---
title: "incipit"
description: "Here begins the new career. A template-driven CLI that transforms structured resume data into polished PDF, DOCX, HTML, LaTeX, and Markdown, with pluggable templates and ready-to-pipe AI prompts for resume review, optimization, and creation."
kind: project
status: active
language: "Go"
stars: 12
githubUrl: https://github.com/urmzd/incipit
pushedAt: 2026-10-18
tags: ["agent-skill", "ai", "automation", "career-tools", "cli", "cv", "docx", "go", "html", "incipit", "latex", "markdown", "pdf", "resume", "resume-builder", "showcase", "template", "template-engine"]
---

# incipit

Here begins the new career. A template-driven CLI that transforms structured resume data into polished PDF, DOCX, HTML, LaTeX, and Markdown, with pluggable templates and ready-to-pipe AI prompts for resume review, optimization, and creation.

- GitHub: https://github.com/urmzd/incipit

<p align="center">
  <h1 align="center">Incipit</h1>
  <p align="center">
    <em>Here begins the new career.</em>
    <br />
    A CLI tool that converts structured resume data (JSON/Markdown) into polished PDFs, HTML, LaTeX, DOCX, and Markdown, with AI-powered review, optimization, and creation.
    <br /><br />
    <a href="https://github.com/urmzd/incipit/releases">Download</a>
    &middot;
    <a href="https://github.com/urmzd/incipit/issues">Report Bug</a>
    &middot;
    <a href="https://github.com/urmzd/incipit/tree/main/assets">Examples</a>
  </p>
</p>

<p align="center">
  <a href="https://github.com/urmzd/incipit/actions/workflows/ci.yml"><img src="https://github.com/urmzd/incipit/actions/workflows/ci.yml/badge.svg" alt="CI"></a>
  &nbsp;
  <a href="LICENSE"><img src="https://img.shields.io/github/license/urmzd/incipit" alt="License"></a>
</p>

<br />

<p align="center">
  <img src="showcase/demo-cli.gif" alt="CLI Demo" width="80%">
</p>

## Output Examples

<p align="center">
  <img src="showcase/modern-html.png" alt="Modern HTML" width="30%">
  &nbsp;
  <img src="showcase/modern-latex.png" alt="Modern LaTeX" width="30%">
  &nbsp;
  <img src="showcase/modern-cv.png" alt="Modern CV" width="30%">
</p>
<p align="center">
  <em>Modern HTML &nbsp;&middot;&nbsp; Modern LaTeX &nbsp;&middot;&nbsp; Modern CV</em>
</p>

## Features

- **Multiple Output Formats**: generate PDFs from LaTeX or HTML templates, plus native DOCX and Markdown
- **Data-Driven**: provide resume content as JSON or Markdown; the tool handles rendering
- **Template System**: modular templates with embedded assets; customize or create your own
- **AI Prompts**: generate ready-to-use LLM prompts to review, optimize, and create resumes; pipe them to any LLM or agent
- **Flexible Paths**: supports `~`, relative paths, and creates dated output workspaces with a `latest/` index pointing at the newest run
- **Schema Generation**: export JSON Schema for IDE autocompletion and validation

## Install

### Pre-built Binary

```bash
curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/urmzd/incipit/main/install.sh | sh
```

Supports **macOS** (Intel & Apple Silicon) and **Linux** (x86_64 & arm64). After installation, run `incipit` from anywhere.

### Build from Source

```bash
git clone https://github.com/urmzd/incipit.git
cd incipit
go install ./cmd/incipit
```

## Quick Start

```bash
# Generate PDF with a specific template
incipit generate assets/example_resumes/software_engineer.json -t modern-html

# Generate with all templates
incipit generate assets/example_resumes/software_engineer.json

# Generate an editable DOCX
incipit generate resume.json -t modern-docx

# Validate input data
incipit generate resume.json --dry-run

# List available templates
incipit templates list

# AI: prompt to create a resume from plain text
incipit ai create resume.txt | claude -p > resume.json

# AI: prompt to review a resume
incipit ai review resume.json | claude -p

# AI: prompt to optimize for a job description
incipit ai optimize resume.json --job "Senior Go developer..."
```

## CLI Usage

### Generate

```bash
# Single template
incipit generate resume.json -t modern-html

# Multiple templates
incipit generate resume.json -t modern-html -t modern-latex

# Custom output directory
incipit generate resume.json -o outputs/custom -t modern-html
```

Each run writes to a timestamped directory under `<output-dir>/<resume-slug>/`. A `latest/` index directory alongside them always mirrors the most recent run, so the newest files are at a stable path:

```
outputs/software_engineer/
├── 2026-06-11_21-44/Jane_Doe.modern-html.pdf   # this run
└── latest/Jane_Doe.modern-html.pdf             # always the newest
```

### AI Commands

The `ai` subcommands print self-contained LLM prompts to stdout. No API keys or network access required. Paste a prompt into any LLM, or pipe it to a CLI agent like `claude -p`.

```bash
# Prompt to convert plain text into structured JSON (schema embedded)
incipit ai create resume.txt | claude -p > resume.json

# Prompt to review/score a resume across four dimensions
incipit ai review resume.json | claude -p

# Prompt to optimize a resume, optionally for a specific role
incipit ai optimize resume.json --job "Senior Go developer at a startup..."
incipit ai optimize resume.json --job job-description.txt | claude -p > optimized.json
```

### Other Commands

```bash
incipit generate resume.json --dry-run  # Validate and preview as JSON
incipit generate --schema               # Export JSON Schema
incipit templates list                   # List templates
incipit templates engines               # Check LaTeX engines
```

## Input Formats

Resumes are provided as **JSON** files. Use `incipit generate --schema` to get the full JSON Schema.

To convert freeform text to structured JSON, use `incipit ai create` to generate a conversion prompt for your LLM of choice.

## Prerequisites

- **Go 1.25+**
- **TeX Live** (only for LaTeX templates)
- **Chromium**: auto-downloaded by Rod on first use, or set `ROD_BROWSER_BIN`
- [just](https://github.com/casey/just) (optional, for helper commands)

## Templates

Built-in templates live in `templates/`, one folder per template with a `metadata.yml` and template file:

| Template | Format | Output |
|----------|--------|--------|
| `modern-html` | HTML | PDF via Chromium |
| `modern-latex` | LaTeX | PDF via TeX Live |
| `modern-cv` | LaTeX | PDF via TeX Live |
| `modern-docx` | DOCX | Word document |
| `modern-markdown` | Markdown | `.md` file |

Create your own by adding a `templates/<name>/` directory with `metadata.yml` + template file.

## Agent Skill

This repo's conventions are available as portable agent skills in [`skills/`](skills/), following the [Agent Skills Specification](https://agentskills.io/specification).

Once installed, use `/resume` to create, review, optimize, and generate resumes from your agent.

## Contributing

Contributions welcome. See [CONTRIBUTING.md](CONTRIBUTING.md) for guidelines.

## License

Apache 2.0