rendercv

Quick Start

Available themes: classic, harvard, engineeringresumes, engineeringclassic, sb2nov, moderncv Available locales: english, arabic, danish, dutch, french, german, hebrew, hindi, hungarian, indonesian, italian, japanese, korean, mandarin_chinese, norwegian_bokmål, norwegian_nynorsk, persian, portuguese, russian, spanish, turkish, vietnamese

These are starting points — every aspect of the design and locale can be fully customized in the YAML file.

# Install RenderCV
uv tool install "rendercv[full]"

# Create a starter YAML file (you can specify theme and locale)
rendercv new "John Doe"
rendercv new "John Doe" --theme moderncv --locale german

# Render to PDF (also generates Typst, Markdown, HTML, PNG by default)
rendercv render John_Doe_CV.yaml

# Watch mode: auto-re-render whenever the YAML file changes
rendercv render John_Doe_CV.yaml --watch

# Render only PNG (useful for previewing or checking page count)
rendercv render John_Doe_CV.yaml --dont-generate-pdf --dont-generate-html --dont-generate-markdown

# Override fields from the CLI without editing the YAML
rendercv render cv.yaml --cv.name "Jane Doe" --design.theme "moderncv"

YAML Structure

A RenderCV input has four sections. Only cv is required — the others have sensible defaults.

cv:         # Your content: name, contact info, and all sections
design:     # Visual styling: theme, colors, fonts, margins, spacing, layouts
locale:     # Language: month names, phrases, translations
settings:   # Behavior: output paths, bold keywords, current date

Single file vs. separate files: All four sections can live in one YAML file, or each can be a separate file. Separate files are useful for reusing the same design/locale across multiple CVs:

# Single self-contained file (all sections in one file)
rendercv render John_Doe_CV.yaml

# Separate files: CV content + design + locale loaded independently
rendercv render cv.yaml --design design.yaml --locale-catalog locale.yaml --settings settings.yaml

When using separate files, each file contains only its section (e.g., design.yaml has design: as the top-level key). CLI-loaded files override values in the main YAML file.

The YAML maps directly to Pydantic models. The complete type-safe schema is provided below so you can understand every field, its type, and its default value.

Pydantic Schema

The YAML input is validated against these Pydantic models.

Top-Level Model

class RenderCVModel(BaseModelWithoutExtraKeys):
    cv: Cv = pydantic.Field(default_factory=Cv, title='CV', description='The content of the CV.')
    design: Design = pydantic.Field(default_factory=ClassicTheme, title='Design')
    locale: Locale = pydantic.Field(default_factory=EnglishLocale, title='Locale Catalog')
    settings: Settings = pydantic.Field(default_factory=Settings, title='RenderCV Settings', description='The settings of the RenderCV.')

CV Content (`cv`)

The cv.sections field is a dictionary where keys are section titles (any string you want) and values are lists of entries. Each section contains entries of the same type.

class Cv(BaseModelWithoutExtraKeys):
    name: str | None = pydantic.Field(default=None, examples=['John Doe', 'Jane Smith'])
    headline: str | None = pydantic.Field(default=None, examples=['Software Engineer', 'Data Scientist', 'Product Manager'])
    location: str | None = pydantic.Field(default=None, examples=['New York, NY', 'London, UK', 'Istanbul, Türkiye'])
    email: pydantic.EmailStr | list[pydantic.EmailStr] | None = pydantic.Field(default=None, examples=['john.doe@example.com', ['john.doe.1@example.com', 'john.doe.2@example.com']])
    photo: ExistingPathRelativeToInput | pydantic.HttpUrl | None = pydantic.Field(default=None, union_mode='left_to_right', examples=['photo.jpg', 'images/profile.png', 'https://example.com/photo.jpg'])
    phone: pydantic_phone_numbers.PhoneNumber | list[pydantic_phone_numbers.PhoneNumber] | None = pydantic.Field(default=None, examples=['+1-234-567-8900', ['+1-234-567-8900', '+44 20 1234 5678']])
    website: pydantic.HttpUrl | list[pydantic.HttpUrl] | None = pydantic.Field(default=None, examples=['https://johndoe.com', ['https://johndoe.com', 'https://www.janesmith.dev']])
    social_networks: list[SocialNetwork] | None = pydantic.Field(default=None)
    custom_connections: list[CustomConnection] | None = pydantic.Field(default=None, examples=[[{'placeholder': 'Book a call', 'url': 'https://cal.com/johndoe', 'fontawesome_icon': 'calendar-days'}]])
    sections: dict[str, Section] | None = pydantic.Field(default=None, examples=[{'Experience': '...', 'Education': '...', 'Projects': '...', 'Skills': '...'}])

