An ATS reads the compiled PDF's embedded text layer, not the rendered page,
and LaTeX can silently produce PDFs whose text extracts as garbage: icon
glyphs where contact details should be, (cid:*) markers from fonts without
Unicode mappings, interleaved lines from multi-column layouts. This matters
more now that /add-template lets users bring arbitrary templates. The
existing Step 5 loop verifies what a human sees; this adds verification of
what a parser sees.
New Step 5d in /apply (CV only - cover letters rarely go through keyword
screening; cleanup renumbered to 5e):
- Extract the CV PDF's text layer with pdftotext -layout. pdftotext
(poppler) is an optional dependency: if missing, the mechanical check is
skipped with a warning and keyword coverage falls back to the visual PDF
read - the same graceful-skip pattern as salary_lookup.py
- Parseability checks verified against a real extraction of the stock
template: email/phone must survive as literal text (fontawesome icons
extract as harmless glyph-name noise like MOBILE-ALT/Envelope, but a
contact detail carried only by an icon or hyperlink is invisible to ATS),
no (cid:*) or replacement-character garbage, reading order matching
visual order, dates present
- Keyword coverage reuses the required/preferred list from Step 1, matched
in the posting's language, reported as covered / synonym-only /
missing-have-it / missing-gap. Honesty rule enforced: keywords the
profile genuinely supports get added to experience bullets; genuine gaps
stay visible, never stuffed
Integration: CLAUDE.md verification checklist section, ATS Parseability
guidance in 05-cv-templates.md, narrow Bash(pdftotext:*) entry in the
pre-approved permissions (keeping with the tightened scope from #27),
cv/*.txt gitignored (extraction is personal data; also deleted by the
step itself), and optional-dependency docs in README and SETUP.
The README has always invited users outside Denmark to build equivalents of
the four Danish portal CLI skills, but doing so meant reverse-engineering
.agents/skills/*/cli/ by hand. /add-portal turns that invitation into a
guided workflow:
- Interviews the user for the portal URL, skill name, market/language
(trigger phrases in the local language, like the Danish skills), and a
realistic test query
- Investigates the portal before writing code: search-URL pattern, result
structure (JSON API preferred over HTML), detail-page pattern, robots.txt
and access rules. Auth-walled portals are declined; portals with
restrictive terms get a prominent personal-use-only warning in the
generated SKILL.md (same as linkedin-search)
- Scaffolds from the canonical structure with linkedin-search as the
zero-dependency reference, enforcing the shared portal-skill contract:
search/detail commands, common flags, {meta, results} JSON shape, stderr
JSON errors, backoff on 429/5xx, chunked parsing
- Mandatory live test-run (search + detail + test suite) before registering
- Optionally wires the portal into /scrape via search-queries.md
The generator is country-agnostic; its output is market-specific and stays
in the user's fork, matching the repo policy that upstream remains a
universal template.
Docs: README (commands list, file structure, Job search tools section) and
SETUP.md (CLI install section pointer).
Users could already swap the stock moderncv/cover.cls templates, but only by
hand-editing the guidance in 05-cv-templates.md and 06-cover-letter-templates.md.
/add-template automates that:
- Interviews the user for the template's instructions: compile engine, fonts
(bundled files or system), style rules to preserve, and hard page limit
- Stores the template profile-agnostic ([PLACEHOLDER] tokens) under templates/
with a TEMPLATE.md manifest, so templates are safe to commit and share
- Runs a mandatory test compile with dummy data before registering anything
- Activates via a single managed block in 05/06, which /apply already reads,
so no changes to the /apply workflow are needed; --use default is a clean
revert to the stock templates
- --list and --use <name> manage multiple registered templates
Docs: README (commands list, file structure, LaTeX templates section) and
SETUP.md (compile section pointer).
Ayobami Adegoke