step 3 populates six skill files; the profile scope cleared four.
  `04-job-evaluation.md` was listed by name under "files NOT touched (they contain
  framework rules, not candidate data)" while Step 3.4 writes the user's match areas,
  career goals, energizing/draining tasks, financial situation and schedule constraints
  into it - and CI's placeholder-integrity job already guards it under "personal data may
  have been committed". `job-scraper/search-queries.md`, which Step 3.8 fills with their
  job boards, role titles, domain keywords, city and commute tiers, appeared nowhere in
  `reset.md` at all. Both are tracked and unignored, so the Step 1 preview asked the user
  to confirm a wipe list that omitted them and Step 4 then reported a blank profile while
  `/rank` kept scoring against the old skills and career goals and `/scrape` kept running
  the old city and queries. Both files are now previewed and cleared, restoring their
  `/setup` placeholders while preserving the scoring framework and the query structure;
  `04-job-evaluation.md` is out of the preserved list, which keeps `03-writing-style.md`
  and `06-cover-letter-templates.md` (correctly - the latter's `[YOUR_NAME]` tokens are
  LaTeX scaffolding Step 3 never writes to). `CLAUDE.md` and `cv/main_example.tex` stay
  outside the `profile` scope, which covers skill files only, and the preview and Step 4
  now say so instead of implying a full wipe. `tests/test_reset_command.py` gains a
  profile-scope guard alongside its documents-scope one, deriving the file list from
  `/setup` Step 3's own headings so a future `/setup` target that `/reset` forgets fails
  in CI; the third case pins that a personalized file is never labelled framework-only,
  which a filename search alone would have missed.
- **`salary_lookup.py` never stripped the dotted "A.M.B.A." legal suffix** (#356) - the
  `STRIP_PATTERNS` regex ended in `\.\b`, and a word boundary can't sit between a literal
  dot and the space or end-of-string that follows it in real company names, so the
  pattern was dead code: `"Arla Foods A.M.B.A."` normalized differently from
  `"Arla Foods amba"` and fuzzy-matched at 86 instead of 100. The trailing dot is now
  optional (`\.?\b`), both forms normalize identically, and two regression tests pin it.
  Thanks @Ritik650.

## [1.6.0] - 2026-08-19

### Added

- **Cross-portal `/scrape` contract pin** (#344) - a repo-level test deriving the Step 2
  search-output field list (`title`, `company`, `location`, `date`, `url`) from
  `job-scraper/SKILL.md`'s own contract sentence and checking every installed portal
  CLI's search source for it, so a portal that quietly stops emitting a contract field
  (the failure class jobnet and jobdanmark actually shipped before #339/#340) fails CI
  with a clean diff instead of degrading every `/scrape` run silently. The pin survived
  the #347 output-shape changes unmodified - evidence the derived-from-spec design holds.
  Contributed by @oscarbol09, the invited follow-up from #342's review.
- **`freehire-search` gains `--no-description` for cheap discovery passes** - a default
  search hydrates full description bodies (~73% of the payload, ~20k tokens per query)
  while `/scrape` is told to pre-filter by title before reading bodies. The new flag
  drops the bodies (a live 10-result search shrinks from ~58k to ~10k chars) while
  keeping every other field; hydration stays the default. The API currently returns
  bodies regardless of `include_description=false`, so the lean guarantee is enforced
  client-side. Pinned in `tests/commands.test.ts`.
- **Fixture coverage for linkedin's date/location and jobindex's `parseSearchPage`** -
  linkedin's search-card fixture carried no `<time>` or location element, so deleting
  the `date` extraction (a `/scrape` contract field on a default-ON portal) left every
  test green; jobindex's Stash parser had no tests at all, so `meta.total` could stop
  using `hitcount` unnoticed. Four new linkedin cases (both listdate class variants,
  location, absent-element nulls) and a new jobindex `search-page.test.ts` (hitcount
  vs page count, contract-field mapping, deadline fallbacks). Both mutation-verified.
- **Tests for `check_framework_version.py`** - the CI gate that stops a framework file
  from being edited without a `framework_version` bump had zero tests, so the one-line
  mutation `return meaningful_changes > 0` -> `return False` disabled it while the suite
  stayed green. Four cases in the new `tests/test_check_framework_version.py` (clean
  tree, unbumped edit, bumped edit, missing marker), each running the real script inside
  an isolated git repo. Mutation-verified against that exact disable.
- **Tests for `lint_skills.py`'s skill and command checks** - only `check_settings()`
  had coverage; the linter's main job (frontmatter keys, `allowed-tools` targets
  existing, the `# /<name>` command title rule) was unasserted, so deleting the
  missing-allowed-tools error survived the whole suite. Four new cases in
  `tests/test_lint_skills.py`, with the fixture's yaml stub upgraded to parse the real
  frontmatter. Mutation-verified.
- **Discriminating tests for `robots_check`'s tie-break and browser-UA fallback** - the
  existing tie test put Disallow first, the one ordering that cannot detect deletion of
  the tie-break clause; and the browser-readback recovery that `09-web-research.md`
  claims is covered had no test at all. Three new tests in `tests/test_robots_check.py`
  pin the Allow-first tie, the 403-to-honest/200-to-browser recovery, and that a
  browser-fetched policy is still obeyed strictly. Each was mutation-verified: deleting
  the tie-break clause or the UA fallback now fails the suite.
- **LaTeX special-character guidance for CVs** (`framework_version` 1.4.1 -> 1.4.2 in
  `05-cv-templates.md`, 1.0.1 -> 1.0.2 in `06-cover-letter-templates.md`) - `05` gains a
  "LaTeX Special Characters" section and `06`'s existing one is completed beyond `\_`/`\&`.
  The load-bearing case is an unescaped `%` in a quantified achievement bullet: it starts a
  LaTeX comment, so "cut latency by 40% and saved DKK 2M" compiles with zero errors and
  renders as "cut latency by 40" - silent content loss in the deliverable, on exactly the
  content the guidance steers users to write. `&` in employer names (Bang & Olufsen, H&M)
  fails loudly at compile time and is now documented alongside. Pinned by
  `tests/test_latex_guidance.py`.

- **`seen_jobs.json` entries record which mechanism produced them** - a new additive `source`
  field (`cli` for Step 1b portal-CLI output, `websearch` for the Step 1c fallback), a Step 1c
  rule tagging fallback results at collection time, and a `fallback (websearch):` line in the
  Step 5 run summary naming the portals that ran on the fallback. Motivated by the
  ghost-LinkedIn-jobs report (#331): when a stored job later turns out not to exist at its URL,
  triage hinges on whether the entry came from live CLI output or a search index that can be
  weeks stale - evidence that previously lived only in the run's scrollback. An entry that is
  missing `source` predates the field and is never backfilled; a presented job with no
  `seen_jobs.json` entry at all points at fabrication, which the scraper's Rule 1 forbids.
  Pinned by `tests/test_scrape_provenance.py`. `job-scraper/SKILL.md` sits outside the
  `framework_version`-marked set, so no version bump applies.