type SocialNetworkName = Literal['LinkedIn', 'GitHub', 'GitLab', 'IMDB', 'Instagram', 'ORCID', 'Mastodon', 'StackOverflow', 'ResearchGate', 'YouTube', 'Google Scholar', 'Telegram', 'WhatsApp', 'Leetcode', 'X', 'Bluesky', 'Reddit']

available_social_networks = get_args(SocialNetworkName.__value__)

class SocialNetwork(BaseModelWithoutExtraKeys):
    network: SocialNetworkName = pydantic.Field()
    username: str = pydantic.Field(examples=['john_doe', '@johndoe@mastodon.social', '12345/john-doe'])

class CustomConnection(BaseModelWithoutExtraKeys):
    fontawesome_icon: str
    placeholder: str
    url: pydantic.HttpUrl | None

Entry Types

cv.sections is a dictionary: keys are section titles (any string), values are lists of entries. Each section must use a single entry type — you cannot mix different entry types within the same section. The entry type is auto-detected from the fields present in each entry.

Shared fields — these are available on entry types that support dates and complex fields (ExperienceEntry, EducationEntry, NormalEntry, PublicationEntry):

Field	Type	Default	Notes
`date`	`str \| int \| null`	`null`	Free-form: `"2020-09"`, `"Fall 2023"`, etc. Mutually exclusive with `start_date`/`end_date`.
`start_date`	`str \| int \| null`	`null`	Strict format: YYYY-MM-DD, YYYY-MM, or YYYY.
`end_date`	`str \| int \| "present" \| null`	`null`	Same formats as `start_date`, or `"present"`. Omitting defaults to `"present"` when `start_date` is set.
`location`	`str \| null`	`null`
`summary`	`str \| null`	`null`
`highlights`	`list[str] \| null`	`null`	Bullet points.

9 entry types:

Entry Type	Required Fields	Optional Fields	Typical Use
ExperienceEntry	`company`, `position`	all shared fields	Jobs, positions
EducationEntry	`institution`, `area`	`degree` + all shared fields	Degrees, schools
PublicationEntry	`title`, `authors`	`doi`, `url`, `journal`, `summary`, `date`	Papers, articles
NormalEntry	`name`	all shared fields	Projects, awards
OneLineEntry	`label`, `details`	—	Skills, languages
BulletEntry	`bullet`	—	Simple bullet points
NumberedEntry	`number`	—	Numbered list items
ReversedNumberedEntry	`reversed_number`	—	Reverse-numbered items (5, 4, 3...)
TextEntry	(plain string)	—	Free-form paragraphs

Example:

cv:
  sections:
    experience:          # list of ExperienceEntry (detected by company + position)
      - company: Google
        position: Engineer
        start_date: 2020-01
        highlights:
          - Did something impactful
    skills:              # list of OneLineEntry (detected by label + details)
      - label: Languages
        details: Python, C++
    about_me:            # list of TextEntry (plain strings)
      - This is a free-form paragraph about me.

Entries also accept arbitrary extra keys (silently ignored during rendering). A typo in a field name will NOT cause an error.

Design (`design`)

All built-in themes share the same structure — they only differ in default values. See the sample designs below for every available field and its default. Set design.theme to pick a theme, then override any field.

Locale (`locale`)

Built-in locales: english, arabic, danish, dutch, french, german, hebrew, hindi, hungarian, indonesian, italian, japanese, korean, mandarin_chinese, norwegian_bokmål, norwegian_nynorsk, persian, portuguese, russian, spanish, turkish, vietnamese

Set locale.language to a built-in locale name to use it. Override any field to customize translations. Set language to any string and provide all translations for a fully custom locale.

Settings (`settings`)

Key fields: bold_keywords (list of strings to auto-bold), current_date (override today's date), render_command.* (output paths, generation flags).

