Answers: keep the answers given to application forms, reusable, and a copy of what each application was told #1092

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opened 2026-10-30 21:25:12 +00:00 by tiagoagueda · 0 comments

tiagoagueda commented

2026-10-30 21:25:12 +00:00

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What exists today

Nothing stores a question and its answer. Letters (CoverLetter) are the closest thing, and they are documents, not answers.
An application records its channel, its documents and its timeline, but not what was typed into the employer's form.
postulo-chromium reads pages but does not fill them; an issue there asks for that, and would read from this.

What would change

Reusable answers, each with a question, an answer, a language and optional tags, owned by the person.
On an application, "What I answered": copies of answers as given, edited freely without changing the reusable one. Exported and imported with the archive.
The letter's placeholders (CoverLetter.PLACEHOLDERS, documents/models.py:597), so an answer can name the company.
Readable through the API, so an extension or postulo-mcp can offer them.

Decisions

Copy or reference on the application. Recommended: a copy, because what was sent must not change when the reusable answer does, which is why documents are snapshotted.
Where it lives in the menu. Recommended: Your career, beside the record the answers are written from.
Salary answers. Recommended: never shared (#896) and never printed on a CV.

Checked against main at daee30b15 (2026-10-30). From the status review and feature suggestions of 2026-10-30.

Application forms ask the same questions again and again: why this company, salary expectation, notice period, right to work, availability, how you heard of the role. The answers are typed into a browser form and lost once it is submitted. This asks for a place to keep them. ## What exists today - Nothing stores a question and its answer. Letters (`CoverLetter`) are the closest thing, and they are documents, not answers. - An application records its channel, its documents and its timeline, but not what was typed into the employer's form. - postulo-chromium reads pages but does not fill them; an issue there asks for that, and would read from this. ## What would change - Reusable answers, each with a question, an answer, a language and optional tags, owned by the person. - On an application, "What I answered": copies of answers as given, edited freely without changing the reusable one. Exported and imported with the archive. - The letter's placeholders (`CoverLetter.PLACEHOLDERS`, `documents/models.py:597`), so an answer can name the company. - Readable through the API, so an extension or postulo-mcp can offer them. ## Decisions - **Copy or reference on the application.** Recommended: a copy, because what was sent must not change when the reusable answer does, which is why documents are snapshotted. - **Where it lives in the menu.** Recommended: *Your career*, beside the record the answers are written from. - **Salary answers.** Recommended: never shared (#896) and never printed on a CV. Checked against `main` at `daee30b15` (2026-10-30). From the status review and feature suggestions of 2026-10-30.

tiagoagueda added this to the 0.6.0 milestone

2026-10-30 21:25:12 +00:00

tiagoagueda added the

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2026-10-30 21:25:12 +00:00

tiagoagueda referenced this issue from Postulo/postulo-chromium

2026-10-30 21:25:20 +00:00

Fill an application form from the person's details, highlight what was filled, and never submit #51