### Changed

- **BREAKING (scripts passing stray flags): all six portal CLIs reject unknown flags**
  with exit 1 and `{"error", "code": "UNKNOWN_FLAG"}` on stderr, instead of silently
  discarding them. A discarded filter changes what a search returns with no error - a
  wrong flag name on jobdanmark returned the entire database (13,862 results, none
  matching) as if it matched the query, and the six portals use four different names for
  the free-text flag, so cross-portal guessing is likely. `add-portal.md` already
  required contributed portals to exit 1 on a bogus flag; the reference CLIs now meet
  their own bar. Pinned by nine new cases across the six `cli-flag-validation` suites.
- **`/rank` persists its location verdict as `location_verdict`** - the bare `location`
  key meant two incompatible things in `seen_jobs.json`: a place (scraper search output,
  driving the commute filter) and a PASS/FAIL/FLAG verdict (`/rank` Step 4), so ranking
  could overwrite "Aarhus, Denmark" with "PASS" and no reader could tell which meaning a
  stored value carried. Legacy entries are read compatibly (a PASS/FAIL/FLAG string in
  `location` counts as the verdict when `location_verdict` is absent) and migrated on
  re-write. The `seen_jobs` schema note in `job-scraper/SKILL.md` now also enumerates
  `location_verdict`/`language_gate`/`language_note`, so its "do not drop any of these
  fields" instruction finally covers the fields `/rank` calls as important as the score.
  Pinned by two new tests in `tests/test_rank_command.py`.
- **`linkedin-search detail` drops the `applyUrl` field** - the extraction regex
  assumed `class=` before `href=` and never matched LinkedIn's real markup (`null` on
  every live posting since the markup ordering differs), and fixing the regex would only
  capture the job-view URL, a duplicate of the record's own `url`. The field and the
  SKILL.md "apply link" claim are removed; a test pins the removal.
- **`jobdanmark-search` search output drops presentation-only keys** - `coverImage`,
  `companyLogo`, `companyLogoSvgMarkup`, `overlayColor`, and `silhouetteLogo` were ~40%
  of a live payload (a 30-result response shrinks from ~30k to ~20k chars), fed into
  agent context on every `/scrape` query, and unusable by an agent. The #340
  compatibility duplicates (`companyName`, `publishedDate`, `applicationDeadline`) and
  `slug` stay. Pinned in `tests/search-normalization.test.ts`.
- **BREAKING (jobbank forks): `jobbank-search` search output emits `deadline` as
  `YYYY-MM-DD`** - the feed's `DD.MM.YYYY` parenthetical was passed through raw,
  contradicting the `/scrape` contract, the other portals, and the same CLI's own
  `detail` command (which already emits ISO for the same job). `01.09.2026` is also
  ambiguous to a date parser (1 Sep vs 9 Jan). The known shape is now converted;
  "løbende" still maps to `null`, and an unrecognized shape passes through for `/rank`'s
  defensive handling. Anything parsing the old `DD.MM.YYYY` output must update - though
  the README's own search example already showed the ISO form. Pinned in
  `tests/rss-parsing.test.ts` and `tests/search-normalization.test.ts`.
- **Job matching reframed around function, not title** (`framework_version` 1.2.2 -> 1.2.3 in
  `04-job-evaluation.md`) - title-lookalike matching throws away career capital that doesn't
  fit one job-title box (e.g. a background spanning research leadership, platform ownership,
  and program management gets collapsed into whichever single title sounds closest). `/setup`,
  `search-queries.md`, and `04-job-evaluation.md` now guide the candidate to define priority
  categories by function - the kind of problem a role solves - and to list several plausible
  job titles as query variants within each category, rather than betting an entire priority
  tier on one exact title string.

- **CONTRIBUTING: invited PRs are reserved for the invitee** - when a maintainer comment
  explicitly invites a named contributor to implement an issue they diagnosed or designed,
  the implementation is theirs for a stated window (default seven days, longer on request);
  a duplicate PR filed inside that window closes in the invitee's favor regardless of
  arrival order. Prospective from 2026-08-14. Sits alongside the existing credit norm.

