{
  "name": "ATS parser rules and public change log",
  "description": "A source-linked watchlist of public ATS resume parsing signals, format risks, AI feature notes, and dated audit rows.",
  "publisher": "PolishCat",
  "attribution": {
    "text": "ATS parser rules and public change log by PolishCat",
    "url": "https://polishcat.com/data/ats-parser-rules",
    "siteUrl": "https://polishcat.com"
  },
  "license": "Reference data for citation and editorial reuse with attribution.",
  "disclaimer": "This dataset does not reveal proprietary ATS scoring and does not guarantee interviews, recruiter review, or job offers. Rows marked verified:false are intentionally noindex until public effective dates and parser claims are stronger.",
  "lastReviewed": "2026-06-29",
  "systemCount": 6,
  "systems": [
    {
      "slug": "greenhouse",
      "name": "Greenhouse",
      "vendor": "Greenhouse Software",
      "summary": "Greenhouse publicly documents AI features that can summarize scorecards, suggest keywords, compare candidate resumes against weighted calibration, and anonymize resume content.",
      "sourceLabel": "Greenhouse Support - AI features",
      "source": "https://support.greenhouse.io/hc/en-us/articles/33043749845403-Greenhouse-AI-features",
      "lastVerified": "2026-06-29",
      "verified": false,
      "confidence": "official",
      "whatIsPublic": [
        "Greenhouse documents several AI features and names the data in scope for each feature.",
        "Talent Matching is described as comparing candidate resumes against weighted calibration.",
        "Keyword suggestions are described as helping filter application-review results based on job post data."
      ],
      "whatIsNotPublic": [
        "Greenhouse does not publish a candidate-facing pass/fail resume score formula.",
        "The exact parser weighting for every employer configuration is not public.",
        "The public AI features page does not provide an effective date for every feature row."
      ],
      "parserNotes": [
        "Use plain section headings and text-layer resume files so candidate data can be extracted and reviewed.",
        "Do not hide important evidence in images, headers, footers, or decorative layouts.",
        "Mirror the job's real skills and title language, but only where the experience is true."
      ],
      "formatDos": [
        "Use a text-based PDF or DOCX with selectable text.",
        "Keep contact information, skills, experience, education, and certifications under standard headings.",
        "Review the parsed profile after upload whenever the employer portal allows edits."
      ],
      "formatDonts": [
        "Do not submit a scanned-image resume unless OCR has created a reliable text layer.",
        "Do not keyword-stuff hidden text or white text.",
        "Do not rely on tables, text boxes, or icon-only skill bars for core qualifications."
      ],
      "relatedRoleSlugs": [
        "software-engineer",
        "data-analyst",
        "human-resources-manager"
      ],
      "changelog": [
        {
          "date": "2026-05-21",
          "title": "Greenhouse AI features page lists Talent Matching, keyword suggestions, and resume anonymization",
          "before": "Public candidate-facing guidance often treated Greenhouse as a simple keyword parser.",
          "after": "Greenhouse's support page documents resume-aware AI features and names resume/job-post data as in scope for some features.",
          "sourceLabel": "Greenhouse Support - AI features",
          "source": "https://support.greenhouse.io/hc/en-us/articles/33043749845403-Greenhouse-AI-features",
          "confidence": "official"
        }
      ],
      "faqs": [
        {
          "q": "Does Greenhouse automatically reject resumes?",
          "a": "Greenhouse does not publish a universal automatic rejection formula. Treat the public evidence as parsing and review workflow guidance, not a pass/fail guarantee."
        },
        {
          "q": "What should I check before applying through Greenhouse?",
          "a": "Check that your text is selectable, standard headings are clear, and your real skills match the job language without keyword stuffing."
        }
      ]
    },
    {
      "slug": "workday",
      "name": "Workday",
      "vendor": "Workday",
      "summary": "Workday publicly describes an AI-powered talent acquisition suite and says AI embedded in Workday can glean skills from candidates' resumes to recommend matching job opportunities.",
      "sourceLabel": "Workday Talent Acquisition",
      "source": "https://www.workday.com/en-us/products/talent-management/talent-acquisition.html",
      "lastVerified": "2026-06-29",
      "verified": false,
      "confidence": "official",
      "whatIsPublic": [
        "Workday describes AI-powered recruiting and candidate-job matching.",
        "The public page says AI can glean skills from candidates' resumes.",
        "Workday describes candidate applications working across mobile and desktop experiences."
