Remote Job Agent MCP for ChatGPT

Version 0.3.0 is a refactored TypeScript MCP server for remote job discovery, factual ATS-CV preparation, approval-gated application packages, and application tracking.

It is intentionally designed as a job agent, not a LinkedIn browser bot. LinkedIn can provide lite OIDC identity/profile data and indexed job URLs can be used for discovery, while applications prefer the employer's official careers/ATS URL.

Design goals

• Separation of concerns: domain rules, repositories, external adapters, services, MCP tools, and HTTP delivery live in separate modules.
• SOLID: services depend on narrow repositories/adapters and domain functions stay independently testable.
• DRY: shared parsing, canonicalization, ATS detection, screening-answer logic, and persistence are centralized.
• KISS: deterministic rules first, filesystem persistence for the starter, no unnecessary framework, and no hidden application automation.
• Safe by default: no fabricated CV facts, no authenticated LinkedIn scraping, no silent submission, and explicit application-state transitions.

Main capabilities

Job discovery

• Search Frontend, Backend, Full-Stack, GenAI, or custom titles together.
• Discover indexed LinkedIn listings, common ATS boards, and company career pages.
• Concurrency-limited search with request timeouts and partial-failure reporting.
• Detect ATS providers and prefer official employer/ATS URLs.
• Canonicalize URLs and merge duplicates across sources without merging different locations.
• Filter obvious remote/work-location restrictions before ranking.
• Rank with an explainable 100-point score.

Candidate/CV data

• One factual master candidate profile.
• Separate reusable application facts such as work authorization, sponsorship need, notice period, salary expectation, relocation, availability, and years by skill.
• LinkedIn OIDC profile stored separately from the master CV.
• Tailored CV brief with anti-fabrication rules.
• Per-job Markdown CV versions; CV IDs are bound to the job that generated them.

Application workflow

Discovered
   ↓
Ranked
   ↓
Official apply URL resolved
   ↓
Tailored CV saved
   ↓
Prepared
   ↓
Screening answers reviewed
   ↓
Approved
   ↓
Submitted externally
   ↓
Interview / Rejected / Offer / Withdrawn

prepared -> submitted is intentionally invalid. A package must be explicitly approved first. Editing an approved package invalidates its approval and returns it to prepared.

Architecture

src/
  server.ts                    process bootstrap only
  http-server.ts               HTTP/MCP transport + request security
  mcp.ts                       MCP tool schemas and tool wiring
  types.ts                     shared domain contracts
  application-domain.ts        pure application state/answer rules
  job-intelligence.ts          pure eligibility/ranking/dedupe rules
  discovery.ts                 search-provider adapter/query builder
  linkedin-oauth.ts            LinkedIn OIDC adapter/token protection
  storage.ts                   atomic JSON persistence primitive
  repositories.ts              persistence boundaries
  services/
    job-service.ts             job use-cases/orchestration
    candidate-service.ts       candidate/CV use-cases
    application-service.ts     application use-cases/state transitions

See docs/ARCHITECTURE.md for the responsibility boundaries.

Weighted job score

Skills match             30
Experience match         20
Remote eligibility       15
Role relevance           10
Seniority                10
AI/domain relevance       5
Salary                     5
Freshness                  5
                         ---
                         100

Salary is currently neutral until structured salary extraction is added. The score is a prioritization aid, not a hiring prediction.

Remote eligibility behavior

Examples:

Remote worldwide / work from anywhere   -> eligible
Remote within United States              -> blocked unless explicitly eligible
Must reside in EU / Europe               -> blocked unless explicitly eligible
Remote EMEA                              -> eligible only when EMEA is explicitly allowed
On-site only                             -> blocked for remote-only candidates
Security-clearance/citizenship blocker   -> blocked when detected
Remote with unclear scope                -> manual verification

worldwide does not automatically imply eligibility for an EMEA-only, Europe-only, or country-restricted role.

Configure factual eligibility in data/profile.json or with update_master_profile.

LinkedIn OAuth

LinkedIn OIDC is optional and is only used for the connected member's lite identity/profile. The MCP requests:

openid profile email

It does not turn into a general LinkedIn job-search or Easy Apply API. This project does not store LinkedIn passwords/cookies, scrape authenticated pages, bypass CAPTCHAs, or click Easy Apply automatically.

Use the MCP tool:

get_linkedin_connect_url

Open the returned URL, approve LinkedIn, and LinkedIn redirects to:

/oauth/linkedin/callback

The callback stores the access token encrypted with AES-256-GCM and stores the lite profile separately. There is no public profile-status route.

