CV Manager

A modern CV management system built on Payload CMS 3 and Next.js 16, designed for companies to create, manage, and export professional CVs.

Features

• Multi-language support — German and English with localized content
• Flexible skill system — Organize skills in hierarchical groups with customizable proficiency levels
• PDF export — Generate professional PDFs with customizable branding and layout
• PostgreSQL — Migrations run automatically on startup
• S3 storage — Media files in any S3-compatible storage, Garage included in the provided setups
• OAuth integration — Single sign-on with your identity provider
• Multi-tenant — Manage CVs across multiple organizations

Quick Start

Docker Compose

A ready-to-use configuration is provided in the docker-compose directory. It runs the tegonal/cv-manager image with PostgreSQL and Garage behind Caddy.

1. Copy the directory with all its files, including .env.
2. Set your own secrets in .env as described in its README. The stack refuses to start until they are set.
3. Run docker compose up -d in that directory and open https://localhost (or your PUBLIC_URL).

Database migrations run automatically on startup, also when upgrading to a new version.

Configuration

Main Settings

Variable	Description
PAYLOAD_SECRET	Strong secret for encryption (required)
PUBLIC_URL	URL under which the instance is reachable, defaults to http://localhost:3000
DATABASE_URI	PostgreSQL connection string, e.g. postgres://user:pass@host:5432/db (required)

Media Storage

Media files are stored in S3-compatible storage (required):

S3_ENDPOINT=https://s3.example.com
S3_BUCKET=cv-manager-media
S3_ACCESS_KEY_ID=your-access-key
S3_SECRET_ACCESS_KEY=your-secret-key
S3_REGION=us-east-1  # defaults to garage

The provided docker compose setup includes Garage as S3-compatible storage, and so do the local development services.

SMTP Email

Configure SMTP for password recovery emails:

SMTP_HOST=smtp.example.com
SMTP_PORT=587
SMTP_USER=your-smtp-user
SMTP_PASS=your-smtp-password
SMTP_FROM_ADDRESS=noreply@example.com

Without SMTP, password recovery tokens are printed to the application logs.

OAuth (Optional)

Enable single sign-on with your identity provider:

OAUTH_ENABLED=true
OAUTH_CLIENT_ID=your-client-id
OAUTH_CLIENT_SECRET=your-client-secret
OAUTH_TOKEN_ENDPOINT=https://auth.example.com/token
OAUTH_AUTHORIZE_ENDPOINT=https://auth.example.com/authorize
OAUTH_USERINFO_ENDPOINT=https://auth.example.com/userinfo

PDF Customization

Admin Panel Settings

Configure PDF appearance through the admin panel (Settings) without code changes:

Setting	Where	Options
Footer	Company Info	Name, address, city, website
Logo	PDF Style	Upload (SVG, PNG, JPG), width (mm), position (left/right), margins, first page only/all pages
Typography	PDF Style	Font family (Rubik, Open Sans, Lato, Roboto, Merriweather, Playfair Display)
Colors	PDF Style	Primary color (borders, highlights), secondary color (skill indicators)
Skill Levels	PDF Style	Display as text, dots, or progress bars
Page Layout	PDF Style	Format (A4/Letter), margins in mm, separate first page margins, first page centered or left-aligned

Custom Layouts

Layouts beyond these settings are code: fork the repository, adapt the react-pdf template in src/payload/plugins/cv-pdf-generator/templates/default/index.tsx and build your own image. Shared utilities in templates/lib/ provide date formatting, Lexical rich-text rendering, and Tailwind CSS helpers.

Usage

Master Data

Set up these entities before creating CVs:

Entity	Purpose
Organizations	Tenants, users and their data belong to an organization
Skill Groups	Categories like "Programming Languages", "Frameworks"
Skills	Individual skills within groups
Levels	Proficiency levels for skills and languages (e.g. Junior, Expert)
Languages	Spoken languages, the proficiency is set per CV
Companies	Employers and clients referenced in the work experience
Projects	Shared project references

CV Structure

Each CV contains:

Section	Content
Profile	Personal info, photo, introduction, contact details, links
Skills	Languages, highlights, hierarchical skill groups with levels, other skills
Education	Highlights, degrees, certifications, courses
Experience	Highlights and project history with descriptions

Flexible Skill Organization

Skills can be nested to match different career profiles:

Frontend Developer:

Frontend Technologies
├── React — Expert
├── Vue.js — Senior
└── Angular — Junior

Full Stack Developer:

Full Stack Development
├── Backend Frameworks — Expert
│   └── Spring, Node.js, Django
├── Databases — Senior
│   └── PostgreSQL, MongoDB
└── Frontend — Advanced
    └── React, Vue.js

Development

Setup

Requires Node.js 24 and Docker.

nvm use
yarn install
yarn run services:start  # Start Postgres, Garage (S3) and Mailpit
cp .env.example .env     # Preconfigured for the local services
yarn run dev

Mails are caught by Mailpit at http://localhost:8025. On first start, an admin user admin@test.com / admin and demo data are created.

Code Quality

yarn run check  # Lint, format, and type-check

Database Migrations

After schema changes, generate a migration:

yarn run migrate:create