Exporting your resume - Reactive Resume

Reactive Resume can export your resume, and your cover letter separately when you have one, in four formats.

Format	Best for
PDF	Job applications, recruiter emails, printing, and public resume downloads.
DOCX	Further editing in Microsoft Word, Google Docs, or Pages.
Markdown	Plain-text edits and sharing structured content with AI tools.
JSON	Backups, restoring a resume later, or importing into another Reactive Resume account.

Open the download dialog

Every export runs from the same Download dialog. You can open it two ways.

<Steps> <Step title="Open your resume in the builder"> Go to the dashboard and open the resume you want to export. </Step> <Step title="Click Download"> Select the **Download** button in the top-right of the builder header, next to the sidebar toggle. You can also open the same dialog from the **Export** section of the right sidebar. </Step> <Step title="Pick what to export"> At the top of the dialog, use the tabs to choose **Resume** or **Cover letter**. The **Cover letter** tab is only available when your resume contains a visible cover letter section. </Step> <Step title="Choose a format"> Select **Download** on the format you want. The dialog closes and your browser saves the file using the resume name as the filename. </Step> </Steps> <Tip> While an export is running, the trigger button and format buttons show a spinner and stay disabled until the file is ready. </Tip>

Export the resume and cover letter separately

If your resume includes a cover letter section, the download dialog treats the resume and cover letter as two distinct documents.

For PDF, DOCX, and Markdown, the Resume tab exports only your resume content and excludes cover letter sections. Its JSON export retains embedded cover-letter custom sections; independent cover letters remain separate dashboard exports.
The Cover letter tab exports only visible cover letter sections, rendered full width on their own page.

You do not need to reorder pages or hide sections by hand to produce a resume-only or cover-letter-only PDF. Select the tab that matches what you want, then pick a format.

<Info> The **Cover letter** tab is disabled when the resume has no cover letter section, or when every cover letter section or item is hidden. </Info>

Export as PDF

Choose PDF when you need a file that preserves your resume layout.

Use PDF for:

uploading to job applications;
emailing recruiters or hiring managers;
printing from your browser or a print service;
sharing a finished copy outside Reactive Resume.

<Info> The PDF is generated from your current resume data, template, typography, design, layout, and page settings. </Info>

Export as DOCX

Choose DOCX when you want to continue editing your resume or cover letter in a word processor.

Use DOCX for:

making final manual edits in Microsoft Word;
collaborating with someone who prefers Word or Google Docs;
submitting to a system that requires a Word document.

<Warning> DOCX exports are useful for editing, but the visual layout may not match the PDF exactly. Use PDF when exact visual fidelity matters. </Warning>

Export as Markdown

Choose Markdown when you want a plain-text version of your resume or cover letter that is easy to edit anywhere and easy to feed into AI tools.

Use Markdown for:

pasting into an AI assistant to review, rewrite, or tailor content;
quick edits in any text editor without formatting overhead;
storing a lightweight, diff-friendly copy in version control.

Section headings, lists, links, and rich-text formatting from the builder are preserved as standard Markdown.

For examples and common workflows, see Exporting a resume to Markdown.

Export as JSON

Choose JSON when you want a structured backup of your resume.

The JSON export includes your full resume content and settings, including any cover letter sections embedded in that resume. You can import it later from the dashboard to restore the resume or create another version.

JSON is also useful when working with AI assistants that understand structured data. Export JSON, ask an assistant to review or edit the fields, then import the revised JSON as a new resume.

<Info> JSON export in the download dialog is only available on the **Resume** tab. To export an independent letter as JSON, open it from **Cover Letters** on the dashboard and select **Export JSON**. </Info> <Warning> Review AI-generated changes before importing or using them. AI assistants can make mistakes or add details that do not reflect your experience. </Warning>

Keep JSON backups in a local Git repository

Git can keep owner-controlled versions of your exported resume and cover letter without changing Reactive Resume or connecting it to a Git provider. This workflow is manual and local only: Reactive Resume does not commit, synchronize, or upload the files for you.

Choose the right exports

Reactive Resume provides three different JSON shapes:

Export	How to create it	What it contains	Can you import it as one resume?
Single resume	In the builder, open Download, stay on Resume, and download JSON.	Resume content and settings, including cover letter sections embedded in that resume.	Yes.
Independent cover letter	Open a letter from Cover Letters on the dashboard and select Export JSON.	That letter's content and copied resume styling in the Reactive Resume cover-letter format.	No. Import it through the cover-letter library instead.
Account archive	Open Settings, go to Account, and select Export my data.	Account profile metadata, all owned resume records, independent cover letters, and an `exportedAt` timestamp.	No. It is an archive, not a single-resume import file.

Use the single-resume and independent-cover-letter exports for the Git workflow below. An account archive is an additional portability backup, not a replacement for those files. Because its exportedAt timestamp changes on every export, do not expect otherwise unchanged account archives to be byte-for-byte identical.

Create the local backup

Create a folder outside your Reactive Resume source checkout.
Export the resume and each independent cover letter you want to keep.
Give the files stable, descriptive names. The example below uses resume.json and cover-letter.json; replace each file with its latest export instead of changing its name.
From that folder, initialize Git and inspect exactly what you are about to commit:

bash

git init
git add -- resume.json cover-letter.json
git diff --cached --stat
git diff --cached -- resume.json cover-letter.json
git commit -m "Back up resume and cover letter"

After the first commit, replace the JSON files with fresh exports and inspect the visible changes before committing again:

bash

git diff -- resume.json

Stable filenames and the exports' two-space indentation make field changes easier to review. Repeat the add, diff, and commit steps only after the changes look correct.

<Warning> Resume JSON, cover-letter JSON, and especially an account archive can contain private data such as contact details, application text, profile metadata, and email address. A local Git repository does not publish anything. Inspect every diff and decide separately whether to publish it; if you use a remote, make it private and control who can access it. </Warning> <Info> JSON exports store image URLs, not offline copies of image files. An imported backup can show an image only while the referenced storage remains available and accessible. </Info>

Recover an earlier resume without replacing the current one

Choose the committed revision of resume.json that you want to recover. List commits that changed the file, then inspect the selected revision from the backup folder. Choose a fresh, unused output filename; the example assumes recovered-resume.json does not already exist:

bash

git log --oneline -- resume.json
git show <commit>:resume.json
git show <commit>:resume.json > recovered-resume.json

On the Reactive Resume dashboard, select Import an existing resume, choose recovered-resume.json, and complete the import. Import creates a new resume, so the current resume remains available for comparison or further editing.

Only a single-resume JSON export works for this recovery flow. Import independent cover letters through the cover-letter library. Restoring an account archive wholesale is outside this workflow.

Git backups complement Reactive Resume's rolling snapshots; they do not replace or synchronize with undo and version history.

Printing your resume

To print, export a PDF and print it from your PDF viewer or browser. This gives you the same layout that recruiters see when you send them the file.

Public resume downloads

If your resume is public, visitors can download a PDF from the public resume page. You can enable public access in the builder's Sharing section.

For the full public sharing workflow, see Sharing your resume publicly.