Free for non-commercial use. Local-first. Source-available.

Job Search Terminal

A free, source-available, local-first job-search dashboard for people who need structure, privacy, and better tools in a brutal job market.

Scan jobs. Score fit with AI. Generate tailored resumes. Track applications. Prepare for interviews. Keep your data on your machine.

No account. No subscription. No hosted database. Bring your own AI key — or run a model locally with Ollama and send nothing to the cloud at all.

View on GitHub ★ 9 Read setup guide

Rather not do it yourself? If you already use an AI coding assistant, there is a ready-made prompt that installs it for you.

Why this exists

The job search is hard enough without another bill.

Too many people are looking for work right now. And too many tools ask those same people to pay monthly fees just to organize the chaos.

That never sat right with me.

This app is my attempt to make the job search a little less punishing. It is not magic. It will not apply for you. It will not guarantee interviews. But it can help you see what is worth your time, keep track of what you have done, and stop rebuilding the same resume and application answers from scratch every night.

Read setup guide

Walkthrough

See Job Search Terminal in action

Capabilities

What the app helps you do

Job Search Terminal is built around the work people actually do while job hunting: finding roles, evaluating fit, tailoring material, applying, following up, and preparing for conversations.

Scan job sources

Discover new roles from company career pages and configured job sources.

Evaluate fit

Use AI to compare roles against your profile, resume, skills, preferences, and deal breakers.

Tailor resumes

Generate role-specific resume drafts from your own base resumes, then edit before export.

Draft application answers

Prepare answers for application questions. The app never submits anything for you.

Track applications

See every application as a list or as a drag-and-drop board, and move each one along as you hear back.

Prepare for interviews

Build a library of your own work stories — what the situation was, what you did, how it turned out — by speaking them aloud and letting the app write them up.

Read setup guide

Quick start

What you can do in the first hour

The first goal is not perfection. The first goal is control.

Once the app is running, you can:

Connect an AI service, or point the app at free AI running on your own computer.
Upload or add your resume.
Complete your career profile.
Scan for jobs.
Evaluate which roles are worth your time.
Start tracking applications.

If you are not technical, use the AI setup prompt in the Documentation tab. Paste it into Claude Code or Codex and let it walk through the installation with you.

Read setup guide

Product

See how it works

Click any image to open a larger view.

Read setup guide

Documentation

Setup, features, and documentation

The documentation below is powered by Markdown so it can stay current as the app changes. Replace the files in src/content/job-search-terminal/ and redeploy to update.

View on GitHub Read setup guide

Overview

What this is

Job Search Terminal is a local job-search dashboard that runs on your computer. It helps you discover jobs, evaluate fit, tailor resumes, draft application answers, track applications, and prepare for interviews.

It is free to use, inspect, and adapt for non-commercial purposes under CC BY-NC 4.0. Commercial use requires written permission.

What this is not

This is not a job placement service. It does not guarantee interviews. It does not apply to jobs automatically. It does not replace judgment, networking, or human effort.

It is a tool to help you keep the work organized.

What you need

You need a computer, two free pieces of software (Node.js and Git), Google Chrome, and access to an AI service if you want to use the AI features.

The app can use OpenAI, Anthropic, or Google Gemini depending on what you configure.

What it costs

The app is free.

There is no subscription, no paid account, and no access fee. The only possible cost is AI usage, paid directly to the AI provider you choose. I do not charge for that and I do not sit between you and the provider.

Your data stays with you

Your job search data is stored locally on your machine. The app does not use a cloud account or hosted database.

AI requests are only sent when you choose to use an AI feature, such as job evaluation, resume tailoring, profile extraction, or answer drafting.

Who this is for

This is for people who want more control over their job search and are willing to run a local tool on their own computer.

It is especially useful if you are applying to many roles, tailoring resumes often, tracking multiple applications, or trying to make better decisions about where to spend your time.

Getting started

Follow this guide to install and run Job Search Terminal on your computer. You do not need to know how to code, but you do need to be comfortable opening a terminal or using an AI coding assistant to help with setup.

If you are not technical, open the “Prompt for AI on this page” section and use that prompt to have an AI assistant help you install the app step by step.

Go to AI setup prompt

View on GitHub

Last updated: August 29, 2026

First, an honest check

Job Search Terminal runs on your own computer. That is what makes it free and private — and it is also the catch: you have to install it yourself. There is no Download button and no website to sign up for.

