CV Centipede Guide

Quick start: build with AI

The fastest path to a strong resume is to let a chatbot do the writing. Three steps:

1

Copy the prompt

Click Build with AI in the app to copy a ready-made prompt.

2

Ask your chatbot

Paste it into ChatGPT, Claude, or Gemini, with your background or an old resume.

3

Paste it back

Drop the reply into the editor on the left. Your resume renders on the right instantly.

From there it is yours. Restyle it, pin the bits you like, and export. The AI gets you most of the way; you do the polish.

No chatbot handy? Click Load an example or browse the Templates in the app to start from a finished resume.

A look that is yours alone

CV Centipede has no house style. Rather than a handful of fixed templates, every resume is drawn from a seed, so two people are very unlikely to hand in the same-looking page. You steer it with a few controls in the top bar:

Style a starting vibe that sets the overall character.
Boldness a dial from plain and conventional up to sidebars, cards, icons, and strong contrast.
Surprise reroll everything that is not pinned, for a fresh take in one click.
Design open it to pin any single choice (accent color, fonts, layout, headings) while the rest keeps generating.

Seven starting vibes ship in the box:

ClassicModernEditorialTechnicalExecutiveBoldInfographic

Found a detail you love? Pin it under Design and it stays put while Surprise rerolls the rest. The seed keeps it reproducible: the same seed always draws the same page.

Resume or academic CV

Two document modes, one tool:

Resume the default. A tight, one-page document. CV Centipede auto-fits it to a single page, and if it overflows it warns you instead of cutting text.
Academic CV set docType: cv (or start from the Farnsworth template). Adds the long-form sections academics need: publications, grants, talks, teaching, advising, and service, flowing across as many pages as it takes.

In CV mode, publications are numbered and grouped by type, your own name is bolded automatically, and a small page footer carries your name across every page.

More than writing: tailor and convert

The Build with AI dialog offers a prompt for each job, not just a blank-page write:

Build a resume turn rough notes, a bio, or an old resume into a polished one-pager.
Build a CV the same idea, for a full academic CV.
Tailor to a job paste a job description plus your current document, and get a focused rewrite that stays truthful. It reorders and sharpens; it never invents experience.
Import BibTeX paste a .bib file and it becomes structured publications, with your name bolded.

Export to PDF or Word

PDF real, selectable text with embedded fonts, not a picture of text. It sails through resume scanners, auto-fits to one page, and is ready to send or print.
Word (.docx) a clean, editable document with real headings, bullets, and links. Friendly to recruiters and applicant tracking systems.

Both are generated right in your browser. The look you see in the preview is the look you get in the file.

Private by design

Everything happens in your browser. Your resume, your photo, and your exports never leave your device. There is no account, no upload, and no tracking.

The only text that ever leaves your machine is the prompt you choose to paste into a chatbot, and that happens in that tool, not here.

Save and open

Save writes a portable .cvc.json file with your resume and its photo together. Open loads it back, so you can keep a draft or move a project between machines, with no server involved.

Under the hood (optional)

Curious what the chatbot actually writes? A small YAML document: a contact block and an ordered list of sections. You never have to read it, but you can edit it directly, and it validates as you type, with plain-English errors when something is off.

version: 1
contact:
  name: Ada Lovelace
  headline: Analytical Engine Programmer
  email: ada@example.com
sections:
  - type: summary
    text: Mathematician turning machines into instruments of insight.
  - type: experience
    items:
      - role: Collaborator
        organization: Analytical Engine Project
        start: "1842"
        end: "1843"
        highlights:
          - Wrote the first published algorithm for a computing machine.