fix(latex): brace bracket-leading bullets, document escapes, pin pdftotext encoding

Three findings from the 2026-08-19 review (F9, F31, F34):

- F9: every placeholder bullet written as \item [text] let LaTeX parse
  the bracketed text as the item's optional label, rendering it clipped
  off the left page edge and absent from the PDF text layer ("Achievement"
  appeared 9 times in cv/main_example.tex and 0 times in the extraction,
  with a clean compile and green CI). Bullets are now braced as
  \item {[text]} in the example CV and in the template
  06-cover-letter-templates.md teaches, and CI's stock PDF assertions
  additionally require "Achievement" to survive pdftotext.

- F31: 05-cv-templates.md gains a "LaTeX Special Characters" section and
  06's is completed beyond \_ and \&. The load-bearing case is an
  unescaped % in a quantified achievement bullet: it starts a LaTeX
  comment and silently deletes the rest of the line from the PDF.

- F34: the documented ATS extraction commands (apply.md,
  05-cv-templates.md, CLAUDE.md) now carry -enc UTF-8. Xpdf-based
  pdftotext builds default to Latin-1 output, so a correct non-ASCII CV
  failed the replacement-character parseability check.

framework_version: 05-cv-templates.md 1.4.1 -> 1.4.2,
06-cover-letter-templates.md 1.0.1 -> 1.0.2. All three pinned by the new
tests/test_latex_guidance.py (9 tests; suite now 261).

Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 5 (1M context) <noreply@anthropic.com>

