Tailor Your Resume with Claude Dispatch

Build a phone-to-desktop workflow that tailors your resume to any job.

Introduction

⚡️ 30 Second Summary

You just found your dream job posting, but your resume is sitting on your desktop and you only have your phone with you.

In this project, you will set up Claude Dispatch to connect your phone and Mac desktop, then create a reusable Skill in Claude Cowork that scrapes any job posting URL you send from your phone, analyzes the requirements, and produces a tailored resume and cover letter on your desktop.

What You'll Build

A phone-to-desktop resume tailoring workflow powered by Claude Dispatch, where you paste a job posting link on your phone and receive a tailored resume, cover letter, and analysis on your Mac.

By the end of this project, you'll have:

  • 📱 A paired Dispatch connection between your phone and Mac desktop via QR code.
  • 📝 A reusable Cowork Skill that scrapes job posting URLs and tailors your resume automatically.
  • 🎯 A tailored resume, cover letter, and analysis generated by triggering the Skill from your phone with a real job posting link.
  • 💎 Secret Mission: Extend your Skill to generate personalized interview prep questions with talking points.

Want a complete demo of how to do this project, from start to finish? Check out our 🎬 walkthrough with Maximus

macOS only (for now)

As of March 2026, Claude Dispatch requires macOS. Windows support has been confirmed by Anthropic but is not yet available. If you are on Windows or Linux, you will not be able to complete this project until Dispatch is released for your platform.

💡 Do I need to pay to do this project?

This project requires a Claude Pro or Max subscription for access to Claude Desktop and the Claude mobile app. There are no additional costs beyond your subscription.

Not sure if this project is right for you? Check if it matches your goals

If you're up for a bit of a challenge, quiz yourself on the key concepts up ahead in this project.

Get Your Tools Ready

You have got a working Claude account and you are ready to build something real. The first thing we need is a solid foundation: the right apps installed on both your computer and your phone, and a folder ready to hold your resume files.

To build our resume tailoring workflow, we need Claude Desktop on your computer and the Claude mobile app on your phone. Together, these two apps let you use Claude Dispatch to send tasks from your phone to your desktop. That is the core of this project.

In this step, get ready to:

  • Install or update Claude Desktop.
  • Install or update the Claude mobile app.
  • Set up your resume project folder.

Install or Update Claude Desktop

Do you already have Claude Desktop installed on your computer?

✔️ Already installed

  • Open Claude Desktop on your computer.
  • Click your profile icon in the bottom left corner.
  • Click Check for Updates.
  • If an update is available, install it and restart the app.

ⓧ Need to install

  • Head to claude.ai/download in your browser.
  • Click Download for macOS on the page.
  • Open the downloaded file and drag Claude into your Applications folder.
  • Open Claude from your Applications folder.

System requirements

Claude Desktop requires macOS 11 or later. If you are on an older version, update your Mac before continuing.

  • Confirm the app launches and you can see the main chat interface.
  • Sign in with your Claude Pro or Claude Max account.

Why do I need a Pro or Max account?

Claude Dispatch and Claude Cowork are features available on Claude Pro and Max plans. A free account will not have access to the tools we use in this project.

Install or Update the Claude Mobile App

  • Open the app store on your phone.

🍎 iOS

  • Open the App Store on your iPhone or iPad.
  • Tap the Search tab at the bottom and search for Claude.
  • Look for the app by Anthropic (it has a brown/tan icon).
  • Tap Get (if new) or Update (if already installed) to install the latest version.
  • If prompted, authenticate with Face ID, Touch ID, or your Apple ID password.
  • Wait for the download to complete.
  • Open the Claude app on your phone.
  • Tap Sign In (or Log In).
  • Sign in with the same account you used on Claude Desktop.

🤖 Android

  • Open Google Play Store on your Android phone.
  • Tap the search bar and search for Claude.
  • Look for the app by Anthropic (it has a brown/tan icon).
  • Tap Install (if new) or Update (if already installed) to install the latest version.
  • Wait for the download to complete.
  • Confirm you can see the main chat interface on your phone.

Why the same account?

Claude Dispatch works by sending tasks between your devices. Both apps need to be signed in to the same account so they can communicate with each other.

Set Up Your Resume Folder

  • Press Cmd + Space to open Spotlight.
  • Type Terminal and press Enter.
  • Run this command to create your project folder on your Desktop:
mkdir ~/Desktop/resume-project

You should now see a folder called resume-project appear on your Desktop.

  • Open the resume-project folder on your Desktop in Finder.
  • Drag and drop your current resume file into the folder.

What if I do not have a resume?

