Site Update: Migrating to al-folio for a Data-Driven Resume

• The Reason: A Systematic Way of Building Resumes
• Future-Proofing with RenderCV and Typst
• Final Thoughts

I previously wrote about building a simple webpage using the Minimal Mistakes theme. It was an excellent starting point, but I’ve recently migrated the site to al-folio.

While Minimal Mistakes was great for getting off the ground, I began to feel limited. I wanted a platform I could expand on and learn from, and al-folio offered features that were simply too good to pass up.

The Reason: A Systematic Way of Building Resumes

The main draw was al-folio’s support for generating a structured resume from a single source.

My previous setup—a raw LaTeX resume—became cumbersome as my projects grew. Plus, compile timeouts on Overleaf had become a real pain.

With this new approach, I aim to maintain a single file for my experience, education, and skills. Adopting the JSON Resume philosophy allows for standardization, version control, and easy updates. Currently, I generate an interactive web-based CV via the theme and a PDF version leveraged by rendercv.

Future-Proofing with RenderCV and Typst

The ecosystem is evolving fast. Contributors are planning to migrate the main resume logic to the rendercv schema. This will eventually allow a single YAML file to render both the web and PDF versions of the resume seamlessly.

rendercv is built on Typst, a modern typesetting system that offers considerable advantages over LaTeX, Markdown, and Word. Typst features real-time rendering, a more intuitive syntax, and superior handling of complex layouts.

Moving toward a workflow that leverages Typst for typesetting while keeping my data in a structured format feels like the right long-term play.

Final Thoughts

Minimal Mistakes remains a solid choice for a blog-focused site. However, if you want a portfolio that handles technical content well and turns your CV into a managed data object rather than a layout nightmare, I highly recommend checking out al-folio.