resume-cli

This is the command line tool for JSON Resume, the open-source initiative to create a JSON-based standard for resumes.

Note: resume-cli has been revived and now lives in the jsonresume.org monorepo as packages/cli (modernized for Node.js 18+). It keeps its npm identity as resume-cli and is published from this workspace. The old standalone jsonresume/resume-cli repository is archived — please open issues and PRs against the monorepo.

Getting Started

Requires Node.js 18 or newer.

Install the command-line tool:

npm install -g resume-cli

Usage

Commands at a Glance

| Command | Description | |---|---| | init | Initialize a resume.json file. | | validate | Schema validation test your resume.json. | | export path/to/file.html | Export to .html, .pdf, .md or .txt. | | audit | Score your resume for ATS (Applicant Tracking System) friendliness. | | themes | List the JSON Resume themes installed in node_modules. | | serve | Serve resume at http://localhost:4000/. |

resume --help

Show a list of options and commands for the CLI.

resume init

Creates a new resume.json file in your current working directory.

Complete the resume.json with your text editor. Be sure to follow the schema (available at https://jsonresume.org/schema/).

resume validate

Validates your resume.json against our schema to ensure it complies with the standard.

On success it prints a one-line summary with the candidate name and a count of each populated section:

✓ resume.json is valid (Ada Lovelace — 1 work, 1 education, 2 skills)

On failure it exits non-zero and prints one annotated block per problem, naming the exact JSON path, the failing rule, the offending value, and a one-line hint:

Invalid resume: 2 problems found

  ✖ data/basics/email must match format "email"
    at:    basics.email
    rule:  format (expected email)
    found: "nope" (string)
    hint:  "basics.email" must be a valid email address, e.g. "[email protected]".

  ✖ data/work/0/startDate must match pattern "..."
    at:    work[0].startDate
    rule:  pattern
    found: "13-2020" (string)
    hint:  "work[0].startDate" must be an ISO-8601 date: YYYY, YYYY-MM, or YYYY-MM-DD.

Validate against a custom schema with --schema <path>.

resume export [fileName]

Exports your resume to one of four formats:

• .html / .pdf — stylized output rendered through a theme.
• .md — clean Markdown (one heading per section). No theme required.
• .txt — readable plain text. No theme required.

The format is inferred from the file extension, or set it explicitly with --format:

resume export resume.md                  # Markdown (inferred)
resume export resume.txt --format text   # plain text (explicit)
resume export resume.html --theme even   # themed HTML
resume export resume.pdf --theme even    # themed PDF

--format accepts html, pdf, markdown (or md) and text (or txt).

The Markdown and text formats render every JSON Resume section that is present (basics, work, volunteer, education, awards, publications, skills, languages, interests, references, projects) and skip any that are missing — so no theme install is needed.

A list of available themes (for .html / .pdf) can be found here:
https://jsonresume.org/themes/

Please npm install the theme you wish to use before attempting to export it.

Options:

• --format <file type> Example: --format pdf
• --theme <name> Example: --theme even (only used for .html / .pdf)

resume audit [fileName]

Scores your resume for ATS (Applicant Tracking System) friendliness. It renders your resume to HTML with a theme, runs @jsonresume/ats-validator against the markup, and prints an advisory report: an overall score and letter grade, a per-check pass/fail breakdown, and recommendations.

$ resume audit resume.json

ATS score: 88/100  (grade B, excellent)
9/10 checks passed, 1 need attention

Checks:
  ✓ Semantic HTML (10/10)
  ✓ ATS-Friendly Fonts (10/15)
  ✓ No Table Layouts (15/15)
  ✗ Single-Column Layout (6/15)
  ✓ Heading Structure (10/10)
  ...

Recommendations:
  - 📋 Single-Column Layout: 6/15 - Review and fix issues in this category
  - ✅ Great! Your resume is highly ATS-compatible. Minor improvements possible.

The audit is advisory — a successful audit always exits 0 regardless of score. It only exits non-zero when the resume can't be read or the theme can't be rendered (the same friendly errors as export).

The file argument is optional; it falls back to --resume (default resume.json). The report is rendered with the bundled even theme by default; pass --theme <name> to audit the markup a specific theme produces.

Options:

• --theme <name> Example: --theme elegant (defaults to even)

resume themes

Lists the JSON Resume themes installed in node_modules — both in your project and globally — so you don't have to know a theme slug ahead of time. It prints the slug to pass to --theme for export / serve:

$ resume themes
Installed themes (2) — pass the slug to --theme:
  elegant v1.16.1
  even    v0.6.0

Use it:         resume export resume.html --theme elegant
Browse the full gallery:  https://jsonresume.org/themes/

If none are installed yet, it points you at how to install one. Discovery is local and network-free; browse the full gallery (with screenshots) at https://jsonresume.org/themes/ and npm install jsonresume-theme-<slug> the one you want.

resume serve

Starts a web server that serves your local resume.json. It will live reload when you make changes to your resume.json.

Options:

• --port <port>
• --theme <name>

When developing themes, change into your theme directory and run resume serve --theme ., which tells it to run the local folder as the specified theme.

This is not intended for production use, it's a convenience for theme development or to visualize changes to your resume while editing it.

Supported Resume Input Types

• json: via JSON.parse.
• yaml: via yaml-js
• quaff: if --resume is a directory, then the path is passed to quaff and the resulting json is used as the resume. quaff supports a variety of formats in the directory, including javascript modules.

Resume Data

• Setting --resume - tells the CLI to read resume data from standard input (STDIN), and defaults --type to application/json.
• Setting --resume <path> reads resume data from path.
• Leaving --resume unset defaults to reading from resume.json on the current working directory.

Resume MIME Types

Supported resume data MIME types are:

• application/json
• text/yaml

Development

This package is part of the jsonresume.org monorepo. From packages/cli:

pnpm dev    # run the CLI from source (babel-node lib/main.js)
pnpm build  # compile lib/ to build/ with Babel
pnpm test   # run the Jest test suite
pnpm lint   # run ESLint

License

Available under the MIT license.