STRAIGHT
ANSWERS.
The questions people actually ask before installing it — answered plainly, including where the answer is “not yet” or “I don’t know.”
Money
What does it really cost?
Joblinko itself is free — it is a personal learning project, not a product, and there is nothing to pay. Separately, Joblinko does its thinking through your own Claude access, which Anthropic bills you for directly. If you already pay for Claude, that is your whole cost. If you do not, get a paid Claude plan rather than a pay-as-you-go API key: a plan is a fixed amount however much you use it, and the heaviest things Joblinko does — writing a tailored CV, a cover letter, an interview brief — deliberately use the strongest model on long inputs. Metered, that adds up; on a plan it does not.
So what will Anthropic charge me per month?
I do not have a measured figure yet, and I am not going to invent one. What I can tell you is where the cost goes: the nightly scan and all the filtering are free — they are plain rules, no AI. Money is only spent reading and scoring the handful of jobs that survive, and writing documents for the ones you approve. A thin week costs a fraction of a busy one. When there are real numbers from real runs, they will be published here.
Is there a catch?
No. Nothing is charged, nothing is collected, and nothing is upsold later. The trade is that this is shared as-is: there is no support desk, no response commitment and no warranty. If it breaks on your machine, it may stay broken.
Your computer
Does my computer have to stay on overnight?
It has to be on when the scan runs. Joblinko lives on your machine — there is no server doing the work while you sleep. Most people leave the laptop on and let it run overnight; if yours was off, the run happens the next time it is on. Nothing is lost, it just arrives later.
Does it work on a Mac?
Not today — Windows 10 or 11 only. The engine itself is not Windows-specific, but the installer, the launcher and the overnight scheduling are, and I will not ship a Mac install path I have not tested on a real Mac. A Mac installer is coming — no date yet, because it is not tested. If you are on a Mac, say so when you write in; it is useful to know.
Why does Windows warn me about the installer?
Because it is new and not yet code-signed, so Windows has no history for it. You will see Chrome ask you to confirm the download, then a full-screen box headed "Windows protected your PC" — click More info, then Run anyway. (It is red on Windows 11 and blue on some Windows 10 machines; both are the same warning.) There are pictures of every screen on the install help page. That warning is about reputation, not about anything found in the file. The download page publishes the installer’s checksum so you can verify the bytes are exactly the ones published here, and your antivirus scans it like anything else.
Do I need to know anything technical?
No. The installer sets everything up, and a setup wizard walks you through your details, your CV and your job alerts. Nothing needs configuring by hand. If something goes wrong, the dashboard has a troubleshooting assistant that reads the logs and tells you what to do.
Gmail and your data
Do I have to connect Gmail?
No, and everything else works without it. Connecting Gmail is how your LinkedIn job-alert emails become part of the pipeline. Skip it and you still get the career sites you add plus any job link you paste in yourself.
What exactly can Joblinko do with my email?
It reads job-alert emails from a small list of approved senders, on your machine, and nothing else. It does not send, delete, or change any email, and it never reads the rest of your inbox. The credential you create is stored only on your computer, and you can revoke it at Google at any moment.
Where does my CV and job history actually go?
It is stored on your computer, in a folder you can open, read and delete. It is never uploaded to Joblinko — there are no Joblinko servers to upload it to. The one place information leaves your machine is when a document is written: your computer sends what that task needs directly to Anthropic under your own account, and the answer comes straight back. The privacy page sets out the whole flow in four steps.
What it does, and does not do
Does it apply to jobs for me?
Never. Joblinko finds, ranks, writes and prepares. You read it, change what you want, and submit it yourself. It does not apply, message recruiters, or speak for you — that is a deliberate refusal, not a missing feature.
Can I edit everything before it goes out?
Yes, all of it. Every document is a file on your machine that you can open and change. Nothing is final until you send it.
Which job sites does it cover?
The platforms employers publish on: Workday, Greenhouse, Lever, Ashby, career sites that publish a job feed, and major staffing boards. You add an employer by pasting their careers page URL, and it is tested against the live feed before it is saved. The How it works page lists who lives where.
Which Claude plan do I need?
A paid plan at claude.ai, and that is what I would recommend — Pro is the usual starting point. An Anthropic API key works too, but I would not point you there first: it is metered, and Joblinko deliberately spends its heaviest thinking on the documents an employer reads. I am not going to quote a monthly figure I have not measured across real runs. Joblinko is built and tested on Claude only.
Can I use ChatGPT instead?
Not today — and the reason is worth being straight about. It is not that ChatGPT could not do this work. It is that every prompt in Joblinko, and the truth-checking that blocks invented claims before a document reaches an employer, has only been proven against Claude. Shipping it on a model I have not tested would mean shipping a claim-checker I cannot vouch for, on documents you send to employers. ChatGPT support is coming, and so is a Mac installer. Neither has a date, because neither is tested yet — and you will get a date from me when there is one to give, not before.
Something not answered here? Write to support@joblinko.co. This is a personal project, so there is no promise of a reply — but I do read them. If the answer turns out to be useful to everyone, it ends up on this page.