resume-forge

name	resume-forge
description	Convert a Markdown resume into a professionally formatted PDF with multiple style options and ATS optimization. Use this skill when the user asks to create a resume, format a resume, convert a resume to PDF, build a CV, generate a professional resume, make a resume ATS-friendly, or restyle an existing resume. Triggers include: 'resume', 'CV', 'curriculum vitae', 'resume PDF', 'format my resume', 'ATS-friendly resume', 'professional resume', or any mention of creating career documents from markdown or plain text. Do NOT use for: cover letters, job searching, interview preparation, LinkedIn profile optimization, or portfolio websites.
license	Apache-2.0
compatibility	Requires Python 3.10+ and weasyprint. No network access needed.
metadata	{"author":"abvijaykumar","version":"1.0.0","last-updated":"2026-03-17","category":"document-generation","tags":"resume, pdf, career, formatting"}
allowed-tools	Bash(python3:*) Bash(pip:*) Read Write

Resume Forge — Markdown to Professional PDF

Transform a plain Markdown resume into a polished, ATS-optimized PDF.

Quick Start

For a fast conversion with the modern template:

python3 scripts/generate_pdf.py --input resume.md --style modern --output resume.pdf

For the full guided workflow with validation, follow the steps below.

Available Scripts

• scripts/parse_resume.py — Parses Markdown resume into structured JSON
• scripts/validate_resume.py — Checks for missing sections, formatting issues, ATS problems
• scripts/generate_pdf.py — Renders the final PDF from structured JSON + HTML/CSS template

Workflow

Progress:

• Step 1: Obtain the Markdown resume
• Step 2: Parse into structured JSON (scripts/parse_resume.py)
• Step 3: Validate structure and content (scripts/validate_resume.py)
• Step 4: Fix any validation issues (loop until clean)
• Step 5: Select style and generate PDF (scripts/generate_pdf.py)
• Step 6: Final review and delivery

Step 1: Obtain the Markdown Resume

Ask the user for their resume in Markdown format. If they don't have one, help them create one following the structure in assets/sample_input.md.

The expected Markdown structure uses H1 for the name, H2 for sections, and standard Markdown formatting for content. Example:

# Jane Smith
**Email:** [e-mail] | **Phone:** 555-0100 | **Location:** San Francisco, CA

## Summary
Senior software engineer with 8 years of experience...

## Experience
### Senior Engineer — Acme Corp (2020–Present)
- Led migration of monolith to microservices...

## Education
### B.S. Computer Science — MIT (2016)

## Skills
Python, Go, Kubernetes, AWS, PostgreSQL

Save the input as resume.md in the working directory.

Step 2: Parse into Structured JSON

python3 scripts/parse_resume.py --input resume.md --output parsed.json

This extracts:

• Contact information (name, email, phone, location, links)
• Sections in order (summary, experience, education, skills, etc.)
• Structured entries with titles, organizations, dates, and bullet points

Review parsed.json to confirm the structure was extracted correctly. If the parser misidentified sections, the Markdown headings may need adjustment.

Step 3: Validate

python3 scripts/validate_resume.py parsed.json

The validator checks for:

• Missing critical sections (experience, education, skills)
• Empty sections with no content
• Contact info completeness (name, email minimum)
• Date format consistency
• Bullet point quality (starts with action verb, reasonable length)
• ATS compatibility issues (no tables, images, or special characters)

Step 4: Fix and Re-validate

If validation reports issues:

1. Read the specific error messages — they explain what's wrong and how to fix it
2. Edit resume.md to address the issues
3. Re-run Step 2 (parse) and Step 3 (validate)
4. Only proceed to Step 5 when validation passes with zero errors

Common fixes:

• "Missing section: Skills" → Add an ## Skills section
• "No action verb" → Rewrite bullet to start with Led, Built, Designed, etc.
• "Date format inconsistent" → Standardize to YYYY–Present or YYYY–YYYY

Step 5: Select Style and Generate PDF

Ask the user which style they prefer:

Style	Description	Best For
modern	Clean sans-serif, subtle color accents, generous whitespace	Tech, startup, design roles
classic	Traditional serif font, conservative layout, no color	Finance, law, academia, government
compact	Dense layout, smaller margins, fits more content	Experienced professionals with extensive history

Templates live in assets/. Each is a self-contained HTML+CSS file.

Generate the PDF:

python3 scripts/generate_pdf.py --input parsed.json --style modern --output resume.pdf

For ATS-specific optimization, read references/ats-optimization.md before generating — it contains keyword placement strategies and formatting rules that affect how ATS parsers score the resume.

For industry-specific styling guidance (font choices, section ordering, what to emphasize), read references/industry-styles.md only if the user specifies a target industry.

Step 6: Final Review

Before delivering the PDF:

• Open and visually inspect it — confirm no text is cut off or overflowing
• Verify all sections from parsed.json appear in the PDF
• Check that contact info renders correctly at the top
• Confirm the style matches what the user requested
• If the user wanted ATS optimization, verify plain text extractability:

  python3 -c "
  import pdfplumber
  with pdfplumber.open('resume.pdf') as pdf:
      for page in pdf.pages:
          print(page.extract_text())
  "
  

Gotchas

• WeasyPrint font rendering: WeasyPrint uses system fonts. If a template specifies a font not installed on the system, it silently falls back to a default serif font. The scripts install the required fonts automatically, but if output looks wrong, check font availability first.
• Page overflow: Long resumes may push content onto a second page with awkward breaks mid-section. The compact style handles this better. For modern and classic, the script auto-adjusts font size down by 0.5pt increments if content exceeds one page — but only down to 9pt minimum.
• Special characters in names: Accented characters (é, ñ, ü) work fine in the PDF but may break some ATS parsers. The validator warns about this.
• Markdown parsing edge cases: The parser expects ## for sections and ### for sub-entries. Using **bold text** as a section header instead of proper heading syntax will cause the parser to miss that section entirely.
• Date ranges with em-dashes vs hyphens: Use – (en-dash) not - (hyphen) for date ranges (2020–2024). The parser normalizes both, but the PDF renders en-dashes. If the source uses --, it converts automatically.
• Link formatting: URLs in contact info should use Markdown link syntax [text](url). Raw URLs work but look unprofessional in the PDF output.