# 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]
### 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.
### Fixed
- **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.
- **`.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.
- **`/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.
- **`/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.
- **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.
- **`/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.
- **`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.
- **`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:
Vi søger en udvikler til R&D.
Python & Go
...` 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 `
...
` now
expects the text, plus two new cases; the HTML case fails on master.
- **`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.
- **`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`.
- **`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.
- **`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.
## [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 `20162024`, 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: `) 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 & 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 `&` 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/` 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/` 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/` 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_*.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
`_` 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/` 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 (`""`) 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 ` 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 `. 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 ` 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//`
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/_/interview_prep_.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
/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/.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 `