Career-Ops: The Open-Source AI Job Search Automation Tool With 67,000+ GitHub Stars

The Job Search Problem That Career-Ops Solves

If you've applied for jobs in 2026, you know the drill: scroll through hundreds of listings, guess which ones match your skills, manually tweak your resume for each application, then lose track of which companies you've contacted. It's exhausting, inefficient, and frankly, broken.

Companies use AI to filter candidates. Career-ops gives candidates AI to filter companies back.

Built by someone who used it to evaluate 740+ job offers, generate 100+ tailored CVs, and land a Head of Applied AI role, career-ops represents a fundamental shift in how developers approach job searching. Instead of being reactive, you become strategic.

How Career-ops Works: From Paste to Pipeline

Career-ops runs as an agentic skill inside your favorite AI coding CLI — Claude Code, Codex, OpenCode, Antigravity, Grok Build, or any agent-skill-standard CLI. Once installed, it transforms your terminal into a career command center.

The Auto-Pipeline

Paste a job URL or description, and career-ops executes a full pipeline:

# Paste a job URL
/career-ops "https://company.com/jobs/senior-engineer"

# Or paste the JD directly
/career-ops "We're looking for a Senior AI Engineer with experience in..."

The system then:

1. Detects the archetype — Classifies the role (LLMOps, Agentic AI, Product Manager, Solutions Architect, etc.)
2. Runs A-H evaluation — Comprehensive analysis across 8 dimensions
3. Generates tailored PDF — ATS-optimized CV customized for this specific role
4. Updates tracker — Adds the evaluation to your pipeline with status tracking

The A-H Evaluation Framework

This isn't keyword matching. Career-ops uses structured reasoning to evaluate fit:

• Block A: Role summary and archetype classification
• Block B: CV match analysis — where you align and where gaps exist
• Block C: Level strategy — seniority positioning and negotiation angle
• Block D: Compensation research — market rates and geographic adjustments
• Block E: Personalization strategy — how to stand out
• Block F: Interview prep — STAR stories and behavioral question readiness
• Block G: Posting legitimacy — scam detection and ghost job flagging (separate from score)
• Work-Auth Signal: Sponsorship requirement flagging

Each listing receives a structured 1.0-5.0 score. The system strongly recommends against applying to anything below 4.0/5.0 — your time is valuable, and so is the recruiter's.

Portal Scanning and Batch Processing

Career-ops comes pre-configured with 100+ companies (Anthropic, OpenAI, ElevenLabs, Retool, n8n, and more) and 45+ search queries across major job boards like Ashby, Greenhouse, Lever, and Wellfound.

# Scan portals for new matches
/career-ops scan

# Batch evaluate multiple offers in parallel
/career-ops batch

For batch processing, career-ops spawns headless CLI workers that evaluate 10+ offers in parallel using sub-agents. What used to take hours now takes minutes.

Beyond the CV: Research, Contact Discovery, and Interview Prep

Career-ops recognizes that applications get you in the queue, but research gets you a conversation. The system goes far beyond resume optimization:

Company Deep Research

# Generate structured research on a company
/career-ops deep

This triggers a 6-axis research prompt covering:

• AI strategy and recent moves
• Engineering culture and tech stack
• Current challenges and growth areas
• Competitive landscape
• The angle your profile should take

Contact Discovery

# Find the right person to contact
/career-ops contacto

Career-ops identifies the hiring manager, recruiter, or team peer worth reaching out to and drafts a ≤300-character LinkedIn message tuned to each contact type. This transforms cold applications into warm introductions.

Interview Story Bank

As you evaluate roles, career-ops accumulates STAR+Reflection stories across evaluations. Over time, you build 5-10 master stories that answer any behavioral question. No more scrambling to think of examples during interviews.

Negotiation Scripts

When you get an offer, career-ops provides salary negotiation frameworks, geographic discount pushback strategies, and competing offer leverage tactics. It even includes a contract reading companion that walks through clauses and generates lawyer question lists.

Real-World Example: From 740 Evaluations to Dream Role

The creator of career-ops used it to land a Head of Applied AI position. Here's how the workflow looked in practice:

1. Week 1: Initial setup — fed the system CV, career story, proof points, preferences. First evaluations weren't great (the system needed to learn about them).
2. Week 2-3: Daily portal scans, batch evaluation of 20-30 listings per day. Filtered out 90% of listings scoring below 4.0.
3. Week 4: Identified 15 high-scoring roles. Generated tailored CVs and cover letters for each. Used contact discovery to find hiring managers.
4. Week 5-6: Interviews scheduled for 8 roles. Used accumulated STAR stories for behavioral questions. Leveraged negotiation scripts for salary discussions.
5. Result: Landed Head of Applied AI role at target company, with compensation 23% above initial offer.

The key insight: career-ops is a filter, not a spray-and-pray tool. It helps you find the few offers worth your time out of hundreds, then gives you every advantage to win those roles.

Key Benefits: Why Career-Ops Trended to 67K Stars

• Quality over quantity: Evaluates 100+ listings to find the 5-10 worth pursuing
• ATS optimization: Generates keyword-injected PDFs with professional design (Space Grotesk + DM Sans)
• Human-in-the-loop: AI evaluates and recommends, you decide and act. The system never submits applications.
• Pipeline integrity: Automated merge, dedup, status normalization, and health checks
• Multi-CLI support: Works with Claude Code, Codex, OpenCode, Antigravity, Grok Build, and more
• Local-first: Runs on your machine, your data stays private
• Open source: MIT licensed, community-driven, constantly improving
• Pattern analysis: Tracks rejection patterns, per-ATS-channel advance rates, and repost/ghost-job detection

Frequently Asked Questions

1. Is career-ops free to use?

Yes, career-ops is completely open source under the MIT license. However, you'll need API access to your chosen AI coding CLI (Claude Code, Codex, etc.), which may have usage costs. There's also a free tier option using Antigravity CLI with Google's free Gemini API.

2. Does career-ops automatically apply to jobs for me?

No, and that's intentional. Career-ops is a human-in-the-loop system. It evaluates, recommends, and prepares materials, but you always have the final call. The system never submits applications, clicks buttons, or sends emails on your behalf.

3. Which AI coding CLIs does career-ops support?

Career-ops supports Claude Code, Codex, OpenCode, Antigravity CLI, Grok Build CLI, GitHub Copilot, Qwen, and any agent-skill-standard CLI. The skill is defined using an open standard and symlinked for each supported platform.

4. How long does it take to set up career-ops?

Initial setup takes about 10 minutes. Run npx @santifer/career-ops init, then open your AI CLI in the career-ops directory. The system walks you through setup via conversation — your CV, profile, and target roles. However, expect the first week to be a "learning period" where you feed the system context about your preferences and strengths.

5. Can I use career-ops for non-technical roles?

While career-ops was built by and for developers, the evaluation framework is customizable. You can modify the archetypes, scoring weights, and evaluation criteria to match any role type. The system reads the same files it uses, so your AI CLI can help you customize it for product management, design, marketing, or other roles.

6. How does the posting legitimacy check work?

Block G of the evaluation framework assesses posting legitimacy separately from the 1-5 fit score. It flags potential scams, ghost jobs (listings that never result in hires), and red flags like vague descriptions, unrealistic requirements, or suspicious company information. This prevents you from wasting time on illegitimate opportunities.

7. Can career-ops help with salary negotiation?

Absolutely. Career-ops includes comprehensive negotiation scripts covering salary frameworks, geographic discount pushback (for remote roles with location-based pay), and competing offer leverage tactics. It also provides a contract reading companion that walks through offer clauses and generates questions for legal review.