No problem. You can create a simple text file as a starting point. Open a text editor, write a few lines about your experience and skills, and save it as resume.txt in the resume-project folder on your Desktop.

  • Back in Terminal, confirm your resume file is in the folder by running:
ls ~/Desktop/resume-project

You should see your resume file listed in the output.

Your tools are installed and your resume is ready to go. Next, we connect your phone to your desktop so you can send tasks from anywhere.

Set Up Dispatch

Your tools are installed and your resume is ready to go. The next thing we need is a way to send resume-tailoring tasks from your phone, so you can fire off a job application from anywhere. We'll use Claude Dispatch, a feature inside Claude Cowork that turns your phone into a remote control for your desktop.

But how do we actually link our phone to our desktop? And how do we make sure Claude can access the files it needs to tailor our resume?

In this step, get ready to:

  • Pair your phone with your desktop using Dispatch.
  • Configure file access and power settings.
  • Test the connection from your phone.

Launch Dispatch on Your Desktop

First, open Dispatch on your desktop so it can display a QR code for pairing.

  • Open Claude Desktop on your computer.
  • Click the Dispatch option. This is usually found in the top centre of your screen.
  • Click Get started.
  • A QR code appears on your screen.
  • Since you already installed the Claude mobile app in Step 1, you can skip scanning this QR code.
  • Select "I'm signed in on my phone".
  • Head back to your desktop to continue the setup.

Configure Dispatch Permissions

The Dispatch setup on your desktop shows permission toggles. These settings control what Claude can do on your computer when it receives a task from your phone.

  • Toggle ON Grant Claude access to local files. This lets Claude read and write files like your resume.
  • Toggle ON Keep computer awake during task processing. This prevents your Mac from sleeping while Claude works on a task.
  • Click Finish setup.

Is this safe?

These permissions might feel like a lot, but Claude only accesses files and web pages when you explicitly send it a task. It does not run in the background scanning your computer. File access is limited to the folders you allow (Claude needs this to read your resume and save the tailored output), and all processing happens through Anthropic's servers with the same privacy protections as regular Claude conversations. You can revoke any of these permissions at any time from Claude Desktop's settings.

🙋‍♀️ Having trouble connecting?

You can always type "Am I connected with Dispatch to my laptop?" into Claude on your phone to get help troubleshooting the connection. You can also ask the Community for help.

You should see a confirmation screen showing that Dispatch is ready to use.

Pair Your Phone

Now switch to your phone to link it with your desktop.

  • On your phone, open the Claude mobile app.
  • Tap the menu icon (three horizontal lines) in the top left corner to open the sidebar.
  • Tap Dispatch in the sidebar.

Seeing "Cowork" at the top of your screen?

This is correct. Dispatch is a feature within Claude Cowork, so you may see "Cowork" displayed at the top of your Claude app on mobile. This is the right place to be.

Pairing completes in a few seconds. A Dispatch entry appears in your mobile sidebar.

  • Tap the Dispatch entry on your phone to confirm the connection is active. You should see a Dispatch chat screen where you can type messages that get sent to your desktop.

Test the Connection

Now test the connection.

  • On your phone, open Dispatch and type: What files are on my desktop?
  • Claude may ask for permission to access your Desktop. If you see a permission prompt, tap Allow.
  • You should get a response with a list of files from your desktop.

Mac falling asleep?

If your Mac keeps going to sleep and breaking the connection, open Terminal and run caffeinate -d & to prevent display sleep. What does caffeinate do?

📣 Keep Claude Desktop open. Your Mac must stay awake and Claude Desktop must remain running for Dispatch to process tasks from your phone.

Install the Browser Extension

Your phone and desktop are connected. The last thing to set up is the Claude browser extension for Chrome. This extension lets Claude interact with web pages on your behalf, which is how it will scrape job postings later in this project.

You will need Google Chrome (or another Chromium-based browser like Brave, Arc, or Edge) installed on your computer. The Claude browser extension only works with Chromium browsers.

✔️ Already have Chrome

No action needed. Move on to the next step.

ⓧ Need to install Chrome

  • Head to google.com/chrome in your browser.
  • Click Download Chrome and follow the installer.
  • Open Chrome once it is installed.
  • Open Claude Desktop and click the Dispatch option to re-open the Dispatch settings.
  • Click Install next to the Claude extension for Chrome option. If the install button does not appear, you can install it directly from the Chrome Web Store.
  • Follow the prompts to add the extension to your browser.

Why do I need the browser extension?

When you send a job posting URL to Claude through Dispatch, Claude uses the browser extension to open the page and read the job description. Without it, Claude can only use web_fetch, which does not work on pages that require a login (like LinkedIn). With the extension, Claude can use your browser session where you are already logged in.