You do not need to know how to code. You do need to be willing to copy and paste about six lines of text into a plain-looking window, and to keep going when it prints things you do not recognise. That is genuinely the whole skill required.

If that sounds manageable, set aside about half an hour. Nothing here can damage your computer, and you can undo all of it later by deleting one folder. If it sounds miserable, that is a fair reaction — skip to the AI setup prompt below. It hands the whole job to an AI coding assistant such as Claude Code or Codex, though you will need one of those already set up. Failing that, ask someone who installs software for a living; this is a fifteen-minute favour for them.

What you are actually doing

Four things, in this order:

Install two free pieces of software the app needs to run.
Download the app itself.
Give it a key so it can talk to an AI service — or point it at a free one running on your own computer.
Start it up, then open it in your browser like any other website.

Words you will run into

The guide below uses a handful of terms without stopping to define them. Here is what they mean.

Plain-language definitions of technical terms used in the setup guide
Term	What it actually means
Terminal	A window where you type commands instead of clicking buttons. Every Mac and Windows PC already has one. The guide shows you how to open it.
Node.js	Free software that lets this app run, the way a media player lets a video file play. You install it once and never think about it again.
Git	Free software for downloading code and getting updates later. You will use it twice.
npm	Comes free with Node.js. It fetches the extra pieces of code the app needs. You type one command and it does the rest.
Repository, or “repo”	The online folder holding the app’s code. Cloning it means downloading your own copy.
Clone	Developer word for “download your own copy of”. When the guide says clone the repository, it means copy the app’s code onto your computer.
Dependencies	Those extra pieces of code. `npm install` collects them for you.
API key	A long password from an AI company that lets the app use their AI on your behalf. You paste it into the app once. You can skip this entirely by running Ollama, which is free AI software that runs on your own computer.
`localhost:3000`	The address of the app running on your own machine. It looks like a website, but nothing is on the internet — only you can reach it.
Port	A numbered slot a program uses to talk to your browser. This app uses 3000. If something else is already using it, the app will say so — closing the other program fixes it.
ATS	Applicant Tracking System — the software companies use to post jobs and sort applicants. Greenhouse, Lever and Ashby are common ones. The app reads jobs from them.
WSL	Windows Subsystem for Linux. A free Microsoft add-on that Windows users install so developer tools work properly. Only relevant on Windows.

Getting Started

This guide explains what the app is, what you need to run it, and how to get it running on your computer — even if you have no development background.

What is this app?

Job Search Terminal is a local job-search dashboard that runs entirely on your computer. It helps you:

Discover new job postings automatically from company career pages.
Score each job against your career profile using AI.
Generate tailored resumes for specific roles.
Draft application answers for copy-paste (it never submits anything on your behalf).
Track every application through the full funnel.
Prepare for interviews with a STAR story bank and voice practice.

Your stored account data stays on your machine. There are no accounts, no subscriptions, and no cloud storage. The app contacts the internet only for the features you run: AI-provider requests, job scans, source discovery, and browser-board scanning.

What you need

Requirement	Details
Computer	Mac, Windows (WSL), or Linux
Node.js	Version 20 or later — download from nodejs.org
Git	Download from git-scm.com
An AI provider	OpenAI, Anthropic, or Google Gemini API key — or Ollama running locally
A Chrome-based browser	Needed for PDF export. Google Chrome is used automatically if it is installed in the usual place; otherwise see the PDF note below

You do not need to know how to code. You just need to be comfortable opening a terminal (the black or white window where you type commands).

How to open a terminal

Mac: Press Command + Space, type Terminal, press Enter.

Windows: Press Windows key, type PowerShell, press Enter. (Or install Windows Terminal for a better experience.)

Linux: Press Ctrl + Alt + T.

Step-by-step setup

1. Install Node.js

Go to nodejs.org, download the LTS version, and run the installer. Accept all defaults.

Verify it worked by opening a terminal and typing:

node --version

You should see something like v20.11.0.

2. Install Git

Go to git-scm.com, download the installer for your operating system, and run it. Accept all defaults.

Verify it worked:

git --version

In your terminal, navigate to where you want to store the app (your Desktop or Documents folder works fine):

cd ~/Desktop

Then download the app:

git clone https://github.com/uxdesignlab/job-search-terminal.git

Once cloned, move into the project folder:

cd job-search-terminal

4. Install dependencies

This downloads everything the app needs to run:

npm install

It may take a minute or two. You will see a lot of text scrolling by — that is normal.

