jekyll-theme-resume

A flexible Jekyll theme for clean, data-driven, multilingual resume/CV websites. Ships English, Arabic, Spanish, French, German, and Urdu; any other language is added from your site alone. Created and maintained by Khaldoon Mutahar. See the latest version on the Releases page.

Links: RubyGems · Live demo · Source Inspired by and originally forked from Joel Glovier’s resume template. Joel’s version was a basic English-only theme with limited customization (e.g., no section reordering); this project has since evolved into a fully separate theme authored by Khaldoon.

• Multilingual support: One layout (resume.html) renders every language, LTR or RTL, from per-language locale files (_data/locales/<lang>.yml) with localized UI strings, month names, and fonts (Cairo for Arabic, Noto Nastaliq Urdu for Urdu)
• Dark mode: System preference detection (prefers-color-scheme) with optional interactive toggle, localStorage persistence, and zero-FOUC inline script
• Data-driven architecture: All resume content stored in YAML files, supporting multiple data paths and versioning
• Resume sections: Experience, Education, Certifications, Courses, Volunteering, Projects, Skills, Recognition, Associations, Languages, Links, Interests, Publications, References
• Accessibility features: Semantic landmarks, keyboard navigation, localized skip links, and labelled social controls. See the Accessibility coverage for coverage and known limitations.
• Modern favicon suite: High-resolution favicons (Apple touch icon, 32x32, 16x16, webmanifest) with subpath-safe URLs and _config.yml override support
• Print-friendly: Optimized for PDF generation and printing with bidirectional text isolation (dir="ltr") for URLs
• SEO ready: Built-in support for multilingual SEO, standardized canonical tags via jekyll-seo-tag, sitemaps, and feeds
• JSON-LD structured data: Each CV page carries a Schema.org ProfilePage + Person block built from the same data as the JSON Resume export (on by default; opt out with json_ld.enabled: false). It does not guarantee ATS parsing or rich results.
• JSON Resume Export: Multilingual builds generate standards-validated JSON Resume files at /<lang>/resume.json (on by default; opt out with json_resume.enabled: false).
• Automatic pages: Missing CV and profile pages are generated for each configured language; hand-authored pages take precedence.
• Data validation: validate-resume CLI and build-time checks for schemas, dates, URLs, and parity across every configured language

1. Add to your Jekyll site's Gemfile, inside group :jekyll_plugins. The :jekyll_plugins group loads the theme’s bundled generators and validator. Alternatively, explicitly list jekyll-theme-resume under plugins: in _config.yml (as the sample does); a plain Gemfile entry plus theme: alone is insufficient:

group :jekyll_plugins do
  gem "jekyll-theme-resume"
end

2. Add to your _config.yml:

theme: jekyll-theme-resume

3. Install dependencies:

bundle install

Upgrading from v0.9.0? v1.0.0 removes the resume-en / resume-ar layouts and every *_en / *_ar config key with no compatibility aliases. Follow the migration table in the migration guide.

Follow Getting Started for a complete walkthrough from an empty folder to a running two-language resume. The theme generates the CV and profile page for every language you configure (see the languages table), and the sample data for six languages lives in demo/_data/.

The documentation is organized by what you need. Start at the documentation index.

Most-used reference pages: Configuration reference (start here for _config.yml), Data schemas, Locale keys, Validator and build checks, JSON Resume export reference, and Accessibility coverage.

jekyll-theme-resume/
├── _layouts/          # HTML templates (default, resume, profile, error)
├── _includes/         # Reusable components (section dispatcher, date formatter, avatar, toggles)
├── _sass/             # SCSS (LTR main styles, RTL overrides, dark mode tokens, print styles)
├── _plugins/          # Error page generator and build-time resume validator
├── _data/locales/     # Locale dictionaries: en, ar, es, fr, de, ur
├── lib/               # Gem entrypoint and validator engine
├── bin/               # validate-resume CLI
├── assets/            # CSS entrypoints (cv-ltr, cv-rtl), images, favicons
├── _config.sample.yml # Annotated configuration for consuming sites
├── demo/              # Separate demo-site submodule, including six-language data
└── docs/              # Documentation: tutorial, how-to guides, reference, explanation

Each language reads its data from the folder named by languages.<lang>.data_path:

languages:
  en:
    data_path: en   # _data/en/*
  ar:
    data_path: ar   # _data/ar/*

Use one folder per language even for a single-language site; adding a language later is then one more folder. Dot paths ("2025-06.v1") select nested, versioned datasets, and "" reads _data/ itself.

See the Configuration reference for every per-language key.

demo/_data/{en,ar,es,fr,de,ur}/ hold a complete Sherlock Holmes demo resume in six languages, covering all section types. Copy the folders you need to your site.

Month names, "Present" labels, section titles, fonts, and text direction come from _data/locales/<lang>.yml, shipped inside the gem for all six languages. Override single strings or add a new language from your site's own _data/locales/; see Override locale strings and Add a language.

To develop this theme locally:

# Initialize the demo submodule, then install dependencies
git submodule update --init --recursive
bundle install

# Serve the six-language demo from the demo submodule
bundle exec jekyll serve --source demo --destination _site
# (Or with live reload and incremental builds)
bundle exec jekyll serve --source demo --destination _site --livereload --incremental

# Build static output
bundle exec jekyll build --source demo --destination _site

# Clean cached Jekyll build artifacts
bundle exec jekyll clean

# Validate resume data schemas and parity (CLI or Rake)
./bin/validate-resume demo/_data
bundle exec rake validate

# Check that the theme's own templates only reference real data keys (CLI or Rake)
./bin/check-data-keys demo/_data
bundle exec rake check_data_keys

# Data validator, template key checker, RuboCop, and every test suite
bundle exec rake

# Verify built HTML (separate from the default Rake task)
bundle exec rake "proof[_site,demo/_config.yml]"

# Build the gem
gem build jekyll-theme-resume.gemspec

# List packaged files (must include locales and bin, exclude tests)
gem spec jekyll-theme-resume-*.gem files
rm -f jekyll-theme-resume-*.gem

# Dependency Audit
bundle outdated
bundle update

# Automated Version Release (updates gemspec, changelog, commits, and tags)
./bin/release <version>
./bin/release --bump

For more details on resume schema checks, see Validator and build checks. Contributor and agent rules are in AGENTS.md.

• Ruby 3.3+; this repository’s CI matrix tests 3.3, 3.4, and 4.0.
• Jekyll ~> 4.4 (4.4 or later, below 5.0), as specified in the gemspec.
• Runtime plugin dependencies (Jekyll loads them automatically when theme: is set; the sample config also lists them under plugins: to make them explicit):
  • jekyll-feed
  • jekyll-seo-tag
  • jekyll-sitemap
  • jekyll-redirect-from

Bug reports and pull requests are welcome on GitHub. This project is intended to be a safe, welcoming space for collaboration, and contributors are expected to adhere to the Contributor Covenant code of conduct.

The theme is available as open source under the terms of the MIT License.

• 📖 Check the Documentation for detailed information
• 🐛 Report issues on GitHub Issues

Created by Khaldoon Mutahar | MIT License