go-apply

go-apply

MCP server that helps you land job interviews — honestly. Scores your resume against job postings, tailors it with a two-tier cascade, and builds a compiled profile of your skills and stories for your AI agent to use.

How it works

go-apply runs as an MCP server. Your AI agent (Claude Code, Hermes) is the orchestrator — it calls the tools, extracts keywords from job descriptions, tags your stories with skills, and drives the full workflow. go-apply provides the storage, scoring, and tailoring.

Agent (Claude / Hermes)
  │
  ├─ onboard_user        Store resume, skills, accomplishments
  ├─ add_resume          Add or replace a resume variant
  ├─ compile_profile     Assemble profile from agent-tagged skills + stories
  ├─ create_story        Save an SBI accomplishment story, trigger recompile
  │
  ├─ load_jd             Fetch or accept a job description
  ├─ submit_keywords     Score resumes against extracted keywords
  ├─ submit_tailor_t1    Keyword injection into skills section
  ├─ submit_tailor_t2    Bullet rewriting in experience section
  ├─ preview_ats_extraction  Show resume text as an ATS would see it
  └─ finalize            Persist application record

Quick Start

1. Install

   curl -sSfL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/thedandano/go-apply/main/scripts/install.sh | bash
   

2. Register with your MCP agent

   go-apply setup mcp --agent claude    # Claude Code
   go-apply setup mcp --agent hermes    # Hermes
   

3. Ask your agent to onboard and apply

   • "Onboard my resume at ~/docs/resume.md"
   • "Compile my profile from these accomplishments"
   • "Score my resume against this job posting and tailor it"

Installation

Install script (recommended)

curl -sSfL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/thedandano/go-apply/main/scripts/install.sh | bash

Install options (env vars):

# Install a specific version
curl -sSfL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/thedandano/go-apply/main/scripts/install.sh | VERSION=0.1.0 bash

# Install to a custom directory (e.g., system-wide, requires sudo)
curl -sSfL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/thedandano/go-apply/main/scripts/install.sh | INSTALL_DIR=/usr/local/bin sudo bash

To update, re-run the install command — it overwrites the existing binary.

Uninstall

# Remove binary only (keeps config, data, and logs)
curl -sSfL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/thedandano/go-apply/main/scripts/install.sh | bash -s -- --uninstall

# Remove everything (binary + config + data + logs)
curl -sSfL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/thedandano/go-apply/main/scripts/install.sh | bash -s -- --uninstall --purge

Configuration

Config file: ~/.config/go-apply/config.yaml

years_of_experience: 7
default_seniority: senior
user_name: "Your Name"
occupation: "Software Engineer"
location: "San Francisco, CA"
log_level: info    # debug | info | warn | error
verbose: false     # true = full payloads in logs

No API key is needed for MCP mode — the host agent is the LLM. Scoring constants (weights, thresholds) live in internal/config/defaults.json.

Migration from older versions: orchestrator.* keys in config.yaml are no longer used; you can remove them. The headless go-apply run command was removed in v2.

Logging

Log files are written to ~/.local/state/go-apply/logs/go-apply-YYYY-MM-DD.log — one file per calendar day (multiple invocations append); last 50 files retained.

# View recent logs
go-apply logs

# Watch live (tail -f equivalent)
go-apply logs --follow

# Show last 200 lines
go-apply logs --lines 200

Log level and verbose mode:

go-apply config set log_level debug
go-apply config set verbose true

MCP server debug logging

Set log_level in the config file, or pass it via the env block in your agent's settings. Example for Claude Code:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "go-apply": {
      "command": "go-apply",
      "args": ["serve"]
    }
  }
}

Profile workflow

The profile is the source of truth for who you are. Build it once; your agent uses it on every job application.

1. Onboard

Agent calls: onboard_user(resume_content, resume_label, skills, accomplishments)

Stores your resume(s), skills reference, and accomplishments text. Returns needs_compile: true.

2. Compile profile

Agent calls: compile_profile(skills, stories)

The agent tags your accomplishments with skill labels before calling this tool. compile_profile assembles the compiled profile from the agent-provided skills array and stories array (each story has an accomplishment string and tags). Returns a rich diff: coverage gained, skills added/removed, orphaned skills (skills with no supporting story).

3. Create stories (for orphaned skills)

Agent calls: create_story(skill, story_type, job_title, situation, behavior, impact)

Saves an SBI (Situation-Behavior-Impact) story to accomplishments.json. Returns needs_compile: true — the agent calls compile_profile again to pick up the new story.

Accomplishments storage

Accomplishments are stored in ~/.local/share/go-apply/accomplishments.json:

{
  "schema_version": "1",
  "onboard_text": "Raw text from onboarding...",
  "created_stories": [
    { "id": "0", "skill": "Go", "type": "technical", "text": "..." },
    { "id": "1", "skill": "Kubernetes", "type": "project", "text": "..." }
  ]
}

Stories get sequential integer IDs ("0", "1", …). The compiled profile at ~/.local/share/go-apply/profile-compiled.json is derived from this file plus the skills list.

Job application workflow

Once your profile is compiled, the agent can score and tailor any job posting:

load_jd → submit_keywords → submit_tailor_t1 → submit_tailor_t2 → finalize
                           ↘ preview_ats_extraction (any post-scored state)

The agent receives extraction_protocol in the load_jd response — it extracts keywords from the JD text itself and calls submit_keywords with structured JD data.

CLI Reference

go-apply serve

Start the MCP stdio server. No flags. This is the primary way to use go-apply.

go-apply onboard

Store resumes, skills, and accomplishments in the profile database directly from the CLI.

go-apply config

Manage go-apply configuration.

go-apply setup mcp

Register or unregister go-apply as an MCP server in an agent's config.

The command is idempotent — running it again without --override reports "already registered" and makes no changes.

go-apply logs

View recent go-apply log entries.

go-apply doctor

Diagnose configuration and profile health. No flags.

go-apply update

Update go-apply to the latest GitHub release. No flags.

go-apply version

Print the go-apply version. No flags.

MCP tools reference

Roadmap