Semi-automated job search (SQLite + CLI + agents)

Job searching is a workflow problem wearing a career costume.

You have leads, statuses, follow-ups, “did I already apply there,” notes that live in five tabs, and a spreadsheet that was truthful for about eleven minutes. Meanwhile I’m already living in Cursor with agents who can research, draft, and upsert if I give them a door that isn’t “please edit cell G14 carefully.”

So I built a door.

The splinter

I needed a system of record for opportunities that:

• lives on my machine (surprise: local-first habits die hard),
• is functional and queryable,
• can be updated by me or by agents without performing Excel ballet,
• lets me see where I am without relying on mood as a status field.

Not a SaaS. Not a “disrupting recruiting” pitch. A personal instrument for a messy season – the season of job search.

What exists now

SQLite as the tracker. One file. Backup-friendly. The same family of idea as Synesis: truth on disk first.

A CLI so agents (and I) can list, add, and upsert opportunities and status updates without inventing a new API religion. Agents are great at tools with clear verbs. They are mediocre at “open the sheet and vibes.”

Reports, because my emotions will try to gaslight my brain into believing I haven’t done anything job-search this week. A query does not care about my spirals. It will cheerfully list what I touched, what moved, and what is rotting. That alone made the flow so much easier.

A lightweight UI – Ops board, Report, and a real Analytics dash: submit/pursue rates, applies in 7d/30d, live hygiene, stage funnel, stuck-in-drafting, aging. Not a mockup. Funnel counts that argue with my feelings. I’ll still try not to manage myself like a Series B.

Semi-automated means humans still own the dangerous verbs. I decide what gets applied to. Agents help gather, normalize, draft, and keep the ledger honest. Same spine as security vs theater and job design for agents: routing and review, not abdication.

Why bother writing this on the studio bench

Because LiveBytes is where the work lives when it’s mine – including the unglamorous “I am also looking for the next logo to work under” work. Hiding the job search as if it weren’t engineering would be weird for a person who builds trackers for fun.

Also: if you’re in the same season, you do not need my schema. You might need the pattern:
Local store. Clear verbs. Agents as clerks with supervision. Reports that argue with your feelings. UI when the eyes need it.

Spreadsheets will still try to recruit you back. Be strong. Or at least automate the betrayal.

~ Trish