Important Patterns

YAML quoting

ALWAYS quote string values that contain a colon (:). This is the most common cause of invalid YAML. Highlights, titles, summaries, and any free-form text often contain colons:

# WRONG — colon breaks YAML parsing:
- title: Catalytic Mechanisms: A New Approach
  highlights:
    - Relevant coursework: Distributed Systems, ML

# RIGHT — wrap in double quotes:
- title: "Catalytic Mechanisms: A New Approach"
  highlights:
    - "Relevant coursework: Distributed Systems, ML"

Rule: if a string value contains :, it MUST be quoted. When in doubt, quote it.

Bullet characters

The design.highlights.bullet field only accepts these exact characters: ●, •, ◦, -, ◆, ★, ■, —, ○. Do not use en-dash (–), >, *, or any other character. When in doubt, omit bullet to use the theme default.

Phone numbers

Phone numbers MUST be in international format with country code (E.164). Never invent a phone number — only include one if the user provides it.

# WRONG:
phone: "(555) 123-4567"
phone: "555-123-4567"

# RIGHT:
phone: "+15551234567"

If the user provides a local number without country code, ask which country, or omit the phone field.

Text formatting

All text fields support inline Markdown: **bold**, *italic*, [link text](url). Block-level Markdown (headers, lists, blockquotes, code blocks) is not supported. Raw Typst commands and math ($$f(x)$$) also pass through.

Date handling

date and start_date/end_date are mutually exclusive. If date is provided, start_date and end_date are ignored.
If only start_date is given, end_date defaults to "present".
start_date/end_date require strict formats: YYYY-MM-DD, YYYY-MM, or YYYY.
date is flexible: accepts any string ("Fall 2023") in addition to date formats.

Section titles

snake_case keys auto-capitalize: work_experience → "Work Experience"
Keys with spaces or uppercase are used as-is.

Publication authors

Use *Name* (single asterisks, italic) to highlight the CV owner in author lists.

Nested highlights (sub-bullets)

highlights:
  - Main bullet point
    - Sub-bullet 1
    - Sub-bullet 2

CLI Reference

`rendercv new "Full Name"`

Generate a starter YAML file.

Option	Short	What it does
`--theme THEME`		Theme to use (default: `classic`)
`--locale LOCALE`		Locale to use (default: `english`)
`--create-typst-templates`		Also create editable Typst template files for full design control

`rendercv render <input.yaml>`

Generate PDF, Typst, Markdown, HTML, and PNG from a YAML file.

Option	Short	What it does
`--watch`	`-w`	Re-render automatically when the YAML file changes
`--quiet`	`-q`	Suppress all output messages
`--design FILE`	`-d`	Load design section from a separate YAML file
`--locale-catalog FILE`	`-lc`	Load locale section from a separate YAML file
`--settings FILE`	`-s`	Load settings section from a separate YAML file
`--output-folder DIR`	`-o`	Custom output directory

Per-format controls: --{format}-path PATH sets custom output path, --dont-generate-{format} skips generation. Formats: pdf, typst, markdown, html, png.

Override any YAML field from the CLI using dot notation (overrides without editing the file):

rendercv render CV.yaml --cv.name "Jane Doe" --design.theme "moderncv"
rendercv render CV.yaml --cv.sections.education.0.institution "MIT"

`rendercv create-theme "theme-name"`

Scaffold a custom theme directory with editable Typst templates for complete design control.

JSON Schema

For YAML editor autocompletion and validation:

