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Papertrail

A résumé-as-code template turning structured YAML into polished PDFs with Quarto and Typst.

Quarto
Typst
Automation
Open Source
A reproducible résumé and CV generation framework that separates career data from layout, enabling version-controlled, single-source document generation.
Published

October 18, 2026

View Source on GitHub View Dalton’s Résumé View Dalton’s Academic CV

Overview

Papertrail is an open-source template that treats résumé and curriculum vitae maintenance like software development.

Instead of formatting documents by hand in a word processor or maintaining separate, drifting files for different job applications, Papertrail stores career data in modular YAML files. A custom Typst engine compiled through Quarto then assembles that data into both a tight one-page résumé and an exhaustive academic CV.

In fact, the résumé and CV available on this website were compiled directly with Papertrail.

Why I Built It

Maintaining career documents by hand is notoriously frustrating:

  1. Format Drift: Keeping a comprehensive academic CV and a focused one-page résumé in sync usually means copying and pasting text across multiple files, invariably introducing inconsistencies.
  2. Layout Fragility: Small wording changes in standard document editors often cause catastrophic line wraps, spilling a carefully balanced one-page resume onto an unwanted second page.
  3. The LaTeX Problem: Traditional “résumé as code” solutions almost universally rely on LaTeX. While LaTeX provides precise typography and plays nicely with Git, it comes with heavy costs: multi-gigabyte compiler toolchains (such as MacTeX or TeXLive), sluggish compile times, and cryptic macro syntax where content gets buried under typesetting commands.

I wanted a setup that gave me:

  • Single-source data: Add a publication, project, or work experience once, and let the system decide where and how to render it.
  • Fast, modern typesetting: Clean typographic output with sub-second compilation.
  • Zero heavy dependencies: Build documents out of the box using tools I already use for scientific writing without installing LaTeX.

How It Works

Papertrail is organized around a clean separation between data, presentation logic, and document targets:

papertrail/
├── data/                          # Structured career data (YAML)
│   ├── education.yml
│   ├── experience.yml
│   ├── projects.yml
│   ├── publications.yml
│   ├── skills.yml
│   └── awards.yml
├── 00-formatters.typ              # Reusable Typst layout functions
├── 01-cv.qmd                      # Master document for academic CV
├── 02-resume.qmd                  # Master document for 1-page résumé
└── output/                        # Rendered PDF documents
    ├── Dalton_Kutzen-CV.pdf
    └── Dalton_Kutzen-Resume.pdf

1. Modular Data Layer

Content is stored as plain YAML in the data/ directory. Each entry contains structured fields alongside a show_in tag that controls which document variants should include it:

- title: "[Phantom — Bacteriophage Analysis Workflow](https://github.com/dkutzen22/phantom)"
  details:
    - "Modular Snakemake pipeline for phage genome annotation and downstream comparative analysis."
    - "Uses isolated Conda environments and declarative rules to make runs reproducible across systems."
  show_in: [resume, cv]

If an item is only relevant for a complete academic CV (such as an extensive poster session or full coursework list), setting show_in: [cv] keeps it out of the compact one-page résumé automatically.

2. Typst Formatting Pipeline

The core formatting logic lives in 00-formatters.typ. It provides helper functions that: - Ingest the YAML data files. - Filter entries based on the active document target (resume or cv). - Parse inline Markdown formatting (such as **bold**, *italics*, and [link text](url)) within YAML strings into native Typst content blocks. - Format dates, organizations, and bulleted details with consistent margins and hierarchy.

3. Native Quarto Integration

Because Quarto bundles native support for Typst, compiling both documents requires no external compilers or complex Makefile setups:

# Render both Resume and CV in milliseconds
quarto render

# Or render an individual target
quarto render 02-resume.qmd --to typst

Technical Decisions & Tradeoffs

Why Typst Over LaTeX?

Typst was designed from the ground up to replace LaTeX for modern document preparation. It compiles in milliseconds rather than seconds, features human-readable error messages, and uses clean scripting syntax.

The tradeoff: Typst’s package ecosystem is newer than TeX’s decades-old ecosystem. However, for structured document layouts like résumés, Typst’s native grid and layout primitives provide far superior control with dramatically less code.

Why YAML as the Data Store?

YAML is human-readable, readable in Git diffs, and universally supported across programming languages.

The tradeoff: YAML can occasionally be sensitive to unquoted special characters (such as colons or brackets in titles). I established conventions in Papertrail—such as quoting Markdown links—to ensure parsing remains predictable and robust.

Current State & What’s Next

Papertrail is published as an open-source template repository on GitHub under DKutzen22/papertrail. Anyone can use it as a template by clicking “Use this template” on GitHub.

What works today:

  • Dual-target compilation from a single shared data directory.
  • Dynamic filtering by document target (show_in).
  • Markdown link and style parsing inside Typst blocks.
  • Tested and active in production for my own résumé and CV.

Areas for future exploration:

  • HTML Web View: Writing a renderer to generate a responsive HTML version of the CV directly from the same YAML files, eliminating duplicate editing between web pages and PDF files.
  • Section Sorting Options: Adding configurable chronological vs. relevance-based sorting parameters for flexible tailoring.