Your CV Is Invisible — That's the Real Problem
You’ve spent years polishing your skills, shipping real projects, earning certifications. But right now, your career profile lives as unstructured text inside a PDF — buried on a job board, trapped behind a login wall, or gathering dust in a recruiter’s inbox.
No AI agent can read it. No matching algorithm can score it. No employer’s hiring tool can discover it programmatically. Your professional identity is basically invisible to the systems that are actually making hiring decisions in 2026.
And the platforms that are visible? LinkedIn charges employers $10,000 per year just to search profiles that you filled in for free. Recruiting agencies take $15,000–$30,000 per hire. Standard job boards run on keyword-stuffing and ATS black holes where great candidates get filtered out because a PDF parser choked on their resume formatting.
We looked at this and asked: What if your CV could work for you 24/7 — discoverable by AI agents, machine-readable, self-negotiating — while you keep total control of the data?
That’s why we built the Scoutica Protocol.
So What Exactly IS the Scoutica Protocol?
Let me make it crystal clear right away: Scoutica is not a job board. It’s not a platform. It’s not even an app.
Scoutica is an open-source protocol that turns your messy CV into a structured, machine-readable Skill Card — and makes it instantly discoverable by any AI agent on the planet. Think of it like HTTP, but for careers. Or like RSS, but for your skills. You publish your card once, and AI agents from any company can find you, score your fit, verify your evidence, and even negotiate salary — all without you lifting a finger.
The architecture has one non-negotiable rule at its foundation:
| Part | What’s In It | Who Controls It |
|---|---|---|
| The Protocol | Open schemas, agent rules, CLI tools, registry API | 🌍 Public — anyone can fork, clone, and build on it |
| Your Skill Card | Your profile, salary floor, rules of engagement, evidence | 🔒 Private — lives in your own storage, never on our servers |
The protocol is the network. Your Skill Card is your node on it.
Think email: SMTP is public and standardized, but your inbox is private. Scoutica works exactly the same way — the rules for how agents discover and evaluate talent are open-source, but your data stays entirely under your control.
Anatomy of a Skill Card
Here’s the core idea: instead of sending a PDF that gets parsed (badly) by an ATS, you publish a Skill Card — a small set of 4 structured files that make your professional identity instantly readable, searchable, and actionable by any AI agent:
| File | Format | What It Does |
|---|---|---|
profile.json |
JSON | Your skills, tools, certifications, seniority, years of experience, spoken languages |
rules.yaml |
YAML | Your salary floors, remote policy, allowed engagement types, blocked industries, auto-reject rules |
evidence.json |
JSON | Links to your public work — GitHub repos, portfolio sites, certifications, published articles |
SKILL.md |
Markdown | The entry point for AI agents — tells them how to navigate and evaluate your card |
What profile.json looks like in practice
This is a real example from the protocol’s sample card. Notice how structured and clean it is — no free-text resume fluff, no PDFs to parse:
{
"schema_version": "0.1.0",
"name": "Alex Chen",
"title": "Senior Full-Stack Engineer",
"seniority": "senior",
"years_experience": 10,
"availability": "immediately",
"primary_domains": [
"Backend Engineering",
"Cloud Infrastructure",
"API Design"
],
"skills": [
"Python", "TypeScript", "Go",
"REST API Design", "Microservices Architecture",
"Database Design", "CI/CD Pipelines",
"Technical Leadership"
],
"tools_and_platforms": [
"FastAPI", "React", "Node.js",
"Kubernetes", "Docker", "AWS",
"PostgreSQL", "Redis",
"GitHub Actions", "Terraform"
],
"certifications_and_licenses": [
"AWS Solutions Architect Associate"
],
"spoken_languages": [
{"language": "English", "level": "native"},
{"language": "Mandarin", "level": "fluent"},
{"language": "Spanish", "level": "basic"}
],
"summary": "Full-stack engineer with 10 years building cloud-native applications. Specializes in event-driven microservices, API design, and infrastructure automation."
}
Every field is machine-readable. Every field follows a validated JSON Schema. An AI agent doesn’t need to guess, interpret, or wrestle with a garbled PDF — it reads clean, structured data and can instantly match your profile against any job requirement. This is how you go from “invisible resume” to “discoverable Skill Card.”