### Fixed

- **Onboarding warns about public forks at the point of decision** (#345) - the quick
  start walked a new user into `gh repo fork` (forks of public repos are always public)
  and two steps later had `/setup` write personal data into tracked files, with the only
  complete warning sitting in SETUP.md section 8 - a section about pulling updates that a
  first-time user has no reason to open. A real user hit exactly this. The warning now
  sits adjacent to both fork commands (README step 1, SETUP.md section 2), and `/setup`
  checks the origin's visibility **before** writing anything: a public-fork origin gets a
  confirm-first warning instead of a note after every file is already on disk. Reported
  by @basilevs with a complete reproduction and fix analysis. Pinned by the new
  `tests/test_onboarding_privacy.py`.
- **`jobindex-search detail` rewritten against jobindex's current markup** - every
  selector the old parser used is gone from live pages, so on 4 of 5 live postings it
  returned CSS-comment text as the deadline (`"K \t\t... */"`), an external ATS URL as
  its own `id` and `url`, null company/location/date, and a 160-char teaser as the
  description - exit 0 every time. The new parser handles both live shapes (the
  jobindex-native `jd-*` layout and the external-ATS passthrough), always keeps the
  jobindex id and `jobannonce` URL, requires a real date next to the deadline label and
  scans only visible markup (killing the CSS-comment capture), converts Danish long
  dates to ISO, and reports `company: null` honestly on passthrough pages instead of
  the ATS brand. Verified live on 5/5 postings (full descriptions of 5.5-9k chars, 4/5
  ISO deadlines and locations). Fixture tests for both shapes, including the
  CSS-comment trap, in the new `tests/detail-parsing.test.ts`.
- **`/scrape` gains a recency fallback for portals with no recency flag** - Step 1b.3
  told every portal to scope to 14 days "using the portal's supported recency flag", but
  jobdanmark has none, leaving the instruction unsatisfiable there: the agent either
  silently skipped the scoping or invented a flag (which the CLIs now reject). Every
  portal emits a `date` field, so the instruction now says to filter client-side after
  the call, and stops presenting `--order` (a sort) as interchangeable with a filter.
  Pinned in `tests/test_scrape_provenance.py`.
- **`/html-report`'s funnel counts stages from history; the rejection rate stops
  counting non-rejections** - the funnel was computed from current status, which is a
  state, not a history: an application that interviewed and was then rejected never
  counted as reaching Interview, so a finished search rendered as though nobody ever
  interviewed. The funnel (Step 2 and chart 4) now derives stage-reached from current
  status plus the `outcome.md` stage checkboxes Step 1.2 already merges. And the
  rejection rate no longer counts `offer_declined` (a success) or `withdrawn`
  (candidate-initiated) as rejections, nor unresolved Interview/Offer rows in its
  denominator. Pinned by two new tests in `tests/test_html_report_command.py`.
- **`jobdanmark-search detail`'s HTML fallback emits the same shapes as its JSON-LD
  branch** - a posting without JSON-LD returned `datePosted` as the page's raw
  `DD-MM-YYYY` text, `validThrough` as free text (including the literal `"Løbende"`,
  which would flow into stored data as a deadline), and a hardcoded `null`
  `addressLocality`. The fallback now converts overview dates to `YYYY-MM-DD`, maps
  `Løbende` to `null` (jobbank's precedent for the equivalent), and derives the locality
  from the workplace address with the same postcode extraction search uses. Pinned in
  `tests/detail-parsing.test.ts`.
- **`jobnet-search detail` no longer leaks the `1900-01-01` undisclosed-deadline
  sentinel** - `search` maps the API's sentinel to `null` (with a test pinning it), but
  `detail` dumped the raw response, so a posting whose deadline is simply not disclosed
  contributed a deadline 126 years in the past to stored data, and `/rank`'s expiry
  sweep would retire the job instantly. All three output formats now flow through a
  `prepareDetail` normalization that maps the sentinel to `null`. Pinned in
  `tests/detail-formatting.test.ts`.
- **CI's placeholder guard now watches the CV's actual personal-data lines** - the
  sentinel for `cv/main_example.tex` was `[YOUR_NAME]`, whose only occurrences are a
  header comment and the hyperref `pdftitle`; `/setup`'s documented edit replaces the
  `\name{}`/`\address{}`/`\phone{}`/`\email{}` data and touches neither, so a fully
  personalized CV with a real name, address, phone and email passed the check (proven
  empirically in the review). The guard now asserts sentinels inside the `\name{}` and
  `\email{}` lines, and `01-candidate-profile.md`'s sentinel moves from the `<!-- SETUP`
  header comment onto the `[YOUR_EMAIL]` Identity field for the same reason. The new
  `tests/test_placeholder_integrity.py` simulates the `/setup` edit and requires the
  guard to fire on it.
- **`jobindex-search` maps ASAP postings' deadline to `null`** - the portal's
  `apply_deadline_asap` flag was emitted as the literal string `"ASAP"` on roughly half
  of live results, contradicting the CLI's own README ("date string; null if not
  listed") and the `/scrape` schema, and breaking every consumer that does date
  arithmetic (`/rank`'s urgency and expiry sweep, `/outcome`'s deadline check,
  `/notion-sync`'s typed date column). ASAP means "no stated deadline", which the
  contract already represents as `null`. Pinned in `tests/search-page.test.ts`.
- **`/gmail-sync` no longer restricts its search to the Inbox** - the query used
  `in:inbox` to "skip sent/drafts", but that operator also excludes every archived
  message, and self-defeatingly the mail matched by the very job-search label Step 3.1
  hunts for (the standard filter that applies such a label also archives). The query now
  uses `-in:sent -in:drafts`, which matches the stated intent exactly. The failure mode
  was silent under-detection: a missed rejection or interview invite read as "no
  updates". Pinned by the new `tests/test_gmail_sync_command.py`.
- **`/upskill` no longer divides by a blank `fit_rating`** - `/outcome` creates tracker
  rows for applications made outside the workflow with no fit evaluation, so their
  `fit_rating` is blank, and Step 3.3's `(100 - fit_rating) / 100` had no rule for that.
  The naive blank-as-0 reading yields weight 1.0 (the maximum), letting the one job the
  framework knows nothing about dominate the skill-gap heatmap. A blank or non-numeric
  `fit_rating` now falls back to a matched ranked entry's `rank_score`, else the row is
  skipped, counted, and reported once - mirroring the skill's own missing-`gaps`
  handling. Pinned by `tests/test_upskill_skill.py`.
- **`/rank`'s expiry sweep parses stored deadlines defensively** - the sweep changes
  status automatically from a date comparison against values on disk, but portals have
  shipped non-ISO shapes into `seen_jobs.json` (`"ASAP"`, `DD.MM.YYYY`, free text), and
  `/rank` had no rule for them while the display-only `/outcome` already did. A stored
  deadline that is not `YYYY-MM-DD` is now treated exactly like an absent one wherever a
  stored deadline is compared (urgency and sweep), and reported once with its portal.
  Pinned by `tests/test_rank_command.py`.
- **Language Gate preamble no longer claims the gate is untracked** (`framework_version`
  1.2.3 -> 1.2.4 in `04-job-evaluation.md`) - the paragraph still said the result "is not
  a field `/scrape` or `/rank` track", written before the gate was wired into both
  consumers. An agent reading the authoritative framework file learned the opposite of
  what `rank.md` itself insists on ("These veto fields are as important to persist as
  the score itself"). The preamble now names `language_gate`/`language_note` and how each
  consumer uses them; a coupling test in `tests/test_rank_command.py` keeps the framework
  text honest about the tracking.
- **`/reset documents` now clears `documents/postings/`** - the drop folder for
  hand-pasted job posting text was absent from the preview, the delete block, and the
  user-facing scope description, after which the command told the user "The `documents/`
  folder is now empty" - false whenever postings were present, and they are exactly the
  personal residue a reset exists to clear. A new `tests/test_reset_command.py` derives
  the folder list from the git tree, so any future drop folder fails the test until
  `/reset` covers it.
- **`convert_salary_excel.py` no longer corrupts US/UK-formatted numbers 1000x** - the
  both-separators branch always assumed European locale, so a `"1,234.56"` cell was
  silently converted to `1.23456` and written into `salary_data.json`. The rule is now
  "the separator that appears last is the decimal separator", which also makes
  multi-group values (`"1,234,567.89"`, `"1.234.567,89"`) parse instead of raising. And
  `strip_type_patterns` now strips `COMPOUND_PATTERNS` words as substrings, mirroring
  `header_matches`, so a Danish compound header pair ("Antal alle" / "Lønindeks alle")
  pairs into one category instead of two unpaired standalones - the exact locale the
  compound support was added for. Pinned by six new cases in
  `tests/test_convert_salary_excel.py`.
- **`jobdanmark-search` extracts the city when a comma follows the postcode** - the
  `location` regex required whitespace after the 4-digit postcode, but live
  `companyAddress` values frequently read `"2670, Greve"`; those results emitted
  `location: null` (7 of 30 in a live sample), so `/scrape`'s geography/commute filter
  (Rule 3) had nothing to act on. The extraction now accepts an optional comma, trims the
  captured city, and still refuses to mistake a 4-digit street number for the postcode.
  Pinned by three new cases in `tests/search-normalization.test.ts`.
- **Example-CV bullets no longer swallowed as LaTeX optional labels** - every placeholder
  bullet written as `\item [text]` (11 in `cv/main_example.tex`, 3 in
  `06-cover-letter-templates.md`'s taught template) let LaTeX parse the bracketed text as
  `\item`'s optional argument: the shipped example CV rendered all Professional Experience
  bullets clipped off the left page edge, with the word "Achievement" appearing 9 times in
  the source and 0 times in the PDF text layer - a clean compile, green CI. Bullets are now
  braced (`\item {[text]}`), the cover-letter guide teaches the braced form, and CI's stock
  PDF assertions additionally require `Achievement` to survive `pdftotext`. Pinned by
  `tests/test_latex_guidance.py`.
- **Documented ATS extraction commands pin `-enc UTF-8`** - `pdftotext -layout` without an
  encoding flag emits Latin-1 on Xpdf builds, so every non-ASCII character in a correct CV
  (Rambøll, Ingeniør, København) read back as a replacement character and failed the
  parseability checklist, steering the agent to "fix" a healthy document. The commands in
  `apply.md`, `05-cv-templates.md`, and `CLAUDE.md`'s verification checklist now carry
  `-enc UTF-8`, which is deterministic on both poppler and Xpdf. Pinned by
  `tests/test_latex_guidance.py`.

- **`jobbank-search` search output now carries the `/scrape` contract's `date` field** (#342) -
  the CLI emitted `posted` (full ISO 8601) but not the cross-portal `date` key, the one Step 2
  contract field it was missing. Search results now additively emit `date` as `YYYY-MM-DD`
  derived from `posted` (kept unchanged), `null` when the feed item carries no `pubDate`. The
  result mapping is extracted into an exported `normalizeSearchItem` so the derivation is
  pinned by tests. Completes the portal-contract series with #339 (jobnet) and #340
  (jobdanmark).

- **`jobdanmark-search` search output now carries the `/scrape` contract fields** - the CLI
  exposed the API-native schema (`companyName`, `publishedDate` in `DD-MM-YYYY`, …) with no
  `company`, `location`, `date` or `deadline`, so every `/scrape` run flagged jobdanmark as
  degraded and the `seen_jobs.json` dedupe lost the company. Search results now additively emit
  `company`, `location` (city after the postal code in `companyAddress`), and `date`/`deadline`
  in the `YYYY-MM-DD` convention, with null-safe handling of a missing address.

- **`jobnet-search` search output now carries the `/scrape` contract fields** - the CLI emitted
  the raw Jobnet API schema (`jobAdId`, `hiringOrgName`, `publicationDate`, …) with no
  `company`, `location`, `date` or `url`, so every `/scrape` run flagged jobnet as degraded
  forever (CI stayed green), the `seen_jobs.json` dedupe fell back to company+title, and `/rank`
  lost the posting link. Search results now additively emit `company`, `location`, `date`,
  `deadline` and `url` (`https://jobnet.dk/find-job/{jobAdId}` - the `/job/` route is
  login-walled); the API's `1900-01-01` "deadline not disclosed" sentinel maps to `null`.

