TailorbirdCV

Tailor your resume to each job, without inventing anything.

Give TailorbirdCV your CV once. Then, for each job, paste the posting's link. TailorbirdCV:

• works out what the role cares about;
• asks you about anything the job wants that your CV doesn't show;
• writes a tailored resume from your real experience (and a cover letter, if you want one);
• builds a Word document and a PDF, ready to send.

A built-in fact-check makes sure every line comes from your own CV: no made-up numbers, tools, employers or claims. Your name, employers, job titles, dates and education are copied exactly.

TailorbirdCV runs on your own computer (macOS, Windows or Linux) and opens in your browser. The writing is done by the AI you choose.

How it works

Everything except the AI runs on your computer. Your CV becomes your master profile, the only place facts come from. The AI reads the job and writes the draft; TailorbirdCV checks every line against your profile before you see it.

What you need

1. An AI, any one of:
   • a Claude subscription, with Claude Code installed and logged in. No extra cost;
   • a ChatGPT subscription, with Codex installed and logged in. No extra cost;
   • an API key from Anthropic, OpenAI or OpenRouter, paid per use. It's kept in your computer's keychain.
2. Something to make PDFs: Microsoft Word, or the free LibreOffice. Without either, you still get the Word document.

Not sure what you have? Install TailorbirdCV first: its setup wizard checks and shows how to add anything missing.

Install

macOS or Linux: open Terminal, paste this line and press Return:

curl -LsSf https://raw.githubusercontent.com/atenreiro/tailorbirdcv/main/install.sh | sh

Windows: open PowerShell (a normal window, not as administrator), paste this line and press Enter:

irm https://raw.githubusercontent.com/atenreiro/tailorbirdcv/main/install.ps1 | iex

After a minute or two, TailorbirdCV opens in your browser. Keep the Terminal or PowerShell window open while you use it.

Start, stop and update

• Start: run tailorbirdcv serve in Terminal or PowerShell. Your browser opens TailorbirdCV through a private link (also printed in the terminal) that unlocks it in that browser only.
• Stop: press Ctrl+C in that window, or close it.
• Update: when a new version is out, TailorbirdCV says so at the top of the page. Click Upgrade and it restarts by itself. To know, it asks PyPI for the latest version number at most once a day; nothing about you is sent. You can turn this off in Settings → About TailorbirdCV.
• Check your setup: tailorbirdcv doctor.

First run

A short setup wizard (about 5 minutes) checks your computer, connects your AI, reads your CV, then asks about your targets (field, seniority, region, spelling, page limit) and a design (Classic, Modern or Compact).

Your CV is copied word for word, never rewritten. Nothing is saved until you've checked it: any line that doesn't match your file exactly is highlighted for you to fix or confirm.

Moving from another computer? Choose Restore from a backup on the wizard's first page.

Tailoring a resume

1. Click New tailoring and paste the job posting's link (or its text).
2. Brief: see what the role wants and how your experience matches.
3. Gaps: answer questions about what the job wants and your profile doesn't show. No experience? Say so: it stays a gap. TailorbirdCV remembers your answers, so it won't ask the same thing on your next application (it checks again after six months).
4. Review: read the draft, click any line to edit it, and optionally ask for a hiring-manager review.
5. Cover letter (optional): one page in the same design, in a Formal, Warm or Direct tone, checked sentence by sentence like your resume.
6. Export: build the Word document and PDF. Too long? Trim with AI. Room to spare? Fill the page with AI. Both show their suggestions in Review before anything changes.

Then track it under Applications. Marking an application applied keeps a read-only copy of exactly what you sent, and TailorbirdCV studies what you changed from its drafts to suggest style preferences for next time (you approve each one; Settings → Applications turns this off). Found one of your resumes and not sure which version it is? Identify a PDF tells you which application it came from.

The screenshots use a fictional profile and job posting.

Your data and privacy

There's no account, no server and no tracking. Your profile, applications and settings are kept in:

• macOS: ~/Library/Application Support/TailorbirdCV
• Windows: %LOCALAPPDATA%\TailorbirdCV
• Linux: ~/.local/share/TailorbirdCV

Privacy mode (on by default, experimental): your name, email, phone, address and personal links are replaced with placeholders like [NAME] before anything is sent to the AI, and put back afterwards, so your resume still shows them. Your career history is still sent and can identify you, and an unusual spelling can slip through, so use it with care. Settings → Privacy → See what the AI receives shows exactly what is sent.

Company icons: for applications made from a job link, TailorbirdCV fetches the company's icon once, from the company's own website. Turn this off in Settings → Applications.

Backup and restore

Everything lives only on your computer, so keep a backup: Settings → Backup & restore → Download backup saves it all as one .zip. Restore it on any computer from the same page, or from the setup wizard's first page. Restoring never deletes anything: the data it replaces is kept in a before-restore folder. From a terminal: tailorbirdcv backup [file] and tailorbirdcv restore <file>.

If something goes wrong

For developers

To run TailorbirdCV from a copy of this repository you'll also need Node.js, to build the interface once:

uv sync
npm --prefix web install && npm --prefix web run build
uv run tailorbirdcv serve

A copy of the repository keeps your data in its private/ folder (never committed). To use any other folder, set TAILORBIRDCV_PRIVATE to its path.

uv run pytest                                        # tests
npm --prefix web run dev                             # interface with live reload (port 5173)
TAILORBIRDCV_ENGINE=fake uv run tailorbirdcv serve --port 8001   # demo mode, no AI calls

To release a new version: change the number in VERSION (and add a CHANGELOG entry), then push to main (automatic releases are on once the repository variable RELEASES_ENABLED is true). Once CI passes, the release workflow publishes that version to PyPI and tags it, and installed copies offer the upgrade within a day.

The rules TailorbirdCV follows and how the code is laid out are described in CLAUDE.md. Changes are listed in CHANGELOG.md.

Licence

Copyright © 2026 Andre Tenreiro.

TailorbirdCV is free software under the GNU Affero General Public License v3.0 or later (AGPL-3.0-or-later). You may use, study, change and share it. If you share a changed version, or run one for other people over a network (as a website, for example), you must make its full source code available to them under the same licence. It comes with no warranty.

The bundled fonts, Carlito and Gelasio, are under the SIL Open Font License 1.1 (see tailorbirdcv/data/fonts).

The licence doesn't cover the TailorbirdCV name or logo. Please don't use them for a changed version or another service without permission.