CV - Resume Builder

A template engine that generates HTML and PDF resumes from a single JSON data source.

Quick Start

# Install dependencies
bun install

# Start development server with live reload
bun dev

# Build HTML and PDF for production
bun run build

# Build HTML only (faster)
bun run build:html

Outputs are generated in the docs/ folder.

Development Server

Start the dev server for real-time preview:

bun dev

This starts a local server at http://localhost:3000 with:

• Live reload - Browser auto-refreshes when files change
• File watching - Monitors resume.json, src/html/, and public/
• Hot reloading - Uses Bun's --hot mode for instant server updates without restart
• Fast rebuilds - Only rebuilds HTML (skips PDF for speed)

The dev server is ideal for iterating on your resume content and styling. When you're ready to generate the final PDF, run bun run build.

Private Resume

For sensitive information (phone number, address, etc.) that shouldn't be in the public resume:

1. Create .hidden/secret.json with private data:

{
  "contact": {
    "phone": "+1 (555) 123-4567"
  }
}

2. Run bun run build - this generates:
   • docs/<name>_cv.pdf - Public version (no phone)
   • .hidden/<name>_cv.pdf - Private version (with phone)

PDF filenames are automatically generated from the name field (e.g., "Juan Almanza" → juan_almanza_cv.pdf).

The .hidden/ folder is gitignored. The secret data is deep-merged with resume.json, so you can override any field.

Prerequisites

• Bun - JavaScript runtime
• LaTeX with pdflatex (for PDF generation)

# macOS
brew install texlive

# Ubuntu/Debian
sudo apt-get install texlive-full

# Windows
# Install MiKTeX or TeX Live

Project Structure

cv/
├── resume.json          # Your resume data (edit this)
├── .hidden/             # Private data (gitignored)
│   ├── secret.json      # Sensitive info (phone, etc.)
│   └── <name>_cv.pdf    # Private PDF with all data
├── src/
│   ├── engine.ts        # Template engine core
│   ├── index.ts         # Build script
│   ├── dev.ts           # Development server
│   ├── html/
│   │   └── index.html   # HTML template
│   └── latex/
│       └── resume.tex   # LaTeX template
├── public/
│   └── theme.css        # HTML styling
└── docs/                # Build output (public)
    ├── index.html
    └── <name>_cv.pdf

Data Schema

Edit resume.json with your information:

{
  "name": "Your Name",
  "location": "City, State",
  "contact": {
    "email": "you@example.com",
    "website": { "label": "yoursite.com", "url": "https://yoursite.com" },
    "github": { "label": "username", "url": "https://github.com/username" }
  },
  "education": [
    {
      "institution": "University",
      "degree": "BS in Field",
      "duration": "Aug 2020 – May 2024",
      "highlights": ["**Coursework:** Subject 1, Subject 2"]
    }
  ],
  "experience": [
    {
      "company": "Company",
      "position": "Title",
      "location": "City, State",
      "duration": "Jan 2023 – Present",
      "highlights": [
        "Achievement with **bold** emphasis and metrics."
      ]
    }
  ],
  "projects": [
    {
      "name": "Project Name",
      "url": "https://project.com",
      "url_label": "project.com",
      "highlights": ["Description of what you built."]
    }
  ],
  "volunteering": [
    { "org": "Organization", "description": "What you did." }
  ],
  "honors": [
    { "title": "Award", "description": "Details", "year": "2024" }
  ],
  "skills": [
    { "category": "Languages", "items": "Python, JavaScript, C++" }
  ]
}

Template Syntax

Variable Substitution

Access data using dot notation for nested values.

HTML templates:

<h1>{{name}}</h1>
<p>{{contact.email.personal}}</p>

LaTeX templates (use @{...}@ to avoid conflicts with LaTeX syntax):

\textbf{@{name}@}
\href{mailto:@{contact.email.personal}@}{Email}

Template Includes

Include other template files using <<path>>. Paths are relative to the current template's directory.

<!-- In src/html/index.html -->
<<header.html>>
<<components/email.html>>

% In src/latex/resume.tex
<<sections/education.tex>>

Loops

Iterate over arrays with [[for item in array]]:

[[for job in experience]]
<div class="job">
  <h3>{{job.company}}</h3>
  <p>{{job.position}}</p>
  [[for task in job.responsibilities]]
  <li>{{task}}</li>
  [[endfor]]
</div>
[[endfor]]

Loops can be nested. The inner loop accesses the parent's iterator variable.

Conditionals

Show content only if a field exists:

[[if contact.phone]]
<p>Phone: {{contact.phone}}</p>
[[endif]]

[[if contact.phone]] $\cdot$ \phone{@{contact.phone}@}[[endif]]

Conditionals can be nested and work with any field path.

LaTeX alternative syntax with {{#each}}:

{{#each skills}}
\item {{this}}
{{/each}}

Bold Text

Use markdown-style **bold** in your JSON data:

{
  "summary": "Expert in **machine learning** and **data analysis**."
}

This automatically converts to:

• HTML: <strong>machine learning</strong>
• LaTeX: \textbf{machine learning}

Special Behaviors

Email Obfuscation

Email addresses in HTML are automatically formatted as user [at] domain.com for spam protection. This does not apply to mailto: links, which preserve the original format.

LaTeX Character Escaping

These characters are automatically escaped in LaTeX output:

Character	Escaped As
\	\textbackslash{}
&	\&
%	\%
$	\$
#	\#
_	\_
{	\{
}	\}
^	\textasciicircum{}
~	\textasciitilde{}

PDF Generation

The build process runs pdflatex twice to ensure proper resolution of references and links. Temporary files (.aux, .log, .out) are automatically cleaned up.

Customization

Styling

• HTML: Edit public/theme.css for web styling
• LaTeX: Modify packages and formatting in src/latex/resume.tex

Adding Sections

1. Create a new template file (e.g., src/html/publications.html)
2. Add the include directive to the main template: <<publications.html>>
3. Add corresponding data to resume.json

Creating Components

Reusable components go in src/html/components/. Include them with:

<<components/social-link.html>>

Troubleshooting

PDF generation fails

1. Verify pdflatex is installed: which pdflatex
2. Check for LaTeX syntax errors in the console output
3. Ensure all required LaTeX packages are installed
4. Look for unescaped special characters (the engine handles most, but custom LaTeX code needs manual escaping)

Variables not rendering

1. Check for typos in variable names
2. Verify the path matches your JSON structure (use dot notation: contact.email.personal)
3. Ensure arrays use the correct [[for]] syntax

Build errors

1. Run bun install to ensure dependencies are installed
2. Check that resume.json is valid JSON (no trailing commas, proper quotes)

Engine API

The template engine exports these functions for programmatic use:

import { compile, read, write, minifyHTML } from "./src/engine";

// Compile a template with data
const html = compile("html/index.html", resumeData);

// Read a file relative to src/
const content = read("../resume.json");

// Write a file relative to src/
write("../docs/output.html", content);

// Minify HTML output
const minified = minifyHTML(html);

License

MIT