Installation

Installation

Apply Desk runs on Linux (or WSL2 on Windows). Drafting compiles CVs with TeX inside a bubblewrap sandbox, which is Linux-only. Search, scoring, Gmail and the dashboard run anywhere Python does.

Requirements

Tool	Why	Install
Python 3.11+	the app	your package manager
bun	job-search CLIs and building the dashboard	curl -fsSL https://bun.sh/install | bash
TinyTeX in ~/.TinyTeX	compiling CVs (lualatex) and cover letters (xelatex)	SETUP.md section 1
bubblewrap	the TeX sandbox	dnf install bubblewrap / apt install bubblewrap
poppler-utils	pdftotext, pdfinfo for verification	dnf install poppler-utils / apt install poppler-utils
Claude Code (optional)	the /setup profile interview and subscription login	curl -fsSL https://claude.ai/install.sh | bash

Get the code

Use a private copy for your real job search: /setup writes personal data into tracked files, and a GitHub fork is always public.

# private copy (recommended)
git clone https://github.com/gysosin/apply-desk.git
cd apply-desk
git remote rename origin upstream
# then create a private repo on GitHub and: git remote add origin <your-private-repo-url>

Forking (gh repo fork gysosin/apply-desk --clone) is for contributing changes back.

Install

python3 -m venv .venv
.venv/bin/pip install -r app/requirements.txt
(cd app/web && bun install && bun run build)
for t in linkedin-search freehire-search; do (cd .agents/skills/$t/cli && bun install); done

Check it

.venv/bin/python -m app selftest

It checks bun, lualatex, xelatex, pdftotext, pdfinfo, the dashboard login and Claude access, and prints ok or MISSING for each.

Next: Claude Access, then First Run.