fluentCV

Create polished résumés and CVs in multiple formats from your command line or shell. Author in clean Markdown and JSON, export to Word, HTML, PDF, LaTeX, plain text, and other arbitrary formats.

FluentCV is a dev-friendly, local-only Swiss Army knife for resumes and CVs. Use it to:

1. Generate HTML, Markdown, LaTeX, MS Word, PDF, plain text, JSON, XML, YAML, print, smoke signal, carrier pigeon, and other arbitrary-format resumes and CVs, from a single source of truth—without violating DRY.
2. Convert resumes between FRESH and JSON Resume formats.
3. Validate resumes against either format.

FluentCV is built with Node.js and runs on recent versions of OS X, Linux, or Windows.

Features

• OS X, Linux, and Windows.
• Store your resume data as a durable, versionable JSON or YAML document.
• Generate polished resumes in multiple formats without violating DRY.
• Output to HTML, Markdown, LaTeX, PDF, MS Word, JSON, YAML, plain text, or XML.
• Compatible with FRESH, JSON Resume, FRESCA, and FCV Desktop.
• Validate resumes against the FRESH or JSON Resume schema.
• Support for multiple input and output resumes.
• Use from your command line or desktop.
• Free and open-source through the MIT license.

Install

Install FluentCV with NPM:

[sudo] npm install fluentcv -g

Note: for PDF generation you'll need to install a copy of wkhtmltopdf for your platform. For LaTeX generation you'll need a valid LaTeX environment with access to xelatex and similar.

Getting Started

To use FluentCV you'll need to create a valid resume in either FRESH or JSON Resume format. Then you can start using the command line tool. There are four basic commands you should be aware of:

• build generates resumes in HTML, Word, Markdown, PDF, and other formats. Use it when you need to submit, upload, print, or email resumes in specific formats.

  # fluentcv BUILD <INPUTS> TO <OUTPUTS> [-t THEME]
  fluentcv BUILD resume.json TO out/resume.all
  fluentcv BUILD r1.json r2.json TO out/rez.html out/rez.md foo/rez.all
  

• new creates a new resume in FRESH or JSON Resume format.

  # fluentcv NEW <OUTPUTS> [-f <FORMAT>]
  fluentcv NEW resume.json
  fluentcv NEW resume.json -f fresh
  fluentcv NEW r1.json r2.json -f jrs
  

• convert converts your source resume between FRESH and JSON Resume formats. Use it to convert between the two formats to take advantage of tools and services.

  # fluentcv CONVERT <INPUTS> TO <OUTPUTS>
  fluentcv CONVERT resume.json TO resume-jrs.json
  fluentcv CONVERT 1.json 2.json 3.json TO out/1.json out/2.json out/3.json
  

• validate validates the specified resume against either the FRESH or JSON Resume schema. Use it to make sure your resume data is sufficient and complete.

  # fluentcv VALIDATE <INPUTS>
  fluentcv VALIDATE resume.json
  fluentcv VALIDATE r1.json r2.json r3.json
  

Supported Output Formats

FluentCV supports these output formats:

Output Format	Ext	Notes
HTML	.html	A standard HTML 5 + CSS resume format that can be viewed in a browser, deployed to a website, etc.
Markdown	.md	A structured Markdown document that can be used as-is or used to generate HTML.
LaTeX	.tex	A structured LaTeX document (or collection of documents).
MS Word	.doc	A Microsoft Word office document.
Adobe Acrobat (PDF)	.pdf	A binary PDF document driven by an HTML theme.
plain text	.txt	A formatted plain text document appropriate for emails or copy-paste.
JSON	.json	A JSON representation of the resume.
YAML	.yml	A YAML representation of the resume.
RTF	.rtf	Forthcoming.
Textile	.textile	Forthcoming.
image	.png, .bmp	Forthcoming.

Install

FluentCV requires a recent version of Node.js and NPM. Then:

1. Install the latest official wkhtmltopdf binary for your platform.
2. Optionally install an updated LaTeX environment (LaTeX resumes only).
3. Install fluentCV with [sudo] npm install fluentcv -g.
4. You're ready to go.

Use

Assuming you've got a JSON-formatted resume handy, generating resumes in different formats and combinations easy. Just run:

fluentcv BUILD <INPUTS> <OUTPUTS> [-t theme].

