settl.ai

AI-powered career platform for newcomers to Canada. Built at Hack The Globe 2026.

Stack

Layer	Tech
Frontend	Next.js 14 (App Router, TypeScript)
Backend	FastAPI (Python 3.11)
Database	PostgreSQL on Neon (SQLAlchemy)
Auth	Clerk (JWT, business role via metadata)
AI	Claude API (claude-sonnet-4-6)
PDF	tectonic (LaTeX → PDF), pypdf (PDF text extraction)

Features

Job Board & Tracker

• Job Board — browse, filter, and post local job listings (filter by skill, location, long-term / short-term)
• Job Tracker — add any job from the internet; track application status (Saved → Applied → Interview → Offer → Rejected)
• Business Management — register a business, post jobs, edit and delete listings from a dashboard

AI Tools

• AI Career Counselor — Claude analyzes your profile against live job listings and returns a personalised roadmap, matched jobs, and resource recommendations
• Skills Gap Analysis — per-job breakdown of matching/missing skills and how to close the gap
• Interview Prep — Claude generates tailored interview questions and answer frameworks for any job
• Jargon Translator — translates Canadian workplace jargon in job descriptions into plain language with a glossary
• First-Week Cultural Prep — cultural onboarding tips specific to the job (workplace norms, hierarchy, communication)
• Cold Outreach Email — generates a professional cold outreach email for any job posting
• Cover Letter Generator — Claude writes a tailored cover letter (with SSE streaming)
• Resume Import — upload a PDF; Claude parses it and auto-populates your profile
• Resume Generator — generates a polished PDF resume from your profile via LaTeX (tectonic)
• Salary Insights — Claude estimates salary ranges for any role, location, and skill set

Education & Rights

• Canadian Workplace Culture Quiz — interactive multiple-choice quiz (6 categories) with streak tracking
• Know Your Rights — Canadian employment law reference with province-specific minimum wage data
• Paycheck Explainer — breaks down gross salary into deductions (CPP, EI, income tax) by province

Platform

• Multilingual — full UI and AI responses in 8 languages: English, French, Spanish, Hindi, Tagalog, Punjabi, Mandarin, Korean
• Dark Mode — toggleable, persisted to localStorage, custom deep-navy palette
• User Profile — manage skills, experience, education, certifications, target roles, language preference, and province

Project Structure

HTGProject/
├── backend/
│   ├── main.py                 # FastAPI app, CORS, router registration
│   ├── database.py             # SQLAlchemy engine + session
│   ├── schemas.py              # Pydantic request/response schemas
│   ├── models/
│   │   ├── job.py              # Job model (public + personal tracked jobs)
│   │   ├── profile.py          # User career profile
│   │   └── business.py         # Business registration
│   ├── routes/
│   │   ├── jobs.py             # Job board, tracker, and all AI tool endpoints
│   │   ├── profile.py          # GET/PUT /api/profile
│   │   ├── businesses.py       # Business registration + job management
│   │   ├── counsel.py          # AI career counselor (+ SSE stream)
│   │   ├── resume.py           # Import, generate PDF, cover letter (+ SSE stream)
│   │   ├── quiz.py             # Cultural quiz generation + evaluation
│   │   ├── paycheck.py         # Paycheck deduction explainer
│   │   ├── outreach.py         # Cold outreach email generator
│   │   ├── insights.py         # Salary insights
│   │   └── auth.py             # Role management
│   ├── services/
│   │   ├── auth.py             # Clerk JWT verification (JWKS)
│   │   └── claude_service.py   # All Claude API calls
│   ├── tectonic                # Bundled LaTeX compiler binary (Linux x86-64)
│   ├── requirements.txt
│   └── .env                    # Secrets (not committed)
└── frontend/
    ├── app/
    │   ├── layout.tsx           # Root layout: nav, Clerk provider
    │   ├── globals.css          # Tailwind base + dark mode CSS variables
    │   ├── page.tsx             # Landing / home
    │   ├── jobs/
    │   │   ├── page.tsx         # Job board with category/skill/location filters
    │   │   ├── [id]/page.tsx    # Job detail + all AI tool panels
    │   │   ├── post/page.tsx    # Post a job (business only)
    │   │   └── tracked/page.tsx # Personal job tracker
    │   ├── business/
    │   │   ├── register/page.tsx
    │   │   └── manage/page.tsx  # Business job dashboard (edit/delete)
    │   ├── counsel/page.tsx     # AI career counselor
    │   ├── resume/page.tsx      # Resume import + PDF generator
    │   ├── outreach/page.tsx    # Cold outreach email helper
    │   ├── quiz/page.tsx        # Workplace culture quiz
    │   ├── rights/page.tsx      # Know your rights + paycheck explainer
    │   ├── paycheck/page.tsx    # Standalone paycheck calculator
    │   ├── profile/page.tsx     # Profile editor
    │   └── cover-letter/[jobId]/page.tsx
    ├── components/
    │   ├── Nav.tsx              # Navbar with Tools dropdown
    │   ├── JobCard.tsx          # Job card with skill match % and category badge
    │   ├── CounselorResult.tsx  # Career counselor output (roadmap, jobs, recs)
    │   └── ThemeToggle.tsx      # Dark mode toggle
    ├── contexts/
    │   └── LanguageContext.tsx  # i18n provider (8 languages)
    ├── lib/
    │   ├── api.ts               # All fetch wrappers to backend
    │   ├── types.ts             # Shared TypeScript interfaces
    │   └── translations.ts      # All UI strings for all 8 languages
    └── .env.local               # Frontend env vars (not committed)

Local Development

Prerequisites

• Python 3.11+
• Node.js 18+
• PostgreSQL connection string (Neon)

Backend

cd backend
pip3 install -r requirements.txt
python3 -m uvicorn main:app --reload --port 8000

Frontend

cd frontend
npm install
npm run dev

Frontend runs on http://localhost:3000, backend on http://localhost:8000.

Environment Variables

backend/.env

DATABASE_URL=postgresql://...
CLERK_SECRET_KEY=sk_test_...
CLERK_PUBLISHABLE_KEY=pk_test_...
ANTHROPIC_API_KEY=sk-ant-...
CORS_ORIGINS=http://localhost:3000

frontend/.env.local

NEXT_PUBLIC_CLERK_PUBLISHABLE_KEY=pk_test_...
CLERK_SECRET_KEY=sk_test_...
NEXT_PUBLIC_API_URL=http://localhost:8000

Key Implementation Notes

• tectonic binary lives at backend/tectonic (Linux x86-64). On macOS download the macOS build from tectonic-typesetting/tectonic releases.
• Personal job tracker + AI tools — personal and public jobs share the same jobs table. The GET /api/jobs/{id} endpoint returns any job by UUID (no is_personal filter) so tracker jobs get full access to all AI features.
• Multilingual AI — every Claude prompt prepends a language instruction derived from the user's preferred_language profile field. No translation layer; Claude responds natively in each language.
• Resume name — the PDF generator calls Clerk's backend API (GET /v1/users/{id}) with CLERK_SECRET_KEY to fetch the user's real name and email at generation time.
• Business role — set role: "business" in Clerk public metadata to enable job posting. The /api/auth/role endpoint handles this via the app's role selection flow.
• Neon + port 5432 — some public/institutional WiFi blocks outbound connections on port 5432. Switch to a hotspot if you see unexpected database connection errors.