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I use Overleaf to write my resume in LaTeX. Every time I made an edit, I had to manually compile it, download the PDF, and push it to my GitHub repo so my portfolio website could link to it. After doing this one too many times, I decided to automate the whole thing.

Here's the full story - the scraper, the GitHub Actions workflow, the bugs I hit, and how I eventually wired it to my portfolio site.

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The Problem

My portfolio at nakuldev.vercel.app links directly to my resume PDF. For that link to always point to the latest version, I'd have to:

1. Open Overleaf, compile, download
2. Replace the old PDF in my repo
3. Commit and push

Boring. Repetitive. Easy to forget. So I automated it.

---

The Plan

1. Write a Node.js script that opens my Overleaf share link in a headless browser
2. Find the PDF download link in the DOM
3. Download the PDF and save it locally
4. Run this on a schedule via GitHub Actions
5. Auto-commit and push the new PDF back to the repo

---

Step 1 - Scraping Overleaf with Playwright

Overleaf is a React app - you can't just fetch() it and parse the HTML. The download link only appears after the project compiles, which happens client-side. So I needed a real browser.

I went with Playwright for this.

npm install playwright
npx playwright install chromium

The download button in Overleaf's DOM looks like this:

<a href="/download/project/69b65297.../output/output.pdf?..." 
   aria-label="Download PDF">

So the selector I needed was:

a[href^="/download/project"]

Here's the core scraping logic:

await page.goto("https://www.overleaf.com/read/YOUR_SHARE_LINK", {
  waitUntil: "networkidle",
  timeout: 60_000
});

await page.waitForSelector('a[href^="/download/project"]', {
  state: "attached",  // important - element lives inside a closed dropdown
  timeout: 90_000,
});

const relativeHref = await page.evaluate(() => {
  const links = Array.from(
    document.querySelectorAll('a[href^="/download/project"]')
  );
  const pdfLink = links.find((el) => el.href.includes("output.pdf"));
  return pdfLink
    ? new URL(pdfLink.href).pathname + new URL(pdfLink.href).search
    : links[0]?.getAttribute("href") ?? null;
});

const fullUrl = `https://www.overleaf.com${relativeHref}`;

Then download it using the browser's session cookies (so Overleaf accepts the request):

const cookies = await context.cookies();
await downloadFile(fullUrl, destPath, cookies);

Bug I hit: waitForSelector timing out

My first attempt used the default visible state:

await page.waitForSelector('a[href^="/download/project"]'); // ❌ timed out

The error log showed:

180 × locator resolved to 2 elements. Proceeding with the first one

The element existed but was hidden inside a closed dropdown menu. It was never going to become visible. The fix was switching to state: "attached" - which only requires the element to be in the DOM, not visible on screen.

---

Step 2 - Saving to Two Places

I wanted two things from each run:

• scrapped/resume01.pdf - a numbered archive (auto-deleted after 7 days)
• Nakul_Dev_M_V_Resume.pdf in the root - always the latest, fixed filename, safe to link to

// Numbered archive
const pdfName = nextPdfName(); // resume01.pdf, resume02.pdf...
await downloadFile(fullUrl, path.join(SCRAPPED_DIR, pdfName), cookies);

// Fixed root copy
const rootPdfPath = path.join(ROOT_DIR, "Nakul_Dev_M_V_Resume.pdf");
if (fs.existsSync(rootPdfPath)) fs.unlinkSync(rootPdfPath);
fs.copyFileSync(path.join(SCRAPPED_DIR, pdfName), rootPdfPath);

Cleanup for files older than 7 days:

function cleanOldScrapped() {
  const now = Date.now();
  const ONE_WEEK_MS = 7 * 24 * 60 * 60 * 1000;

  fs.readdirSync(SCRAPPED_DIR)
    .filter((f) => /^resume\d+\.pdf$/i.test(f))
    .forEach((f) => {
      const filePath = path.join(SCRAPPED_DIR, f);
      if (now - fs.statSync(filePath).mtimeMs > ONE_WEEK_MS) {
        fs.unlinkSync(filePath);
      }
    });
}

