Resume Builder

Overview

Build professional resumes with AI-assisted content management, supporting PDF import/export, HTML styling, and multi-language output.

Canonical resume schema: See references/resume-schema.json and references/data-structure.md
Troubleshooting: See references/troubleshooting.md
Customization (themes, languages): See references/customization.md

Dependencies

• HTML generation: Python 3 (no extra deps)
• PDF import: pip install pymupdf
• PDF export (either one): pip install pdfkit && brew install wkhtmltopdf OR pip install playwright && playwright install chromium

Work File Convention

Save resume JSON to resume.json in the current working directory unless the user specifies another path. When importing from PDF, save the extracted JSON alongside the source file.

Always keep the working file in the canonical schema used by the renderer. If imported data is rough or partially parsed, normalize it before presenting edits or exporting.

Workflow

1. Initial Import (if user provides existing PDF)

The scripts/extract_from_pdf.py script does basic text extraction, but it produces rough output. For best results, use your AI capabilities to read and understand the PDF content directly, then structure it into the resume JSON schema yourself. The script is available as a fallback:

python3 "$SKILL_DIR/scripts/extract_from_pdf.py" input.pdf output.json

After extraction (by any method), do not export immediately. First:

1. Normalize the data into the canonical schema.
2. Identify obvious gaps, duplicated bullets, or fields that landed as rough text.
3. Present the structured data to the user for review and ask what should be corrected or expanded.

2. Content Management

When adding or editing sections, gather complete information through natural conversation. The key areas to ask about:

For Education: institution, degree, period, location, GPA (if applicable), honors.
For Work Experience: company, position, period, location, responsibilities, quantifiable achievements.
For Projects: name, role, period, technologies, description, key achievements.

Keep asking follow-up questions if responses are brief or unclear. The goal is a complete, well-structured entry — not a minimal one.

When the user requests meaningful edits, especially after import, prefer an edit-review-export flow:

1. Update resume.json.
2. Generate an editable HTML preview when the user will likely want to iterate visually.
3. Review the resulting content for clarity, grammar, consistency, and scannability before final export.

Important separation principle:

• Work Experience should stay high-level: job responsibilities at a business level, scope (team size, industry sectors), leadership and business impact.
• Projects should go deep on technical specifics: technologies, architecture, quantified achievements with metrics.

This separation makes the resume scannable for HR while providing depth for engineering interviews.

3. Export

1. Confirm format (HTML or PDF), theme, and language with the user.
2. Use the unified export script:

   python3 "$SKILL_DIR/scripts/export_resume.py" --format html --theme modern --lang en resume.json output.html

3. For PDF export, use:

   python3 "$SKILL_DIR/scripts/export_resume.py" --format pdf --theme modern --lang en resume.json output.pdf

The PDF flow always renders a clean HTML intermediary first, then converts it to PDF. Do not use editable HTML as the final PDF source.

Available themes: modern, classic, minimal, creative
Available languages: en, zh, ja, fr, de, es

4. Interactive Edit Mode (Edit-Review-Export)

For collaborative refinement with the user, generate an editable HTML that includes inline editing capabilities:

python3 "$SKILL_DIR/scripts/export_resume.py" --format html --theme modern --lang en --editable resume.json output.html

Workflow:

1. Generate the editable HTML and tell the user to open it in a browser.
2. Guide the user explicitly:
   • Hover near the top-right corner to reveal the pencil button.
   • Click it to enter edit mode.
   • Edit text directly, add/remove bullet items where controls appear, then click the JSON copy button in the toolbar.
3. The user edits content in-browser — all text fields, list items (add/remove with +/- buttons), and skill lists are editable.
4. When done, the user clicks the JSON copy button in the toolbar to copy the updated resume JSON to clipboard.
5. The user pastes the JSON back to you (or if you have Playwright access, you can extract it directly from the page).
6. Final review: Check the updated content for grammar, spelling, consistency, formatting, and section separation quality. Suggest corrections if needed.
7. Apply any corrections to resume.json.
8. Generate the final, non-editable version for export (HTML or PDF) using the standard export command without --editable.

Notes:

• Edit UI is hidden during print/PDF export, so the visual output is unaffected.
• The toolbar label and copy button text are localized with the selected output language; tell the user to use the top toolbar action that copies JSON.
• If you have Playwright access, you can evaluate JSON.stringify(window.extractToJson ? extractToJson() : 'N/A') to read edits programmatically.

Content Best Practices

• Quantify achievements: Include numbers and metrics (e.g., "Improved efficiency by 30%")
• Action verbs: Use strong action verbs (e.g., "Led", "Architected", "Built")
• Consistency: Maintain consistent formatting and tense across entries
• Proofread: Review for typos and grammatical errors before export

Scripts

Script	Purpose
scripts/extract_from_pdf.py	Extract text from PDF resumes (fallback — prefer AI-based parsing)
scripts/generate_html.py	Generate styled HTML from resume JSON
scripts/generate_pdf.py	Convert HTML resume to PDF