5. Add your AI provider

The app needs at least one AI provider to evaluate jobs and generate content. Cloud providers receive the text needed for the action you choose. Ollama runs models locally, so AI prompts stay on your machine when it is the active provider.

For cloud providers, you can use whichever service you have access to:

Google Gemini (free tier): aistudio.google.com/apikey
OpenAI: platform.openai.com/api-keys
Anthropic: console.anthropic.com/settings/keys

To use Ollama, install it, pull a model, start the local server, and configure the Ollama base URL inside the app.

Configure your provider inside the app itself (Settings → AI Provider). You do not need to create any configuration files manually.

5a. Optional: Add job aggregator and source discovery keys

These are not required to use the app, but they significantly expand how many jobs and sources the app can find automatically.

Adzuna (job aggregator — free tier, 2,000 queries/month):

Register at developer.adzuna.com to get a free App ID and API Key.
Once configured in Settings → AI Provider → Discovery & Aggregators, the Dashboard Scan for new jobs button automatically runs an Adzuna scan in parallel with the ATS scan — no extra step needed.
You can also run it independently from Settings → Sources → Job aggregators.

Brave Search (ATS source discovery — free tier, 2,000 queries/month):

Register at brave.com/search/api to get a free API key.
Once configured, the Search for companies button appears in Settings → Scan sources and finds new Ashby, Greenhouse, and Lever companies from live web search results (not just the Common Crawl archive).

Add both keys in Settings → AI Provider → Discovery & Aggregators.

6. Start the app

npm run dev

The terminal will print something like:

▲ Next.js 15.x
- Local: http://localhost:3000

Open http://localhost:3000 in your browser. The app will be running.

7. First-time setup in the app

When you first open the app at http://localhost:3000, the dashboard opens a guided setup flow:

Step 1: Add an AI API key Click the provider you want to use to expand the instructions. Pick one — you only need one:

Google Gemini (free tier): go to aistudio.google.com/apikey, sign in with Google, click Create API key. Copy the key.
OpenAI: go to platform.openai.com/api-keys, sign in, click Create new secret key. Copy the key.
Anthropic (Claude): go to console.anthropic.com/settings/keys, sign in, click Create Key. Copy the key.

Choose one provider, paste its key, test the connection if needed, and save. Model selection and discovery integrations remain optional advanced settings.

Step 2: Upload your resume Click “Go to Profile → Resumes”. On the Resumes tab, each lane represents a different resume version. For any lane, click the blue “Upload PDF” button and select your resume file. The app extracts the text automatically.

After uploading, go to Profile → Overview and click “Extract with AI”. The AI reads your resume and populates your skills, target roles, preferences, and experience. Review each tab (Skills & Roles, Preferences, Constraints) and make any corrections.

Step 3: Confirm preferences and start scanning Confirm desired roles, title filters, and location mode. The Ready step offers an optional six-hour scan schedule while the local app is running. Open the Dashboard and click “Scan for new jobs” for an immediate scan.

Everyday use

What you want to do	Where to go
Find new jobs (ATS + Adzuna if configured)	Dashboard → Scan for new jobs
Scan Adzuna independently	Settings → Sources → Job aggregators
Add a job from anywhere	Jobs → Add Job button
See all your jobs	Jobs
Evaluate a job	Jobs → click a job → Evaluation tab
Generate a tailored resume	Jobs → click a job → Resume tab
Prepare application answers	Jobs → click a job → Apply tab
Research a company	Jobs → click a job → Research
Draft a recruiter message	Jobs → click a job → Outreach
Track your applications	Applications
Practice for interviews	Interview Prep
Update your profile	Account → Profile
Upload or replace a resume	Account → Profile → Resumes tab
Add an AI key	Account → Settings → AI Provider
Add Adzuna or Brave Search keys	Account → Settings → AI Provider → Discovery & Aggregators
Discover new ATS sources	Settings → Scan sources → Crawl for companies or Search for companies
Review and approve discovered sources	Settings → Scan sources → Discovered sources
Check which sources are still live	Settings → Scan sources → Validate sources
See role fit strategy	Account → Strategy
Back up or restore the local account	Account → Settings → Data & Backup

Adding jobs from anywhere

You are not limited to the jobs the scanner finds. Any job you see on LinkedIn, a company careers page, a job board, or hear about through a referral can be added and evaluated with AI.

How to add a job manually:

Go to Jobs in the top navigation.
Click the Add Job button.
Fill in the details:
- Company — the employer name.
- Job Title — the exact title from the posting.
- Job URL — the link to the posting, so you can return to it later.
- Job Description — paste the full text of the job description. The more detail you include, the better the AI fit score.
Click Submit Job. The app creates the job and opens it immediately.

