ferrocv

Render JSON Resume to PDF, HTML, and text via Typst — single static binary, no Node or TeX required.

Status

Early. PDF, plain-text, and HTML output all work today (PDF via any registered PDF-capable theme, plain text via the native text-minimal default, and HTML via the native html-minimal semantic theme). Additional themes and native-theme tooling are tracked as GitHub issues and organized into phase milestones. HTML uses Typst's upstream-experimental HTML export — output shape may shift when Typst is bumped; the CLI surface itself is stable. The non-negotiable design principles live in CONSTITUTION.md.

Why

The JSON Resume schema is a sound single-source-of-truth for resume data, but its JavaScript theme ecosystem is thin and fragile (many themes are abandoned, others ship with broken dependencies). This project keeps the schema and replaces the rendering pipeline with something more robust:

• Rust for a single-binary CLI with no runtime dependencies.
• Typst for modern typesetting — embeddable as a crate, no TeX distro needed, with a growing ecosystem of resume templates.
• JSON Resume v1.0.0 remains the canonical input format.

Goals

• Validate resume.json against the JSON Resume schema.
• Compile to PDF in-process via the typst crate (no subprocess).
• Emit HTML and plain text as first-class outputs, not afterthoughts.
• Ship adapters over popular Typst Universe templates so users have visual variety from day one.
• Define a native theme contract so new themes can target JSON Resume directly.

Usage

# Validate a resume against the JSON Resume schema
ferrocv validate resume.json

# Render to PDF (defaults to the native `text-minimal` theme;
# `--theme` is optional)
ferrocv render resume.json

# Pick a visually richer PDF theme
ferrocv render resume.json --theme typst-jsonresume-cv --output resume.pdf

# Render to plain text (also defaults to `text-minimal`)
ferrocv render resume.json --format text

# Render to HTML (defaults to the native `html-minimal` semantic theme).
# Note: Typst's HTML export is upstream-experimental; output shape may
# shift across ferrocv releases when Typst is bumped.
ferrocv render resume.json --format html

# List bundled themes (machine-readable, one name per line)
ferrocv themes list

The quickest way to try it end-to-end is ferrocv-example, a forkable starter template that renders its own resume.json to PDF on every push via GitHub Actions (using the setup-ferrocv composite action below) and publishes the result to GitHub Pages.

render defaults to --format pdf. --theme is optional for every format: PDF and text default to the native text-minimal theme, while HTML defaults to the native html-minimal semantic theme. When --output is omitted, the output lands at dist/resume.pdf for PDF, dist/resume.txt for text, and dist/resume.html for HTML; parent directories are created as needed. validate and render read from stdin if no path is given.

themes list prints registered theme names to stdout, one per line, sorted lexicographically, with no decoration — a stable machine-readable contract.

themes install resolves transitive @preview/... dependencies recursively: installing one package also fetches every @preview/... package its source declares as an import, hydrating the local cache for the whole graph in one invocation instead of N. Cycles in declared imports are detected and do not loop; missing transitive packages hard-fail with the primary still cached for retry. The primary's cache path is printed to stdout (one line, scriptable); a human-readable summary of any transitive deps newly installed or already cached is printed to stderr, e.g.

$ ferrocv themes install @preview/foo:1.0
/.../packages/preview/foo/1.0
installed @preview/foo:1.0 into /.../packages/preview/foo/1.0
also resolved 1 transitive dep(s):
  @preview/bar:2.0 -> /.../packages/preview/bar/2.0 [installed]

render resolves a top-level --theme @preview/<name>:<version> spec out of this cache (see --theme resolution modes below); inline #import "@preview/..." directives inside theme source remain rejected at render time per CONSTITUTION §6.1, so the practical benefit of recursive install today is one-shot cache hydration rather than chained imports at compile time.