Your phone and desktop are now linked through Dispatch. Next up, you'll teach Claude how to tailor your resume by creating a reusable Skill.

Teach Dispatch Your Resume Skill

Your phone and desktop are connected through Claude Dispatch, which means you can already send messages between them. But right now, every time you find a job posting, you would need to type out the full set of instructions for how Claude should tailor your resume. That is repetitive and error-prone.

What if you could save those instructions once and reuse them forever? That is exactly what a Skill does. In this step, you will create a reusable Skill that teaches Claude how to tailor your resume automatically.

In this step, get ready to:

  • Create a new Skill in Claude Desktop.
  • Write detailed resume-tailoring instructions for Claude.
  • Verify the Skill is enabled and ready to use.

Create a New Skill in Claude Desktop

A Skill in Claude is a set of saved instructions that Claude can follow whenever you trigger it. Instead of repeating yourself every time, you write the instructions once and Claude knows what to do from that point on.

We will create the Skill directly inside Claude Desktop.

  • Open Claude Desktop on your Mac.
  • Click the Sidebar icon in the top left corner to open the sidebar.
  • Click Customize on the left-hand side.
  • Click Skills.
  • Click Create Skill.

You will see three options: Create with Claude, Write skill instructions, and Upload a skill.

  • Click Write skill instructions.

What is a Skill?

A Skill is a reusable set of instructions that Claude can follow. When Claude detects that a user's request matches a Skill's description, it automatically follows the instructions inside. Think of it like a recipe card that Claude can pull out whenever it needs to cook a specific dish.

Fill In the Skill Details

The Skill editor has fields for the name, description, and instructions. These tell Claude what the Skill is called, when to activate it, and exactly what to do.

  • Set the Name to:
resume-tailor
  • Set the Description to:
Tailors a resume and writes a matching cover letter for a specific job. Use this skill when the user provides a job posting URL (or pastes a job description) and wants their resume and cover letter customized for that role. Trigger whenever the user mentions tailoring, customizing, or applying their resume to a job, or pastes a job link, even if they don't explicitly mention a "skill".
  • In the Instructions field, paste the following:
# Resume Tailor

## Inputs

* **Job URL** (required): Use `web_fetch` to scrape. If login-walled, ask user to paste the text.
* **Base resume**: Read from `~/Desktop/resume-project/resume.md`. If missing, ask the user to paste it and save it there first.
* **User overrides**: Honor any emphasis notes the user provides.

## Steps

**1. Scrape** the job posting via `web_fetch`. Extract: title/level, company, responsibilities, required vs. preferred qualifications, tech stack, and soft skill signals.

**2. Positioning brief** (internal, don't show unless asked):

* What outcome is this hire solving for in 6-12 months?
* Seniority signal: IC executor / Senior IC / Lead+Manager
* Implied requirements (e.g., "cross-functional" = stakeholder management)
* Culture signal: startup / enterprise / mission-driven
* Keywords appearing 2+ times (must be mirrored naturally)

**3. Gap analysis:** for each required qualification: ✅ Covered / ⚠️ Implied but needs reframing / ❌ Missing (note it, never fabricate)

**4. Rewrite the resume**

* Bullets: impact-first ("Delivered X, resulting in Y"), mirror JD verb vocabulary, add `[METRIC NEEDED]` where numbers are missing (never invent them), cut irrelevant bullets
* Summary: rewrite completely. Role title, value prop, echo company's problem (3-4 sentences)
* Skills: reorder by JD relevance, remove irrelevant entries
* Experience: trim older/less relevant roles to 2 bullets
* Hard constraint: never change job titles, dates, companies, degrees, or facts. Only reframe.

**5. Cover letter:** problem-first opening (not "I'm excited to apply"), two story paragraphs (situation → action → outcome) mapped to the top 2 JD requirements, confident specific close. Tone matches culture signal: startup = bold/direct, enterprise = measured, mission-driven = values-forward.

**6. Save outputs**

~/Desktop/resume-project/tailored-resume.md
~/Desktop/resume-project/cover-letter.md
~/Desktop/resume-project/tailoring-notes.md

Tailoring notes should include: positioning brief summary, keyword coverage table (✅/⚠️/❌), what changed and why, all `[METRIC NEEDED]` flags, and match confidence (Strong / Moderate / Stretch + one-line rationale).

**7. Summarize:** tell the user: match confidence, the 1-2 biggest framing changes, any `[METRIC NEEDED]` flags to fill in, and the cover letter angle chosen.
  • Click Save.

What do these instructions do?

