DraftApply

Fully open source. Generate tailored, human-sounding job application answers using your CV and the job posting context — directly on any job application page. See LICENSE for terms.

How it works

1. Save your CV once in the extension popup.
2. On any job application page, click the DraftApply button next to a field or highlight a question and right-click DraftApply - Answer using my CV.
3. DraftApply extracts the job title, company, description, and requirements from the page, combines them with your full CV, and generates a tailored answer.
4. Edit the answer if you like, then click Insert Answer to fill the form field.

DraftApply classifies each question and generates the right kind of answer — a direct sentence for factual fields (notice period, availability), a STAR-method story for behavioural questions, a company-specific paragraph for "why us?", or a full cover letter. For plain fields (name, email, phone, LinkedIn), it extracts the exact value from your CV.

What this repo contains

Directory	Purpose
extension-ready/	Chrome extension (recommended) — no API keys needed
render-proxy/	Hosted proxy (Render) — holds the Groq API key server-side
backend/ + frontend/	Local web app (optional) — multi-provider LLM support
store-assets/	Chrome Web Store listing assets

Chrome extension

The extension calls the hosted proxy at https://draftapply.onrender.com. No user API keys required.

Install (unpacked)

1. Go to chrome://extensions
2. Enable Developer mode
3. Click Load unpacked
4. Select the extension-ready/ folder

Supported sites

DraftApply works on any web page:

• Auto-activates on major job platforms: Indeed, LinkedIn, Greenhouse, Lever, Workable, Otta, Glassdoor, Ashby, Breezy, SmartRecruiters, iCIMS, Workday, Taleo, Jobvite, HiringCafe
• On-demand on any other page (company career sites, custom ATS): click the extension icon → Activate on this page, or use the right-click context menu
• Embedded forms (e.g. Greenhouse iframe on a company careers page): DraftApply detects the iframe and relays the modal to the parent page so it's always fully visible

Usage

1. Click the DraftApply extension icon → paste or upload your CV → Save CV
2. On a job application page:
   • Click the DraftApply icon button that appears next to form fields (shows on focus/hover), or
   • Highlight a question → right-click → DraftApply - Answer using my CV
3. Review and edit the generated answer in the modal
4. Choose answer length (Short / Medium / Long) and click Insert Answer

Privacy

See PRIVACY_POLICY.md. In short:

• CV is stored locally in your browser (chrome.storage.local) — never sent to DraftApply servers for storage
• No generated answers are stored on any server
• The LLM provider (Groq) is configured with Zero Data Retention (ZDR) — prompts and responses are not retained for training or logging

Hosted proxy (Render)

The proxy is the open-source engine that handles authentication, rate limiting, CV file extraction, and LLM calls. The default recipe (recipe/index.js) is included in the repo and covers data extraction, cover letters, "why company" questions, and full-CV context; you can override it with RECIPE_PATH if needed.

See render-proxy/README.md for the full API contract, recipe interface, and deployment steps.

Environment variables

Variable	Required	Description
GROQ_API_KEY	Yes	Groq API key
TOKEN_SECRET	Yes	Secret for signing install tokens
GROQ_MODEL	No	Model name (default: llama-3.3-70b-versatile)
RECIPE_PATH	No	Path to custom recipe module (default: bundled recipe/index.js)

API endpoints

Endpoint	Method	Description
/api/health	GET	Health check
/api/register	POST	Get install token (90-day expiry)
/api/generate	POST	Generate answer (structured payload preferred)
/api/cv/upload	POST	Extract text from PDF/DOCX/TXT file

The extension sends a structured payload to /api/generate:

{
  "question": "Why do you want to join our team?",
  "length": "medium",
  "cvText": "...",
  "jobTitle": "Head of Support",
  "company": "Rootly",
  "jobDescription": "...",
  "requirements": ["3+ years experience...", "..."],
  "pageUrl": "https://...",
  "platform": "greenhouse"
}

The proxy's recipe module builds the LLM prompts server-side — the extension never sees or constructs the actual prompts.

The recipe classifies each question into one of these types and applies a tailored prompt strategy:

Type	Examples	Strategy
data_extraction	Name, Email, LinkedIn URL	Extract exact value from CV
short_factual	Notice period, Start date	1–2 sentence current-situation answer
yes_no	"Do you have X experience?"	Clear yes/no + 1 supporting sentence
behavioral	"Tell me about a time..."	STAR method, one specific story
why_company	"Why Anthropic?", "Why us?"	Company-specific opening, then CV evidence
motivation	"What interests you about this role?"	Career-direction reasoning, not enthusiasm
strength_weakness	"What's your greatest strength?"	Named + proven with CV evidence
cover_letter	"Cover letter", "Motivation letter"	Full structured letter
general	Everything else	Direct answer first, then supporting evidence

Local web app (optional)

The local web app is useful for development, testing, or running fully offline.

Option A: Ollama (local, private)

brew install ollama
ollama pull llama3.2
ollama serve

cd backend
npm install
npm run dev

Open http://localhost:3001

Option B: Groq (cloud)

cd backend
cp .env.example .env
# edit .env → set LLM_PROVIDER=groq and GROQ_API_KEY=...

npm install
npm run dev

Open http://localhost:3001

Supported providers

Local: Ollama, LM Studio, LocalAI

Cloud: Groq, Google Gemini, Mistral, Together AI, OpenAI

Architecture

┌─────────────────────┐     ┌──────────────────────┐     ┌───────────┐
│  Chrome Extension    │────▶│  Render Proxy Engine  │────▶│  Groq API │
│  (extension-ready/)  │◀────│  (render-proxy/)      │◀────│  (ZDR)    │
└─────────────────────┘     └──────────────────────┘     └───────────┘
        │                            │
        ▼                            ▼
  CV stored locally          Recipe module builds
  in chrome.storage          prompts server-side

1. Extension extracts job context from the page (title, company, description, requirements)
2. Extension sends structured payload (question + CV + job context) to the proxy
3. Proxy authenticates via 90-day install token, cleans the question label, passes to recipe
4. Recipe classifies the question type and builds a tailored prompt (9 distinct strategies)
5. Proxy calls Groq API with a 60s timeout and returns the answer
6. Extension shows progressive status messages while waiting, then displays the answer in a modal
7. Extension inserts the answer into the form field using framework-compatible native events (React/Vue/Angular safe)

Store listing assets

Asset	Path
Store icon (128x128)	store-assets/store-icon-128.png
Small promo (440x280)	store-assets/small-promo-440x280.png
Marquee (1400x560)	store-assets/marquee-promo-1400x560.png
Screenshots (1280x800)	store-assets/screenshot-*.png

Troubleshooting

Issue	Fix
DraftApply buttons not appearing	Click the extension icon → Activate on this page
Embedded form (iframe) modal not visible	Modal automatically relays to the parent page — reload the page if it doesn't appear
"Not found in CV" for LinkedIn / GitHub	Re-upload your CV — the extractor now captures hyperlinked URLs (not just visible text)
Notice period / availability answer too long	Re-generate — these questions now use a short factual prompt (1–2 sentences)
"Why [Company]?" answer feels generic	Ensure job context is detected (green badge) — the answer opens with company specifics from the JD
Loading spinner with no feedback	Status message now updates every few seconds ("Connecting to AI service…", "Service may be waking up…")
Context menu missing	Reload the extension at chrome://extensions
Ollama not responding (local)	Run ollama serve in a terminal
Proxy cold start / first request slow	Free Render tier sleeps after inactivity — first request may take ~30s; subsequent ones are fast

License

This project is fully open source under the MIT License.