---

Step 3 - GitHub Actions Workflow

The local script worked great. Now I needed to run it automatically in CI.

name: Overleaf PDF Scraper

on:
  schedule:
    - cron: "0 6 * * *"     # every day at 06:00 UTC
  workflow_dispatch:         # manual trigger via Actions tab
  repository_dispatch:
    types: [visitor-trigger] # triggered via API (more on this below)

permissions:
  contents: write

jobs:
  scrape-and-push:
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    timeout-minutes: 10

    steps:
      - uses: actions/checkout@v4.2.2
        with:
          fetch-depth: 0

      - uses: actions/setup-node@v4.4.0
        with:
          node-version: "20"
          cache: "npm"

      - run: npm ci
      - run: npx playwright install --with-deps chromium
      - run: node scraper.js

      - name: Commit and push
        run: |
          git config user.name "github-actions[bot]"
          git config user.email "github-actions[bot]@users.noreply.github.com"
          git add Nakul_Dev_M_V_Resume.pdf scrapped/ History.json
          if git diff --cached --quiet; then
            echo "Nothing new to commit."
          else
            git commit -m "feat: update resume [$(date -u '+%Y-%m-%d %H:%M UTC')]"
            git push
          fi

Important: enable write permissions

By default GitHub Actions can't push to your repo. Go to: Settings → Actions → General → Workflow permissions → Read and write permissions

---

Step 4 - Triggering From My Portfolio

The daily cron covers most cases, but I also wanted to trigger a fresh scrape whenever someone visits my portfolio - so they always get the absolute latest version.

The challenge: you can't call the GitHub API directly from frontend JavaScript because you'd have to expose your token. The solution: a Next.js API route that acts as a secure middleman.

Visitor loads portfolio
  → calls /api/trigger (server-side)
  → API route calls GitHub with the secret token
  → GitHub Actions fires

The API route at app/api/trigger/route.js:

const COOLDOWN_HOURS = 6;
let lastTriggeredAt = null;

export async function POST() {
  const now = Date.now();
  const cooldownMs = COOLDOWN_HOURS * 60 * 60 * 1000;

  // Don't trigger more than once every 6 hours
  if (lastTriggeredAt && now - lastTriggeredAt < cooldownMs) {
    return Response.json({ ok: false, reason: "cooldown" }, { status: 429 });
  }

  await fetch("https://api.github.com/repos/nakuldevmv/Resume/dispatches", {
    method: "POST",
    headers: {
      Authorization: `token ${process.env.GITHUB_TOKEN}`,
      "Content-Type": "application/json",
    },
    body: JSON.stringify({ event_type: "visitor-trigger" }),
  });

  lastTriggeredAt = now;
  return Response.json({ ok: true });
}

Called from the portfolio page:

useEffect(() => {
  fetch("/api/trigger", { method: "POST" });
}, []);

The token lives in .env.local and never touches the browser:

GITHUB_TOKEN=ghp_xxxxxxxxxxxx

The repository_dispatch trigger in the workflow listens for visitor-trigger - which matches the event_type sent by the API route exactly.

---

Step 5 - Failure Notifications

If Overleaf goes down or the compile fails and the download link isn't found, I wanted to know immediately. The simplest option: GitHub's built-in email notifications.

Go to: GitHub profile → Settings → Notifications → Actions → Failed workflows

That's it. Zero config, instant email on any workflow failure.

For something more immediate (like Telegram), you can add this step at the end of the workflow:

- name: Notify on failure
  if: failure()
  run: |
    curl -s -X POST "https://api.telegram.org/bot${{ secrets.TELEGRAM_TOKEN }}/sendMessage" \
      -d chat_id="${{ secrets.TELEGRAM_CHAT_ID }}" \
      -d text="❌ Resume scraper failed - check the Actions tab."