Where YOU set the rules: rules.yaml
This is the file that changes everything. The candidate — not the platform, not the recruiter — defines the terms:
engagement:
allowed_types:
- permanent
- contract
- advisory
compensation:
minimum_base_eur:
permanent: 80000
contract: 600 # daily rate
advisory: 150 # hourly rate
remote:
policy: "remote_only"
filters:
blocked_industries:
- "gambling"
- "weapons"
- "tobacco"
stack_keywords:
preferred:
- "Python"
- "TypeScript"
- "Kubernetes"
soft_reject:
weak_stack_overlap_below: 3
privacy:
zone_1_public:
- title
- seniority
- primary_domains
- availability
zone_2_paid:
- full_profile
- evidence
- experience_details
zone_3_private:
- email
- phone
- exact_salary
If a job offer violates any of these rules — salary too low, wrong industry, requires office attendance, tech stack has less than 3 matching keywords — the AI agent auto-rejects it before it ever reaches the candidate. No spam. Zero wasted time.
Proving your skills: evidence.json
Talk is cheap. Evidence isn’t. This file links to the actual public artifacts that prove your claimed skills:
{
"items": [
{
"type": "github_repo",
"title": "CloudDeploy — Kubernetes Deployment Toolkit",
"url": "https://github.com/alexchen/cloud-deploy",
"skills_demonstrated": ["Kubernetes", "Go", "CI/CD Pipelines"]
},
{
"type": "article",
"title": "Designing Event-Driven Microservices at Scale",
"url": "https://blog.alexchen.dev/event-driven-microservices",
"skills_demonstrated": ["Event-Driven Architecture", "Technical Leadership"]
},
{
"type": "certificate",
"title": "AWS Solutions Architect Associate",
"url": "https://www.credly.com/badges/example-badge-id",
"skills_demonstrated": ["AWS", "Cloud Infrastructure"]
}
]
}
AI agents can automatically verify every item: check if the GitHub repo exists and matches claimed languages, confirm certificate URLs are live, verify portfolio sites load correctly.
The Three-Zone Privacy Model
Not all your data should be equally accessible. Scoutica enforces a strict, progressive privacy model that every conforming agent must respect:
| Zone | What’s Visible | Who Can Access It |
|---|---|---|
| Zone 1 — Public | Title, seniority, top domains, availability | Anyone — free, no credentials needed |
| Zone 2 — Verified | Full profile, all evidence, detailed experience | Authenticated agents only |
| Zone 3 — Private | Email, phone, exact salary | Your explicit approval only |
Here’s what makes this powerful:
- An employer’s AI agent can freely scan Zone 1 to check for a rough fit — “Is this person senior? Are they available? Do they work in backend engineering?” That costs nothing and requires no authentication.
- To see the deep profile, the agent needs to authenticate. In the future roadmap, this triggers a ~$0.05 micropayment that goes directly to you, the candidate.
- To get your contact info? That requires your explicit, per-request consent. No more random recruiters cold-calling you because they scraped your LinkedIn.
And here’s the kill switch: delete your GitHub repository and you vanish from the network instantly. No residual data. No “data retention policies.” No begging a platform to delete your account. You pull the plug, you’re gone.
How Agents Find and Hire You — Step by Step
This is the part that makes Scoutica fundamentally different from every job board and recruiting tool out there. Your Skill Card isn’t passive — it’s a living, queryable profile that AI agents actively search for, evaluate, and act on. Let’s walk through the complete flow.
Step 1: Discovery
The agent queries the Scoutica registry for candidates matching specific criteria:
Search(skills=["Kubernetes","Terraform"], seniority="senior", remote="remote_only")
→ Returns: [card_url_1, card_url_2, card_url_3]
Step 2: Rules Pre-Screening (Before Scoring!)
The agent’s first move isn’t scoring skills — it’s checking rules.yaml. There’s no point computing a fit score for an offer that will be auto-rejected.
def pre_screen(rules, offer):
# Check blocked industries
if offer['industry'] in rules['filters']['blocked_industries']:
return "REJECTED — industry blocked"
# Check salary floor
minimum = rules['engagement']['compensation']['minimum_base_eur']['permanent']
if offer['salary'] < minimum:
return "REJECTED — salary below minimum"
# Check remote policy
if rules['remote']['policy'] == 'remote_only' and offer['location_required']:
return "REJECTED — candidate requires fully remote"
return "PASS"
If the pre-screen returns REJECTED, the agent stops immediately. It does not contact the candidate. It does not log a “missed opportunity.” It simply moves on. The candidate never even knows there was a mismatched role — because why would they want to?