The name and description at the top tell Claude what this Skill is called and when to activate it. The instructions below tell Claude exactly how to process a job posting: open the URL of the job posting, analyze the requirements, rewrite your resume to match, write a cover letter, and save everything to your Desktop. It also includes rules like never fabricating experience and flagging any missing metrics with [METRIC NEEDED].

🚨 Never fabricate experience

This is the most important rule in prompt engineering for resumes. The Skill instructions explicitly tell Claude to preserve all factual information and never invent experience or skills. Tailoring means highlighting and reordering what is already true, not making things up.

Verify the Skill Is Enabled

After saving, you should be taken back to the Skills list.

  • Confirm that Resume Tailor appears in the list and is toggled ON.

Skill not showing up?

Try closing and reopening Claude Desktop, then check Customize > Skills again. If it is still missing, click Create Skill and re-enter the name, description, and instructions. Need more help troubleshooting?

Your Skill is built and ready. Now for the real payoff: triggering it from your phone while you are out browsing job listings.

Tailor Your Resume from Your Phone

Your Skill is built and ready to go on your desktop. Now picture this: you are scrolling through job listings on your phone during your morning commute, you spot a role that looks perfect, and you can get a tailored resume without even opening your laptop. That is exactly what Claude Dispatch was built for.

In this step, you will use your phone to trigger the Resume Tailor Skill with a job posting link, and then review the results on your desktop.

In this step, get ready to:

  • Find a job posting URL from your phone.
  • Trigger the Resume Tailor Skill from Claude Dispatch.
  • Review and refine the tailored resume and cover letter on your desktop.

Find a Job Posting

Before you can tailor your resume, you need a job posting to work with.

  • On your phone, open a job board like indeed.com or LinkedIn in your browser.
  • Find an interesting job posting that matches your career interests.
  • Copy the URL of the job posting (tap the share button or copy the link from your browser's address bar).

Trigger the Skill from Dispatch

This is the moment everything comes together. You are about to control your desktop Mac from your phone.

  • Open the Claude mobile app on your phone.
  • Tap Dispatch in the sidebar.

How you send the job to Claude depends on whether the job posting URL works directly or requires a login.

✔️ I have a job posting URL

This works best with job boards like Indeed, Glassdoor, or company career pages where the listing is publicly accessible.

  • Paste the job posting URL you copied and add a message like:
Please tailor my resume for this job: [paste URL here]
  • Tap Send.
  • Claude may ask for permission to use the browser on the job posting site. Click Allow once or Always allow for this session.

Using a LinkedIn URL?

LinkedIn job postings require you to be logged into LinkedIn in Google Chrome on your desktop. Claude uses the browser extension (from Step 2) to access the page through your browser session. If you see an error about Chrome accounts, switch to the "I got an error" tab.

🙋‍♀️ I got an error

If you see a "Check your Claude in Chrome account" error, this means the browser extension is not properly linked to your Claude account. This is common when you have just installed the extension.

  • Click Restart Chrome.
  • Once Chrome reopens, go back to the Dispatch conversation on your phone.
  • Tap Try again.
  • Claude will ask for permission to use the browser. Click Allow once or Always allow for this session.

Claude should now be able to read the job posting. If the error persists, click Open Extension Settings and make sure the extension is toggled On and you are signed in with the same account as Claude Desktop.

If nothing works, switch to the "I will paste the job description" tab.

ⓧ I will paste the job description

If the job posting is behind a login wall, loads dynamically, or Claude is having trouble reading the URL, you can paste the job description text directly instead.

  • Open the job posting on your phone or desktop.
  • Copy the full job description text (title, responsibilities, qualifications, and any other details).
  • In the Dispatch chat, paste the job description and add a message like:
Please tailor my resume for this job:

[paste job description here]
  • Tap Send.

Do not have a real job posting handy?

Try pasting this example: Software Engineer, platform team. Requirements: 2+ years experience, Python or Go, REST APIs, AWS or GCP, CI/CD, Docker/Kubernetes.

  • You may see a permission prompt asking you to Allow Claude to access files. Tap Allow.

Seeing "Allow Once" every time?

By default, Claude asks for permission each time it accesses your files. To stop seeing this prompt repeatedly, go to your phone's Settings > Claude > Files and Folders and toggle on Always Allow. This grants persistent access so you do not need to approve each request.

🙋‍♀️ Something go wrong?

If you see a different error, ask our AI or ask in the Community.

  • After a few minutes, check back in the Dispatch conversation on your phone.

Claude responds with a summary of the changes it made to your resume.

Review and Compare Results

Claude has generated three new files in your resume-project folder, ready for review. Time to see how well it adapted your experience to the job.