Manual jobs go through the same pipeline as scanned jobs — fit scoring, resume tailoring, application tracking, company research, and outreach drafting all work exactly the same way. The fit score tells you whether it is worth applying before you invest time in a cover letter or tailored resume.

Good sources to add jobs from manually:

LinkedIn job postings
Wellfound, Work at a Startup, Glassdoor, Indeed, and Monster postings if you are not using the browser-board scanner
Company careers pages
Referrals and warm introductions (add what you know about the role)
Jobs emailed to you by recruiters
Any board the scanner doesn’t cover (Dice, Handshake, etc.)

Stopping and restarting

To stop the app: go to your terminal and press Ctrl + C.

To restart:

npm run dev

Updating the app

The footer of every page shows the version you are running, for example Version 0.1.0 · b5bcb0d. Once a day the app asks GitHub whether newer commits exist. When they do, the footer shows an Update available badge — open it to see exactly what changed.

To update:

git pull
npm install
npm run dev

Turning the check off. The check sends only the commit your copy is built from — nothing about you, your jobs, or your resumes — and it never delays a page, because the answer is cached on your machine. If you would rather it never contacted GitHub, start the app with JST_UPDATE_CHECK=off:

JST_UPDATE_CHECK=off npm run dev

The version keeps showing; only the GitHub call stops.

Backing up your data

Open Account → Settings → Data & Backup to create a portable .jst-backup archive before migrations, cleanup, or moving the app to another machine. The archive includes the database, resume files referenced by your resume lanes, generated documents, approved source configuration, and scanner import history. Every other file under assets/ is ignored.

Password protection is optional. If you create an unencrypted archive, the app asks you to acknowledge that it contains private resume data and locally stored provider credentials.

To restore an archive, choose the file in the same screen and click Inspect backup. The app validates and previews the archive first. After you confirm, it creates an automatic rollback backup before replacing managed local account data. Unrelated files under assets/ remain untouched.

For a database-only SQLite snapshot, run:

npm run data:backup

Snapshots are saved to output/backups/. Export a readable JSON snapshot:

npm run data:export

Troubleshooting

The app won’t start

Make sure you ran npm install first.
Make sure no other app is using port 3000.
Try stopping with Ctrl + C and running npm run dev again.

Pages show stale or missing data

Restart the dev server.
Run npm run db:check to verify the database.

PDF generation fails

PDF export drives a Chrome-based browser. The app finds one in this order:

The path in PLAYWRIGHT_CHROMIUM_EXECUTABLE_PATH, if you set it.
Google Chrome at /Applications/Google Chrome.app — macOS only.
A Chromium downloaded into Playwright’s browser cache.

The app installs playwright-core, which does not download a browser, so on Windows and Linux — and on a Mac without Chrome in the standard location — step 3 finds nothing until you install one. Either:

Install a browser into that cache: npx playwright-core install chromium
Or point the app at a browser you already have. Add this to .env.local and restart the app: PLAYWRIGHT_CHROMIUM_EXECUTABLE_PATH=/full/path/to/chrome

On Windows that is usually C:\Program Files\Google\Chrome\Application\chrome.exe.

npm run document:check reads .env.local too, so the same setting applies when you verify the fix.

No AI results

Go to Settings → AI Provider and check that your key is entered and the correct provider is set as active. Use the “Test connection” button to verify.

Reset everything and start fresh

This deletes all local data and resets to an empty local profile:

npm run db:reset

Use with caution — this cannot be undone unless you have a backup.

Prompt for Claude Code or Codex (self-service setup)

If you want an AI coding assistant to set up and run this app with minimal manual work, paste the following prompt into Claude Code or Codex.

It will ask which AI provider you want and can set up Ollama for you, so you can finish the whole install without creating an account or paying for anything. If you pick a cloud provider instead, it opens the settings page and lets you paste your own key — it will not ask you to hand the key over.

Set up and run Job Search Terminal for me as a self-service local app.

Repository:
https://github.com/uxdesignlab/job-search-terminal.git

Goal:
Do the setup yourself end to end. Do not give me a list of terminal commands to
run. Use the terminal and browser tools available to you, verify each step, and
only ask me for information you cannot safely obtain or create yourself, such as
which AI provider I want to use or the local path to my resume PDF.