Step 3: Skills Scoring
For candidates who pass the rules check, the agent scores their profile against the job requirements:
def score_candidate(profile, job_requirements):
candidate_skills = set()
for field in ['skills', 'tools_and_platforms', 'specializations']:
for item in profile.get(field, []):
candidate_skills.add(item.lower())
required = set(s.lower() for s in job_requirements['required_skills'])
matched = required & candidate_skills
score = (len(matched) / len(required)) * 100
return min(score, 100)
The scoring thresholds are defined by the protocol:
| Score | Verdict | Action |
|---|---|---|
| 80–100 | STRONG_MATCH |
Proceed to interview |
| 60–79 | GOOD_MATCH |
Review and decide |
| 40–59 | WEAK_MATCH |
Only if other factors compensate |
| 0–39 | NO_MATCH |
Do not proceed |
Step 4: Evidence Verification
Before scheduling an interview, the agent verifies the candidate’s claimed evidence:
- GitHub repos: Fetches stars, commit counts, and programming languages via the GitHub API — do they match the claimed skills?
- Certificates: Sends a HEAD request to check the URL is live
- Portfolio sites: Verifies HTTP status
If 4 out of 5 evidence items verify successfully, the agent proceeds with a trust score of 80%.
Step 5: Autonomous Negotiation
If everything passes, the company’s agent sends a structured offer to the candidate’s personal AI agent. The candidate’s agent evaluates it against rules.yaml and responds:
Company Agent → Candidate Agent:
{role: "Lead DevOps", salary: 95K, remote: "hybrid"}
Candidate Agent checks rules.yaml:
✅ Salary 95K > minimum 80K
✅ Remote hybrid allowed
✅ Industry not blocked
Candidate Agent → Company Agent:
{status: "INTERESTED", counter: {salary: 105K}}
Company Agent → Candidate Agent:
{status: "ACCEPT", next: "interview_link"}
Candidate Agent → Human:
📧 "Interview scheduled: Lead DevOps, 105K"
The candidate doesn’t lift a finger until there’s a real, verified, rules-compliant match with a scheduled interview.
Real-World Scenarios — Both Sides of the Table
Use Case 1: Maria — From Invisible PDF to Discoverable Skill Card
Maria is a senior backend engineer. She has an excellent CV, but it lives as a .docx file on her laptop. No AI agent can find her. She runs three commands:
scoutica scan ~/maria-cv/ --with gemini
scoutica validate
scoutica publish
In under two minutes, her messy CV has been transformed into a structured Skill Card, validated against the protocol schemas, and published to github.com/maria/skills. Her documents never left her machine.
Now the magic happens: Maria’s card is discoverable. Any company’s AI agent searching for “senior backend engineer + Python + Kubernetes + remote” will find her card, score her skills, and — if the offer passes her rules — reach out with a structured proposal. Maria went from invisible to searchable in three commands.
Her rules.yaml sets a minimum €85K salary, remote-only, and blocks gambling/weapons industries. When a role pays €65K? Auto-rejected before it reaches her. Role requires office attendance? Auto-rejected. The first time Maria hears about an opportunity, it’s already been verified, scored, and approved against every single one of her filters.
Use Case 2: TechCorp — Find the Right Engineer in Seconds, Not Months
TechCorp needs a Senior DevOps Engineer. Instead of paying $10K/year for LinkedIn Recruiter, drowning in 500 irrelevant applications, and spending weeks screening, their AI agent searches the Scoutica registry with a single structured query:
Search(skills=["Kubernetes","Terraform","Python"], seniority="senior", remote="remote_only")
In seconds, the agent returns a ranked shortlist. It has already fetched every matching Skill Card, scored each one against the job requirements, run rules pre-screening, and verified evidence links — all automatically.
Results:
| Candidate | Score | Outcome |
|---|---|---|
| Maria | 85 | Contacted — strong match, evidence verified |
| Alex | 72 | Contacted — good match, noted remote preference |
| Sam | 91 | Auto-rejected — salary below Sam’s minimum |
Sam was never bothered. No wasted time for either party. TechCorp contacted two verified, pre-screened candidates in under a minute — for essentially zero cost.
Use Case 3: DevJobs.io — Job Board Auto-Import
A developer applies to a job posting by pasting their Scoutica card URL instead of uploading a PDF. The job board fetches profile.json, auto-fills every form field, reads rules.yaml, and pre-screens the offer against the candidate’s rules. If the role pays €75K but the candidate’s minimum is €85K, the platform warns them before they waste time applying.
Use Case 4: Full Agent-to-Agent Negotiation
Maria’s personal AI agent receives an inbound opportunity. It checks rules.yaml, auto-negotiates salary (counter-offering €110K against an initial €95K), TechCorp’s agent counters at €105K with equity, Maria’s agent accepts — the total package is within range. Maria receives a notification: “Interview scheduled.” Three negotiation rounds completed in seconds.
