Apply Kit for Claude

Paste a job ad, get a tailored CV and cover letter as print-ready PDFs. Written from your real experience, in your own voice, and never with a number you haven't confirmed.

Runs in Claude Code, inside the Claude desktop app. Free and open source (MIT).

 

Example documents for a fictional applicant, made with this kit. The PDFs are in examples/output/.

Why it exists

I built it for my own job search: 89 applications between February and June 2026, 65 of them with a tailored CV, 42 rejections, 7 interviews, and the job I wanted. Somewhere along the way my own CVs started contradicting each other, so the whole process is built around one rule: nothing goes into an application unless you've confirmed it.

What it does

1. Sets up once, in about 15 minutes. Claude reads your old CV and LinkedIn profile, lays your career out as one timeline and asks about anything that doesn't add up between them. You finish with your first CV as a PDF.
2. Checks every job ad honestly. What matches, what's missing, and whether the role sits below or above what you're aiming for. Including "this one isn't worth your time".
3. Writes the CV and cover letter for that job, in English or German, from your confirmed facts only. Before any PDF is made, a script checks every number in the documents against your profile, including numbers written as words.
4. Makes real PDFs: selectable text that application systems can read, letters fitted to one page, page breaks between roles, never in the middle of one.

What you need

• The Claude desktop app and a paid Claude plan that includes Claude Code
• Node.js, free, for making the PDFs
• Your current CV as a PDF. A LinkedIn profile saved as PDF helps too. Expand every "see more" on LinkedIn before you save it, otherwise the export cuts your roles off.

Tested on macOS. Claude Code and Node.js both run on Windows, so it should work there too.

Setup, about 5 minutes

1. Install Node.js. Go to nodejs.org, download the version marked LTS, and install it like any other program. If the Claude app is open, quit and reopen it afterwards.
2. Get the kit. On GitHub, click Code, then Download ZIP, and unzip it somewhere you'll find it again, for example in Documents. Or git clone it.
3. Open it in Claude Code. In the Claude desktop app, switch to Code, choose to open a folder, and select the kit's folder. If Claude asks whether you trust the folder, say yes.
4. Type "hi". Claude takes it from there.

Then, for every job

Paste the ad, or a link to it. Claude tells you how well it fits. If you go ahead, it writes a CV and a cover letter for that job, checks every number, and makes the PDFs.

Optional, when you have 20 minutes: say "deepen my profile". A short interview about your roles gives your letters real stories, and noticeably better ones.

Layouts

The kit comes with the Classic layout: serif name, centred header, dates on the right.

The Layout Pack adds eight more, for 19 € or $19:

• Modern, Compact and Margin: one column, for careers that need two pages.
• DIN 5008: the formal German business letter, with the address placed for a window envelope, and a tabular CV to match.
• Statement, Mono, Sidebar and Poster: two columns on one page, each with an optional photo.

Layouts can be mixed: a DIN 5008 letter next to a CV in another layout, for example.

Your data

Everything you add stays in this folder on your computer. The kit has no account, no server and no cloud storage. The only place your information goes is to Claude, during your conversation, under your Claude plan's terms. Your profile, applications and PDFs are excluded in .gitignore, so they stay out of version control if you fork the kit.

Claude asks before it opens a web link, such as a job ad. That's deliberate: this folder holds your personal data, so nothing gets fetched without your OK.

What's in the folder

• profile/: your facts. Claude builds and updates these with you.
• applications/: your CVs, letters and the job ads, plus a log of every application.
• output/: your finished PDFs.
• examples/: a fictional person's complete set, to see what the kit produces.
• themes/: installed layouts besides Classic.
• renderer/, guide/, .claude/: the kit itself.

If something doesn't work

• Claude says Node.js is missing, though you installed it: quit and reopen the Claude app.
• The first PDF takes a while: the kit downloads its PDF engine once, about 100 MB.
• A job link won't load: many job sites need a login. Copy the ad's text and paste it in.

Bugs and ideas: open an issue on GitHub.

Kurz auf Deutsch

1. Node.js (Version LTS) von nodejs.org installieren, danach die Claude-App neu starten.
2. Das Kit herunterladen (auf GitHub: Code, dann Download ZIP) und z. B. unter Dokumente entpacken.
3. In der Claude-App auf Code wechseln und den Ordner öffnen.
4. „Hallo“ schreiben. Claude führt durch die Einrichtung, auf Deutsch, wenn Sie Deutsch schreiben.

Danach: Stellenanzeige einfügen, Claude prüft, wie gut sie passt, und schreibt Lebenslauf und Anschreiben als PDF. Das Layout Pack (19 €) bringt acht weitere Layouts, darunter das Anschreiben nach DIN 5008 mit tabellarischem Lebenslauf und vier zweispaltige Layouts mit optionalem Foto.

Licence

The kit is MIT licensed, see LICENSE. Layout packs are sold separately under their own licence. Made by Sven Read, a product designer near Munich.