# yaml-language-server: $schema=https://raw.githubusercontent.com/rendercv/rendercv/refs/tags/v2.8/schema.json

Complete Example

Sample CV

cv:
  name: John Doe
  headline:
  location: San Francisco, CA
  email: john.doe@email.com
  photo:
  phone:
  website: https://rendercv.com/
  social_networks:
  - network: LinkedIn
    username: rendercv
  - network: GitHub
    username: rendercv
  custom_connections:
  sections:
    Welcome to RenderCV:
    - RenderCV reads a CV written in a YAML file, and generates a PDF with 
      professional typography.
    - Each section title is arbitrary.
    education:
    - institution: Princeton University
      area: Computer Science
      degree: PhD
      date:
      start_date: 2018-09
      end_date: 2023-05
      location: Princeton, NJ
      summary:
      highlights:
      - 'Thesis: Efficient Neural Architecture Search for Resource-Constrained Deployment'
      - 'Advisor: Prof. Sanjeev Arora'
      - NSF Graduate Research Fellowship, Siebel Scholar (Class of 2022)
    - institution: Boğaziçi University
      area: Computer Engineering
      degree: BS
      date:
      start_date: 2014-09
      end_date: 2018-06
      location: Istanbul, Türkiye
      summary:
      highlights:
      - 'GPA: 3.97/4.00, Valedictorian'
      - Fulbright Scholarship recipient for Graduate Studies
    experience:
    - company: Nexus AI
      position: Co-Founder & CTO
      date:
      start_date: 2023-06
      end_date: present
      location: San Francisco, CA
      summary:
      highlights:
      - Built foundation model infrastructure serving 2M+ monthly API requests 
        with 99.97% uptime
      - Raised $18M Series A led by Sequoia Capital, with participation from 
        a16z and Founders Fund
      - Scaled engineering team from 3 to 28 across ML research, platform, and 
        applied AI divisions
      - Developed proprietary inference optimization reducing latency by 73% 
        compared to baseline
    - company: NVIDIA Research
      position: Research Intern
      date:
      start_date: 2022-05
      end_date: 2022-08
      location: Santa Clara, CA
      summary:
      highlights:
      - Designed sparse attention mechanism reducing transformer memory 
        footprint by 4.2x
      - Co-authored paper accepted at NeurIPS 2022 (spotlight presentation, top 
        5% of submissions)
    projects:
    - name: '[FlashInfer](https://github.com/)'
      date:
      start_date: 2023-01
      end_date: present
      location:
      summary: Open-source library for high-performance LLM inference kernels
      highlights:
      - Achieved 2.8x speedup over baseline attention implementations on A100 
        GPUs
      - Adopted by 3 major AI labs, 8,500+ GitHub stars, 200+ contributors
    - name: '[NeuralPrune](https://github.com/)'
      date: '2021'
      start_date:
      end_date:
      location:
      summary: Automated neural network pruning toolkit with differentiable 
        masks
      highlights:
      - Reduced model size by 90% with less than 1% accuracy degradation on 
        ImageNet
      - Featured in PyTorch ecosystem tools, 4,200+ GitHub stars
    publications:
    - title: 'Sparse Mixture-of-Experts at Scale: Efficient Routing for Trillion-Parameter
        Models'
      authors:
      - '*John Doe*'
      - Sarah Williams
      - David Park
      summary:
      doi: 10.1234/neurips.2023.1234
      url:
      journal: NeurIPS 2023
      date: 2023-07
    - title: Neural Architecture Search via Differentiable Pruning
      authors:
      - James Liu
      - '*John Doe*'
      summary:
      doi: 10.1234/neurips.2022.5678
      url:
      journal: NeurIPS 2022, Spotlight
      date: 2022-12
    selected_honors:
    - bullet: MIT Technology Review 35 Under 35 Innovators (2024)
    - bullet: Forbes 30 Under 30 in Enterprise Technology (2024)
    skills:
    - label: Languages
      details: Python, C++, CUDA, Rust, Julia
    - label: ML Frameworks
      details: PyTorch, JAX, TensorFlow, Triton, ONNX
    patents:
    - number: Adaptive Quantization for Neural Network Inference on Edge Devices
        (US Patent 11,234,567)
    - number: Dynamic Sparsity Patterns for Efficient Transformer Attention (US 
        Patent 11,345,678)
    invited_talks:
    - reversed_number: Scaling Laws for Efficient Inference — Stanford HAI 
        Symposium (2024)
    - reversed_number: Building AI Infrastructure for the Next Decade — 
        TechCrunch Disrupt (2024)

Sample Design (classic — complete reference)

This shows every available design field with its default value. All themes share the same structure.