      ],
      "whatIsNotPublic": [
        "A public Workday resume keyword-density anti-cheat rule was not found.",
        "Employer-specific Workday configuration and parser weighting are not public.",
        "The public marketing page is not a file-format specification."
      ],
      "parserNotes": [
        "Write canonical skill names that a skills graph can recognize, such as SQL plus the full context around it.",
        "Avoid stuffing repeated keywords; Workday's public copy emphasizes skills and matching, not exact-match spam.",
        "If the portal imports or parses your resume, review every auto-filled field before submitting."
      ],
      "formatDos": [
        "Use clear text, standard headings, and month/year dates.",
        "Pair acronyms with clear context, for example SQL querying, Tableau dashboards, or Python automation.",
        "Keep a simple one-column structure for the version uploaded into Workday."
      ],
      "formatDonts": [
        "Do not depend on graphics, progress bars, or icons for skill evidence.",
        "Do not use claims you cannot defend in an interview.",
        "Do not assume every employer's Workday setup handles files the same way."
      ],
      "relatedRoleSlugs": [
        "data-analyst",
        "business-analyst",
        "project-manager"
      ],
      "changelog": [
        {
          "date": "2026-06-29",
          "title": "Workday public talent-acquisition page confirms resume skills can feed AI job matching",
          "before": "Many public tips framed Workday optimization as exact keyword density.",
          "after": "The official page emphasizes AI using resume-derived skills to recommend relevant job opportunities.",
          "sourceLabel": "Workday Talent Acquisition",
          "source": "https://www.workday.com/en-us/products/talent-management/talent-acquisition.html",
          "confidence": "official"
        }
      ],
      "faqs": [
        {
          "q": "Should I repeat the same keyword many times for Workday?",
          "a": "No. The safe advice is to use accurate, role-relevant skill language in context. Repetition without evidence can make the resume worse."
        },
        {
          "q": "Does Workday publish exact parser rules?",
          "a": "No public universal parser formula was found. This page only cites what Workday says publicly and marks unknowns clearly."
        }
      ]
    },
    {
      "slug": "icims",
      "name": "iCIMS",
      "vendor": "iCIMS",
      "summary": "iCIMS publicly describes Coalesce AI features for AI search, matching, ranking candidates by skills and experience, and matching candidates to roles with resume upload.",
      "sourceLabel": "iCIMS Coalesce AI",
      "source": "https://www.icims.com/products/ai-recruiting-software/",
      "lastVerified": "2026-06-29",
      "verified": false,
      "confidence": "official",
      "whatIsPublic": [
        "iCIMS says Coalesce AI can surface candidates with AI search and match.",
        "The public page says it can rank candidates based on skills and experience.",
        "The public page says candidates can be matched to best-fit roles with resume upload."
      ],
      "whatIsNotPublic": [
        "The exact role-fit formula and employer thresholds are not public.",
        "The public page does not publish candidate-facing file parsing rules.",
        "Specific rollout dates for every AI capability were not found."
      ],
      "parserNotes": [
        "Use the job title, skills, tools, and outcomes in normal sentence context.",
        "Give skills enough surrounding evidence that a skills-and-experience model can understand seniority.",
        "Treat AI ranking claims as recruiter workflow support, not as a job-seeker guarantee."
      ],
      "formatDos": [
        "Use text-layer PDF or DOCX and keep headings conventional.",
        "Put recent, role-relevant skills near the matching experience bullets.",
        "Use consistent dates and employer names so profile extraction has less ambiguity."
      ],
      "formatDonts": [
        "Do not place contact details only in a header image.",
        "Do not use dense multi-column tables for core experience.",
        "Do not add skills that are absent from your actual work history."