What to do:

1. Inspect the computer for required tools:
   - Node.js 20 or newer (the project is tested on 22)
   - npm
   - Git
   - Google Chrome or another Chromium browser for PDF generation

2. If a required tool is missing, try to install it using the normal package
   manager for this computer, such as Homebrew on macOS, winget on Windows, or
   apt/dnf/pacman on Linux. If installation requires administrator permission or
   an approval prompt, ask me for that approval once, then continue after it is
   granted. Do not stop at "please install this" unless there is no safe
   automated installation path.

3. Create or reuse a local project folder:
   - If the repository is already cloned, use the existing checkout, and delete
     any `.next` folder inside it before continuing. A stale build cache left
     over from an older commit is the most common cause of a confusing
     first-run failure.
   - If it is not cloned, clone it from the repository URL above.
   - Avoid overwriting or deleting existing user data.

4. Install project dependencies with npm.

5. Run the project's verification checks:
   - npm run lint
   - npm run typecheck

   Do not run `npm run build`. The development server does not need it, and it
   roughly doubles the setup time for no benefit here.

6. Start the development server. If port 3000 is busy, use the next available
   local port and tell me which URL is running.

7. Open the app in a browser yourself and verify the dashboard loads. Do not
   simply tell me to open the URL.

8. Set up an AI provider. Ask me which I want before doing anything:

   - Ollama runs a model locally on this computer. It is free, needs no account
     and no API key, and no prompt text leaves the machine. If I choose this,
     install Ollama if it is missing, pull a general-purpose model, start the
     local server, then set the Ollama base URL in Settings -> AI Provider.

   - A cloud provider (OpenAI, Anthropic, or Google Gemini) needs an API key
     that I supply. If I choose this, open Settings -> AI Provider in the
     browser and let me paste the key in myself. Do not ask me to send you the
     key and do not type it on my behalf. Once I have pasted it, use the app's
     connection test if available.

9. Complete the rest of the first-time setup:
   - If a resume is needed, ask me for the local PDF path or use the browser file
     picker if your tools support it. Upload it through Profile -> Resumes.
   - Preserve multiple resume lanes. Do not merge everything into one universal
     resume.
   - Run profile extraction from Profile -> Overview after a resume is uploaded.
   - Return to the dashboard and scan for jobs when setup is complete.

10. PDF export needs a Chrome-based browser. `npm install` pulls playwright-core,
    which does not download one, and the app only auto-detects Google Chrome in
    its standard macOS location. So on Windows and Linux, and on a Mac without
    Chrome installed normally, either run `npx playwright-core install chromium`
    or add PLAYWRIGHT_CHROMIUM_EXECUTABLE_PATH to `.env.local` pointing at a
    browser that is already installed, then restart the server. Verify with
    `npm run document:check`.

11. Safety rules:
    - Never submit job applications, send emails, or message recruiters for me.
    - Never delete resumes, generated documents, reports, backups, or tracked
      application data unless I explicitly ask.
    - Keep all data local. Do not paste my resume, my profile, or my API key
      into any service other than this app.

12. If anything fails, read the actual error, fix what you can, retry once, and
    then explain the blocker in plain language with the exact next approval or
    input needed from me.

Finish by giving me the running local URL, what you verified, which AI provider
is active, and anything still needed from me.

Is this the same as Career-Ops?

No. Job Search Terminal was inspired by Career-Ops, but it is a separate project with a different product direction.

Career-Ops is a powerful CLI-first, agentic job-search system. Job Search Terminal is a browser-based, local-first dashboard designed to make the workflow more approachable for people who do not want to manage everything through AI coding tools and config files.

License note

Job Search Terminal is free for non-commercial use under CC BY-NC 4.0.

Commercial use requires written permission from the copyright holder.

Did this get you up and running?

Features

A plain-English summary of each part of the app. There is also a full technical reference, kept in step with the app automatically — it is thorough but heavy going, and you do not need it to decide whether to try this.

View on GitHub

Dashboard

A command center for scan results, action queue, source status, recent activity, XP, and job-search progress.

Jobs

A full job pipeline with fit scores, filters, saved presets, bulk actions, archive tools, and manual job entry.

Job Detail

A tabbed workspace for evaluating a role, reviewing fit, generating a tailored resume, preparing answers, researching the company, and drafting outreach.

Applications

Tracks every application from sent to offer. View them as a list or a drag-and-drop board, and get told when a follow-up is overdue.

Resumes

A resume studio for multiple base resume lanes, generated documents, editing, keyword coverage, preview, and PDF export.