design:
  theme: classic
  page:
    size: us-letter
    top_margin: 0.7in
    bottom_margin: 0.7in
    left_margin: 0.7in
    right_margin: 0.7in
    show_footer: true
    show_top_note: true
  colors:
    body: rgb(0, 0, 0)
    name: rgb(0, 79, 144)
    headline: rgb(0, 79, 144)
    connections: rgb(0, 79, 144)
    section_titles: rgb(0, 79, 144)
    links: rgb(0, 79, 144)
    footer: rgb(128, 128, 128)
    top_note: rgb(128, 128, 128)
  typography:
    line_spacing: 0.6em
    alignment: justified
    date_and_location_column_alignment: right
    font_family:
      body: Source Sans 3
      name: Source Sans 3
      headline: Source Sans 3
      connections: Source Sans 3
      section_titles: Source Sans 3
    font_size:
      body: 10pt
      name: 30pt
      headline: 10pt
      connections: 10pt
      section_titles: 1.4em
    small_caps:
      name: false
      headline: false
      connections: false
      section_titles: false
    bold:
      name: true
      headline: false
      connections: false
      section_titles: true
  links:
    underline: false
    show_external_link_icon: false
  header:
    alignment: center
    photo_width: 3.5cm
    photo_position: left
    photo_space_left: 0.4cm
    photo_space_right: 0.4cm
    space_below_name: 0.7cm
    space_below_headline: 0.7cm
    space_below_connections: 0.7cm
    connections:
      phone_number_format: national
      hyperlink: true
      show_icons: true
      display_urls_instead_of_usernames: false
      separator: ''
      space_between_connections: 0.5cm
  section_titles:
    type: with_partial_line
    line_thickness: 0.5pt
    space_above: 0.5cm
    space_below: 0.3cm
  sections:
    allow_page_break: true
    space_between_regular_entries: 1.2em
    space_between_text_based_entries: 0.3em
    show_time_spans_in:
      - experience
  entries:
    date_and_location_width: 4.15cm
    side_space: 0.2cm
    space_between_columns: 0.1cm
    allow_page_break: false
    short_second_row: true
    degree_width: 1cm
    summary:
      space_above: 0cm
      space_left: 0cm
    highlights:
      bullet: •
      nested_bullet: •
      space_left: 0.15cm
      space_above: 0cm
      space_between_items: 0cm
      space_between_bullet_and_text: 0.5em
  templates:
    footer: '*NAME -- PAGE_NUMBER/TOTAL_PAGES*'
    top_note: '*LAST_UPDATED CURRENT_DATE*'
    single_date: MONTH_ABBREVIATION YEAR
    date_range: START_DATE – END_DATE
    time_span: HOW_MANY_YEARS YEARS HOW_MANY_MONTHS MONTHS
    one_line_entry:
      main_column: '**LABEL:** DETAILS'
    education_entry:
      main_column: |-
        **INSTITUTION**, AREA
        SUMMARY
        HIGHLIGHTS
      degree_column: '**DEGREE**'
      date_and_location_column: |-
        LOCATION
        DATE
    normal_entry:
      main_column: |-
        **NAME**
        SUMMARY
        HIGHLIGHTS
      date_and_location_column: |-
        LOCATION
        DATE
    experience_entry:
      main_column: |-
        **COMPANY**, POSITION
        SUMMARY
        HIGHLIGHTS
      date_and_location_column: |-
        LOCATION
        DATE
    publication_entry:
      main_column: |-
        **TITLE**
        SUMMARY
        AUTHORS
        URL (JOURNAL)
      date_and_location_column: DATE

Other Theme Overrides

Other themes only override specific fields from the classic defaults above. To use a theme, set design.theme and optionally override any field. Each theme also customizes design.templates (entry layout patterns) — see the classic sample above for the full template structure. The override YAMLs below omit templates for brevity.

harvard

# yaml-language-server: $schema=../../../../../../schema.json
design:
  theme: harvard
  page:
    top_margin: 0.5in
    bottom_margin: 0.5in
    left_margin: 0.5in
    right_margin: 0.5in
    show_top_note: false
  colors:
    name: rgb(0,0,0)
    headline: rgb(0,0,0)
    connections: rgb(0,0,0)
    section_titles: rgb(0,0,0)
    links: rgb(0,0,0)
  typography:
    font_family:
      body: XCharter
      name: XCharter
      headline: XCharter
      connections: XCharter
      section_titles: XCharter
    font_size:
      name: 25pt
      connections: 9pt
      section_titles: 1.3em
  header:
    space_below_name: 0.5cm
    space_below_headline: 0.5cm
    space_below_connections: 0.5cm
    connections:
      show_icons: false
      separator: •
      space_between_connections: 0.4cm
  section_titles:
    type: centered_with_centered_partial_line
    space_below: 0.2cm
  sections:
    space_between_regular_entries: 1em
    show_time_spans_in: []
  entries:
    short_second_row: false

