Build a CV-style GitHub README

The five-card CV layout

A great CV-style README has exactly five sections, each backed by one card: a hero, a skills/experience banner, a project gallery, a contribution streak, and an identity card. Anything more is noise; anything less feels empty.

1 · Hero — cinematic

The /api/cinematic card is your above-the-fold. It takes user, status, focus, and accent (hex without the #). Use it once at the top.

![hero](https://coolreadme.xyz/api/cinematic?user=YOUR_USER&status=Open+to+Senior+SWE+roles&focus=AI+Infra+%C2%B7+TypeScript+%C2%B7+Rust&accent=A78BFA)

2 · Experience banner — social-card

/api/social-card with skills=A,B,C works perfectly as a compact experience strip. Pass the role as title and the company+years as sub.

![exp](https://coolreadme.xyz/api/social-card?title=Senior+Engineer&sub=Acme+%C2%B7+2023%E2%80%93Present&user=YOUR_USER&skills=TypeScript,Rust,Postgres)

3 · Projects gallery — clickable project-cards

Wrap every /api/project-card in a markdown link so the card itself is clickable. Use an HTML <table> to lay out 2–4 side-by-side on desktop.

<table><tr>
<td>
[![repo-a](https://coolreadme.xyz/api/project-card?name=repo-a&desc=One-line+pitch&lang=TypeScript&stars=412)](https://github.com/YOUR_USER/repo-a)
</td>
<td>
[![repo-b](https://coolreadme.xyz/api/project-card?name=repo-b&desc=One-line+pitch&lang=Rust&stars=128)](https://github.com/YOUR_USER/repo-b)
</td>
</tr></table>

4 · Streak — cat-card / dog-card / fox-card

Pet cards auto-fetch real contribution data when you pass a valid user. Do not override streak/longest/total unless you specifically want a forced stage.

![streak](https://coolreadme.xyz/api/cat-card?user=YOUR_USER)

5 · Identity — ai-card or x-card

Close with one personality card. /api/ai-card works if you build with AI; /api/x-card works if you have a pinned tweet worth quoting.

Theme-aware embeds

GitHub renders READMEs in both light and dark mode depending on the visitor. Use the HTML <picture> element to serve the right variant. Any card that accepts theme=dark|light can do this — including cinematic, avatar-card, project-card, article-card, docs-card, and streak-card.

<picture>
  <source media="(prefers-color-scheme: dark)" srcset="https://coolreadme.xyz/api/avatar-card?user=YOUR_USER&theme=dark">
  <source media="(prefers-color-scheme: light)" srcset="https://coolreadme.xyz/api/avatar-card?user=YOUR_USER&theme=light">
  <img alt="YOUR_USER" src="https://coolreadme.xyz/api/avatar-card?user=YOUR_USER&theme=dark">
</picture>

Pushing to your profile repo

GitHub renders README.md from the repo named exactly username/username on your profile page. If it doesn't exist yet, create it:

# create the profile repo if needed
gh repo create YOUR_USER/YOUR_USER --public --add-readme

# clone, edit, push
gh repo clone YOUR_USER/YOUR_USER
cd YOUR_USER
$EDITOR README.md
git add README.md && git commit -m "feat: profile README via coolreadme.xyz"
git push

Full CV-mode README template

<div align="center">

![hero](https://coolreadme.xyz/api/cinematic?user=YOUR_USER&status=Open+to+Senior+SWE+roles&focus=AI+Infra+%C2%B7+TypeScript+%C2%B7+Rust&accent=A78BFA)

</div>

## Experience

![exp](https://coolreadme.xyz/api/social-card?title=Senior+Engineer&sub=Acme+%C2%B7+2023%E2%80%93Present&user=YOUR_USER&skills=TypeScript,Rust,Postgres)

## Projects

<table><tr>
<td>[![p1](https://coolreadme.xyz/api/project-card?name=repo-a&desc=One-line+pitch&lang=TypeScript&stars=412)](https://github.com/YOUR_USER/repo-a)</td>
<td>[![p2](https://coolreadme.xyz/api/project-card?name=repo-b&desc=One-line+pitch&lang=Rust&stars=128)](https://github.com/YOUR_USER/repo-b)</td>
</tr></table>

## Streak

![streak](https://coolreadme.xyz/api/cat-card?user=YOUR_USER)

## Built with

![ai](https://coolreadme.xyz/api/ai-card?tool=claude&role=builder&user=YOUR_USER&tagline=Shipped+47+PRs+with+AI)

Or let Claude Code do it

Install the coolreadme skill in Claude Code and just say “build my GitHub README”. The skill pulls your top repos via gh api, asks you four quick questions, assembles the markdown, and pushes the commit. See llms.txt for the full API and skill recipe list.