Interview Prep

A library of your own work stories. Say an answer out loud and the app writes it up as a clear, repeatable story you can reuse in interviews.

Profile

A career profile system that captures goals, skills, role direction, preferences, constraints, resumes, and writing voice.

Strategy

A role-fit map that helps users understand direct-fit, adjacent, selective, and avoid-role categories.

Analytics

Shows what is actually working: how many applications turn into replies, which kinds of roles respond best, and where your resume keeps falling short.

Settings

Controls for AI providers, job sources, title filters, custom job boards, preferences, and fallback models.

Evidence Bank

A store of confirmed accomplishments and metrics that keeps generated resumes grounded in things you actually did.

Job scanning

Scans company ATS boards (Greenhouse, Lever, Ashby) plus Dice, Himalayas, and Adzuna, with title and location filters, freshness windows, and duplicate detection.

Data and privacy

Data is stored locally in a SQLite database on the user's machine, with backup and export commands available.

Last updated: September 13, 2026

Read the full technical reference

What’s new

The app is updated continuously rather than in numbered releases. This list regenerates daily from the project’s commit history, so it is never out of date.

Changelog

Recent changes, taken straight from the project’s commit history. Job Search Terminal has no formal release cycle — it is updated continuously, and this page is regenerated daily.

September 2026

Use salary research only while it still describes the job (6ba7f3c)
Stop timed-out local attempts and give AI answers the salary research (4f32025)
Skip stale local requests and update late compensation in place (2aabc40)
Fix resume review findings: slow searches, local fallback, empty summaries, removed sections (06bdd0a)
Write each part of a resume on its own, check it, and regenerate one section at a time (e057f1e)
Write resumes in minutes, and keep working when a provider runs out of credits (caf1a70)
Search Adzuna for words that exist, and say when it finds none (1c9d546)
Fetch the description Greenhouse actually points at, and say when it fails (2d4a058)
Stop sending every job description to the browser to draw a table (ea4fb5e)
Treat a region’s aliases as one region, and cover the whole Caribbean (6dd25af)
Offer the region groups the location picker always understood (20e1e36)
Link a company name to every position you have there (aa4c54d)

Shipped so far

A retrospective timeline of the project’s major milestones, reconstructed from the commit history. Job Search Terminal has never cut formal releases, so these version labels were assigned after the fact — they are here to make the arc readable, not to describe builds you could have downloaded at the time.

	Date	What shipped
0.11	Aug 2026	Evaluation integrity — AI work staged by pipeline stage, cancel handling, clearer failure messages
0.10	Aug 2026	Location precision and source quality — Himalayas lane, split location preferences, Ashby repost dedupe, Evidence Bank
0.9	Jul 2026	ATS keyword tailoring; scan progress and freshness windows
0.8	Jul 2026	Interview prep overhaul — core-story workspace, durable practice
0.7	Jun 2026	Dice MCP scanner; approval-gated email job-alert imports
0.6	Jun 2026	Adzuna aggregator, Brave discovery, source validation, fresh scanner
0.5	May 2026	Job discovery expansion — browser-board imports, LinkedIn scanner, ATS scanning
0.4	May 2026	Resume builder — section-mode generation, from-scratch resumes
0.3	May 2026	Guided onboarding wizard; multi-question application assistant
0.2	May 2026	Renamed to Job Search Terminal; profile tabs, resume lanes, docs restructure
0.1	Apr 2026	Foundation — local data model, profile intelligence, scanner, evaluation, resume generation, application tracker

Roadmap

Where the project is going, straight from the repository. The Not planned list matters as much as the rest: it is a commitment about what this tool will never do.

Last updated: June 12, 2026

Roadmap

Job Search Terminal is in early public development.

Current focus

Improve setup experience
Add screenshots and demo data
Strengthen privacy and legal documentation
Improve job source discovery
Improve AI evaluation transparency
Improve resume tailoring controls
Improve accessibility and keyboard navigation

Fresh search scanner — mostly complete

Add a hybrid fresh-job discovery lane modeled on the Google searches at pavel.ux.business/24h.

✅ Run unattended Brave Search scans for jobs indexed in the past 24 hours.
✅ Start with Greenhouse, Lever, Ashby, Workday, and jobs/careers subdomains.
✅ Route confidently parsed jobs through the existing local import, freshness, dedupe, notification, and liveness pipeline.
✅ Low-confidence imports (missing/short description) land in a review queue on the Jobs page — Approve to keep, Dismiss to archive.
Add an agent-assisted Chrome workflow for exact Google 12-hour searches (partial — documented in CLAUDE.md).
Preserve the local-first boundary: never auto-apply, click Apply, or send job data anywhere except the configured search API and local dashboard.