See docs/LINKEDIN_OAUTH.md.

Main MCP tools

Discovery

• search_best_jobs
• search_jobs
• import_job
• list_jobs
• analyze_job
• find_official_apply_url
• get_application_route
• get_search_config
• update_search_config

Candidate and CV

• get_master_profile
• update_master_profile
• get_candidate_facts
• update_candidate_facts
• create_cv_brief
• save_cv_version

LinkedIn

• get_linkedin_connect_url
• get_linkedin_connection
• disconnect_linkedin

Application lifecycle

• prepare_application
• update_application_package
• approve_application
• record_application
• list_applications
• get_application_analytics

record_application only accepts externally observed lifecycle states (submitted, interview, rejected, offer, withdrawn); it cannot manufacture the internal prepared or approved states.

Configuration

Copy the example environment file:

cp .env.example .env

Important variables:

PORT=8787
HOST=127.0.0.1
PUBLIC_BASE_URL=http://localhost:8787

SERPER_API_KEY=
MCP_BEARER_TOKEN=use-at-least-24-random-characters-for-public-bind

REQUEST_TIMEOUT_MS=15000
DISCOVERY_CONCURRENCY=4

LINKEDIN_CLIENT_ID=
LINKEDIN_CLIENT_SECRET=
LINKEDIN_REDIRECT_URI=http://localhost:8787/oauth/linkedin/callback
TOKEN_ENCRYPTION_KEY=use-at-least-32-random-characters

Invalid numeric configuration fails at startup. The server refuses a non-local bind unless MCP_BEARER_TOKEN is configured. The bearer token is a development/single-user safeguard; use proper MCP OAuth and per-user storage before a real multi-user deployment.

Search provider

Discovery currently uses Serper as a search-index adapter instead of scraping LinkedIn:

SERPER_API_KEY=...

The adapter is isolated in src/discovery.ts, so another permitted provider can replace it without changing domain/services/MCP tools.

Candidate facts

data/profile.json is the factual CV source of truth.

data/candidate-facts.json stores reusable application facts:

{
  "noticePeriod": "",
  "salaryExpectation": "",
  "workAuthorization": "",
  "requiresVisaSponsorship": "",
  "relocation": "",
  "availability": "",
  "yearsBySkill": {},
  "reusableAnswers": {}
}

The agent must not infer missing values.

Setup

Requires Node.js 20+.

npm install
npm run check
npm run build
npm run dev

Endpoints:

GET  /       health metadata
*    /mcp    MCP HTTP endpoint
GET  /oauth/linkedin/callback   LinkedIn OAuth callback only

For local ChatGPT testing, expose the server through HTTPS and connect the HTTPS /mcp URL.

Docker

docker build -t remote-job-agent-mcp .
docker run --rm \
  -p 8787:8787 \
  --env-file .env \
  -e HOST=0.0.0.0 \
  -e MCP_BEARER_TOKEN=replace-with-at-least-24-random-characters \
  -v "$(pwd)/data:/app/data" \
  remote-job-agent-mcp

HOST=0.0.0.0 is required inside the container for port publishing; because that is a public bind, the starter also requires a sufficiently long bearer token. Candidate profile/facts and OAuth/token files are excluded from the Docker build context so personal data is not accidentally baked into an image. Mount data/ at runtime when persistence is needed.

Persistence and concurrency

The starter uses JSON files for a simple single-user deployment. Writes are serialized per file and use temp-file + atomic rename so concurrent MCP requests do not overwrite/corrupt JSON state. Malformed JSON is surfaced as an error rather than silently being replaced with empty data.

For multi-user production, replace the repository implementations with PostgreSQL while keeping the service/domain APIs unchanged.

Tests and checks

npm run typecheck
npm test
npm run check

Current core tests cover:

• application approval/state transitions;
• sponsorship vs work-authorization answers;
• discovery-query deduplication;
• ATS hostname detection;
• role-family classification;
• worldwide/US/EMEA eligibility behavior;
• canonical URL cleanup;
• cross-source duplicate behavior;
• official apply-link confidence;
• malformed JSON handling;
• concurrent JSON updates.

Production upgrades

The clean extension points are intentional. Recommended next steps are PostgreSQL repositories keyed by authenticated MCP user, full MCP OAuth, permitted direct job-board adapters, job-description enrichment, DOCX/PDF rendering, Gmail response synchronization, audit logging/rate limits, and explicitly authorized ATS submission adapters where the provider/employer allows them.