TODO.md

Writing Workflow TODO

📋 IMPLEMENTATION TASKS

Phase 1: Foundation & Setup

• Create VERSION file (start at 0.1.0)
• Create setup.sh script
  • Check/install pandoc
  • Check/install yq
  • Check LaTeX installation and provide recommendations
  • Setup shell sourcing (method TBD based on open questions)
• Define YAML configuration structure
• Create example templates structure in templates/

Phase 2: Core Script Improvements

• Fix shell syntax issues in markdown.sh
  • Fix variable assignments (remove spaces around =)
  • Fix function calls and conditionals
  • Add proper error handling
• Implement md2docx reference file resolution
• Implement format-template function
  • Read .writing.yml configuration
  • Template variable substitution (name, email, etc.)
  • Dynamic date generation ({{date}} → "Month Day, Year")
  • Proper markdown URL formatting (email → email)
  • Handle missing template or config gracefully
• Implement job-apply function
  • Parameter validation
  • Directory creation
  • Use format-template() instead of cp
  • YAML metadata creation
  • Job description scraping
• Implement job-status function
  • Find application across status directories
  • Show current status
  • Move between status directories
• Implement job-log function
  • Summary by status
  • Detailed listings
  • Date/time information

Phase 3: Enhanced Features

• Add configuration file support
  • Default template selection
  • Output directory preferences
  • User-specific settings
• Improve url-scrape function
  • Better error handling
  • Content validation
  • Metadata extraction
  • Custom Chrome path support
• Add template validation
  • Check required templates exist
  • Validate YAML frontmatter
  • Template compatibility checks
• Advanced customization
  • Custom path/naming convention overrides
  • Auto-format on markdown changes (file watching)
  • Template variable substitution from config
  • Git commit workflow for job applications
    • Add job-commit function
    • Auto-generate commit messages from application metadata
    • Handle git add for application files
    • Example: "Added application for Acme Corp, Engineering Manager"

Phase 4: Documentation & Polish

• Add inline documentation to all functions
• Create usage examples
• Add error recovery suggestions
• Performance optimizations
• Cross-platform compatibility testing

Phase 5: VSCode Integration & Developer Experience

• Research and document recommended VSCode extensions
  • Markdown editing (Markdown All in One)
  • YAML editing (YAML)
  • Shell script support (ShellCheck)
  • File organization (File Utils)
  • Template snippets support
• Create .vscode/settings.json with optimal configuration
  • Markdown preview settings
  • File associations for .writing.yml
  • Auto-formatting preferences
  • Workspace-specific settings
• Create .vscode/tasks.json for workflow integration
  • job-apply task with input prompts
  • job-format task for current file/directory
  • job-status task with application picker
  • Quick format tasks (md2docx, md2pdf)
  • Template generation tasks
• Create .vscode/extensions.json with recommended extensions
  • Core markdown and YAML support
  • Optional productivity extensions
  • Shell script linting
• Add VSCode snippets for template variables
  • Company/position placeholder snippets
  • Personal info variable snippets
  • Quick resume/cover letter section snippets
• Create workspace configuration for multi-root workspace
  • Support separate blog/ and applications/ folders
  • Consistent settings across project types

Phase 6: Quality & Testing

• Test all functions with various inputs
• Validate pandoc output formats
• Test Chrome/curl fallback scenarios
• Verify file permissions and paths
• Test setup.sh on clean systems
• Test VSCode integration on clean installs

---

🔄 VERSION HISTORY PLAN

• 0.1.0: Initial TODO and basic structure
• 0.2.0: Core script functionality working
• 0.3.0: Job application workflow complete
• 0.4.0: Configuration and templates finalized
• 1.0.0: Ready for public template repo

---

📝 NOTES

• Increment VERSION on every commit
• Only minor version bump (0.X.0) for breaking changes
• Only major version bump (1.0.0) for public release
• Keep existing blog/ and job_search/ directories untouched
• Focus on simplicity and clear documentation
• Test each feature thoroughly before moving to next item