Next phase — Public ATS source bank

Add a curated, release-versioned catalog of Greenhouse, Lever, and Ashby sources so users can choose relevant companies instead of scanning a broad default list. See docs/source-bank.md for the saved implementation approach.

Recommend sources from profile industries and preferred countries while keeping the full catalog available for browsing.
Let users filter the catalog by industry, hiring coverage, and ATS provider.
Add an onboarding source-selection step for new installs and preserve existing local portal configurations.
When a manually added job reveals a supported ATS board, offer to track that company for future scans after explicit confirmation.
Keep Common Crawl and Brave Search discoveries separate from the curated public catalog.

Planned improvements

Expand fresh-search coverage beyond the initial ATS and careers-domain set
Consider optional hosted read-only source-bank refreshes after the bundled local-first catalog workflow is proven
More transparent fit scoring explanations
Stronger application funnel analytics
Safer rejection/archive handling
Better backup and restore UX
Improved generated resume editor
More interview prep workflows
Optional import/export flows
Jooble API integration — add Jooble as a second job aggregator source alongside Adzuna; free API key, same scan-and-import pattern, covers a broad range of listings from across the web
Lensa browser-board source — add Lensa as a browser-assisted scan target (Claude Desktop); no public API exists, so agent-driven browsing is the only viable path

Not planned

Auto-submitting applications
Spam outreach workflows
Hosted user accounts by default
Hidden telemetry
Selling user data
Commercial use without permission under the project license

Inspired by Career-Ops

Job Search Terminal was inspired by Career-Ops by Santiago Fernández.

Career-Ops is a powerful MIT-licensed AI job-search system built around agentic CLI workflows, Claude Code, Gemini CLI, job scanning, scoring, tailored PDF generation, and pipeline tracking.

Job Search Terminal follows a different product direction: a local-first visual dashboard with guided setup, structured application tracking, resume lanes, interview prep, and support for OpenAI, Anthropic, and Google Gemini.

Both projects share the same basic belief: job seekers need better tools, and those tools should not add more friction to an already exhausting process.

Career-Ops GitHub repository · Career-Ops system article

Career-Ops	Job Search Terminal
CLI / agentic workflow	Browser-based visual dashboard
Optimized for Claude Code and power users	Designed for broader job seekers
Markdown, YAML, TSV, and generated reports	SQLite-backed local app
Strong batch automation	Strong application tracking and UX flow
Terminal dashboard	Web dashboard with guided setup
Claude Code first	OpenAI, Anthropic, and Gemini provider support
MIT licensed	CC BY-NC 4.0, non-commercial use only

View on GitHub

Want to help improve it?

This started as a practical tool for people trying to survive the job search. It can become better if more people touch it.

Developers can help simplify installation, improve scanning, package the app, and fix bugs.

Designers can help improve onboarding, accessibility, empty states, and workflow clarity.

Career coaches and job seekers can help test the real-world process and tell us where the app breaks down.

If you want to contribute, start with the GitHub repository or reach out to me directly.

Star it on GitHub (★ 9) Send a message

Get in touch

Found a bug, got stuck during setup, or want to help? Tell me what happened — the more specific, the more useful. You can also email pavel@ux.business directly.

Job Search Terminal is a free, source-available tool licensed for non-commercial use under CC BY-NC 4.0. It does not guarantee interviews, job offers, recruiter responses, or application outcomes. You are responsible for reviewing all generated content before using it. You are also responsible for following the terms of service of any job boards, AI providers, or third-party services you choose to use.

License

Job Search Terminal is licensed under Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International (CC BY-NC 4.0).

You may use, share, and adapt it for non-commercial purposes with attribution.

Commercial use is not permitted without written permission from the copyright holder.

View license: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/

Frequently asked questions

Is Job Search Terminal really free?

Yes. Job Search Terminal is free to use and adapt for non-commercial purposes under CC BY-NC 4.0. There is no subscription, paid account, or access fee. If you use a cloud AI provider you pay that provider directly for what you use; if you run Ollama locally, there is no AI cost either. Commercial use requires written permission.

Is this open source?

Almost. Anyone can read the code, copy it, and change it, and it is free for personal use. The one restriction is that you cannot use it to make money without asking first. That restriction is why the correct label is "source-available" rather than "open source" — open source has a formal definition that rules out limits like this one.