--theme resolution modes

--theme <spec> accepts three shapes, evaluated in this order:

1. Bundled name — e.g. --theme typst-jsonresume-cv or --theme html-minimal. Looked up in the compile-time theme registry; see ferrocv themes list for the current set.
2. Local .typ path — e.g. --theme ./resume.typ or --theme /abs/path/to/theme.typ. Any spec containing a / or \, ending in .typ, or starting with . / / takes this branch. Single-file only — directory-based local themes are tracked as a follow-up. Force a bare-name spec onto this branch with ./name or a .typ extension.
3. Typst Universe package — e.g. --theme @preview/basic-resume:0.2.8. Resolves out of the local installer cache populated by a prior ferrocv themes install (gated behind the install Cargo feature). Render itself never makes a network call: a cache miss exits 2 with a single-line "Run: ferrocv themes install ..." hint pointing at the install subcommand. Cache location is ${dirs::cache_dir()}/ferrocv/packages/preview/<name>/<version>/ by default and overridable via FERROCV_CACHE_DIR. Builds without the install feature reject @preview/... specs with a clear "rebuild with --features install" message — the cache reader is gated behind the same flag as the installer itself.

Exit codes (shared across subcommands):

• 0 — success
• 1 — JSON parsed but failed schema validation (validate / render; diagnostics on stderr)
• 2 — usage error, IO error, JSON parse error, unknown theme/format, render error, or unrecoverable stdout write failure

No network is touched by render or validate — the schema, theme, and fonts are all compiled into the binary, and any @preview/... theme spec is resolved from the local install cache. The only network-permitted entry point is themes install (gated behind the install Cargo feature), which fetches from the Typst Universe registry over HTTPS; see CONSTITUTION §6.1.

GitHub Actions

A composite action at .github/actions/setup-ferrocv installs a pinned ferrocv release onto the runner's PATH. Once installed, call any subcommand directly — there are no dedicated render / validate wrappers, because the CLI invocations are already one-liners.

jobs:
  render:
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    steps:
      - uses: actions/checkout@v4
      - uses: cacack/ferrocv/.github/actions/setup-ferrocv@v0.4.0
        with:
          version: v0.4.0
      - run: ferrocv validate resume.json
      - run: ferrocv render resume.json --theme typst-jsonresume-cv --output dist/resume.pdf
      - uses: actions/upload-artifact@v4
        with:
          name: resume
          path: dist/resume.pdf

Supported runners today: ubuntu-latest (x86_64), macos-14 (arm64), windows-latest (x86_64) — matching the release asset matrix. The action downloads the matching tarball/zip, verifies its SHA256 against the sidecar file published alongside each release, and installs the binary under ${{ runner.temp }}/ferrocv-bin. It also exposes a bin-path output for workflows that need the absolute path.

Pin the action ref and the version: input to the same release tag to avoid drift.

Contributing

To add a new theme adapter, see docs/adapters.md for the contributor walkthrough (vendoring conventions, registry entry, golden tests, common pitfalls).

Development

Run the full CI check suite locally before pushing:

make preflight

This mirrors .github/workflows/ci.yml and runs cargo fmt --check, cargo clippy -D warnings, cargo test, cargo-deny, cargo-audit, and typos. Individual checks are available as their own targets (make clippy, make test, ...); run make help for the full list.

First-time setup installs the non-cargo-stock tools:

make install-tools

Non-goals

• Replacing the JSON Resume schema or project.
• Supporting arbitrary input formats (Markdown, YAML, etc.).
• Becoming a general-purpose Typst build tool.

Prior art

• fruggiero/typst-jsonresume-cv — Typst template that accepts JSON Resume data.
• fantastic-cv, modern-cv, and basic-resume — Typst Universe resume templates wrapped as bundled adapters.
• jsonresume-renderer — Rust CLI that renders JSON Resume via Tera templates (not Typst).
• typst.ts — proves Typst is embeddable outside its native CLI.

License

Dual-licensed under either of:

• Apache License, Version 2.0 (LICENSE-APACHE or http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0)
• MIT license (LICENSE-MIT or http://opensource.org/licenses/MIT)

at your option. This is the standard Rust ecosystem dual license.

Unless you explicitly state otherwise, any contribution intentionally submitted for inclusion in the work by you, as defined in the Apache-2.0 license, shall be dual-licensed as above, without any additional terms or conditions.