TalentSync is an end-to-end AI recruitment platform built for small and mid-sized IT companies that can't afford enterprise tools like Workday or Greenhouse ($30K+/year). It ships 6 AI agents powered by Claude that handle the entire hiring journey — from job posting to interview summarization — at $29/month. Built on AWS with HTTPS, integrated with the U.S. Department of Labor's O*NET dataset, and tested across 49 cases (100% pass rate).

https://talentsync.duckdns.org/talentsync/

Click "Try HR Demo" on the homepage, or navigate directly to: https://talentsync.duckdns.org/talentsync/api/demo_login.php

Drops you into a populated HR dashboard with 14 jobs and 37 applications seeded for demo purposes.

                    Browser (HR / Applicant)
                            │
                  https://talentsync.duckdns.org/talentsync/
                            │
                            ▼
                ┌─────────────────────────────┐
                │  DuckDNS (free DNS)         │
                │  → 13.59.20.157             │
                └─────────────┬───────────────┘
                              ▼
                ┌─────────────────────────────┐
                │  AWS EC2 (Apache + PHP 8.2) │
                │  SSL: Let's Encrypt cert    │
                │  Auto-renew via Certbot     │
                └─────────────┬───────────────┘
                              │
              ┌───────────────┼───────────────┐
              ▼               ▼               ▼
    ┌─────────────────┐  ┌─────────┐  ┌──────────────┐
    │ AWS RDS (MySQL) │  │ Claude  │  │ O*NET Web    │
    │ talentsync_db   │  │ API     │  │ Services     │
    │ (us-east-2)     │  │ (Anthr.)│  │ (gov data)   │
    └─────────────────┘  └─────────┘  └──────────────┘

• PHP 8.2 — vanilla, no framework (deliberate choice for AI prompt control + faster iteration)
• MySQL 8 on AWS RDS — users, jobs, job_skills, applications, stage_history, meeting_notes, occupation_data, technology_skills tables
• PDO prepared statements — zero raw SQL queries (SQL-injection-proof)

• Anthropic Claude API — Sonnet 4.6 for deep reasoning, Haiku 4.5 for high-volume calls
• Hybrid match scoring — Jaccard set similarity + Weighted skill coverage + Claude qualitative analysis
• Prompt-injection defense — delimited prompts ("""..."""), strip_tags input sanitization, system + user message separation
• Multi-model fallback — Sonnet 4.6 → 4.5 fallback for the Feedback Summarizer

• Vanilla HTML/CSS/JavaScript — no React/Vue (lightweight, fast to ship)
• Web Speech API — on-device speech-to-text for the AI Interview Notes feature
• Animated wizard UI — Typeform-style 6-step questionnaire with auto-advance, progress bar, multi-select checkbox cards
• Fully responsive — tested at iPhone 14 Pro Max (430px) through 1920px desktop

• AWS EC2 (Amazon Linux 2023) — application server with Apache 2.4
• AWS RDS (MySQL, us-east-2) — managed database
• DuckDNS — free dynamic DNS providing the talentsync.duckdns.org subdomain
• Let's Encrypt + Certbot — free SSL certificate, auto-renewing every 90 days via systemd timer
• GitHub Actions — CI/CD pipeline auto-deploys to EC2 on every push to main

• CSRF tokens on every state-changing form
• bcrypt password hashing (password_hash() + password_verify())
• Session security: HttpOnly + Secure + SameSite=Lax cookies
• htmlspecialchars output escaping (XSS prevention)
• Server-side role enforcement (HR vs Applicant — never trust the UI)
• API keys in environment variables — never committed to git
• Rate limiting on signup + login endpoints (5 attempts per 15 min)
• 27 dedicated security tests — all passing