engineeringresumes

# yaml-language-server: $schema=../../../../../../schema.json
design:
  theme: engineeringresumes
  page:
    show_footer: false
  typography:
    font_family:
      body: XCharter
      name: XCharter
      headline: XCharter
      connections: XCharter
      section_titles: XCharter
    font_size:
      name: 25pt
      section_titles: 1.2em
    bold:
      name: false
  header:
    connections:
      separator: '|'
      show_icons: false
      display_urls_instead_of_usernames: true
  colors:
    name: rgb(0,0,0)
    connections: rgb(0,0,0)
    headline: rgb(0,0,0)
    section_titles: rgb(0,0,0)
    links: rgb(0,0,0)
  links:
    underline: true
    show_external_link_icon: false
  section_titles:
    type: with_full_line
    space_above: 0.5cm
    space_below: 0.3cm
  sections:
    space_between_regular_entries: 0.42cm
    space_between_text_based_entries: 0.15cm
    show_time_spans_in: []
  entries:
    short_second_row: false
    summary:
      space_above: 0.08cm
    side_space: 0cm
    highlights:
      bullet: ●
      nested_bullet: ●
      space_left: 0cm
      space_above: 0.08cm
      space_between_items: 0.08cm
      space_between_bullet_and_text: 0.3em

engineeringclassic

# yaml-language-server: $schema=../../../../../../schema.json
design:
  theme: engineeringclassic
  typography:
    font_family:
      body: Raleway
      name: Raleway
      headline: Raleway
      connections: Raleway
      section_titles: Raleway
    bold:
      name: false
      section_titles: false
  header:
    alignment: left
  links:
    show_external_link_icon: false
  section_titles:
    type: with_full_line
  sections:
    show_time_spans_in: []
  entries:
    short_second_row: false
    summary:
      space_above: 0.12cm
    highlights:
      space_left: 0cm
      space_above: 0.12cm
      space_between_items: 0.12cm

sb2nov

# yaml-language-server: $schema=../../../../../../schema.json
design:
  theme: sb2nov
  typography:
    font_family:
      body: New Computer Modern
      name: New Computer Modern
      headline: New Computer Modern
      connections: New Computer Modern
      section_titles: New Computer Modern
  colors:
    name: rgb(0,0,0)
    connections: rgb(0,0,0)
    section_titles: rgb(0,0,0)
    headline: rgb(0,0,0)
    links: rgb(0,0,0)
  links:
    underline: true
    show_external_link_icon: false
  section_titles:
    type: with_full_line
  sections:
    show_time_spans_in: []
  header:
    connections:
      hyperlink: true
      show_icons: false
      display_urls_instead_of_usernames: true
      separator: •
  entries:
    short_second_row: false
    highlights:
      bullet: ◦
      nested_bullet: ◦

moderncv

# yaml-language-server: $schema=../../../../../../schema.json
design:
  theme: moderncv
  typography:
    line_spacing: 0.6em
    font_family:
      body: Fontin
      name: Fontin
      headline: Fontin
      connections: Fontin
      section_titles: Fontin
    font_size:
      name: 25pt
      section_titles: 1.4em
    bold:
      name: false
      section_titles: false
  header:
    alignment: left
    photo_width: 4.15cm
    photo_space_left: 0cm
    photo_space_right: 0.3cm
  links:
    underline: true
    show_external_link_icon: false
  section_titles:
    type: moderncv
    space_above: 0.55cm
    space_below: 0.3cm
    line_thickness: 0.15cm
  sections:
    show_time_spans_in: []
  entries:
    short_second_row: false
    side_space: 0cm
    space_between_columns: 0.3cm
    summary:
      space_above: 0.1cm
    highlights:
      space_left: 0cm
      space_above: 0.15cm
      space_between_items: 0.1cm
      space_between_bullet_and_text: 0.3em

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