Crosswalk 🧭

A job-search assistant that runs on your computer. It finds jobs that fit you, writes a tailored résumé + cover letter for each, fills in the application form, and — if you let it — submits it for you. Hands-off.

Local-first · your data never leaves your machine · bring your own AI.

Contents

• What is this?

• Two ways to use it

• Quick setup (3 steps)

• Add your AI key

• Connect your email inbox (Gmail app password)

• How to use the app

• Tell it about yourself once (the questionnaire)

• What it can and can't auto-apply to

• Use it inside Claude or other AI tools

• Run it automatically (hands-off)

• Try it safely first

• Troubleshooting

• Updating to a newer version

• Your privacy

• For developers

• Contributing

• License

Related MCP server: Shortlist MCP Server

What is this?

You tell it "I'm looking for Product Manager jobs" and it:

1. 🔎 Finds matching jobs across thousands of companies.

2. ✍️ Rewrites your résumé to fit each job — using only true facts from your real résumé.

3. 📝 Writes a cover letter and answers the application questions (text, dropdowns, checkboxes, and all).

4. ✅ Fills in the form — including embedded (iframe) forms, searchable dropdowns, multi-page wizards, and the required consent boxes — and, if you allow it, clicks Submit.

5. 📧 Gets past email verification — if a site emails you a code or a "verify your email" link mid-application, it reads your inbox, enters the code (or opens the link), and finishes. (Optional — set it up under Settings → Email inbox.)

6. 👀 Keeps watching, so the moment a new matching job is posted, it grabs it.

Everything runs on your own laptop. Your résumé, jobs, and history live in one folder on your computer (~/.crosswalk). Nothing is uploaded to anyone.

Two ways to use it

You can use either, or both — they share the same data.

Quick setup (3 steps)

You only do this once. It takes about 5 minutes. No coding needed.

Step 1 — Install Node.js (the engine that runs the app)

1. Go to nodejs.org.

2. Click the big green "LTS" button (this needs to be version 24 or newer — the LTS button is the right one). It downloads a file.

3. Open the file and click Next → Next → Install, like installing any app.

Step 2 — Download Crosswalk

1. Open the Crosswalk page on GitHub.

2. Click the green <> Code button → Download ZIP.

3. Find the ZIP (usually in Downloads) and double-click it to unzip.

4. You'll get a folder named crosswalk-mcp-main. Move it somewhere easy, like your Desktop.

Step 3 — Start it (just double-click)

Open the crosswalk-mcp-main folder, then:

• Mac: right-click start.command → Open → Open. (Right-click only the first time. After that, a normal double-click works.)

• Windows: double-click start.cmd. (If you see "Windows protected your PC", click More info → Run anyway.)

A window opens. The first time, it spends about a minute getting ready, then your browser opens to the app automatically. 🎉

If the page shows an error at first, wait a few seconds and refresh — it's just warming up. To stop it, close that window. To start again, double-click the same file.

Add your AI key

The app uses an AI ("the brain") to write your résumés and answers. Here's how to get a key:

1. Make a free account at console.anthropic.com.

2. Go to API Keys → Create Key and copy the code (it starts with sk-ant-).

3. In the app, click Settings, paste it in the API key box, and click Save.

💡 You pay Anthropic directly — usually a few cents per résumé. Finding and tracking jobs works without a key; you only need it for writing résumés and answers.

Don't want to set it up ahead of time? Fine — the first time an AI action needs a key, the app asks for it right there in a popup, saves it, and continues.

Connect your email inbox (Gmail app password)

Optional, but it lets the agent finish applications that email you a verification code or link. There is no "Sign in with Google" button — Crosswalk reads your inbox locally over IMAP using an app password, which is a special 16-character password that only works for this one purpose and can be revoked anytime.

Gmail — step by step:

1. App passwords require 2-Step Verification. If you don't have it: myaccount.google.com/security → 2-Step Verification → turn it on.

2. Go to myaccount.google.com/apppasswords (sign in if asked).

3. Under "App name" type Crosswalk, click Create, and copy the 16-character password it shows (spaces don't matter).

4. In the app: Settings → Email inbox → provider gmail → enter your Gmail address and paste the app password → Test connection → Save.

iCloud Mail: appleid.apple.com → Sign-In and Security → App-Specific Passwords → generate one, then same as step 4 with provider icloud.

Outlook/Hotmail: works with your normal password in many cases; if not, create an app password at account.microsoft.com/security.