Can I use this for my coaching business, recruiting agency, SaaS product, or paid course?

Not without written permission. The project is licensed for non-commercial use. Commercial use, including paid services, hosted products, recruiting workflows, coaching packages, or bundled commercial offerings, requires permission from the copyright holder.

Do you store my job search data?

No. The app runs locally and stores your job search data on your own machine. AI requests are only sent when you choose to use an AI-powered feature, such as job evaluation, resume tailoring, profile extraction, or answer drafting. If you use Ollama as your provider, even those requests stay on your machine.

Does the app apply to jobs for me?

No. Job Search Terminal never submits applications on your behalf. It helps you evaluate jobs, prepare resumes, draft answers, and track progress. You review everything and decide what to send.

Do I need to know how to code?

No. You do need to be willing to install it yourself, which means copying about six lines of text into a window where you type commands rather than click buttons. It takes roughly half an hour and nothing you do can damage your computer. The setup guide explains every term it uses. If that still sounds like too much, the guide includes a prompt you can hand to an AI coding assistant so it does the installation for you.

Which AI providers does it support?

OpenAI, Anthropic, Google Gemini, and Ollama. The three cloud providers need your own API key, which you configure inside the app. Ollama runs models locally on your own machine, so it needs no key and no account. You can order several providers as a priority chain and the app falls back automatically if one is unavailable.

Can I modify the app?

Yes. The source is public. You can fork, study, modify, and contribute back for non-commercial purposes under CC BY-NC 4.0. Commercial use requires written permission.

Can I use Job Search Terminal without AI?

Some tracking and organization features are still useful on their own, but the strongest features — role evaluation, resume tailoring, profile extraction, company research, and application answer drafting — need an AI provider. That does not have to be a paid one: Ollama runs a model locally on your machine with no key and no account, so you can use every AI feature without sending anything to a cloud service.

Is this a finished commercial product?

No. It is an early tool built by one person and given away. It works and people use it daily, but you will find rough edges, and it changes often. If you need something polished and supported, this is not that.

Where do I download Job Search Terminal?

There is no installer or app-store download. The code lives on GitHub, and you copy it to your computer as part of the setup, which takes about half an hour. Read the setup guide first so you know what is involved before you start.

What is Career-Ops?

Another free job-search tool, built by Santiago Fernández, which inspired this one. Career-Ops is driven entirely by typed commands and suits people who are comfortable working that way. Job Search Terminal takes the same ideas and puts them behind a normal visual interface you click through in a browser. They are separate projects.

Is this a replacement for LinkedIn, Indeed, or company job boards?

No. It is not a job board. It helps you organize and evaluate roles you find through configured sources, company career pages, and manual entries.

Will this guarantee interviews or job offers?

No. No tool can honestly promise that. Job Search Terminal helps organize the work, reduce repeated effort, and make role-fit decisions clearer. The outcome still depends on the market, your background, your materials, timing, networking, and hiring decisions.

Job Search Terminal

The job search is hard enough without another bill.

See Job Search Terminal in action

What the app helps you do

Scan job sources

Evaluate fit

Tailor resumes

Draft application answers

Track applications

Prepare for interviews

What you can do in the first hour

See how it works

Setup, features, and documentation

Overview

What this is

What this is not

What you need

What it costs

Your data stays with you

Who this is for

Getting started

First, an honest check

What you are actually doing

Words you will run into

Getting Started

What is this app?

What you need

How to open a terminal

Step-by-step setup

1. Install Node.js

2. Install Git

3. Download the app

4. Install dependencies

5. Add your AI provider

5a. Optional: Add job aggregator and source discovery keys

6. Start the app

7. First-time setup in the app

Everyday use

Adding jobs from anywhere

Stopping and restarting

Updating the app

Backing up your data

Troubleshooting

Reset everything and start fresh

Prompt for Claude Code or Codex (self-service setup)

Is this the same as Career-Ops?

License note

Features

Dashboard

Jobs

Job Detail

Applications

Resumes

Interview Prep

Profile

Strategy

Analytics

Settings

Evidence Bank

Job scanning

Data and privacy

What’s new

Changelog

September 2026

Shipped so far

Roadmap

Roadmap

Current focus

Fresh search scanner — mostly complete

Next phase — Public ATS source bank

Planned improvements

Not planned

Inspired by Career-Ops

Want to help improve it?

Get in touch

Message sent.

Support the project

License

Frequently asked questions