* feat(ats): extract PDF text with pypdf before Poppler
Lead the ATS text-layer check with pypdf (BSD, optional pip install). Fall back to pdftotext -layout -enc UTF-8. No cache directory, no installer, no AGPL pymupdf. Windows users without Poppler still get a mechanical parseability check; visual review remains the last resort.
* Update verify_pdf.py
* Update apply.md
* Update verify_pdf.py
* Update verify_pdf.py
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>
Routes name styling through \namefont (present on every moderncv version) and
hands hyperref to the class via \AtEndPreamble, fixing both 2.3.1 compile
failures; pdfpagemode pinned to UseNone so the hook move cannot flip viewer
behavior. Diagnosis and fix design by camcro0607 (#242); verified on real
Debian bookworm apt moderncv 2.3.1 by ayobamiseun; modern-toolchain and PDF
catalog verification on 2.5.1 at review time.
Co-authored-by: camcro0607 <172529990+camcro0607@users.noreply.github.com>
* fix(cv-template): use ASCII hyphens and explicit ranges in CV date fields
LaTeX ligatures `--` into an en-dash (U+2013), so a `\cventry` date written
`2016--2024` reaches the PDF text layer as `2016<U+2013>2024`. Many ATS
parsers split date ranges only on an ASCII hyphen and therefore extract no
range at all. Separately, a bare single year gives the parser a start date
with no end.
Confirmed against a real Workday resume import: a CV built from this
template lost the end date of a short contract role and imported no
education entries whatsoever, forcing manual re-entry. The failure is
silent - extraction was otherwise clean, with literal contact details, no
(cid:) markers and correct reading order, so every existing check in the
ATS Parseability section passed.
- main_example.tex: date placeholders now use a single hyphen
- 05-cv-templates.md: document both causes, with examples, and add the
check to step 5d
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 5 <noreply@anthropic.com>
Claude-Session: https://claude.ai/code/session_01BFNdaj4fB6Xrd29PQ6hc9B
* chore(cv-template): bump framework_version to 1.4.0
The ATS date-format guidance added in the previous commit modifies a
framework template, which the CI framework version guard requires to be
accompanied by a version bump. Minor bump: new documented subsection,
no breaking change.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 5 <noreply@anthropic.com>
* docs(changelog): record the CV date-field hyphen fix and fork reconciliation
Documents the U+FFFD extraction failure under lualatex, the fix, and the
framework_version bump. Includes the fork reconciliation note requested in
review: the five changed lines in cv/main_example.tex are the \cventry date
fields every fork personalizes, so rebasing forks should expect conflicts
there, resolve in favour of their own dates, and reapply the -- to - change
by hand. Adds a grep to locate remaining instances and a pdftotext check to
verify.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 5 <noreply@anthropic.com>
---------
Co-authored-by: kgb <kevingblackman@gmail.com>
Co-authored-by: Claude Opus 5 <noreply@anthropic.com>
Two profile-accuracy rules for the CV guide.
**In-progress qualifications.** A bare year range is not enough: an entry
reading 2025-2026, seen partway through 2026, reads as a finished degree,
because a skimming reader treats a closed range as closed. A profile
statement saying "currently completing" does not fix it - the education
entry is where a reader checks the credential, so it has to stand alone.
Claiming a credential not yet held is discovered at transcript or
reference check rather than at interview, and it costs nothing to
prevent. Adds the LaTeX form and a check that the profile statement,
education entry and any availability note agree on one completion date.
**Tenure against visible output.** A two-year role represented by a
single project reads as low output whether or not that is fair; the
reader cannot know what filled the time, so they guess. Hits career
changers, long-cycle work (industrial, clinical, research) and anyone
kept on a single account. Three honest fixes in preference order -
surface more real work, make the phases within the role explicit, name
what made the cycle long - and an explicit prohibition on the two
dishonest ones: never pad with invented projects, never quietly shorten
employment dates. Both are discoverable and worse than the perception
problem. If the ratio survives the fixes the interview question is
coming, so the answer belongs in interview prep rather than improvised.
framework_version 1.2.0 -> 1.3.0.
Co-authored-by: Claude Opus 4.8 <noreply@anthropic.com>
The moderncv template's section headings (Core Competencies, Professional Experience, Education, Languages, Publications, Honors and Awards, References) and the References boilerplate line are literal English text the workflow never translates, so a CV localized in prose can sit under English scaffolding. Adds an illustrative, fork-aware rule to 05-cv-templates.md (translate the headings too, whatever your template defines) plus a verification-checklist item in CLAUDE.md. Ties into the CV-language profile setting from #179.
By @Lautaro073. Heading list corrected against the stock template on review (Publications/Honors and Awards in, non-existent Independent Projects out; made illustrative for forks).