  • On your desktop, open the resume-project folder on your Desktop. You should see three new files alongside your original resume: tailored-resume.md, cover-letter.md, and tailoring-notes.md.
  • Double-click tailored-resume.md to open it. It will open in TextEdit (or your default text editor).
  • Now open your original resume file too. To compare them side by side, drag one window to the left edge of your screen and the other to the right edge. macOS will snap them into a split view.
  • Read through the tailored resume and check for the following:
    • Keywords from the job description are incorporated naturally.
    • Relevant experience and skills are highlighted or reordered.
    • The professional summary aligns with the target role.
    • No fabricated content has been added. Everything should be factually true.
    • Any [METRIC NEEDED] flags are filled in with real numbers from your experience.
  • Double-click cover-letter.md to open it and review the cover letter.
  • Double-click tailoring-notes.md to see the full analysis, including the keyword coverage table and match confidence rating.

You can iterate from your phone too

If the tailored resume or cover letter needs adjustments, send a follow-up message in Claude Dispatch. For example: Emphasize my Python experience more or Make the cover letter more conversational. Claude revises and saves updated versions to your resume-project folder. This turns Dispatch into a continuous feedback loop you can use from anywhere.

That is it. You just tailored a resume and generated a cover letter from your phone, reviewed them on your desktop, and refined them without ever leaving the Dispatch conversation. What used to take an hour of manual editing now takes a few minutes and a couple of messages.

Secret mission

Your resume is tailored and ready to send. But what happens when you get the interview call? In this secret mission, you will extend your Resume Tailor Skill to also generate personalized interview prep questions, so you walk into every call with talking points pulled straight from your tailored resume.

In this secret mission, get ready to:

  • Update your SKILL.md to add interview prep generation.
  • Trigger the updated Skill from your phone with a new job description.
  • Review five personalized interview questions with suggested talking points.

Generate Interview Prep Questions

Clean Up Your Resources

Clean Up Your Resources

Decide whether to keep your resources running, pause them to come back later, or delete them entirely. This project runs entirely locally with no ongoing costs beyond your existing Claude subscription.

Resources you used:

  • Claude Desktop app (installed)
  • Claude mobile app (installed)
  • Claude Dispatch pairing (active between phone and desktop)
  • Resume Tailor skill (in Claude Desktop)
  • Resume project folder (on your Desktop)
  • Generated tailored resume files

✔️ Keep everything running

No action needed. Choose this if you're still actively building or want to keep tailoring resumes for more job applications.

Your Claude Dispatch pairing stays active and your skill files are stored locally with no ongoing costs. Open Claude on your phone anytime to send a new job description and get a tailored resume.

✋ Pause - I'll come back to this later

Shut down running processes to free up memory, but keep all your files and data so you can pick up where you left off.

  • Close Claude Desktop on your computer.
  • Your skill files and resume project folder will persist on disk.
  • To resume later, open Claude Desktop and re-pair Claude Dispatch by scanning a new QR code from your phone.

ⓧ Delete - I don't want to use this again

Remove all project resources and start fresh if you ever want to rebuild.

  • Delete the Resume Tailor skill by opening Claude Desktop, going to Customize > Skills, and removing it.
  • Delete any generated tailored resume files from your resume project folder.
  • Optionally delete the entire resume project folder:
rm -rf ~/Desktop/resume-project/
  • Unpair Claude Dispatch by opening Claude on your phone, navigating to settings, and removing the paired desktop device.

That's a wrap!

That's a wrap!

Nice work! 🚀 You just built a resume-tailoring workflow powered by Claude Dispatch. From now on, every time you spot a job listing on your phone, you are one message away from a tailored resume and cover letter.

You've learned how to:

  • 📱 Set up Claude Dispatch to pair your phone and desktop.
  • 🔗 Configure Cowork to access local files on your Mac.
  • 🧠 Create a reusable Cowork Skill that scrapes job postings and tailors your resume.
  • 📝 Trigger a resume + cover letter generation from your phone via Dispatch.
  • 🔍 Review and iterate on AI-generated resume tailoring using match confidence and gap analysis.
  • 💎 Extend a Skill to generate personalized interview prep questions.

Ready to quiz yourself? 💪

p.s. Does it say "Still tasks to complete!" at the bottom of the screen?

This means you still have screenshots left to upload, or questions left to answer!

  1. Press Ctrl+F (Windows) or Command+F (Mac) on your keyboard.
  2. Search for the text Return to later.
  3. Jump straight to your incomplete tasks!
  4. 🙋‍♀️ Still stuck? Ask the community!