- **A `/` in a company or role name no longer nests the application archive one level too deep**
  (jakob1379/ai-job-search#22). `Novo Nordisk A/S` derived
  `documents/applications/novo_nordisk_a/s_data_scientist/` - written and found by every command
  that derives the path, silently skipped by the two that enumerate it, so the application never
  appeared in `/html-report`'s dashboard and `/setup`'s calibration never learned from it. The
  **Subfolder naming** rule in `documents/README.md` now drops every character that is not a
  letter, digit or underscore (collapsing underscore runs, trimming the ends), and the derivation
  sites - `/apply`, `/outcome`, the direct application skill, `/gmail-sync`, `/interview`, and
  `/notion-sync` - cite that rule instead of paraphrasing it. An all-punctuation value that derives
  to an empty name now stops for user correction instead of writing into the archive root. The
  application assistant's `framework_version` moves 1.3.3 → 1.3.4. **Already-nested archives are
  not migrated**: an archive written under the old rule stays where it is until the user moves it;
  only newly derived names change. Thanks @jakob1379 for the report.

- **The `/html-report` dashboard now reads and renders the tracker's `deadline`** (follow-up to
  #319). The tracker gained a fourteenth `deadline` column and every other consumer (`/outcome`,
  `/upskill`, `/notion-sync`) was updated to know it, but the dashboard's Step 1 field
  enumeration and Step 3 table columns still listed the original thirteen - the one surface
  where the column could not be seen at all, so a `drafted` application's clock stayed invisible
  in the report that reviews the pipeline end to end. The Step 1 enumeration now matches the
  canonical 14-column header and the applications table can show a `Deadline` column, subject to
  the existing empty-column rule. Pinned by `tests/test_html_report_command.py` so a future
  column addition cannot silently vanish from the dashboard again.

- **Application deadlines are written down at every moment the framework provably holds them**
  (#319). `/scrape` fetched the deadline and rendered it in a table, `/rank` turned it into the 🔥
  urgency marker and the expiry check, and nothing stored it - so the marker fired exactly once,
  every later run had to re-fetch a posting that might have expired to recover the date, and a
  `drafted` application (whose only applicable clock is its deadline) had no time-based signal at
  all. `seen_jobs.json` entries now carry a `deadline` (base field, written on first sight,
  refreshed by `/rank` Step 4, `null` vs missing distinguished and never guessed); `/rank` Step 3
  re-derives urgency from the stored value with no re-fetch and sweeps already-ranked entries past
  their deadline into `expired`; the tracker gains a fourteenth `deadline` column appended last,
  with a header-line-only migration for existing trackers; `/apply` Step 0 extracts the deadline
  and Step 6b writes it (including the `/scrape` path via the assistant SKILL.md); `/outcome`
  surfaces it on open rows and flags near/passed deadlines on `drafted` rows without changing the
  no-follow-up rule; and the row-rewriting paths (`/outcome` Step 4, `/gmail-sync` Step 7a) now
  preserve every unparsed field so the new column survives the first status update. `/notion-sync`
  names the tracker as the Deadline source (tracker wins), `/upskill`'s column list stays true, and
  `job-application-assistant/SKILL.md` bumps `framework_version` 1.3.2 → 1.3.3. Pinned by
  `tests/test_rank_command.py`, `tests/test_apply_records_application.py`, and
  `tests/test_upskill_skill.py`.

  The sweep's edges are stated rather than left to the reader: an entry with no stored `deadline`
  is left alone and never inferred from another field (the majority case, since most entries
  predate the column), `--all` re-scores any status including `expired` so a swept job is
  recoverable, and `/rank` Step 4's idempotency rule now names the sweep as its deliberate
  exception instead of contradicting it. Step 5 reports how many entries were swept and how many
  were retired, so an automated status change is never silent. `/outcome` Step 1 states that the
  header append is the one edit it may make outside a matched row, so it does not read as a
  violation of Step 4's own "never restructure the CSV". `/notion-sync` forbids reconciling two
  disagreeing deadlines by taking the earlier or later of them.

- **`convert_salary_excel.py` no longer misreads whole-thousands cells from a Danish-locale
  export** - a cell like `60.000` (thousands separator, no decimal comma) was handed to
  `float()` and silently written as `60.0`, a 1000x-wrong salary in `salary_data.json` that
  then rendered with a meaningless `vs baseline` percentage in `/apply`. The comma-side
  mirror (`1,234`) was already guarded as ambiguous and skipped; the dot side had no guard,
  and tests only pinned the both-separators form (`1.234,5`). `\d+\.\d{3}` is now rejected
  the same way, so the shared never-guess policy applies to both separators and the rows in
  between (e.g. `60.000,50`, `108,5`) keep parsing exactly as before. Pinned by
  `tests/test_convert_salary_excel.py`.

- **`main_example.tex` compiles on apt-packaged moderncv** (#242) - the banking template
  set its name styling through `\firstnamestyle`/`\lastnamestyle`, which moderncv 2.3.1
  (Debian/Ubuntu apt) does not have, so a fresh fork could not compile its own example CV
  on that toolchain. Name styling now routes through `\namefont`, the hook every name-style
  macro shares: live on every version (on 2.4+, head iii's `\firstnamestyle`/`\lastnamestyle`
  both route through `\namefont`, so the override is what sets the 34pt name there too), and
  the only option on 2.3.1 where those macros do not exist. Two review follow-ups landed in the
  same change: the `\hypersetup` comment now names the real clash mechanism
  (`\RequirePackage[unicode]{hyperref}` on < 2.4; `\PassOptionsToPackage`, introduced in
  2.4.0, is what removes the clash), and the metadata block sets `pdfpagemode=UseNone` - a
  `FullScreen` value there would win over the class's own `\AtEndPreamble` default and make
  every CV open in fullscreen presentation mode. `05-cv-templates.md`'s preamble copy stays
  in lockstep (framework_version 1.4.0 -> 1.4.1). Verified on moderncv 2.5.1: exit 0,
  exactly 2 pages, rendering unchanged.

## [1.5.0] - 2026-08-12

### Added

- **Commit-level upstream triage for forks** (#305). A new `tools/upstream_triage.py` walks the
  commits a fork is behind upstream and sorts them into "worth reviewing" vs "probably skip":
  cherry-picks already applied drop off on their own (matched by `git patch-id`, so ported work
  needs no bookkeeping), commits that only touch files the fork removed are set aside, and SHAs in
  a flat `.github/upstream-wontport.txt` stop resurfacing. It's the commit-history companion to
  `check_upstream_updates.py`'s version stamps - the two cross-reference each other in their output.
  Report-only by design: it prints ready-to-run `git cherry-pick` lines but never merges, pushes, or
  opens a PR, because on a fork "applies cleanly" isn't "correct". A `.github/workflows/upstream-watch.yml`
  runs it weekly into a rolling issue, guarded to no-op on the upstream template (pinned by a test) and
  scoped to the built-in `GITHUB_TOKEN` so it can never write outside its own fork. SETUP.md 8
  introduces both tools side by side. Offline tests cover patch-id matching, relevance filtering, the
  won't-port list, and the workflow guard. Thanks @anjolok1997.

- **`security_guards.py` now holds `.claude/settings.json` hooks to an allowlist** - the
  guard read `permissions.allow` and nothing else, so a `hooks` block in the same file
  passed silently. A hook is strictly more dangerous than a pre-approved permission: a
  permission pre-approves something Claude *may* choose to do, while a hook runs
  unconditionally when its event fires, with no prompt and no model decision in between.
  This is not hypothetical - it is the vector the Shai-Hulud worm used in its August 2026
  wave, planting a `SessionStart` hook in `.claude/settings.json` that executed on session
  start ([JFrog research](https://research.jfrog.com/post/shai-hulud-is-back-august/)).
  For a template thousands of people are invited to fork, that is the riskiest key in the
  file the guard already parses. `ALLOWED_HOOKS` ships empty (the template has no hooks),
  the check runs *before* the permissions shape guards so a malformed permissions block
  cannot return early and skip it, and unrecognised hook layouts fail closed rather than
  being skipped. Eight new `HookGuardTests` cases; 14 of the suite's 26 tests fail against
  the unpatched guard.

