Development

Development

Prerequisites

Install Node.js (LTS, v18 or newer) from https://nodejs.org. This gives you node and npm.

Check it's installed:

node -v
npm -v

On Windows, also have Git (optional, for version control) and a code editor like VS Code.

Setup

npm install

Run in development (hot reload)

npm run dev

This starts Vite and opens the Electron app pointing at it. Edits to React files refresh live.

Run the production build locally

npm start

Package installers (.exe / .dmg / AppImage)

npm run dist

Output lands in the release/ folder. On Windows you'll get an NSIS installer and a portable .exe. macOS .dmg builds can't be cross-compiled from Windows/Linux — see .github/workflows/build-mac.yml, which builds it on a GitHub Actions macOS runner instead.

Project structure

electron/
  main.cjs      Electron main process — window, file save/load, PDF export
  preload.cjs   Safe bridge between UI and file system
src/
  main.jsx      React entry
  App.jsx       Layout, toolbar, state
  Editor.jsx    Left-side form
  Preview.jsx   Right-side live resume render (2 templates)
  data.js       The resume JSON model
  ai.js         AI stub — fill in later
  styles.css    All styling + print rules

Adding AI later

See the comments in src/ai.js. The key rule: do the actual API call in electron/main.cjs (the main process) so your API key is never exposed in the UI. Expose it through preload.cjs the same way save/load/export work, then call it from ai.js.