Seven improvements sourced from blind regression probes comparing current
outputs against real April-2026 baselines (each an area where the older
outputs scored better):
- every stated requirement addressed - matched or honestly gapped, never
silently omitted (the benchmark run omitted a stated Kubernetes
requirement entirely; omission reads as hiding under questioning)
- nice-to-haves engaged by name with honest adjacency framing; posting's
literal term preferred, including in CV section headings
- stated logistics/prerequisites addressed in the letter (clearances,
availability, job ID, multi-country language mapping)
- domain-transfer argument leads the CV profile statement for
domain-changers
- evidence links (href) on every verifiable named artifact
framework_version: 05 -> 1.2.0.
Co-authored-by: Claude Fable 5 <noreply@anthropic.com>
Both found by empirically re-running the /apply pipeline end-to-end:
06's Document Structure block still demonstrated itemize wrapped inside
lettercontent - the exact antipattern its own pitfall section forbids -
and following 05's needspace guidance at section level pushed an entire
Education block to a new page, costing a page instead of saving one.
framework_version: 05 -> 1.1.1, 06 -> 1.0.1.
Co-authored-by: Claude Fable 5 <noreply@anthropic.com>
Completes the loop behind #177: /apply drift could be archived by
/outcome, then laundered into 05-cv-templates.md as a reusable template
by /setup Path A - promoting a one-off drifted claim into source
material for every future application. Path A now verifies extracted
statements' factual claims against 01-candidate-profile.md (keeping
framing only), and 05-cv-templates.md marks [Used for:] statements as
phrasing references, never fact sources. framework_version 1.1.0.
Co-authored-by: Claude Fable 5 <noreply@anthropic.com>
CVs from /apply were named cv/main_<company>.tex, so a second role at the same company overwrote the first (cover letters already carried the role). Aligns CV naming to main_<company>_<role>.tex across apply, add-template, the CV template guide, CLAUDE.md, and SETUP.md; /outcome and /interview fallbacks glob main_<company>*.tex to match both legacy and new names. framework_version bumped on both touched framework files.
* Add framework_version markers to assistant skills and implement CI version guard and update checker
* Address review feedback: update ci.yml based on latest upstream, gate CI version guard to upstream repo, and remove non-ASCII characters from check_upstream_updates.py
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.
Two additions to 05-cv-templates.md so the /apply workflow follows the
same patterns as cv/main_example.tex:
1. Add the three \renewcommand* lines to the documented preamble so
downstream CVs inherit the color1 overrides for firstname, lastname,
and section headings. Includes a short paragraph explaining the
reason and a note for users who prefer regular-weight firstname.
2. Add a "Spacing inside itemize lists" subsection that calls out the
inter-item \vspace anti-pattern with a wrong/right example and
explicitly preserves the two related patterns that DO render fine
(post-section spacer, inter-cventry \vspace{3pt}).
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.7 (1M context) <noreply@anthropic.com>
Adds a new Step 5 to the /apply workflow that compiles the CV (lualatex)
and cover letter (xelatex) and visually inspects the resulting PDFs before
presenting them to the user. This catches page-break failures that .tex
review cannot detect: orphaned cventry titles, cover letters spilling to
a second page, and bullet fonts not matching body text.
Also introduces relevance-weighted cutting as the rule for shrinking an
overflowing CV: score each candidate line by (a) relevance to the posting,
(b) uniqueness in the document, and (c) load-bearing role in the cover
letter, then cut the lowest-total-score line first, regardless of section.
This replaces the old static "cut oldest section first" heuristic, which
was wrong whenever a relevant older-role bullet competed with an
irrelevant recent-role bullet.
Bundled with the earlier pending token-efficiency improvements to the
/apply workflow (inline draft passing to the reviewer, scoped reviewer
file reads, single end-of-workflow verification pass).
Changes:
- .claude/commands/apply.md: new Step 5 (Compile & Inspect PDFs), renumber
old Step 5 to Step 6, update token-efficiency rules at top to reference
Step 6 for the verification checklist
- .claude/skills/job-application-assistant/05-cv-templates.md: switch
recommended compile engine from pdflatex to lualatex (pdflatex fails on
modern MiKTeX with fontawesome5 font-expansion errors), add
"Compile-and-Inspect Loop" section with needspace/enlargethispage
patterns, add "Relevance-weighted cutting" section
- .claude/skills/job-application-assistant/06-cover-letter-templates.md:
add compile command, add "Compile-and-Inspect Loop", document the
"\lettercontent{} + itemize" pitfall and the required font-matching
Raleway-Medium wrapper fix
- CLAUDE.md: add "Compiled PDF verification (MANDATORY)" checklist items
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.7 (1M context) <noreply@anthropic.com>
sdrarunvarshan