### Changed

- **`/add-portal` now specifies how a generated skill handles an API token** (#304) - the command
  could already scaffold a skill for a portal reachable only through a paid fetching
  service, but said nothing about the credential such a skill needs. It now checks for that
  case during reconnaissance and raises the per-call cost with the user *before*
  scaffolding. That check is explicitly subordinate to the `robots.txt`/terms decision
  in Step 2.4 - a paid fetching service never launders a refusal, and the credential
  path exists only for portals whose `robots.txt` permits access but whose bot
  protection blocks ordinary fetches. The portal-skill contract requires the token to come from a
  `<SERVICE>_API_TOKEN` environment variable (never a CLI flag, never a fixture) and to
  fail with `MISSING_CREDENTIALS` when unset; and such a skill's `SKILL.md` must carry a
  Setup section naming the service, the variable, and the billing. Spec only - no shipped
  portal needs a credential, so no existing skill changes. Thanks @Haseeb-1698.

- **`/add-portal`'s fetching contract line now states the honest-UA posture** - it read
  "browser User-Agent", predating the repo-wide shift to honest self-identification
  (#283, #277 and the portal-CLI fixes that followed). A generated skill now defaults to
  `Mozilla/5.0 (compatible; <portal>-cli/1.0)` - the convention every shipped portal CLI
  follows - and escalation to browser headers goes through the robots.txt gate in
  `09-web-research.md`, never the CLI's default.

- **CI discovers portal CLIs instead of hardcoding them** (#310). The `cli-checks` matrix
  is now emitted by a `discover-clis` job that finds every `.agents/skills/*/cli/package.json`,
  so a portal skill added with `/add-portal` gets its `typecheck` and `test` scripts run by CI
  automatically - on this repo and on any fork - without editing the workflow. Upstream
  coverage is unchanged (the discovered list on `master` is exactly the six shipped portals).
  `/add-portal`'s Register step now says so. Thanks @ayobamiseun.

### Fixed

- **`/upskill` reports are now gitignored at the path the skill actually writes them to.**
  The ignore rule `upskill/*.md` is rooted (a middle slash anchors a gitignore pattern to the
  repo root), but `/upskill` is a *skill*, and skills resolve bare relative paths against
  their own directory - the same observed behavior the `**/job_scraper/*` rules exist for.
  A report written to `.claude/skills/upskill/upskill/report-*.md` was therefore not ignored
  (`git check-ignore` confirms it on the unpatched tree), and an upskill report is the
  candidate's skill gaps and weaknesses measured against named employers - among the most
  sensitive files the workflow generates. The obvious widening, `**/upskill/*.md`, would have
  ignored the template's own `.claude/skills/upskill/SKILL.md` (the skill directory shares
  the name), so the new rule pins the report-file prefix instead: `**/upskill/report-*.md`.
  Added to `.gitignore` and `security_guards.py`'s `REQUIRED_IGNORE_RULES`, with a
  `check-ignore`-based test pinning both properties - reports ignored at both depths,
  `SKILL.md` still tracked - which presence checks alone cannot see.

- **Dropped the phantom `evaluated` value from `seen_jobs.json`'s status vocabulary** (#315).
  The schema block in the job-scraper skill documented `new/skipped/evaluated/ranked/expired`,
  but `evaluated` has had no writer and no reader since the initial release - `new`/`skipped`
  come from `/scrape`, `ranked`/`expired` from `/rank`, and nothing ever set or selected
  `evaluated`. Post-#269 the tracker owns all lifecycle state after drafting, so the value had
  no future role either; it is now removed rather than wired up. `/rank` Step 1's `--all`
  wording ("all non-applied entries") leaned on an `applied` status the schema deliberately
  lacks and now names what it means: entries of any status, minus the tracker exclusion set.
  Forks that wrote their own tooling against the documented vocabulary should note the value
  was never produced by any shipped command.

- **`/apply` archives the job posting while it still holds it** (#306). `/apply` drafted two
  documents and a tracker row from the full posting, then let the text die with the session;
  `/outcome` Step 3.2 tried to recover it by re-fetching a `source` URL the spec itself expects
  to be dead, and a posting pasted from an email or a PDF had no `source` to re-fetch at all.
  Step 6b item 7 now writes the posting verbatim to
  `documents/applications/<company>_<role>/job_posting.md`, never a re-fetch or a
  reconstruction from memory; an existing file is left alone (a re-application to the same
  company and role keeps the earlier posting) and named in the report. Step 0 and the `/scrape`
  path (`job-application-assistant` SKILL.md Step 1) retain the full posting text, not a
  summary. Pinned by `tests/test_apply_records_application.py`.

- **Tracker status enum defined once; `offer declined`/`no response` now reach the correct
  `/html-report` bucket and `/gmail-sync` correctly marks them final** (#298). The tracker
  CSV `status` column had no single authoritative definition. Six command files restated it
  independently with inconsistent spellings, producing two concrete bugs:

  - `/outcome` Step 4 wrote `no response` and `offer declined` (with spaces). `/html-report`
    Step 1 normalised only `no_response` / `offer_declined` (underscores), so any row written
    with spaces matched no bucket and was silently dropped from the rejection-rate denominator.
  - `/gmail-sync` Step 2 defined the "final" set with the space forms, so a row written with
    underscores was never recognised as final and the sync kept chasing closed applications.
  - `/html-report` included `interview_only` in the tracker bucket map; that value belongs to
    the archive `outcome.md` `Status:` field, not the CSV `status` column.

  Fix: a `## Tracker status vocabulary` block in `/outcome` (the only writer of the CSV)
  now defines the canonical set once with underscore spellings and the **Final** set by
  explicit list — everything else, `drafted` included, is **Open**. The legacy space
  spellings are the same values, not separate statuses: equally **Final**, and every rule
  that names one form applies to the other — readers must accept them on read, and never
  write them. Every reader that makes final/open decisions references that block (`/apply`
  Step 6b, `/interview` Step 0, `/gmail-sync` Step 2, `/html-report` Step 1, `/notion-sync`
  Steps 3-4). `/outcome` Step 4 writes `no_response` / `offer_declined`; `/notion-sync`
  normalises both forms to the canonical spellings before setting the Status property;
  `/html-report`'s bucket map loses `interview_only`, keeps both spellings, and gains a
  case-insensitive catch-all that maps unrecognised values to **Rejected/Closed** and names
  them once in the status breakdown. Pinned by `tests/test_tracker_status_vocab.py`.

  **Fork heads-up:** if your personalized `/outcome` adds `no response` or `offer declined`
  (space forms) to the tracker write path, swap them for the underscore forms. Existing rows
  keep working because every reader now accepts both spellings on read. If your Notion
  database already carries space-form Status options, they simply go unused — Notion never
  auto-removes select options.

## [1.4.0] - 2026-08-07

### Added

- **`--jobage-minutes` on linkedin-search for sub-day freshness windows** (#302) - LinkedIn
  filters its `f_TPR` parameter server-side at second granularity, so the CLI can now ask
  for postings from the last N minutes instead of whole-day windows only. Conflicts with
  `--jobage` are rejected explicitly (`CONFLICTING_AGE_FLAGS`). Useful for early-applicant
  freshness on high-volume searches; URL construction only, no parsing change.

- **README: video walkthrough link in Quick start** - The Next New Thing's hands-on
  walkthrough of the workflow (recorded August 2026), for newcomers who want to see the
  setup-to-application flow before reading. Docs only.

- **Spec-pinning tests for the Language Gate's `/rank` contract** (#278) - four regression
  guards in `tests/test_rank_command.py` pinning the `language_gate`/`language_note` fields
  through Steps 2-5 of `/rank`, including the Step 4 persistence rule that was live-debugged
  during #275 (vetoes reported in console output but `language_gate: null` on every persisted
  entry). Mirrors the existing `gaps`/`strengths` pinning pattern. No behavior change.