---

The Final Repo Structure

Resume/
├── .github/workflows/scrape.yml   # the workflow
├── scrapped/                      # daily archive (7-day TTL)
│   ├── resume01.pdf
│   └── resume02.pdf
├── scraper.js                     # the scraper
├── package.json
├── History.json               # download log
└── Nakul_Dev_M_V_Resume.pdf       # ← always the latest

History.json logs every run:

{
  "timestamp": "2026-03-15T06:02:41.000Z",
  "scrappedFile": "scrapped/resume01.pdf",
  "rootFile": "Nakul_Dev_M_V_Resume.pdf",
  "link": "https://www.overleaf.com/download/project/..."
}

---

Result

• ✅ Resume auto-updates every day at 06:00 UTC
• ✅ Portfolio visitors can trigger a fresh scrape via the API route (with cooldown)
• ✅ Root PDF always has a fixed, linkable filename
• ✅ Weekly archive kept for 7 days, then cleaned up
• ✅ Email alert if anything breaks

Direct link to my latest resume: 👉 nakuldevmv.github.io/Resume/Nakul_Dev_M_V_Resume.pdf

Full source code: 👉 github.com/nakuldevmv/Resume

Portfolio: 👉 nakuldev.vercel.app

---

If you also write your resume in LaTeX on Overleaf, you can fork the repo, swap out the share URL and PDF filename in scraper.js, and have this running for yourself in under 10 minutes.

Ever wished you could automate boring tasks without writing tons of code? Enter N8N-an open-source workflow automation tool that’s like Zapier on steroids.

Why N8N is Awesome

• Open-Source Freedom: Host it anywhere, tweak everything, no subscription limits.
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Quick Example

Want to save recruiter emails automatically?

1. Trigger workflow on new Gmail emails
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3. Add to Google Sheets
4. Notify yourself on Slack

All automated, no manual effort.

Check it out: https://n8n.io

If you’re looking for free APIs to use in your projects, check out n0shake/Public‑APIs. It’s a simple, categorized list of public APIs, everything from weather data to jokes, images, and more.

The repo is easy to navigate, updated regularly, and perfect for testing ideas or building small projects. You can also contribute by adding new APIs following the guidelines.

Use it to explore, experiment, and save time while building your apps.

Yo devs 👋 I built an Apple Music Clone in Flutter, focused on local audio playback and a sleek, responsive UI — no APIs, no backend, just pure Flutter fun.

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🚀 Project Highlights

• Local Audio Playback: Play audio files stored in the app
• Music Library Navigation: Smooth tab switching (Home, Browse, Radio, Library, Search)
• Playback Controls: Play, pause, skip
• Dynamic UI: Music player screen changes background colors based on the track

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👀 Screenshots & Demo

Youtube Link

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🛠️ Getting Started

git clone https://github.com/nakuldevmv/Apple-Music-Clone
cd Apple-Music-Clone
flutter pub get
flutter run

Open in VS Code, hit run, and you’re jamming 🎵

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⚡ Tips

• Hot reload = instant UI feedback
• VS Code debugger = lifesaver
• Make sure Flutter is installed correctly (Flutter Install Guide)

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🎯 Conclusion

This project was a fun way to push my Flutter skills while building something tangible. If you’re into Flutter or just love music apps, give it a shot and remix it your way.

👉 GitHub Repo: Apple Music Clone

Yo, what’s up devs 👋 This is my first ever blog here, and honestly, hitting publish feels scarier than merging code without testing.

I didn’t start coding like some 10-year-old prodigy building apps in their garage. Nah, I started by smashing Hello World into the terminal and feeling like I just hacked NASA. Fast forward, and now most of my time goes into convincing code to behave while Google, late-night coffee, and sheer stubbornness carry me through.

This blog is just me being real about the dev journey. the wins, the fails, the midnight bugs that magically fix themselves after snacks. If you’ve ever whispered “please work” before hitting run, then hey… we’re already friends.