Use Case 5: Team Cards
SquadAlpha — a team of 4 engineers — publishes a composite team card. Companies can now hire the entire team as a unit, with combined skills, team engagement rules, and collective evidence. The card even supports ai_agent as an entity type, so a team’s coding assistant can be listed as a team member.
Five Trust Levels
Not all Skill Cards are equally trustworthy. The protocol defines a progressive trust model:
| Level | Name | Trust Factor | How It Works |
|---|---|---|---|
| 0 | Self-Asserted | 0.0× | Candidate claims it — no external verification |
| 1 | URL-Verified | 0.5× | Evidence URLs confirmed reachable |
| 2 | Peer-Endorsed | 1.0× | Other card holders vouch for specific skills |
| 3 | Platform-Verified | 1.5× | CI/CD: commits and contributions verified automatically |
| 4 | Blockchain-Verified | 2.0× | Soulbound Token endorsement on-chain |
Levels 0–3 work today. Level 4 (blockchain) is on the roadmap.
Getting Started — 4 Ways to Create Your Card
Option 1: AI Scan (Recommended — Zero Effort)
Drop your CV, certs, and portfolio files in a folder. The CLI reads your documents and pipes them to your local AI — nothing leaves your machine.
# Install the CLI
curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/traylinx/scoutica-protocol/main/install.sh | bash
source ~/.zshrc
# Auto-generate your card from documents
scoutica scan ~/my-docs/
# Or pick a specific provider
scoutica scan ~/my-docs/ --with gemini # Gemini CLI
scoutica scan ~/my-docs/ --with claude # Claude Code
scoutica scan ~/my-docs/ --with ollama # Fully offline
# Validate and publish
scoutica validate && scoutica publish
Supported document formats: .md .txt .pdf .docx .json .yaml .csv .html
Supported AI providers (auto-detected):
| Provider | CLI | Repo |
|---|---|---|
| Gemini CLI | gemini |
google-gemini/gemini-cli |
| Claude Code | claude |
anthropics/claude-code |
| OpenAI Codex | codex |
openai/codex |
| Ollama | ollama |
ollama.com |
| OpenClaw | openclaw |
openclaw/openclaw |
Option 2: Interactive Wizard
Answer questions step by step to build your card manually:
scoutica init ./my-card/
Option 3: AI Paste (No Install Needed — Easiest for Non-Developers)
- Open
GENERATE_MY_CARD.mdon GitHub - Copy the entire file
- Paste it into any AI assistant — ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, Copilot
- Follow the conversation — the AI interviews you and generates your 4 files
- Save the files to a GitHub repo — your card is live
No git, no CLI, no install. This is the recommended path for non-technical users.
Option 4: GitHub Template (One Click)
Click “Use this template” on the Scoutica Protocol repo, name your repo, edit the template files, push. Done.
What your published card folder looks like
my-card/
├── profile.json # Your skills, experience, tools
├── rules.yaml # Your rules of engagement
├── evidence.json # Links to your public work
├── SKILL.md # Agent entry point
├── scoutica.json # Discovery file (auto-generated)
└── rules/ # Evaluation rule templates
├── evaluate-fit.md
├── negotiate-terms.md
├── verify-evidence.md
└── request-interview.md
CLI Quick Reference
scoutica init # Interactive card creation wizard
scoutica init --ai # AI-assisted card creation
scoutica scan ~/docs/ # Auto-generate card from documents
scoutica validate # Validate card against protocol schemas
scoutica publish # Push card to GitHub
scoutica resolve <url> # Fetch and display a card from a URL
scoutica info # Show card summary
scoutica doctor # Check prerequisites (Git, Python, AI providers)
scoutica update # Update CLI to latest version
Anti-Bias by Design — EU AI Act Compliant
This isn’t an afterthought. It’s baked into the schema itself.
The profile schema deliberately excludes any field that could enable discrimination: no gender, no age, no ethnicity, no nationality, no photo, no marital status, no religion. If the data isn’t in the schema, the AI literally cannot discriminate on it.
The protocol enforces four EU AI Act principles for high-risk recruitment systems:
- Human-in-the-loop — no fully automated hiring decisions
- Audit trail — all evaluations are logged with reasoning
- Explainability — score breakdowns show exactly which skills matched and which were missing
- Non-discrimination — zero demographic inference possible
Not Just for Humans
Here’s something most people don’t expect: the protocol supports Skill Cards for more than just individual professionals. The entity_type field in the discovery file allows any entity to participate:
| Entity Type | Example |
|---|---|
human |
Software engineer |
ai_agent |
Coding assistant |
service |
Translation API |
robot |
Warehouse drone |
team |
Engineering squad |
organization |
DevOps department |
This means a company could search the registry not just for individual engineers, but for entire pre-formed teams, AI agents with proven capabilities, or even API services that match specific technical requirements.
