Reactive Resume Turns Your Agent Into a Resume Builder That Imports Cleanly

Most agents will happily write you a resume — and then hand you a document you have to rebuild by hand in a real editor. Reactive Resume, a 43k-star MIT-licensed resume builder, takes a different path: the repo ships an agent skill that generates resumes in Reactive Resume's own schema, plus an MCP server that lets your agent edit and manage them for you.

Why This Skill Matters

Reactive Resume is a free resume builder — pick a template, fill in your details, export to PDF — that you can use at rxresu.me without an account or self-host on your own infrastructure. The gap it fills is the handoff: a resume your agent writes in a chat is not a resume your agent can update next week.

Two pieces close that gap. The resume-builder skill in the repo's skills/ directory instructs the agent to interview you, never invent facts, and emit JSON that conforms to the Reactive Resume schema — which rxresu.me imports directly. The MCP server, at https://rxresu.me/mcp, goes further: your agent can list and edit existing resumes, and run an application tracker with linked resumes, follow-ups, and match scores.

Installation

The repo does not document a one-line installer for the skill, so install it by hand: clone the repo and copy the skills/resume-builder/ folder into your agent's skills directory (for Claude Code, that is ~/.claude/skills/resume-builder).

For the editing and application-tracking workflows, connect the documented MCP server instead. OAuth2 clients only need the URL:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "reactive-resume": {
      "url": "https://rxresu.me/mcp"
    }
  }
}

For clients that only support command/args, the docs bridge through mcp-remote (Node.js 20 or later) with an API key created under Settings → API Keys at rxresu.me — the key is shown only once.

Real Workflow: Draft a Resume You Can Import

1. Point your agent at the skill and describe your background. The skill's core principle is to never hallucinate: it asks for anything missing — job titles, dates, responsibilities — one question at a time.
2. It asks about layout: one of the 15 templates (azurill through scizor), A4 or Letter page size, and which sections to include and in what order.
3. It outputs a complete JSON object conforming to the schema. The skill's own checklist explains the format's rules: item id fields must be valid UUIDs, description fields accept HTML, colors use rgba(...), and fonts must come from Google Fonts.
4. Import the JSON at rxresu.me, adjust the styling in the live editor, and export to PDF, JSON, or DOCX.

Second Workflow: Track Applications Over MCP

Once the MCP server is connected, Application Tracker work happens in the same chat. Ask your agent to create an application for a role, then attach the resume you just imported. The documented tools cover the loop: score_application_match compares a linked resume against a job description, tailor_resume_for_application produces a tailored copy, and draft_application_message writes the recruiter follow-up. Three pre-built prompts ship with the server — build_resume, improve_resume, and review_resume, the last one read-only with a 1–10 scorecard across seven dimensions.

Tips

• Keep the skill's ground rule in mind: it only includes what you explicitly provide, so paste in real accomplishments rather than expecting it to pad.
• OAuth2 is the recommended auth for the MCP server; fall back to an API key header (x-api-key) only when your client cannot do the OAuth flow.
• Review AI-drafted cover letters and follow-ups before sending them — the skill itself instructs the agent to have you do this.
• Self-hosting the app also self-hosts the MCP endpoint, and since v5.1.0 PDF generation runs entirely client-side, so the Docker stack no longer needs an external print service.

When Not to Use This

If you only need a one-off resume and enjoy editing in the browser, Reactive Resume's own UI is the shorter path — the skill earns its keep on iteration and application tracking. And if your target workflow lives in another resume tool, this skill's JSON will not import there; it is built for the Reactive Resume schema.

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