- **The jobnet and jobdanmark CLIs identify themselves on every API request** (#283) - their
  `apiFetch`/`apiPost` wrappers now send an explicit `User-Agent` (`jobnet-cli/1.0`,
  `jobdanmark-cli/1.0`) instead of Bun's anonymous default token, matching the honest
  self-identification jobindex already uses on `htmlFetch`. The new `user-agent.test.ts`
  suites assert the header on every request wrapper. No response behavior observed to
  change.

### Changed

- **The four Danish demo portals now ship disabled** (#288) - `jobindex-search`,
  `jobbank-search`, `jobdanmark-search`, and `jobnet-search` default to `enabled: false`,
  and `/setup`'s job-portals question now acts on the answer: it flips them to
  `enabled: true` when your market is Denmark, and leaves them off otherwise. Previously a
  non-Danish user's `/scrape` ran all four Danish boards by default, spending tokens
  fetching and filtering irrelevant listings. **Fork heads-up:** if you search the Danish
  market, set `enabled: true` in those four `SKILL.md` files after updating (or re-run
  `/setup --section search`); forks that already curated their portal set are unaffected.

### Fixed

- **The linkedin-search CLI identifies honestly** - its `User-Agent` was a full Chrome
  browser string, the last portal CLI still spoofing after #283 and the jobbank/jobdanmark
  fix. It now sends `Mozilla/5.0 (compatible; linkedin-search-cli/1.0)`, the same token
  format as every other portal. Verified live on both the search and detail endpoints:
  identical 200 responses with full content under the honest token.

- **A `.env` was committable** (`.gitignore`, `tools/security_guards.py`). `/add-portal`
  can generate a skill for a portal that only returns usable content through a paid
  fetching service, and such a skill reads an API token from the environment - but
  nothing stopped the `.env` holding that token from being committed. No shipped portal
  needs a credential, so upstream never hit this; a fork whose generated portals do hit
  it immediately. `.env` and `.env.*` are now ignored and pinned in
  `REQUIRED_IGNORE_RULES`, so the guard fails if the rule is ever dropped.

- **The robots gate did not fail closed** (`tools/robots_check.py`, #277). Found by an
  adversarial review run over the merged file, not by inspection. Both cases are pinned
  in `tests/test_robots_check.py` as FAIL-OPEN REGRESSIONs:

  - **A soft `200` granted permission.** A host answering `/robots.txt` with an HTML
    error page at status 200 produces a body that parses to zero rules, and zero rules
    read as "allowed" - so the browser-header retry ran on permission that was never
    given. A non-empty body carrying no recognised directive is now treated as
    unreadable. A genuinely empty file stays allow-all, per RFC 9309.
  - **`Disallow` patterns were never percent-decoded** while the request path was, so
    `Disallow: /foo%20bar` never matched `/foo bar` and the rule was silently skipped -
    a fail-open on any site that encodes its own rules.

- **`curl` argument hardening** (`tools/robots_check.py`). The curl argv had no `--`
  terminator before the URL. `gate()` rebuilds the target as `scheme://host/robots.txt`
  before calling `_fetch`, so the gate path was never exposed; this is hardening for
  direct callers, with a test pinning the terminator, that a dash-leading argument fails
  closed end to end, and that `gate()` never passes a caller-supplied URL through to
  curl. `--max-redirs 5` is set explicitly rather than left to curl's default.

- **Negative and fractional filter flags are rejected in the Danish portal CLIs** (#281) -
  `--jobage` (jobindex), `--radius` (jobnet), `--category`/`--jobtitle-id` (jobdanmark), and
  `--company` (jobbank) now validate as positive integers, completing the `page`/`limit`/
  `per-page` tightening from #191. Some portals silently ignore invalid filter values and
  return unfiltered results, so a mistyped ID produced wrong results instead of an error.
- **The upstream checker reports files missing from the upstream ref instead of a silent
  `[OK]`** (#282) - if upstream renames or deletes a tracked framework file, a fork's
  `check_upstream_updates.py` now lists it under a `[WARNING]` summary instead of skipping
  it and printing a false all-clear.
- **`09-web-research.md` is now tracked by the upstream checker** - the file shipped in
  #277 but was never added to `FRAMEWORK_FILES`, so forks got no signal when it changed.
- **jobbank and jobdanmark CLIs identify honestly** - jobbank's `User-Agent` was a full
  Chrome browser string and jobdanmark's detail command sent a bare `Mozilla/5.0`; both now
  use the `Mozilla/5.0 (compatible; <portal>-cli/1.0)` token the other portal CLIs use,
  matching the identification posture settled in #277. Verified live: both portals serve
  identical responses to the honest token.

- **A `WebFetch` 403 is no longer treated as a dead posting** - `WebFetch` sends a bot user
  agent, and many bank and corporate sites answer it with HTTP 403 while serving the same
  page to a browser normally. Every command read that as "page unavailable" and degraded
  silently instead of failing loudly: `/rank` marked live postings `expired`, `/apply` fell
  back to search-result snippets or to vague cover-letter prose, and `/scrape` stored
  listing-page `#fragment` URLs that fetch fine but return unrelated jobs, breaking every
  later run on that entry. New `09-web-research.md` (`framework_version` 1.0.0) is the
  single reference: the trust boundary, a curl browser-header retry with a tag-stripping
  extractor, a four-step escalation order, the login-wall case, why the employer's own
  careers posting beats an aggregator listing (the requisition ID and the grade survive
  there), and the rule that a search snippet is a lead rather than a source. Wired into
  `/apply`, `/rank`, `/interview`, `/outcome`, `/notion-sync`, the job-scraper skill, and
  writing-style rule 5 (`03-writing-style.md` 1.1.0 to 1.2.0).

  **The retry is gated on `robots.txt`.** `WebFetch` identifies itself as `Claude-User`
  and honors `robots.txt`, so a 403 means either a WAF default on a site whose published
  policy allows access, or a site that has actually declined. New `tools/robots_check.py`
  tells them apart and the escalation runs it before retrying: a disallow for `*` or
  `Claude-User` skips the retry entirely and goes straight to finding the employer's own
  posting. The rule is stated in the file so later edits do not erode it - *the retry
  exists to get past bot-filtering firewalls on sites whose robots.txt permits access; it
  is never used to override a site that has said no.* Two findings are pinned by
  `tests/test_robots_check.py` (15 offline cases): the WAF usually blocks `robots.txt`
  itself, so the policy is read as a browser when the honest request is refused and then
  obeyed strictly; and `urllib.robotparser` cannot be used, because it ends a record at a
  blank line and matches in file order, which reads a real-world policy as
  "everything allowed".

- **`/apply` now records the application in the tracker** - the flagship command wrote a CV
  and a cover letter to disk and then wrote nothing to `job_search_tracker.csv`, so a drafted
  and submitted application was invisible to `/gmail-sync`, `/html-report`, `/notion-sync`,
  `/interview`, `/upskill` aggregate mode, and to `/rank`'s dedup exclusion - and the safety
  net that would have caught it (`/gmail-sync`) refuses to create missing rows, so nothing
  detected the loss. A new Step 6b appends a `drafted` row carrying the two document paths,
  the fit rating and the posting URL, reusing `/outcome`'s exact header so the two commands
  cannot diverge; re-running `/apply` updates that row rather than duplicating it, unless every
  matching row holds a final status, in which case a second application to the same role gets
  its own row. The same
  step is mirrored into `job-application-assistant` because `/scrape` Step 5 routes straight
  into the skill (`framework_version` 1.2.0 -> 1.3.0), and `/scrape` Step 6 now defers to it
  instead of adding a row of its own. `seen_jobs.json` is deliberately left alone. **Forks:**
  the bump means `check_upstream_updates.py` will flag the skill - reconcile the new Step 3b
  (and Step 6b in `apply.md`) into your personalized copies rather than skipping the flag.