💡 Privacy tip: put a tagged alias like you+apply@gmail.com on your applications (set it in your Profile). It still lands in your inbox, Crosswalk only reads the verification mail, and your personal address stays off job-site mailing lists.

🔒 Read-only: Crosswalk never sends mail, never marks anything read, and the password never leaves ~/.crosswalk on your machine.

How to use the app

Use the left-hand menu, roughly in this order:

1. Profile — write a few sentences about yourself (e.g. "PM, 3 years at Acme, want NYC or remote, need visa sponsorship"). Save.

2. Résumés — paste your résumé, name it, click Add. (You can delete a résumé later too — it cleans up its applications and cached fit scores.)

3. Settings → Answer bank — click "Load common defaults" (safe answers for standard questions like work authorization and the optional EEO/diversity ones), then add your own, e.g. salary → $130,000.

4. Jobs — type a role (like product manager) and click Search jobs. You get real jobs from many companies.

5. Apply — click draft → on a job to review it first, or Auto-apply at the top of the results to handle them all.

6. Settings → Email inbox (optional) — paste an app password for your email so the agent can read verification codes/links and finish those applications on its own. Step-by-step: Connect your email inbox. Leave it blank to skip — you'll just complete those few by hand.

7. Pipeline / Alerts / Inbox — track every application, see new-match alerts, and route recruiter emails to the right application.

Tell it about yourself once (the questionnaire)

The first time you open the app you get a short setup wizard — re-run it anytime at localhost:3000/onboarding. Besides your name and résumé, it asks the questions real applications repeat forever:

• Work eligibility — visa status, work authorization, sponsorship.

• Education — school, degree, discipline, years. (The school pickers on Greenhouse-style forms fill from this.)

• Work preferences — remote/hybrid/onsite, willingness to relocate, earliest start date, "how did you hear about us".

• Voluntary self-identification (EEO) — gender, ethnicity, veteran and disability status. Every question has a "Prefer not to say" option, and that is exactly what goes on forms if you pick it.

Your answers land in a local answer bank (plus your profile) in ~/.crosswalk. When an application asks one of these questions — in any phrasing close enough to match — Crosswalk uses your saved answer instead of guessing. Anything the bank doesn't cover falls back to the AI, which only uses true facts from your résumé and profile.

See, add, and edit every saved answer under Settings → Answer bank. Saving an answer with the same question label replaces the old one, so re-running the wizard updates your answers rather than duplicating them. Every step is skippable.

What it can and can't auto-apply to

Honesty section. An application is only marked submitted when there's real evidence (the page navigated to a confirmation, showed a "thank you", or passed an email-verification gate) — a mere button click is never trusted. When something can't be finished automatically, you get an alert with the link to finish it yourself instead of a fake green checkmark.

The real proof an application landed is the confirmation email from the company. If you connected your inbox, watch for it; no email after an hour usually means it needs your hand.

Use it inside Claude or other AI tools

Crosswalk is also an MCP server, so it can plug straight into your AI assistant. Then you just chat with it, and it uses the AI you already pay for — no separate API key needed. It shares the same data as the app, so your profile, résumés, and answer bank carry over.

First, build it once

In the crosswalk-mcp-main folder (in a terminal):

npm install
npm run build:core

Then you'll need the full path to packages/core/dist/cli.js. Tip: on Mac, right-click the dist folder → "Copy … as Pathname"; or drag the file into the terminal to print its path. In the examples below, replace CLI_PATH with something like: /Users/you/Desktop/crosswalk-mcp-main/packages/core/dist/cli.js

Then connect your AI tool (pick yours)

Claude Desktop — edit ~/Library/Application Support/Claude/claude_desktop_config.json (Mac) or %APPDATA%\Claude\claude_desktop_config.json (Windows):

{ "mcpServers": { "crosswalk-mcp": { "command": "node", "args": ["CLI_PATH"] } } }

Claude Code (CLI):

claude mcp add crosswalk-mcp -- node CLI_PATH

Cursor — edit ~/.cursor/mcp.json:

{ "mcpServers": { "crosswalk-mcp": { "command": "node", "args": ["CLI_PATH"] } } }

OpenAI Codex CLI — edit ~/.codex/config.toml:

[mcp_servers.crosswalk-mcp]
command = "node"
args = ["CLI_PATH"]

Gemini CLI — edit ~/.gemini/settings.json:

{ "mcpServers": { "crosswalk-mcp": { "command": "node", "args": ["CLI_PATH"] } } }

opencode — edit ~/.config/opencode/config.json:

{ "mcp": { "crosswalk-mcp": { "type": "local", "enabled": true, "command": ["node", "CLI_PATH"] } } }

Any other MCP client: point it at the command node with the argument CLI_PATH (it's a stdio MCP server).

