How do I install the Cover Letter skill?

Run npx skillmds@latest add extrasmall0/cover-letter in your terminal (requires Node.js), paste this page's agent-chat prompt into Claude, Cursor, or any MCP-connected agent, or download the SKILL.md file and copy it into your agent's skills directory.

Is Cover Letter safe to use?

This skill has not completed SkillMD's automated safety review yet. SkillMD never runs a skill's scripts for you; review the SKILL.md before installing.

Which AI agents work with Cover Letter?

This skill is tagged as working with Claude Code, Claude.ai, OpenAI Codex. SKILL.md is an open format, so most agents that read a skills directory can load it too.

Is Cover Letter free to use?

Yes. Installing skills from SkillMD is free, and the skill stays under its author's original license.

Who published Cover Letter?

extrasmall0 (@extrasmall0) published this skill. Their other Agent Skills are listed on their SkillMD profile.

Cover Letter by extrasmall0 — Agent Skill

Name: Cover Letter
Author: extrasmall0

Cover Letter

Generate a tailored, truthful cover letter from the user's resume, profile, and a specific job description. Draft it in the user's voice, ground every claim in the resume (no fabrication), map it to the role, flag it for review, and save a copy. Used by the apply skill when a portal has a cover-letter field, or standalone via /cover-letter <job-url>.

extrasmall0 Updated Sep 22, 2026

File contents

Cover letter

Draft a tailored cover letter for one role. Truthful, specific, concise — never a generic template.

Inputs

~/.dear-hiring-manager/resume.* and profile.md — the candidate.
The job description + company. If given only a URL, open it and extract the JD first (see apply).

Procedure

Read the resume, profile, and JD. Find a hook: the JD's core problem, a recent company launch/news, or a concrete result you can speak to.
Draft the letter (~300–400 words, 3–4 short paragraphs; under 250 reads thin, over 500 won't get finished):
- Open with a specific hook — NOT "I'm excited/passionate to apply." Tie the first line to company research / the JD's core problem / a concrete result. Specificity earns the second sentence read.
- Body: each paragraph maps one JD requirement to a real, resume-backed story with numbers (2–3 measurable accomplishments, not a skills list). Mirror the JD's own language — "you need X, I did Y" signals a careful read. No claim that isn't in the resume.
- Close with a direct call to action — ask for a conversation.
Voice + tone: match the candidate's register from the resume — professional but distinct, not a corporate template. Role-fit: engineering → substance over polish; sales → lead with results/numbers; creative → a distinct perspective.
Humanize. Run the draft through the humanize skill — no em/en-dashes, no parenthetical asides, no AI tells, vary sentence length, sound like the candidate. Plus: no generic skill claims without evidence, no over-explaining gaps or pivots, no ATS-breaking formatting (keep it plain text).
Flag it review-me and save to ~/.dear-hiring-manager/runs/<company-role-slug>/cover-letter.md, then deliver it to the form (see below).

Deliver it to the form

Textarea / "enter manually" → fill the field with the letter text.
File upload ("Attach") → write the letter to a real file first (~/.dear-hiring-manager/runs/<slug>/cover-letter.txt, or .pdf), stage it into .playwright-mcp/ (Playwright's sandbox root), upload from there, then delete the staged copy. Accepted types are usually pdf, doc, docx, txt, rtf.

Rules

Truthful: every claim traces to the resume/profile — no invented employers, titles, dates, or numbers.
Tailored to THIS JD/company — if it could be pasted into another application unchanged, it's too generic.
The human always reviews before Submit; the draft is a flagged starting point.
Flat-file: the saved copy is human-readable Markdown.

---name: cover-letterdescription: Generate a tailored, truthful cover letter from the user's resume, profile, and a specific job description. Draft it in the user's voice, ground every claim in the resume (no fabrication), map it to the role, flag it for review, and save a copy. Used by the apply skill when a portal has a cover-letter field, or standalone via /cover-letter <job-url>.---# Cover letterDraft a tailored cover letter for one role. Truthful, specific, concise — never a generic template.## Inputs- `~/.dear-hiring-manager/resume.*` and `profile.md` — the candidate.- The job description + company. If given only a URL, open it and extract the JD first (see `apply`).## Procedure1. Read the resume, profile, and JD. Find a hook: the JD's core problem, a recent company launch/news, or a concrete result you can speak to.2. Draft the letter (**~300–400 words**, 3–4 short paragraphs; under 250 reads thin, over 500 won't get finished): - **Open with a specific hook — NOT "I'm excited/passionate to apply."** Tie the first line to company research / the JD's core problem / a concrete result. Specificity earns the second sentence read. - **Body**: each paragraph maps one JD requirement to a real, resume-backed story **with numbers** (2–3 measurable accomplishments, not a skills list). Mirror the JD's own language — "you need X, I did Y" signals a careful read. No claim that isn't in the resume. - **Close** with a direct call to action — ask for a conversation.3. **Voice + tone**: match the candidate's register from the resume — professional but distinct, not a corporate template. Role-fit: engineering → substance over polish; sales → lead with results/numbers; creative → a distinct perspective.4. **Humanize.** Run the draft through the **`humanize`** skill — no em/en-dashes, no parenthetical asides, no AI tells, vary sentence length, sound like the candidate. Plus: no generic skill claims without evidence, no over-explaining gaps or pivots, no ATS-breaking formatting (keep it plain text).5. **Flag it review-me** and save to `~/.dear-hiring-manager/runs/<company-role-slug>/cover-letter.md`, then deliver it to the form (see below).## Deliver it to the form- **Textarea / "enter manually"** → fill the field with the letter text.- **File upload ("Attach")** → write the letter to a real file first (`~/.dear-hiring-manager/runs/<slug>/cover-letter.txt`, or `.pdf`), stage it into `.playwright-mcp/` (Playwright's sandbox root), upload from there, then delete the staged copy. Accepted types are usually `pdf, doc, docx, txt, rtf`.## Rules- **Truthful**: every claim traces to the resume/profile — no invented employers, titles, dates, or numbers.- Tailored to THIS JD/company — if it could be pasted into another application unchanged, it's too generic.- The human always reviews before Submit; the draft is a flagged starting point.- Flat-file: the saved copy is human-readable Markdown.

Frequently asked questions