  **`drafted` is introduced into the tracker status vocabulary**, and every reader that
  meant *submitted* now says so. These readers define "open" by exclusion from the final
  statuses, so a new non-final value would otherwise have joined all of them silently:
  `/outcome`'s follow-up branch no longer drafts a chase email for an application that was
  never sent, `/gmail-sync` no longer reports unsent drafts as stale, `/notion-sync` leaves
  "Applied on" empty for them and says "not yet submitted" in the page body rather than
  calling drafts submitted documents, and `/html-report` gains a sixth **Drafted** bucket
  kept out of the funnel, the rejection rate and the headline count. `/outcome` Step 4
  overwrites `date` with the submission date when a row leaves `drafted`, so the column
  keeps meaning "applied on".

  **`/gmail-sync` deliberately keeps searching for drafted rows.** `/apply` drafts but the
  user submits, and forgetting to run `/outcome` afterwards is the failure this issue is
  about. An employer reply arriving against a row still marked `drafted` is how that gets
  caught, so those rows stay in the search set, the application acknowledgement is promoted
  from noise to a `drafted` -> `applied` signal (it is the one email that proves a hand
  submission, and it arrives within a day of it), and an approved match corrects the `date`
  as well as the status. Only the staleness check skips them, since nothing was sent. (#269)

## [1.3.0] - 2026-08-03

### Added

- **Language Gate** - no dimension or gate anywhere in the framework checked a posting's
  language requirements against what the candidate actually speaks (not a Scoring Dimension,
  not a `/scrape`/`/rank` field, nothing for `/apply`'s existing generic language detection
  to report to). Adds that check, structured like the existing Eligibility Gate, on a new
  structured `Languages` table in CLAUDE.md / `01-candidate-profile.md` (`/setup` asks, or
  infers it from a CV/LinkedIn export): a posting requiring a language you haven't declared
  at all is a hard **FAIL**; one requiring a higher level than you declared in a language you
  *do* work in is **FLAG**, not an auto-reject, so borderline cases (a strict "fluent" bar vs.
  your own B1/B2) get your judgment instead of a silent drop; a requirement at or below your
  declared level is a clean **PASS**. Wired through `/scrape`, `/rank`, and `/apply`, with
  `language_gate`/`language_note` persisted into `seen_jobs.json` alongside the existing
  `location` veto so a re-read of the file (or a future debugging session) can recover why a
  job did or didn't make the shortlist.

### Fixed

- **CV date fields now use ASCII hyphens, so the PDF text layer extracts cleanly** - the
  stock template wrote date ranges as `[YYYY--YYYY]`, and on the repo's mandated `lualatex`
  toolchain the `--` en-dash ligature extracts from the PDF as U+FFFD (`�`). The stock
  template therefore failed the ATS checklist's own "no `�` replacement characters" item on
  *every* date field, and did so silently: the rendered page looks correct, and no existing
  check inspected the extracted text. `cv/main_example.tex` now uses `[YYYY-YYYY]` and
  `[YYYY-Present]`, and `05-cv-templates.md` documents the failure mode and the check that
  catches it (`framework_version` 1.3.0 to 1.4.0). The two-page layout budget is unaffected.

  **Fork reconciliation note.** The five changed lines in `cv/main_example.tex` are the
  `\cventry` date fields - three under Professional Experience, two under Education -
  precisely the lines every fork personalizes. Rebasing forks should expect conflicts there,
  resolve them in favour of *their own* dates, and then apply the same `--` to `-` change by
  hand. To find remaining instances across your own CV variants:

  ```
  grep -rn '\\cventry{[^}]*--' cv/
  ```

  Verify afterwards by extracting the text layer and checking the date lines specifically:
  `pdftotext -layout <file>.pdf - | grep '�'` - none of the hits may be a date field. (On
  the stock template two benign hits remain either way: the decorative separators on the
  contact and award lines, which are unrelated to dates and predate this fix.)

- `tools/convert_salary_excel.py` now parses localized numeric string cells - Excel
  exports that store numbers as text (a Danish `"108,5"`, `"1.234,5"`, or space-separated
  thousands) previously hit `float()`'s `ValueError` and were silently dropped from
  `salary_data.json`. The ambiguous single-comma-plus-three-digits pattern (`"1,234"`,
  thousands in one locale and a decimal in another) is deliberately skipped rather than
  guessed, preserving the old safe behaviour for the one case that cannot be
  disambiguated. (#272)
- `tools/check_upstream_updates.py` compares the template-repo slug case-insensitively -
  GitHub serves repository paths case-insensitively, so a clone made from a lowercased
  URL was a legitimate direct clone that nonetheless triggered #265's fork-vs-self
  warning. (#273)

### Changed

- SETUP.md section 8 now shows the first-time `git remote add upstream ...` command
  before telling you to `git fetch upstream`, which previously failed on any clone of a
  personal fork with no explanation of the missing remote. (#274)

### Security & privacy

- **The gitignore guard now covers every personal-output rule** - `security_guards.py`
  additionally requires the ignore rules for Gmail sync state (`gmail_sync/`), generated
  dashboards (`reports/`), upskill reports (`upskill/*.md`), Notion sync state
  (`**/job_scraper/notion_sync.json`), pasted postings (`documents/postings/**`), scraper
  markdown output (`**/job_scraper/*.md`), and behavioral-report / LinkedIn-profile PDFs.
  With these, every `.gitignore` rule outside the guard's required list is build tooling
  noise, so any future weakening of the personal-data boundary fails CI. All rules were
  already present in `.gitignore`; the guard now enforces the full set. (#271)

## [1.2.0] - 2026-08-01

### Added

- **`/rank` now persists `strengths` and `gaps` into `seen_jobs.json`** - Step 2's scoring
  agents already produced both arrays per job; Step 4 previously kept only `rank_score`,
  `rank_verdict`, and `rank_date`, so the honest per-posting findings were printed once in
  Step 5 and then discarded. Both arrays are now stored verbatim and replaced (never
  accumulated) on `--all` re-ranks, so downstream consumers of `seen_jobs.json` can read
  real triage findings instead of re-deriving them. See
  [discussion #258](https://github.com/MadsLorentzen/ai-job-search/discussions/258).
- **`/upskill` aggregate mode now ingests `/rank`'s recorded gaps** - previously it only
  read `job_search_tracker.csv` and *guessed* required skills from the `role`/`sector`/
  `notes` columns, even though `/rank` had already fetched and scored postings that never
  made it into the tracker. Aggregate mode now also reads ranked entries
  (`rank_score >= 45`) from `job_scraper/seen_jobs.json`, dedupes them against tracker rows
  on case-insensitive company+role, and prefers a job's recorded `gaps` over an inferred
  skill list wherever both exist. The heatmap's Gap Source column now shows the
  recorded-vs-inferred split per skill, and the report header states how many jobs came
  from each source. Depends on #263 (`/rank` persisting `gaps`/`strengths`); see
  [discussion #258](https://github.com/MadsLorentzen/ai-job-search/discussions/258).

### Security & privacy

- **SETUP.md no longer calls a fork "private working space"** - forks of public GitHub
  repositories are always public, so that wording invited exactly the personal-data
  exposure it seemed to rule out. Section 8 now states the fork-is-public fact plainly and
  documents the safe alternative (a private repository with this repo as `upstream`), and
  `/setup` ends with a matching privacy note the moment profile data first lands in
  tracked files. Prompted by
  [discussion #266](https://github.com/MadsLorentzen/ai-job-search/discussions/266).
- **The gitignore guard now covers two more personal-data rules** - `security_guards.py`
  requires `cover_letters/Cover_*.*` (the uppercase cover-letter naming variant `/apply`
  recognizes) and `cv/*.txt` (ATS text extractions of tailored CVs) in `.gitignore`, so a
  future change weakening either rule fails CI instead of silently making personal files
  trackable. Both rules were already present in `.gitignore`; only the guard lagged.

