Use the pipeline on your own CV

• Your CV or résumé, as a PDF, Word document or text file. A LinkedIn profile works too: on your profile, click More then Save to PDF.
• A Mac or Windows computer. The Claude desktop app doesn't run on Linux; if that's you, the repo's README (opens in a new tab) covers the command-line route.
• A paid Claude plan (Pro or above). Claude is the AI assistant that does the work, and the part of the app it runs in needs a paid plan. GitHub and GitHub Desktop are free, and the pipeline itself costs nothing.
• About 45 minutes for the set-up and your first inventory, most of it spent answering Claude's questions about your own experience.

The pipeline is a set of written instructions (Claude calls them skills) and a few folders they work in. It isn't an app, and there's no account with me: everything lives in your own copy, on your computer and in your private GitHub account.

Developers would clone the repo, which means downloading it with a terminal command. You don't need to. This guide uses three point-and-click tools instead, each for one reason:

• GitHub's “Use this template” button makes you a copy that is private from the start. It's the safest way to copy it: the more familiar Fork button makes a copy that is always public, and your CV doesn't belong in a public copy.
• GitHub Desktop downloads your copy to your computer, so your CV and résumés are ordinary files you can open, drag in and print. It also shows you every change Claude makes, and backs your work up to GitHub with one button.
• The Claude desktop app works directly in that folder. It picks up the pipeline's instructions on its own, asks before it changes a file, and can install the couple of tools the pipeline needs for you.

GitHub is where your copy of the pipeline is kept, privately, and where its history is backed up. A free account is all you need.

1. Go to github.com/signup (opens in a new tab).
2. Enter your email address, a password and a username. Your username appears in your copy's web address, so pick one you're happy to use professionally.
3. Type in the code GitHub emails you to confirm your address.
4. If GitHub asks about plans, choose Free. You can skip the personalisation questions.

Signed in to GitHub, open the template page (opens in a new tab), or go to the pipeline's repo (opens in a new tab) and click the green Use this template button, then Create a new repository.

1. Leave Owner as your username.
2. Give it a name, for example my-job-search.
3. Choose Private. This is the one setting that matters.
4. Click Create repository.

1. Download and install GitHub Desktop (opens in a new tab).
2. Open it and choose Sign in to GitHub.com. Your browser opens; approve it there, then return to GitHub Desktop.
3. Choose Clone a repository (or File → Clone repository). Pick your new copy from the list.
4. Under Local path, note where it will go (your Documents folder's GitHub folder by default), then click Clone.

You now have an ordinary folder on your computer with the pipeline in it. Leave GitHub Desktop open; you'll come back to it to save your work.

1. Download the Claude desktop app (opens in a new tab) and sign in.
2. Open the Code tab and make sure it's set to work on your computer (Local), not in the cloud.
3. Open a folder and choose the one GitHub Desktop just made.
4. On Windows, the Code tab asks you to install Git for Windows (opens in a new tab) the first time. Install it with the default options, then restart the Claude app. On a Mac, if a box asks to install command line developer tools, click Install.

Claude asks before it edits a file or runs a command, with a short description of each. Read them; it's fine to allow the ones that match what you asked for, and to say no and ask why when one doesn't. Anthropic's desktop quickstart (opens in a new tab) has pictures of each screen if the app looks different from this description.

Type into the box at the bottom of the Code tab the way you'd write to a helpful colleague. Every prompt on this page is an example: copy it, or say the same thing in your own words. Replace anything in [square brackets].

Start by letting Claude check the set-up:

It will look for Python (the programming language the pipeline's checker is written in) and add the small piece it needs. Making PDFs needs two more tools later, and it can install those when you get there.

Then tell it how you want your work saved. The pipeline can keep each piece of work on a separate branch, a parallel version you merge in later. That's useful for developers and confusing for everyone else, so ask it to keep things simple:

Your inventory is the heart of the pipeline: a complete record of your roles, what you did in each, your skills and the evidence behind every one. Every tailored résumé is built from it, and nothing else.

1. Copy your CV file into the folder GitHub Desktop made, by dragging it there in Finder or File Explorer.
2. Ask Claude to read it:

Before it writes anything, Claude checks your copy is private. Then it reads your CV and:

• puts your contact details and summary in inventory/profile.yaml, your degrees and certificates in inventory/education.yaml, each job in its own file in inventory/roles/, and every skill it finds in inventory/skills.yaml;
• keeps your own wording. When a bullet would read better tightened up, it shows you the before and after, and only uses its version if you say yes;
• marks anything vague or missing (a date, a number, an unclear title) with a TODO for you, rather than guessing.

It finishes with a summary of what it added and what it still needs from you.