Then restart the app. (These tools occasionally tweak their MCP config format — if it doesn't connect, check your tool's own "MCP servers" docs.)

Prefer the published version? Replace node CLI_PATH with npx -y crosswalk-mcp@latest, or for Claude Desktop / Cursor / Windsurf just run npx crosswalk-mcp install to auto-configure it. ⚠️ The published npm version can be behind the newest features in this repo — the local build above is recommended.

Then just talk to it

"Set up my profile: PM, 3 years at Acme, want NYC or remote, need visa sponsorship." "Add my résumé from ~/Documents/cv.pdf." "Find PM roles at H‑1B sponsors. Why am I a fit for the Stripe one?" "Tailor my résumé for it and draft an application." · "Apply to it." · "Show my pipeline."

What's available where

• In chat (MCP): the core loop — find jobs (your watched companies), score/explain fit, tailor résumés, draft + apply (with the smart form-filling: iframe-embedded forms, multi-page wizards, searchable dropdowns, checkboxes, required-consent boxes, emailed verification codes/links, answer bank), track your pipeline, schedule refreshes.

• App + the watcher only (for now): open-web role search across thousands of companies, batch auto-apply, the continuous watcher, and editing the answer bank.

Run it automatically (hands-off)

Set this up in the app first (it stores your key, watches, and settings):

1. Settings → set Submit policy = auto and Weekly cap = 0 (0 means unlimited).

2. Jobs → search a role → Save as watch → tick auto-apply new matches.

Then it applies automatically while the app (or the chat session) is open. To keep it going even with the app closed, run the watcher daemon from the folder (in a terminal):

npm run watch       # checks for new matching jobs every 15 minutes and applies to them

Login-walled sites (Workday, etc.): see the note inside Settings → Autonomous apply — it explains how to run with a browser that stays logged into your accounts.

Try it safely first

Before letting it submit for real:

1. Settings → Submit policy = review (it fills the form but does not click Submit).

2. Find one job → draft → → check the tailored résumé and answers look right.

Once you trust it, switch to auto.

⚠️ A friendly heads-up: blasting out thousands of auto-written applications can hurt your chances and may break some sites' rules. Start with a few, check the quality, and turn up the volume only when you're happy. The more you fill in your answer bank, the better the answers.

Troubleshooting

Updating to a newer version

Re-download the ZIP from GitHub (or, if you used git, run git pull), then start it again. Your data is safe — it lives in ~/.crosswalk, separate from the app folder. If a new version changes the engine, rebuild once with npm run build:core.

Your privacy

• Everything lives in one folder on your computer: ~/.crosswalk (data in state.db, your API key in config.json).

• No telemetry, no phone-home, no accounts. There is no "us."

• The only network it uses: the job sites (to find/apply) and Anthropic (to write résumés, with your key).

• Email inbox (if you set one up): read only — it opens your inbox over IMAP to grab verification codes/links and never marks your mail as read, never sends a thing. Your app password stays in ~/.crosswalk, is never shown in the browser, and is never sent to the AI. Magic links are only opened if they point at the application's own site or a known ATS — random links in email are ignored.

• To erase everything: delete the ~/.crosswalk folder.

For developers

An npm-workspaces monorepo:

• packages/core — the engine, published as the crosswalk-mcp MCP server (store, services, 10 ATS adapters, role aggregator, auto-apply, watcher).

• apps/web — the Next.js GUI (@crosswalk/web).

• scripts/watch.mjs — the always-on watcher daemon.

npm install          # install everything
npm test             # run the test suite (303 tests)
npm run lint         # type-check core + web (strict TypeScript)
npm run build:core   # build the engine (what start.command runs as part of `gui`)
npm run gui          # build core + start the GUI at localhost:3000
npm run watch        # run the always-on watcher daemon

Connecting it to an AI client (MCP) is covered in Use it inside Claude or other AI tools. Architecture deep-dive: docs/ARCHITECTURE.md.

Contributing

Contributions are very welcome — the easiest is adding a company to the registry (a one-line change). See CONTRIBUTING.md for setup, conventions, and step-by-step recipes (add a company, add an ATS adapter, add a tool, add a migration).

License

MIT © Mohak Garg.