Where <INPUTS> is one or more .json resume files, separated by spaces; <OUTPUTS> is one or more destination resumes, and <THEME> is the desired theme (default to Modern). For example:

# Generate all resume formats (HTML, PDF, DOC, TXT, YML, etc.)
fluentcv build resume.json -o out/resume.all -t modern

# Generate a specific resume format
fluentcv build resume.json TO out/resume.html
fluentcv build resume.json TO out/resume.pdf
fluentcv build resume.json TO out/resume.md
fluentcv build resume.json TO out/resume.doc
fluentcv build resume.json TO out/resume.json
fluentcv build resume.json TO out/resume.txt
fluentcv build resume.json TO out/resume.yml

# Specify 2 inputs and 3 outputs
fluentcv build in1.json in2.json TO out.html out.doc out.pdf

You should see something to the effect of:

*** FluentCV v0.9.0 ***
Reading JSON resume: foo/resume.json
Applying MODERN Theme (7 formats)
Generating HTML resume: out/resume.html
Generating TXT resume: out/resume.txt
Generating DOC resume: out/resume.doc
Generating PDF resume: out/resume.pdf
Generating JSON resume: out/resume.json
Generating MARKDOWN resume: out/resume.md
Generating YAML resume: out/resume.yml

Advanced

Applying a theme

You can specify a predefined or custom theme via the optional -t parameter. For a predefined theme, include the theme name. For a custom theme, include the path to the custom theme's folder.

fluentcv build resume.json -t modern
fluentcv build resume.json -t ~/foo/bar/my-custom-theme/

As of v0.9.0, available predefined themes are modern, minimist, and hello-world, and compact.

Merging resumes

You can merge multiple resumes together by specifying them in order from most generic to most specific:

# Merge specific.json onto base.json and generate all formats
fluentcv build base.json specific.json -o resume.all

This can be useful for overriding a base (generic) resume with information from a specific (targeted) resume. For example, you might override your generic catch-all "software developer" resume with specific details from your targeted "game developer" resume, or combine two partial resumes into a "complete" resume. Merging follows conventional extend()-style behavior and there's no arbitrary limit to how many resumes you can merge:

fluentcv build in1.json in2.json in3.json in4.json TO out.html out.doc
Reading JSON resume: in1.json
Reading JSON resume: in2.json
Reading JSON resume: in3.json
Reading JSON resume: in4.json
Merging in4.json onto in3.json onto in2.json onto in1.json
Generating HTML resume: out.html
Generating WORD resume: out.doc

Multiple targets

You can specify multiple output targets and FluentCV will build them:

# Generate out1.doc, out1.pdf, and foo.txt from me.json.
fluentcv build me.json -o out1.doc -o out1.pdf -o foo.txt

You can also omit the output file(s) and/or theme completely:

# Equivalent to "fluentcv resume.json resume.all -t modern"
fluentcv build resume.json

Using .all

The special .all extension tells FluentCV to generate all supported output formats for the given resume. For example, this...

# Generate all resume formats (HTML, PDF, DOC, TXT, etc.)
fluentcv build me.json -o out/resume.all

..tells FluentCV to read me.json and generate out/resume.md, out/resume.doc, out/resume.html, out/resume.txt, out/resume.pdf, and out/resume.json.

Validating

FluentCV can also validate your resumes against either the FRESH / FRESCA or JSON Resume formats. To validate one or more existing resumes, use the validate command:

# Validate myresume.json against either the FRESH or JSON Resume schema.
fluentcv validate resumeA.json resumeB.json

FluentCV will validate each specified resume in turn:

*** FluentCV v0.9.0 ***
Validating JSON resume: resumeA.json (INVALID)
Validating JSON resume: resumeB.json (VALID)

Converting

FluentCV can convert between the FRESH and JSON Resume formats. Just run:

fluentcv CONVERT <INPUTS> <OUTPUTS>

where is one or more resumes in FRESH or JSON Resume format, and is a corresponding list of output file names. FluentCV will autodetect the format (FRESH or JRS) of each input resume and convert it to the other format (JRS or FRESH).

Prettifying

FluentCV applies js-beautify-style HTML prettification by default to HTML-formatted resumes. To disable prettification, the --nopretty or -n flag can be used:

fluentcv generate resume.json out.all --nopretty

Silent Mode

Use -s or --silent to run in silent mode:

fluentcv generate resume.json -o someFile.all -s
fluentcv generate resume.json -o someFile.all --silent

License

MIT. Go crazy. See LICENSE.md for details.