The Cost Comparison
| Channel | Cost Per Hire |
|---|---|
| LinkedIn Recruiter | ~$10,000/year |
| Recruiting Agency | $15,000–$30,000 |
| Scoutica Protocol | ~$4 |
That ~$4 comes from the roadmap micropayment model: employers pay ~$0.05 to unlock each candidate’s Zone 2 data. That payment goes directly to the candidate — not to a platform, not to a middleman. The protocol takes a 10% commission.
What's Live Today vs. What's on the Roadmap
| Feature | Status |
|---|---|
| CLI install (macOS / Linux / Windows) | ✅ Live |
| AI-powered card generation from documents | ✅ Live |
| JSON Schema validation | ✅ Live |
| GitHub publishing | ✅ Live |
| Agent-side matching and scoring | ✅ Live |
| Three-zone privacy model | ✅ Live |
| EU AI Act compliance (no demographic fields) | ✅ Live |
Discovery file (scoutica.json) |
✅ Live |
| Evidence URL verification | ✅ Live |
| Multiple entity types (humans, agents, teams) | ✅ Live |
scoutica resolve — fetch any card by URL |
✅ Live |
| GitHub-based central registry | 🔜 Phase 2 |
| GitHub Action for CI/CD validation | 🔜 Phase 2 |
| JavaScript and Python SDKs | 🔜 Phase 3 |
| Embeddable card widget and badge | 🔜 Phase 3 |
| Peer endorsements | 🔜 Phase 4 |
| GPG-signed cards | 🔜 Phase 4 |
| Soulbound Tokens on Base L2 | 🔜 Phase 5 |
| Zero-Knowledge Proofs | 🔜 Phase 5 |
| Decentralized federated registry | 🔜 Phase 5 |
$SKILL token micropayments |
🔜 Phase 5 |
For Developers: Build on the Protocol
Scoutica isn’t just for candidates and recruiters. If you’re building an ATS, a job board, a recruiting agent, or any HR-adjacent tool, you can consume Skill Cards programmatically.
Coming soon — JavaScript SDK
import { ScouticaCard, ScouticaSearch } from 'scoutica-protocol';
const card = await ScouticaCard.fromGitHub('user/my-card');
console.log(card.profile.name); // "Alex Chen"
console.log(card.skills.languages); // ["Python", "Go"]
const fit = card.evaluate({
required_skills: ['Python', 'Kubernetes'],
salary_budget: 100000,
remote: true
});
console.log(fit.score); // 85
console.log(fit.verdict); // "STRONG_MATCH"
Coming soon — Python SDK
from scoutica import Card, Registry
card = Card.from_github("user/my-card")
fit = card.evaluate(required_skills=["Python", "Kubernetes"])
print(fit.score, fit.verdict) # 85, "STRONG_MATCH"
GitHub Action — Auto-Validate on Push
name: Validate Scoutica Card
on: push
jobs:
validate:
runs-on: ubuntu-latest
steps:
- uses: actions/checkout@v4
- uses: traylinx/scoutica-action@v1
with:
validate: true
register: true # auto-register in global index
The Future: Blockchain, ZKPs, and the $SKILL Token
The V1 you can use today is just the foundation. The long-term vision includes cryptographic trust and a native economy:
- Soulbound Tokens (SBTs): Non-transferable on-chain tokens on Base L2 that prove endorsements. An employer can query a smart contract to verify “Does this person have a verified Kubernetes endorsement from TechCorp?” — no intermediary needed.
- Zero-Knowledge Proofs: Prove facts without revealing the data. “I earn above $100K” → ZKP proof → ✅ True (without revealing the exact salary). “I have AWS certification” → ✅ True (without revealing the cert ID).
$SKILLToken: The native currency powering micropayments (Zone 2 access fees flow to candidates), verifier staking (fraudulent endorsements get slashed), and registry subscriptions.
Everything Is Open Source
The entire stack — protocol, schemas, CLI, documentation, agent skills — is Apache 2.0 licensed. Fork it, build on it, contribute.
- 🌐 Landing page: scoutica.com
- 📚 Full documentation: docs.scoutica.com
- 💻 GitHub repo: github.com/traylinx/scoutica-protocol
Your CV shouldn’t be a file gathering dust on your laptop. Turn it into a Skill Card, publish it once, and let AI agents find you, score you, and bring you the right opportunities — on your terms.
Sebastian Schkudlara