NextResume

The release-quality CV/Resume system

NextResume is a modern Typst CV/resume system that balances polished visual presentation with ATS-friendly PDF structure, semantic contact/project links, maintainable resume composition, and a centralized release-quality tooling host.

Why NextResume

Most CV and resume templates lean too far in one direction: they either look good but copy poorly, or they parse cleanly but feel visually plain. NextResume exists to balance both sides: a refined resume that still behaves well when a PDF reader, recruiter, or Applicant Tracking System extracts the text.

NextResume began with brilliant-CV by Yunan Wang and its contributors as the foundation. That template provided a strong visual direction, useful metadata conventions, and a compact professional style worth preserving.

NextResume now owns much of the rendering path itself. It uses brilliant-CV mainly as a style and metadata base while local NextResume components handle the CV wrapper, header, entries, project rows, semantic links, footer behavior, version checks, and build-time PDF post-processing. The intention is still to keep the overall brilliant-CV look familiar, but the structure underneath is increasingly NextResume's own.

What Changed

See CHANGELOG.md for the full release history.

• ATS-conscious PDF output: hidden keyword injection is disabled by default, header contact links and project links use /ActualText, and visual footer text stays out of copied resume content.
• NextResume-owned rendering layer: the CV path now runs through local core, header, entry, project, and footer components while preserving the compact brilliant-CV visual language.
• Stronger authoring model: version validation, shared entry primitives, project metadata rows, keep-together entries, and centralized tooling make the template easier to maintain, inspect, and release.

Main Files

• cv.typ: CV/resume entry point using the local NextResume wrapper.
• letter.typ: cover-letter entry point.
• metadata.toml: identity, layout, styling, language, ATS, footer, and version settings.
• modules_en/*.typ: English resume section content.
• core/nextresume.typ: local CV/resume template wrapper.
• components/entry.typ: shared entry header, description, and full-entry primitives.
• components/info-link.typ: reusable info/project links with optional ActualText metadata.
• components/header.typ: local stack-based CV header renderer with labeled, hyperlink-backed personal info and semantic ActualText.
• components/project-entry.typ: project and association entry renderer.
• components/artifact-footer.typ: artifact footer renderer.
• tools/: centralized Python + UV tooling host for build, watch, footer, PDF helper, clean, and TUI workflows.
• tools/nextresume.cmd: Windows launcher used by VS Code tasks and terminal workflows without requiring PowerShell.
• .tooling/: generated logs, manifests, debug PDFs, extracted assets, and other tool outputs.
• assets/: profile images, signatures, logos, generated footer SVGs, and other binary inputs.

Generated PDFs are build outputs. Edit the Typst, TOML, module, tool, or asset sources instead.

Build

The main developer workflow is now VS Code task-driven. Open the command palette and run the Tasks: Run Task actions such as Tool: Build CV Final, Tool: Watch CV Final, or Tool: Open TUI.

For terminal usage, the centralized tool host handles build, watch, footer, PDF helpers, page-image rendering, and cleaning. The required helper dependencies are part of the tool-managed environment, so you should not need manual renderer setup for normal workflows. The CV/resume build still post-processes header and project links with PDF /ActualText:

tools\nextresume.cmd build cv --language en

To build both documents:

tools\nextresume.cmd build all --language en

To inspect a PDF through the centralized tool host:

tools\nextresume.cmd pdf inspect cv.pdf

To render PDF pages as images for visual inspection:

tools\nextresume.cmd pdf render cv.pdf --dpi 144

For quick raw Typst output without the centralized tooling host:

typst compile cv.typ cv.pdf
typst compile letter.typ letter.pdf

Footer Assets

The CV footer is controlled by the normal footer setting and the active language block:

[layout.footer]
display_footer = true

[lang.en]
cv_footer = "Curriculum vitae"

After changing the personal name, cv_footer, footer font, footer color, or adding another [lang.xx] block, regenerate the footer SVGs:

tools\nextresume.cmd footer generate

The generator writes assets like assets/footer/footer-en.svg, keyed by the language code.

Release Tooling

NextResume Tools is now part of the normal project surface rather than an optional helper layer.

• Use VS Code tasks for everyday build/watch workflows.
• Use tools\nextresume.cmd doctor to verify the toolchain before release work.
• Use tools\nextresume.cmd pdf inspect <file> when inspecting generated PDFs.
• Use tools\nextresume.cmd pdf render <file> when you want page images for visual review.
• The required PDF inspection/rendering tools are provided by the managed tool environment; normal workflows should not need manual dependency runs.
• Expect .tooling/ to hold logs, manifests, extracted artifacts, and debug PDFs.

ATS Notes

NextResume avoids hidden keyword stuffing. Keywords should appear naturally in visible content, especially the Skills section and experience bullets. PDF metadata is still useful for document properties, but it should not be treated as the main ATS keyword strategy.

Credits

NextResume builds on the excellent style and metadata foundation of brilliant-CV by Yunan Wang and contributors. Their work provided the starting point that made this template possible.