This is the record every résumé will come from, so it's worth getting right once. The files are in YAML, a plain-text format that's easy for software to read and a bit fiddly for people. You don't have to read it yourself:

If you do open a file, here's one entry from a fictional warehouse shift lead the pipeline was tested with:

  - text: >
      Raised shift pick rate from 92 to 118 units per hour over 18 months
      by re-slotting fast-moving SKUs closer to pack-out and cutting
      travel time.
    skills: [pick-rate-improvement, slotting]
    evidence_strength: strong
    evidence_strength_rationale: >
      Quantified outcome (92 to 118 units per hour over 18 months) the
      user stated directly in the CV.

The bullet is the line a résumé can use. skills links it to skills in skills.yaml, and evidence_strength says how solid it is: strong when it has a real result you can back up, like this one, and moderate when it's true but has no hard number. A short reason sits underneath, so you can always see why.

Correct anything that's wrong by telling Claude, for example:

Claude commits as it goes: it saves a labelled snapshot of what changed, so you can always see or undo an edit. Those snapshots start out only on your computer. To back them up to your private copy on GitHub:

1. Switch to GitHub Desktop.
2. Click Push origin at the top. The History tab lists every snapshot, with exactly what changed in each.

If the Changes tab still lists files, those haven't been saved yet. Ask Claude to commit them, then push.

A CV is never the whole story, and the inventory is meant to grow. Add things as they come to mind; each one makes the next résumé better.

Something you did that isn't on your CV:

A new job, or a role your CV left out:

Another document about you, such as an older CV, your LinkedIn PDF or a performance review:

An interview story. Interviewers ask “tell me about a time when…”, and a CV rarely holds the answers. Claude records each one in four parts (the situation, your task, what you did and the result) and asks you for the details rather than filling them in:

A job you're interested in. This is where the inventory grows fastest. Claude saves the posting, compares what it asks for with your inventory, and asks you about each gap: is it experience you have but left off your CV, or a real gap? Experience you confirm goes in. Real gaps are kept as a list of things to learn, never added to your record:

Anything a job description suggests you might have stays a candidate until you confirm it, and a candidate never appears on a résumé. Questions Claude can't settle for you, such as two documents that disagree, are listed in docs/tasks.md.

When you've found a job to apply for:

Claude asks which country the job is in (the pipeline does US-style résumés and UK contract CVs, and you can ask it to add another country), offers to check the job against your inventory first, then shows you everything it plans to include, leave out or reword before it writes a word. You'll get the résumé, a note on why each choice was made, and a short interview prep sheet, all in a new folder under resumes/. Then:

The first time, Claude will offer to install the two tools PDFs need (pandoc, and Google Chrome if you don't have it).

Once you've sent it off, I'd love to hear how it went.

Your copy doesn't change when I improve the pipeline. To bring improvements in, ask:

Claude tells you in plain language what's new and asks before changing anything. It only updates the pipeline's own files: your inventory, saved jobs and résumés are never touched. Where your copy changed one of the pipeline's files too (adding a country does, for example), it combines the two and asks you about anything that clashes. Afterwards, click Push origin in GitHub Desktop, as in step 8.

You don't have to remember: about once a month, Claude offers to check when you start a session. To hear about updates as soon as they're out, open the pipeline's repo (opens in a new tab) on GitHub, click Watch, then Custom, tick Releases and click Apply. GitHub will email you when there's a new one.

Your first move is always to ask Claude. Describe what you see, or paste the message:

• There's no Use this template button. Check you're signed in to GitHub. Don't fork it instead.
• Claude says the copy isn't private and stops. On GitHub, open your copy's Settings, scroll to the bottom and change its visibility to private (a fork can't be: delete it and use the template). If Claude says it can't tell, for example because you're offline, it will ask you to confirm instead.
• “Git is required” on Windows. Install Git for Windows (step 4) and restart the Claude app.
• Your copy doesn't appear in GitHub Desktop's list. Make sure you're signed in to the same GitHub account you made it with.
• Claude wrote something that isn't true. Tell it, and it will fix it. It's told never to invent experience, but you're the only one who knows what's true, which is why it checks with you so often.

A word on privacy. Your files stay on your computer and in your private GitHub copy. Claude reads them to do the work, so their contents are sent to Anthropic as you go, the same as anything you share in a chat with Claude.

I built this for my own job search and I'm sharing it to help other people with theirs, so I'd really like to know whether it does. Used it for an application? This three-minute form (opens in a new tab) asks how setting it up went, how much time it saved you and whether it helped you get interviews. It's just as useful if you're not technical and got stuck: that's exactly what I need to hear to make this guide better.

• Your answers stay private. I only quote you if you say I can, and only in the way you choose.
• Come back to the same form when you have news, such as an interview or an offer. Use the same name or nickname each time; you don't need to give your email.
• Found something broken? You can also open an issue (opens in a new tab) on GitHub.