Open Career Format

A private career notebook that becomes every resume you'll ever need.

OCF preserves what you did, what changed, what you learned, and what mattered — so it's there the next time you need it.

Site last updated: 2026-07-17

Try It Yourself

Bring your resume, a job description or goal, and an LLM. OCF helps the conversation create useful career memory while helping with what you need now.

Start with your own career

See It Used

Follow Maria from an ordinary resume through conversations that recover context, preserve corrections, and improve the same OCF file.

Follow Maria's OCF through seven conversations

Try It With Your Own Resume

If you are comfortable sharing the materials with the LLM or tool you are using, attach your resume and a job description. Do not include anything that tool should not process.

In an LLM chat window, use the prompt below. If you already use skills with your LLM agent, start with the OCF Start skill instead; it handles local files and outputs for you.

Works anywhere: copyable LLM prompt 
Using only this OCF bootstrap:
https://opencareerformat.org/prompts/application-bootstrap.md

If you cannot open that URL, tell me and stop rather than improvising OCF instructions.

plus my attached resume and job description, help me create a better resume and cover letter for this role.

Do not search for general prompt-writing, resume, schema, or background advice unless I ask you to.

First give me the gap read: what the job asks for, what my resume proves, and what is missing or under-evidenced. Ask no more than three targeted questions. After I answer, draft the resume and cover letter. Before creating or updating the OCF file, ask me for one story about my work I would never put on a formal resume and preserve it in my own words. Then create a candidate-master OCF file or proposed OCF update set for next time. When possible, provide a complete master as plain JSON named {person}.master.ocf.json, and remind me to save it next to my resume.

Save the OCF file next to your resume. Next time, attach both.

OCF In Brief

Your File, On Your Computer

OCF is a file format, not a platform. There is no account, no service, and nothing to buy. The file is yours: keep it locally, back it up your way, and share only what you choose.

How It Works

First conversation: build your career memory

What you bring Old resumes, cover letters, notes, and conversations
Your conversation with an LLM Guided by the OCF schema, skills, and prompts
You review every word
Your OCF file Reusable career memory you own
Next time

Later conversations: use and improve it

What you bring Your OCF file plus a job description or goal
Your conversation with an LLM Guided by the OCF schema, skills, and prompts
You review every word
Your targeted output Resume, cover letter, profile, interview material, or another view
↺ Approved updates improve the same OCF file
Tools change and improve. Your OCF file carries your reviewed career memory between them, and each conversation can make it more useful.

Go Deeper

Technical and project resources

Feedback and Suggestions

If a real workflow exposes something OCF cannot preserve, curate, or exchange, suggest a change. For open-ended questions and early ideas, use GitHub Discussions.