tests/test_latex_guidance.py

@@ -0,0 +1,140 @@
+"""Guards for the LaTeX authoring guidance and the example documents.
+
+Three silent-failure modes live here, all found by the 2026-08-19 review
+(F9, F31, F34). Each one produces a clean compile and a green CI run
+while the rendered document or its ATS extraction is wrong, so the spec
+files and the example sources are the only place a test can catch them:
+
+- F9: a bullet written as `\\item [text]` is parsed as moderncv's
+  optional label, rendered off the left page edge, and dropped from the
+  PDF text layer. The example CV shipped that way for months.
+- F31: an unescaped `%` in body text silently truncates the rest of the
+  line (`&` at least fails loudly). The guidance must name the escapes.
+- F34: `pdftotext` without `-enc UTF-8` emits Latin-1 on Xpdf builds,
+  so a correct Danish CV fails the documented "no replacement
+  characters" check and the agent is sent to "fix" a healthy document.
+"""
+import re
+import unittest
+from pathlib import Path
+
+REPO = Path(__file__).resolve().parent.parent
+SKILL_DIR = REPO / ".claude" / "skills" / "job-application-assistant"
+CV_TEMPLATES = SKILL_DIR / "05-cv-templates.md"
+COVER_TEMPLATES = SKILL_DIR / "06-cover-letter-templates.md"
+APPLY = REPO / ".claude" / "commands" / "apply.md"
+EXAMPLE_CV = REPO / "cv" / "main_example.tex"
+EXAMPLE_COVER = REPO / "cover_letters" / "cover_example.tex"
+
+# \item whose body starts with [ - with or without whitespace between.
+# LaTeX skips spaces while scanning for the optional argument, so
+# `\item [text]` and `\item[text]` both swallow the text as a label.
+# The safe spelling `\item {[text]}` does not match.
+UNBRACED_BRACKET_ITEM = re.compile(r"\\item\s*\[")
+
+# The escapes both guidance files must document. `%` is the load-bearing
+# one: it truncates silently. The others fail loudly or corrupt spacing.
+REQUIRED_ESCAPES = ["\\&", "\\%", "\\$", "\\#", "\\_"]
+
+
+def section(text, heading):
+    """Return the body of a markdown section up to the next heading."""
+    pattern = re.compile(
+        rf"^#+ {re.escape(heading)}[^\n]*\n(.*?)(?=^#+ |\Z)",
+        re.MULTILINE | re.DOTALL,
+    )
+    match = pattern.search(text)
+    return match.group(1) if match else None
+
+
+class TestBulletBracketTrap(unittest.TestCase):
+    """F9: no document or template doc may teach `\\item [text]`."""
+
+    def assert_no_unbraced_bracket_items(self, path):
+        offending = [
+            f"{path.name}:{lineno}: {line.strip()}"
+            for lineno, line in enumerate(path.read_text(encoding="utf-8").splitlines(), 1)
+            if UNBRACED_BRACKET_ITEM.search(line)
+        ]
+        self.assertEqual(
+            offending,
+            [],
+            "\\item followed by [ is parsed as an optional label and the "
+            "text is clipped off the page; write \\item {[...]} instead:\n"
+            + "\n".join(offending),
+        )
+
+    def test_example_cv_has_no_bracket_labelled_bullets(self):
+        self.assert_no_unbraced_bracket_items(EXAMPLE_CV)
+
+    def test_example_cover_letter_has_no_bracket_labelled_bullets(self):
+        self.assert_no_unbraced_bracket_items(EXAMPLE_COVER)
+
+    def test_cover_letter_guide_does_not_teach_the_broken_pattern(self):
+        self.assert_no_unbraced_bracket_items(COVER_TEMPLATES)
+
+    def test_cv_guide_does_not_teach_the_broken_pattern(self):
+        self.assert_no_unbraced_bracket_items(CV_TEMPLATES)
+
+
+class TestSpecialCharacterGuidance(unittest.TestCase):
+    """F31: both template guides must document the LaTeX escapes."""
+
+    def assert_escapes_documented(self, path):
+        body = section(path.read_text(encoding="utf-8"), "LaTeX Special Characters")
+        self.assertIsNotNone(
+            body, f"{path.name} has no 'LaTeX Special Characters' section"
+        )
+        missing = [esc for esc in REQUIRED_ESCAPES if esc not in body]
+        self.assertEqual(
+            missing,
+            [],
+            f"{path.name}'s special-characters section is missing: {missing}",
+        )
+
+    def test_cv_guide_documents_the_escapes(self):
+        self.assert_escapes_documented(CV_TEMPLATES)
+
+    def test_cover_letter_guide_documents_the_escapes(self):
+        self.assert_escapes_documented(COVER_TEMPLATES)
+
+    def test_cv_guide_warns_that_percent_truncates_silently(self):
+        body = section(
+            CV_TEMPLATES.read_text(encoding="utf-8"), "LaTeX Special Characters"
+        )
+        self.assertIsNotNone(body)
+        self.assertRegex(
+            body,
+            re.compile(r"silent", re.IGNORECASE),
+            "the % failure mode must be called out as silent - it is the "
+            "reason this section exists (a clean compile with the rest of "
+            "the bullet gone)",
+        )
+
+
+class TestAtsExtractionEncoding(unittest.TestCase):
+    """F34: every documented extraction command must pin the encoding."""
+
+    def assert_pdftotext_commands_pin_utf8(self, path):
+        offending = [
+            f"{path.name}:{lineno}: {line.strip()}"
+            for lineno, line in enumerate(path.read_text(encoding="utf-8").splitlines(), 1)
+            if "pdftotext" in line and "-layout" in line and "-enc UTF-8" not in line
+        ]
+        self.assertEqual(
+            offending,
+            [],
+            "pdftotext without -enc UTF-8 emits Latin-1 on Xpdf builds, so "
+            "the ATS check reports phantom replacement characters on any "
+            "non-ASCII CV; add -enc UTF-8:\n" + "\n".join(offending),
+        )
+
+    def test_apply_extraction_command_pins_utf8(self):
+        self.assert_pdftotext_commands_pin_utf8(APPLY)
+
+    def test_cv_guide_extraction_command_pins_utf8(self):
+        self.assert_pdftotext_commands_pin_utf8(CV_TEMPLATES)
+
+
+if __name__ == "__main__":
+    unittest.main()