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2026-03-21build-in-public8 min

Build log: Job-AI-Auto-Apply, week one

A browser agent that applies to jobs while I sleep. That's the pitch. Week one was about finding out which parts of that sentence are easy and which are lies.

What worked

Form parsing. Given a rendered application page, the agent maps fields to my profile data with very few misses. Name, email, work history, the standard questions: all reliable by day three.

The review queue. Nothing submits without landing in a queue first. I approve applications in batches over coffee instead of living in browser tabs. Even at week one, this alone is worth the build.

What's a mess

ATS detection. Greenhouse, Lever, Workday, Ashby: every one renders forms differently, labels fields differently, and handles multi-page flows differently. Greenhouse and Lever disagree about everything, down to what a "required" field means. The detection layer is now its own module with per-ATS adapters, which is not where I expected to spend the week.

File uploads inside headless sessions are also cursed. That's next week's problem.

The number so far

Applications submitted this week: enough to prove the loop works. Real counts land on the project page once there's a meaningful sample.

Draft build log. Week two covers ATS adapters and tailored answers.

// cta

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