feat(layout): measure compiled PDF layout instead of eyeballing it (#378)

* feat(layout): measure compiled PDF layout instead of eyeballing it

/apply Step 5b asks for layout properties and executes none of them: they are
checked by reading the rendered page, which is exactly how they get missed.

The failure that motivates this is silent under every existing check. A moderncv
\cventry renders as a tabular, so an entry is one unbreakable block; when it does
not fit in the space left, the whole entry moves to the next page and leaves a
hole behind. The document still compiles, still reports the expected page count,
and still passes tools/verify_pdf.py. Observed in the wild at 273pt, roughly 19
blank lines, mid-page, on a CV whose visual read looked fine.

tools/verify_layout.py reports per page where the text starts and stops, bottom
whitespace as a share of page height, and the largest gap between lines, then
exits 1 on a hole over 100pt, a non-final page ending more than 25% early, body
text colliding with the page-number footer, a final page more than 35% empty, or
an entry header or section heading stranded at a page break.

Page count is deliberately not checked here - verify_pdf.py --pages already does
that, and two implementations of one rule drift. Geometry comes from Poppler
pdftotext -bbox, already a dependency; a missing Poppler exits 2 with "skipped:"
rather than failing the run.

Tests build synthetic Page/Line geometry, so the suite needs neither Poppler nor
a LaTeX toolchain and runs on the existing 3.10-3.14 matrix.

* fix(layout): survive Windows encoding and a pdftotext without -bbox

Review found two failures on the repo's primary platform:

subprocess.run(..., text=True) decoded pdftotext's UTF-8 output with the
Windows ANSI codepage and crashed on the stock cv/main_example.pdf. It now
passes encoding="utf-8" with errors="replace" at the call site, matching the
fix verify_pdf.py already carries from #369.

Git for Windows ships an xpdf-based pdftotext that shadows Poppler in a
default PATH and has no -bbox flag; it exited 99, the CalledProcessError
escaped, and the run ended in exit 1 - indistinguishable from a real layout
problem, which would send /apply chasing a phantom hole. That now routes to
the existing "skipped:" exit 2 path with a message naming the likely cause,
covered by three tests on the extractor-failure path.

Also from review:

- .claude/settings.json and security_guards.py gain the verify_layout.py
  permission entries. apply.md Step 5b runs the tool on every /apply, so
  without them every run prompts.
- The docstring and CHANGELOG no longer call Poppler a dependency
  verify_pdf.py relies on. Since #369 verify_pdf prefers pypdf and Poppler is
  the fallback; word bboxes have no pypdf equivalent, so this is the one step
  that still wants it, and that is now what the text says.
- Docstring and apply.md state that the thresholds are calibrated for the
  stock moderncv and cover.cls geometry, and that the shipped example CV
  fails the thin-final-page rule by design.
- largest_gap documents that it measures top-to-top, so a tall line inflates
  the gap by its own height - over-detection, the safe direction.
- The test module imports via tools.verify_layout like test_verify_pdf.py
  instead of sys.path.insert.

* fix(verify_layout): quote only the first stderr line in the skip message (#378)

Co-Authored-By: Claude Fable 5.1 <noreply@anthropic.com>
Claude-Session: https://claude.ai/code/session_013fqqLgQSnwgWkv98twQhHi

---------

Co-authored-by: Mads Lorentzen <madslorentzen_17@hotmail.com>
Co-authored-by: Claude Fable 5.1 <noreply@anthropic.com>
This commit is contained in:
Yan Cheng (程彦)
2026-09-09 19:26:49 +02:00
committed by GitHub
co-authored by Claude Fable 5.1 Mads Lorentzen
parent 8c81edc330
commit cbd8a991ab
7 changed files with 506 additions and 1 deletions
+16 -1
View File
@@ -229,7 +229,22 @@ If either compile fails, fix the error and re-compile until clean.
### 5b. Inspect layout
Read both PDFs via the Read tool and verify:
**Measure first, then look.** A visual read catches gross breakage but cannot tell you that a page is 40% empty, and the failure below survives both a clean compile and a correct page count:
```bash
python tools/verify_layout.py cv/main_<company>_<role>.pdf
python tools/verify_layout.py cover_letters/cover_<company>_<role>.pdf
```
The script reports, per page, where the text starts and stops, bottom whitespace as a share of page height, and the largest vertical gap between lines. It exits 1 on: a hole over 100pt (~7 blank lines), a non-final page ending more than 25% early, body text colliding with the page-number footer, a final page more than 35% empty, and an entry header or section heading stranded at a page break. Page count is **not** checked here — that is `verify_pdf.py --pages`'s job, and Step 5d already runs it.
The hole check is the one a visual read misses. A moderncv `\cventry` renders as a `tabular`, so it is an **unbreakable block**: when it does not fit in the space left, the whole entry jumps to the next page and leaves a hole behind, while the document still compiles and still reports the right page count. Fix it by shortening the entry that follows the hole, not by stretching the page.
If Poppler is missing, or the `pdftotext` first in PATH is the xpdf build Git for Windows ships (no `-bbox`), the script exits 2 with `skipped:` — note the degraded mode in the Step 6 report and rely on the visual inspection alone. Exit 2 is never a layout verdict.
The thresholds are calibrated for the stock moderncv and `cover.cls` geometry; a template registered via `/add-template` may report a phantom hole above a footer the 90pt band does not cover.
Then read both PDFs via the Read tool and verify:
**CV (`cv/main_<company>_<role>.pdf`):**
- [ ] Exactly 2 pages (not 1, not 3)