Cover letter builder

Cover Letter Builder

When to use

Any request to write or tailor a cover letter for a specific role. Requires a target Job Description or an existing role.md to ground the letter.

Inputs

• Source material — read all that exist before drafting. $PERSONAL is the personal-docs sibling directory defined in CLAUDE.md; resolve it once at the start of the session.
  • $PERSONAL/career/impact-doc.md — always. Primary source of truth for roles, projects, and metrics.
  • $PERSONAL/career/brag-doc.md — read if it exists. Contains quantified wins and recognition that may not appear in the impact doc. Cross-check metrics here; the brag doc often has stronger or more specific numbers.
  • $PERSONAL/career/goals.md — read if it exists. Use to understand what the user is optimizing for and how to frame the letter's angle.
  • $PERSONAL/career/personal-info.md — read if it exists. Use for the closing signature block: name, email, phone, LinkedIn. Omit GitHub unless specifically requested. If the file does not exist, use placeholders and note them.
• Role context (one of, in priority order):
  • Existing $PERSONAL/applications/<company>/<role-slug>/role.md — use the fit analysis and Job Description already on disk
  • A pasted Job Description or URL — fetch and parse it fresh
• Optional user direction: specific angle to lead with, a talking point to include, or a point to omit.
• Length: default 3-4 short paragraphs, ~250-350 words. Confirm if I want longer.

Workflow

1. Get the Job Description and fit context

Check whether $PERSONAL/applications/<company>/<role-slug>/role.md exists. If it does, read it for the full Job Description and the fit analysis. If not, fetch or request the Job Description and run a quick mental fit pass before writing.

If neither exists and no Job Description was provided, ask for one before proceeding.

2. Identify 2-3 strongest fit signals

From $PERSONAL/career/impact-doc.md, find the 2-3 experiences that most directly address the role's core responsibilities. These become the backbone of the letter's body. Do not try to cover everything.

Prefer signals that:

• Are quantified
• Involve the same domain, scale, or problem type as the role
• Demonstrate scope beyond the individual contributor level (if the role is senior/staff)

3. Draft the letter

Structure:

Opening (1 paragraph): A direct, confident hook that names the company and connects my background to a specific thing they're building or solving. Not "I am writing to express my interest." The opening should make a concrete claim the rest of the letter supports.

Body (2 paragraphs): Each paragraph centers on one strong fit signal from step 2. Lead with the outcome, then explain what I did and why it's relevant to this role. No retelling of the resume chronologically. Every paragraph should end with a sentence that ties back to the role's challenge or the company's trajectory.

Closing (1 paragraph): One sentence expressing genuine interest in the specific role (not just the company generically), one sentence on what I bring to the table in summary, and a clean call to action.

4. Tailoring pass

• Match the Job Description's vocabulary where truthful (use their phrasing for team structure, product area, engineering challenge)
• Reorder or reframe the body paragraphs to lead with the strongest fit
• Strip any sentence that could appear in a letter for a different company without changing a word

5. Critique pass

Before finalizing, check every paragraph:

• Does the opening make a concrete claim? Or does it just state that I'm applying?
• Does each body paragraph have a number or a concrete scope signal?
• Does anything read like it was copied from the resume? If so, reframe it as narrative.
• Is there any filler ("I am passionate about," "I thrive in fast-paced environments")? Delete it.

6. Produce outputs

Save to $PERSONAL/applications/<company>/<role-slug>/:

• cover-letter.md — clean Markdown, source of truth
• cover-letter.docx — using the docx skill, matching the resume's formatting style (same font, margins)

If the application folder does not exist yet, create it. Tell the user the saved path.

If cover-letter.md already exists, prompt before overwriting:

• Overwrite — replace entirely.
• Revise — take the existing letter as a draft and apply targeted edits (good for second-pass refinements).
• Cancel — print to terminal only, write nothing.

7. Summarize

End with 2-3 sentences: what angle the letter leads with, what it deprioritizes, and anything from $PERSONAL/career/impact-doc.md that is underspecified and would strengthen a future draft (without fabricating).

Anti-patterns

• Never open with "I am writing to apply for..." or any variant. Find a hook.
• Don't retell the resume chronologically. The letter explains why this role, not what I did.
• Don't list technologies or skills as a paragraph. That's the resume's job.
• Don't invent metrics. If the number isn't in my files, use scope or scale instead, or flag the gap.
• Don't pad to length. A tight 250-word letter beats a meandering 400-word one.
• Don't include the recipient's name or address block unless I provide it. Use a clean salutation: "Dear Hiring Manager," or the team name if known.
• Don't write a generic enthusiasm paragraph. Every sentence must earn its place by being specific to this role and company.
• Never use em dashes or en dashes (— or –) anywhere in the letter. Replace with a comma, colon, period, or parentheses. No exceptions.
• Use generic, industry-standard terminology, not company-specific or tool-specific jargon. A hiring manager at the target company will not share my team's vocabulary. Translate before writing. Examples:
  • "MR review cycle" → "code review cycle" (MR is GitLab-specific)
  • Internal product or team codenames → the public product name, or a generic capability
  • Internal acronyms → spelled-out plain English
  • Custom tooling names → the category of tool If a term is genuinely industry-standard (Kubernetes, Kafka, OAuth), keep it. If in doubt, prefer the plain-English version.