Create a HitApply template

A template is the look only. HitApply fills in the user's own content, so you never write their name, jobs or bullets into it. You design the look; HitApply checks the template, previews it and stores it, with the save_template tool.

The rules a template must follow are at https://hitapply.app/help/templates/reference. Read it before your first edit, and again whenever a check fails.

1. Start from a template

• Pick the closest starting point and call save_template(kind, start_from=...):
  • resume: "Jake's Resume — Classic" (the Jake's layout), "Jake's Resume — Company First", "Modern Resume".
  • cover: "Jake's Letter", "Minimal Letter", "Modern Letter", "Corner Lines Letter".
  • One of the user's own: pass its name. A wrong name returns the valid ones.
• forbidden: the connection is read-only. Tell the user to reconnect HitApply with changes allowed, then stop.

2. Change the look

Edit the returned .tex to match what the user asked for: fonts, colours, spacing, headings, rules, the order of fields. Keep it one file with standard TeX Live packages only (no images, custom fonts or .sty files). Keep every macro, even ones this design rarely shows, and keep the metadata block (give it the new name).

3. Check and look

• Call save_template(kind, source=...). Nothing is saved yet. You get pages, any warnings, and an image of page 1 filled with a short sample of the user's own profile.
• If an image came with the result, look at it and compare it to what the user asked for. Fix and check again until it matches. Say briefly what you changed.
• If no image came (some apps drop it), say you can't see the result. Never describe how it looks. Go to step 4 so the user can see it.
• Don't paste the .tex into the chat unless the user asks for it.
• invalid_template: the message says what is wrong. Fix exactly that, then check again.
• pages over 1: the design is too tall. Tighten the spacing or the font size.
• busy: wait a few seconds and retry. daily_cap_reached: stop and tell the user.

4. Save it so the user can see it

• Call save_template(kind, source=..., name=..., save=true) and give the user open_url: the full preview in HitApply. A saved template isn't used until they pick it for a job or make it primary, except when they have no primary template yet (the first one becomes primary) or you replace their primary. Then their next documents use it, so tell them before saving.
• name_taken: ask whether to replace that template (replace=true) or use another name.
• For changes, edit and save again with the same name and replace=true. It's the same template, so the same link shows the new version.
• Only pass make_primary=true when the user wants HitApply to use it by default.

5. Use it

• Résumé: offer to generate with it: queue_job(job_id, template=<name>) for a job, or for an existing application have the user regenerate from HitApply.
• Cover letter: queue_job's template picks résumé templates only. New cover letters use the user's primary cover template, so ask before saving whether it should be the one used, and pass make_primary=true if so (later: save it again with replace=true, make_primary=true).
• To write the résumé content yourself with the new template, use the tailor skill's get_materials → compose_resume flow.