Bert

Bert is a self-hosted job-search workspace for collecting vacancies, filtering and ranking results, tracking applications, and comparing jobs with candidate CVs.

It supports separate user workspaces, scheduled searches, profile-specific rules, notifications, and an administrator area for system management.

• Search Profiles and independently scheduled Search Jobs
• Job Fit, Language Fit, Overall Fit, and evidence-based CV Match
• German, English, mixed, and unknown job-ad language detection
• Strict employment-format filtering for full-time, part-time, Werkstudent, and Minijob searches
• Candidate Profiles with encrypted CV text
• Optional local Ollama context for CV analysis
• Review and application workflow: To Apply → Applied → Interview → Rejected / Offer
• User-specific learning, notifications, searches, applications, and candidate data
• Admin-managed registration, account activation, sessions, logs, backups, and updates
• Responsive desktop, tablet, and mobile interface
• Persistent SQLite storage in the Docker /data volume

Stable integrations:

• Arbeitnow
• Adzuna
• Jooble
• Greenhouse
• Lever
• SmartRecruiters
• RSS and Atom feeds

Experimental integrations:

• JobSpy for LinkedIn, Indeed, Google Jobs, and Glassdoor
• StepStone Germany

Experimental sources can be affected by rate limits, anti-bot controls, or upstream page changes. Bert does not bypass CAPTCHAs or other access controls.

Requirements:

• Docker with Docker Compose
• Port 8080, or a custom port mapping
• A stable APP_SECRET_KEY

Clone the repository and prepare the environment:

git clone https://github.com/emnl51/bert.git
cd bert
cp .env.example .env
python3 -c "import secrets; print(secrets.token_urlsafe(48))"

Set at least these values in .env:

ADMIN_USERNAME=admin
ADMIN_PASSWORD=replace-with-a-long-unique-password
APP_SECRET_KEY=replace-with-the-generated-secret

Start Bert:

docker compose up -d --build

Open:

http://SERVER_IP:8080

Check the deployment:

docker compose ps
curl http://127.0.0.1:8080/health

The GHCR Compose file uses:

ghcr.io/whojan/bert

Run the latest image:

git clone https://github.com/emnl51/bert.git
cd bert
cp .env.example .env
docker compose -f docker-compose.ghcr.yml pull
docker compose -f docker-compose.ghcr.yml up -d

To pin a release, set BERT_IMAGE_TAG before running Compose:

BERT_IMAGE_TAG=<release-version> docker compose -f docker-compose.ghcr.yml up -d

Both deployment methods use the persistent bert_data volume.

After signing in as the administrator:

1. Create or review Search Profiles.
2. Configure job sources under Sources → Source Catalog.
3. Create Search Jobs and assign profiles, schedules, and optional Candidate Profiles.
4. Configure personal Telegram or email notifications in the user workspace.
5. Configure account-activation email under Administration → System Email.

System email and job-notification email are separate. System email settings can be managed in the admin UI; the SYSTEM_SMTP_* values in .env remain available as fallback defaults.

Bert extracts job requirements and links each result to CV evidence using match, partial, or missing states.

The default hybrid score combines:

• 70% deterministic evidence
• 30% optional Ollama context

Ollama is disabled by default. When it is enabled, AI can add evidence-linked context but cannot change deterministic requirement states or invent CV evidence. If Ollama fails or times out, Bert falls back to deterministic scoring.

Configure it under Intelligence → Hybrid CV Match Engine. The default host endpoint is:

http://host.docker.internal:11434

The model must already exist in the configured Ollama installation.

Preserve the existing .env, Docker volume, and especially APP_SECRET_KEY.

Source deployment:

cd ~/bert
git pull --ff-only origin main
docker compose up -d --build

GHCR deployment:

cd ~/bert
docker compose -f docker-compose.ghcr.yml pull
docker compose -f docker-compose.ghcr.yml up -d

Do not run docker compose down -v unless you intentionally want to delete persistent data.

The optional web updater performs guarded fast-forward updates through a restricted host service. Setup instructions are in deploy/README.md.

• Keep APP_SECRET_KEY stable; changing it can make encrypted credentials and CV data unreadable.
• SMTP passwords and Candidate CV text are encrypted at rest.
• System SMTP passwords are never returned through the API.
• Registration links are single-use and time-limited.
• User-owned records are isolated by account.
• Destructive database operations create a SQLite snapshot under /data/backups.
• Do not expose Bert publicly without HTTPS and appropriate network controls.
• Never mount the Docker socket directly into the web container.
• Keep .env, database files, and backups out of Git.

Bert uses Python 3.12. The stable ASGI entry point is app.application:app.

Run the test suite:

python -m pytest --cov --cov-report=term-missing -q

Additional CI checks include Python compilation, Ruff lint/format validation, JavaScript syntax checks, Docker image builds, and CodeQL analysis.

See CHANGELOG.md for release history and LICENSE for the Apache 2.0 license.