49 test cases · 100% pass rate · 4 browsers (Chrome 124, Safari 17, Firefox 125, Edge 124)

talentsync/
├── api/                       # Server-side PHP endpoints
│   ├── auth_login.php         # Login API
│   ├── auth_signup.php        # Signup with company verification
│   ├── chatbox.php            # AI Job Posting Assistant
│   ├── job_recommendations.php # AI Job Recommendations
│   ├── hr_insights.php        # AI HR Insights Dashboard
│   ├── ai_score.php           # AI Candidate Scoring (Jaccard + Weighted + Claude)
│   ├── ai_summarize_notes.php # AI Interview Notes summarization
│   ├── save_job.php           # Job CRUD (location, experience, salary)
│   ├── submit_application.php # Application submission
│   ├── update_application_status.php
│   ├── demo_login.php         # One-click HR demo
│   └── ...
├── assets/                    # CSS + images
├── config/
│   ├── db.php                 # DB credentials (gitignored)
│   ├── ai.php                 # Claude API config + helper
│   └── ai.example.php         # Template for new clones
├── includes/                  # Reusable navbar, footer, csrf, helpers
├── .github/workflows/         # CI/CD: auto-deploy to EC2 on push
├── index.php                  # Homepage (animated, polished marketing site)
├── login.php / signup.php     # Auth pages
├── browse_jobs.php            # Public job board
├── job_detail.php             # Single job page (role-aware: HR vs Applicant)
├── apply_job.php              # Application form
├── dashboard_hr.php           # HR command center with AI Insights
├── dashboard_applicant.php    # Applicant view + AI recommendations
├── create_job.php             # AI Chatbox + manual job builder
├── job_applications.php       # HR view of candidates per job
├── notepad.php                # Live transcript + AI summarization
├── questionnaire.php          # 6-step wizard for AI job recs
├── pricing.php                # Public pricing page (3 tiers)
├── billing.php                # HR account / current plan view
└── README.md

• MAMP (or XAMPP, LAMP) with PHP 8.2+
• Access to the team's AWS RDS credentials (or set up your own MySQL instance)
• Anthropic Claude API key

# 1. Clone the repo
git clone https://github.com/Krats05/talentsync.git
cd talentsync

# 2. Symlink into your MAMP htdocs
ln -s "$(pwd)" /Applications/MAMP/htdocs/talentsync

# 3. Copy AI config template and add your Claude API key
cp config/ai.example.php config/ai.php
# Edit config/ai.php → set CLAUDE_API_KEY

# 4. Create config/db.php with DB credentials (ask team for AWS RDS access)
cat > config/db.php << 'EOF'
<?php
$connection_mode = 'cloud';   // or 'local'
if ($connection_mode == 'cloud') {
    $host = 'talentsync-db.xxxx.us-east-2.rds.amazonaws.com';
    $user = 'admin';
    $pass = 'your-password';
    $dbname = 'talentsync_db';
    $port = 3306;
}
$conn = new mysqli($host, $user, $pass, $dbname, $port);
$conn->set_charset('utf8mb4');
EOF

# 5. Start MAMP, then visit:
# http://localhost:8888/talentsync/

After local setup, log in with the seeded test credentials:

• HR: test.hr@gmail.com / Test@123
• Applicant: test.applicant@gmail.com / Test@123

The app is deployed on AWS EC2 with HTTPS via DuckDNS + Let's Encrypt:

1. DuckDNS subdomain — talentsync.duckdns.org points to EC2 IP 13.59.20.157
2. Apache vhost — /etc/httpd/conf.d/talentsync.conf listens on port 80 + 443
3. SSL cert — issued by Let's Encrypt via certbot --apache, auto-renews every 90 days via systemd timer
4. CI/CD — every push to main triggers GitHub Actions → SSHs to EC2 → git pull → restart Apache
5. Security group — ports 22 (SSH), 80 (HTTP → 301 to HTTPS), 443 (HTTPS) open

Full HTTPS setup walkthrough: see HTTPS_SETUP.md (created during Sprint 4).

This is a senior capstone project for The George Washington University:

• Deliverable 1 — Project proposal + requirements
• Deliverable 2 — Sprint 1 (foundation: auth, DB, basic CRUD)
• Deliverable 3 — Sprint 2 (core: job posting, applications, AWS deployment)
• Deliverable 4 — Sprint 3 (AI integration: 6 AI features + HTTPS + security testing)
• Deliverable 5 — Sprint 4 / Final document (this submission)

This project was built as part of an academic capstone. Code is provided for educational reference. For commercial use or licensing inquiries, please contact the team.

• Anthropic — for Claude API access
• U.S. Department of Labor — for the O*NET occupation database (free public data)
• Let's Encrypt + DuckDNS — for free HTTPS infrastructure
• GWU Capstone Faculty — for guidance, sprint feedback, and project mentorship