@richardmcquiston01/ats-resume-export

• Author: Richard McQuiston
• Website: https://richardmcquiston.com/

Table of Contents

| Overview | Getting Started | Buy Me a Coffee | License | Copyright |

Overview

Framework agnostic TypeScript package for a exporting resume to an ATS(Applicant Tracking System) compatible format.

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Getting Started

Features:

• Exporters: HTML, plain text, and JSON (main entry); DOCX (/docx); PDF (/pdf).
• ATS checks: structural check and job-description keyword matching.
• Validation your way: a built-in dependency-free validator, a Zod schema (/zod), or any Standard Schema compatible library.

Prerequisites

• Node.js 18 or later (or any modern browser).
• Optional peer dependencies, needed only for the entry that uses them: docx (/docx), pdf-lib (/pdf), and zod v4 (/zod).

Installation

# From GitHub (builds on install)
npm install github:RichardMcQuiston01/ats-resume-export

# Once published to npm
npm install @richardmcquiston01/ats-resume-export

# Only for the entries you import
npm install docx      # DOCX export
npm install pdf-lib   # PDF export
npm install zod       # Zod schema

The main entry has no dependencies, so an app can lazy-load the heavy exporters (await import('@richardmcquiston01/ats-resume-export/docx')).

Usage

import {
  checkResumeStructure,
  exportResumeAsHtml,
  parseResume,
} from '@richardmcquiston01/ats-resume-export';
import { exportResumeAsPdf } from '@richardmcquiston01/ats-resume-export/pdf';

const resume = parseResume(JSON.parse(rawJson)); // throws a descriptive Error
const html: string = exportResumeAsHtml(resume);
const pdf: Blob = await exportResumeAsPdf(resume);
const findings = checkResumeStructure(resume);

DOCX and PDF exporters return a Blob (Node 18+ and browsers). In Node, write one with Buffer.from(await blob.arrayBuffer()).

Section order

Set sectionOrder on a resume to reorder the Experience, Education, Skills, Certifications, and Projects sections. Every exporter honors it. Sections you leave out follow in their default order, and the summary always comes first.

const resume = { ...base, sectionOrder: ['skills', 'experience'] };
// Skills, Experience, then Education, Certifications, Projects

Rich-text highlights

Pass { richText: true } to render **bold** and *italic* in highlights as styled text in the HTML, DOCX, and PDF exporters. The plain-text exporter strips the markers. It is off by default, so a literal * in a highlight stays as typed.

const html = exportResumeAsHtml(resume, { richText: true });
const pdf = await exportResumeAsPdf(resume, { richText: true });

Styling the document

A resume has two readers: an ATS first, then a person. style adjusts the part people notice (type size, spacing, margins) without touching what the ATS depends on.

const pdf = await exportResumeAsPdf(resume, { style: 'comfortable' });

const docx = await exportResumeAsDocx(resume, {
  style: {
    preset: 'compact', // start from a preset...
    fontFamily: 'serif', // ...and override what you like
    fontSize: 11,
    margin: 54, // points; 72 = 1 inch
    pageSize: 'a4',
    headingCase: 'title', // "Experience" instead of "EXPERIENCE"
  },
});

| Option | Meaning | Allowed | | ---------------------------------- | ---------------------------------------------------------------------- | ------------------ | | fontFamily | sans-serif (Helvetica/Arial), serif (Times), monospace (Courier) | those three | | fontSize | body text, pt | 8 to 16 | | nameFontSize / headingFontSize | pt; default to 1.8x and 1x the body size | 12 to 36 / 8 to 18 | | lineSpacing | multiple of the font size | 1 to 2 | | sectionSpacing / entrySpacing | space above section headings / between entries, pt | 0 to 36 / 0 to 24 | | margin | all four sides, pt | 18 to 108 | | pageSize | letter or a4 (PDF and DOCX) | those two | | headingCase | upper or title | those two |

Presets: compact (tighter, fits more per page), standard (the built-in look, and the default), and comfortable (roomier). Anything you leave unset keeps the exporter's default, so output only changes when you ask for it. Plain text has no layout and ignores style.

What always stays ATS-safe. Style never changes the structure: one column of real, selectable text (no images of text, tables, text boxes, headers, or footers), real section headings, a standard-font family that every PDF reader, Word install, and browser has, and the same reading order. Out-of-range values throw a descriptive RangeError rather than producing a broken document.

checkExportStyle(style) flags choices that are allowed but hard on human readers (body text under 10 pt, line spacing under 1.1, margins under half an inch) using the same finding shape as checkResumeStructure, so you can show both together.

Project links, tech stack, and credentials

The model carries more than the exporters print by default. Switch on what you want, and choose where it goes, with details:

exportResumeAsPdf(resume, {
  details: {
    projectLinks: 'below', // Link: / Code: / Demo: on its own line
    projectTechStack: 'heading', // after the project name
    projectOutcome: 'below', // Outcome: ...
    credentialUrl: 'below', // Credential: ...
  },
});

Each option is 'off' (the default), 'heading', or 'below'; projectOutcome supports only 'off' and 'below'. Nothing is printed unless you ask, so existing output does not change. A link that appears in more than one field is shown once, and in HTML the URLs become links. An unknown value throws a RangeError naming the option.

Choosing a validator

| Style | Import | Extra dependency | | --------------- | --------------------------------------------------------------------- | ---------------- | | Built-in | parseResume, safeParseResume, resumeValidator | none | | Zod | resumeSchema, resumeDraftSchema, parseResume from /zod | zod v4 | | Standard Schema | pass any sync schema: checkResumeStructure(r, { schema: mySchema }) | your library |

The plain Resume types are the source of truth. The Zod schema is verified at compile time to infer exactly the same type, and a parity test suite checks that both validators accept and reject the same inputs.

Examples

Validate with Zod and run the ATS structure check against the same schema:

import { checkResumeStructure } from '@richardmcquiston01/ats-resume-export';
import { resumeSchema } from '@richardmcquiston01/ats-resume-export/zod';

const resume = resumeSchema.parse(JSON.parse(rawJson));
const findings = checkResumeStructure(resume, { schema: resumeSchema });

Match a resume against a job description:

import { matchKeywords } from '@richardmcquiston01/ats-resume-export';

const result = matchKeywords(resume, jobDescriptionText);

Development

npm install
npm run ci   # lint, format check, typecheck, tests, build

Releasing

Releases publish to npm from GitHub Actions (.github/workflows/publish.yml) when a version tag is pushed.

1. Bump version in package.json and add a CHANGELOG.md entry, then merge to main.

2. Tag the merge commit on main and push the tag:

   git tag v0.1.0
   git push origin v0.1.0

3. The workflow checks that the tagged commit is on main and that the tag matches package.json, runs npm run ci, and publishes with provenance. A tag on any other branch fails without publishing.

One-time setup: add an npm automation token as the NPM_TOKEN secret in the repo's npm environment (Settings, Environments), and make sure the @richardmcquiston01 scope is owned by your npm account.

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Buy Me a Coffee

If this app, code, or repository has helped you or someone you know, please consider donating. I appreciate any help to offset the costs of development and/or AI Credits.

Donate via Stripe, or scan:

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License

Apache 2

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Copyright

(c)2026 Richard McQuiston. All rights reserved.

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