Kareer

A job application tracker built the KDE way - C++ with a QML/Kirigami frontend, ECM/CMake, and KDE Frameworks 6. Every application you log is stored in a local SQLite database, and every stage change is kept as history so the whole pipeline can be visualized as a Sankey diagram.

Everything the GUI can do is also available from the command line, so other tools - a resume generator, a job-search script - can log applications without ever opening a window.

Features

• Track company, title, location, remote type, source, salary range, salary expectation, notes, contact, and the date applied
• A fixed pipeline of stages (Applied, Screening, Interview, Onsite, Offer, Accepted, Rejected, Withdrawn, Ghosted) with full history of every transition
• A Sankey diagram of the whole pipeline, showing where applications progress and where they drop off
• Dashboard summary stats: total applications, active count, offers, response rate
• A full CLI (kareer add|list|show|update|stage|delete|stats|stages) for scripting

Command line usage

Running kareer with no arguments (or an unrecognized first argument) starts the GUI. A recognized first argument runs headlessly instead - handy for other tools to call directly.

# Add an application (stage defaults to Applied, date defaults to today)
kareer add --company "Acme Corp" --title "Senior Software Engineer" \
    --location "Remote" --remote remote --source "LinkedIn" \
    --salary-min 140000 --salary-max 170000 --salary-expectation 160000 \
    --notes "Great team, async-friendly"

# Machine-readable output for scripting (prints the new record, including its id)
kareer add --company "Acme Corp" --title "Senior Software Engineer" --json

# List / filter
kareer list
kareer list --stage Interview
kareer list --company Acme --json

# Show, update, and move through the pipeline
kareer show 1
kareer update 1 --salary-max 175000
kareer stage 1 Interview

# Delete (requires --yes to actually happen)
kareer delete 1 --yes

# Summary stats and the canonical stage list
kareer stats
kareer stages

Run kareer <command> --help for the full option list of any subcommand. Data lives in $XDG_DATA_HOME/kareer/kareer.sqlite (under Flatpak, that's sandboxed to the app's own data directory); set KAREER_DB_PATH to point at a different file.

Wiring up a resume-builder tool

Any script that generates or sends out a resume can log the application in the same step:

kareer add --company "$COMPANY" --title "$TITLE" --url "$POSTING_URL" \
    --source "resume-builder" --json

Install

Tagged releases are built by CI into a single-file bundle (attached to each GitHub Release) and a hosted Flatpak repository on GitHub Pages:

flatpak remote-add --if-not-exists --user kareer \
  https://toservetheking.github.io/Kareer/kareer.flatpakrepo
flatpak install --user kareer io.github.toservetheking.Kareer

The repository and bundle are GPG-signed; the public key is embedded in the .flatpakrepo (and available at keys/kareer.asc).

Or install the downloaded bundle directly:

flatpak install --user ./io.github.toservetheking.Kareer.flatpak

On Arch, a PKGBUILD is maintained in dist/arch (pending AUR publication - the AUR is not accepting new accounts right now):

cd dist/arch && makepkg -si

Building

Requires Qt 6, KDE Frameworks 6, Kirigami, Kirigami Addons and the CMake toolchain. On Arch/CachyOS:

sudo pacman -S --needed cmake ninja extra-cmake-modules base-devel \
    qt6-base qt6-declarative vulkan-headers kirigami kirigami-addons \
    ki18n kcoreaddons kiconthemes kcrash kitemmodels \
    kcolorscheme qqc2-desktop-style

Then:

cmake -B build
cmake --build build
./build/bin/kareer

(If you have ninja installed, add -G Ninja to the configure step or use the ninja-dev preset: cmake --preset ninja-dev.)

Run the tests with ctest --test-dir build.

Architecture

• job.h - the Job and StageTransition plain data structs.
• jobstage.{h,cpp} - the fixed stage vocabulary: ordering, Sankey column/stacking position, and color.
• jobsdatabase.{h,cpp} - SQLite storage (via QtSql) for applications and stage history; the only class that touches the database.
• jobsmodel.{h,cpp} - QAbstractListModel wrapper over JobsDatabase for the QML application list and edit dialog.
• statsmodel.{h,cpp} - summary counters for the dashboard.
• sankeymodel.{h,cpp} - turns stage history into laid-out Sankey geometry (node columns/stacking, ribbon SVG path data); QML only draws what this hands back.
• jobfieldcatalog.{h,cpp} - the static catalog of edit-form fields and categories.
• jobeditmodel.{h,cpp} - QAbstractListModel-backed edit-form state, built from the field catalog.
• clicommands.{h,cpp} - the add/list/show/update/stage/ delete/stats/stages subcommands.
• appcolorscheme.{h,cpp} - QML-facing wrapper around KColorSchemeManager for the Preferences page.
• qml/ - Kirigami UI: ApplicationsPage (list + search), ApplicationEditPage (add/edit/delete form), DashboardPage (stat cards + pipeline), SankeyDiagram (the renderer), SettingsPage (the Preferences page).