### Fixed

- `tools/check_upstream_updates.py` no longer reports a false "up to date with upstream"
  when it silently falls back to a fork's own `origin` remote - the default state of a
  plain fork clone, where the script compared the fork against itself and could never
  detect upstream updates. It now warns that the fallback remote is not the template repo,
  shows the `git remote add upstream` command to fix it, and names the ref it actually
  compared against. (#265)
- Removed the vestigial `cover_letters/OpenFonts/cover.cls` - an unreferenced remnant of
  the original font bundle that, since #252's class rename, ambiguously declared the same
  `cover` class as the real `cover_letters/cover.cls`.
- Added regression tests pinning #252's ragged-row bounds fix in
  `tools/convert_salary_excel.py` (dimension-less workbooks read in `read_only` mode
  yield rows shorter than the header).

### Changed

- CONTRIBUTING's "run what CI runs" list is now complete - it previously omitted
  `tools/security_guards.py` and the exact `unittest` invocation, the precise checks a
  contributor PR had already failed on. Prompted by
  [issue #262](https://github.com/MadsLorentzen/ai-job-search/issues/262).

## [1.1.0] - 2026-07-30

### Security & privacy

- **Personalized custom-template files are now gitignored regardless of engine** - the
  ignore rules broadened from `cv/main_*.tex` to `cv/main_*.*` (and likewise for cover
  letters), so a fork using a Typst or other non-LaTeX template no longer commits
  personalized `main_<company>.typ` files to a public fork. The `*_example.tex` files stay
  tracked. If you registered a custom template before this release, check
  `git status` once after updating. (#238)
- **Dependency review is live, for forks too** - the repo's Dependency graph is now enabled,
  so the CI `dependency-review` job actually blocks PRs that introduce dependencies with
  known high-severity vulnerabilities, and the job is no longer gated to the upstream repo:
  forks get the same check, self-activating if the fork enables Dependency graph
  (it warns-and-passes otherwise). (#254)

### Added

- **freehire-search: full descriptions come back with the search** - `search` now calls
  freehire's agent search endpoint (`/api/v1/agent/jobs/search`), which serves each hit's
  complete description instead of the search index's truncated preview. A 20-role search is
  one request rather than 1 + 20 `detail` calls, and `/scrape`'s Step 2 no longer needs a
  per-hit fetch for this portal. `--description-format markdown|text|html` (default
  `markdown`) selects the rendering; `table` and `plain` output is unchanged. (#251)
- **Custom templates: any compile-to-PDF toolchain (Typst, ...)** - `/add-template` no longer
  hardcodes a `lualatex`/`xelatex`/`pdflatex` engine enum. Custom templates now declare a
  source extension and a full compile command, so Typst (`typst compile`) registers the same
  way a custom LaTeX template does. Stock CV/cover letter templates stay LaTeX,
  unchanged. (#238)
- **Application-form fields as an optional third `/apply` artifact** - when a posting's
  application form asks screening questions, `/apply` can now offer a prep sheet of
  grounded answers alongside the CV and cover letter. Opt-in; the default two-document
  output never changes. (#212)
- **Confirmed facts write back to the profile** - when `/apply` or `/interview` surfaces a
  fact the user confirms (a skill, a date, a project detail), it is written back to the
  profile files in the same turn instead of being lost with the conversation. (#211)
- **CV methodology: in-progress qualifications and tenure-vs-output** - `05-cv-templates.md`
  gains explicit rules for stating in-progress certifications/degrees honestly and for
  checking claimed tenure against visible output (`framework_version` 1.2.1 -> 1.3.0). (#210)
- **Scraper flags mass-posting and recycled-listing patterns** - `/scrape` marks postings
  that look bulk-posted or recycled so they don't eat evaluation effort. (#207)
- **Retry contract pinned in CI** - all six portal CLIs now carry 429/5xx retry-backoff
  tests covering every fetch wrapper, so a silent regression in retry behavior trips
  CI. (#246)
- **README: the extension model, documented** - new Customization subsection "Extending the
  framework: portals, templates, criteria - and borrowing from other forks": the three
  extension points, the copy-one-folder pattern for borrowing a portal skill from another
  fork with a read-the-code-first checklist, and why there is deliberately no installer
  (the manual copy is the security model). Prompted by discussion #249.

### Fixed

- `/rank` shortlist and below-threshold tables include each posting's URL. (#236)
- `convert_salary_excel.py`: count/index columns pair by category name instead of
  adjacency (#219), standalone count columns store as counts (#230), and ragged rows from
  dimension-less spreadsheets no longer crash with an IndexError (#252).
- `cover.cls`: duplicate package imports removed and the `\ProvidesClass` name fixed to
  match the filename, silencing a class-name-mismatch warning. (#252)
- Portal CLI type-checking pinned to concrete `@types/bun` / `@bunli/*` versions to stop
  environmental CI type-drift. (#226)
- `freehire-search` points at freehire.me after the service's domain migration. (#229)
- `verify_pdf.py`'s missing-poppler error now includes per-OS install hints. (#252)

## [1.0.0] - 2026-07-22

First tagged release. This marks the framework as stable and gives forks a described
checkpoint to update against instead of a moving `master`. It is a baseline of what
already exists rather than a set of new changes; subsequent releases will document
what changed since the previous tag.

At this baseline the framework provides:

- **Application workflow** - a drafter/reviewer `/apply` pipeline (CV + cover letter),
  plus `/setup`, `/scrape`, `/rank`, `/interview`, `/outcome`, `/upskill`,
  `/expand`, `/html-report`, `/gmail-sync`, `/notion-sync`, `/add-portal`,
  `/add-template`, and `/reset`.
- **Portal search skills** - country-agnostic job-board CLIs (LinkedIn, freehire, and
  the Danish boards) in the portable Agent Skills format under `.agents/skills/`,
  discovered and orchestrated by `/scrape`, with an `enabled:` toggle for skipping
  portals.
- **Framework versioning** - `framework_version` markers on methodology files plus
  `tools/check_framework_version.py` (CI guard) and `tools/check_upstream_updates.py`
  (fork-side update preview).
- **Privacy and safety guards** - `.gitignore` protection for personal data, the
  `tools/security_guards.py` allowlist for `.gitignore` negations, and a CI policy of
  making no live portal requests.
- **Cross-runtime support** - a root `AGENTS.md` pointer so Codex and Antigravity can
  discover the portable portal skills, with Claude Code as the reference runtime.

[Unreleased]: https://github.com/MadsLorentzen/ai-job-search/compare/v1.7.3...HEAD
[1.7.3]: https://github.com/MadsLorentzen/ai-job-search/compare/v1.7.2...v1.7.3
[1.7.2]: https://github.com/MadsLorentzen/ai-job-search/compare/v1.7.1...v1.7.2
[1.7.1]: https://github.com/MadsLorentzen/ai-job-search/compare/v1.7.0...v1.7.1
[1.7.0]: https://github.com/MadsLorentzen/ai-job-search/compare/v1.6.0...v1.7.0
[1.6.0]: https://github.com/MadsLorentzen/ai-job-search/compare/v1.5.0...v1.6.0
[1.5.0]: https://github.com/MadsLorentzen/ai-job-search/compare/v1.4.0...v1.5.0
[1.4.0]: https://github.com/MadsLorentzen/ai-job-search/compare/v1.3.0...v1.4.0
[1.3.0]: https://github.com/MadsLorentzen/ai-job-search/compare/v1.2.0...v1.3.0
[1.2.0]: https://github.com/MadsLorentzen/ai-job-search/compare/v1.1.0...v1.2.0
[1.1.0]: https://github.com/MadsLorentzen/ai-job-search/compare/v1.0.0...v1.1.0
[1.0.0]: https://github.com/MadsLorentzen/ai-job-search/releases/tag/v1.0.0