      ],
      "relatedRoleSlugs": [
        "customer-success-manager",
        "sales-representative",
        "human-resources-manager"
      ],
      "changelog": [
        {
          "date": "2026-06-29",
          "title": "iCIMS public AI page describes skills-and-experience ranking and resume-upload matching",
          "before": "Generic ATS advice often reduced iCIMS to plain keyword extraction.",
          "after": "iCIMS publicly describes AI search, skills-and-experience ranking, and resume-upload matching in its recruiting software.",
          "sourceLabel": "iCIMS Coalesce AI",
          "source": "https://www.icims.com/products/ai-recruiting-software/",
          "confidence": "official"
        }
      ],
      "faqs": [
        {
          "q": "Can iCIMS match my resume to roles?",
          "a": "iCIMS publicly says its AI can match candidates to roles with resume upload. The exact scoring rules are not public."
        },
        {
          "q": "What is the safest resume format for iCIMS?",
          "a": "Use a simple text-layer PDF or DOCX, standard headings, and real role-relevant skills in context."
        }
      ]
    },
    {
      "slug": "lever",
      "name": "Lever",
      "vendor": "Employ Inc.",
      "summary": "Lever's help center publicly describes resume parsing that extracts candidate information into a candidate profile. The public pages do not expose a job-seeker pass score.",
      "sourceLabel": "Lever Help Center - Understanding Resume Parsing",
      "source": "https://help.lever.co/s/article/Understanding-Resume-Parsing",
      "lastVerified": "2026-06-29",
      "verified": false,
      "confidence": "official",
      "whatIsPublic": [
        "Lever Help describes a resume parser that extracts information into a candidate profile.",
        "Lever Help describes adding and deleting resumes on candidate records.",
        "Public docs frame parsing as profile extraction rather than a universal job-seeker score."
      ],
      "whatIsNotPublic": [
        "A universal candidate-facing ranking formula is not public.",
        "Search-result snippets and help pages do not expose a stable effective date for parser behavior.",
        "Employer-specific Lever configuration may affect review workflow."
      ],
      "parserNotes": [
        "Make the resume easy to extract into profile fields: name, contact, experience, education, and skills.",
        "Use conventional headings and keep important facts in selectable text.",
        "If a Lever profile shows parsed fields, review them before final submission where possible."
      ],
      "formatDos": [
        "Use a text-layer PDF or DOCX for the upload version.",
        "Keep one-column sections for Experience, Education, Skills, and Certifications.",
        "Keep dates, employer names, and titles near the bullet evidence they explain."
      ],
      "formatDonts": [
        "Do not submit screenshots or scanned-image resumes.",
        "Do not make the first page a design-only splash page.",
        "Do not hide critical context in icons, charts, or background images."
      ],
      "relatedRoleSlugs": [
        "software-engineer",
        "product-manager",
        "customer-success-manager"
      ],
      "changelog": [
        {
          "date": "2026-06-29",
          "title": "Lever public help confirms resume parsing into candidate profiles",
          "before": "Candidates often guessed that Lever only stored uploaded documents.",
          "after": "Lever Help describes parser extraction into profile fields, so text clarity matters.",
          "sourceLabel": "Lever Help Center - Understanding Resume Parsing",
          "source": "https://help.lever.co/s/article/Understanding-Resume-Parsing",
          "confidence": "official"
        }
      ],
      "faqs": [
        {
          "q": "Does Lever score my resume?",
          "a": "No public Lever job-seeker score formula was found. The public evidence supports parser extraction into profiles, not a universal score."
        },
        {
          "q": "Should I upload PDF or DOCX to Lever?",
          "a": "Use whichever the employer portal requests. If both are accepted, choose a text-layer PDF or DOCX with simple structure and verify the parsed fields when possible."
        }
      ]
    },
    {
      "slug": "taleo",
      "name": "Oracle Taleo",
      "vendor": "Oracle",
      "summary": "Oracle Taleo documentation says candidate profile import depends on a Resume Upload block and that if Resume Parsing is on, candidates can upload a resume and parsed data can populate fields.",
      "sourceLabel": "Oracle Help Center - Candidate File Import",
      "source": "https://docs.oracle.com/en/cloud/saas/taleo-enterprise/21b/otcug/candidate-file-import.html",
      "lastVerified": "2026-06-29",
      "verified": false,
      "confidence": "official",
      "whatIsPublic": [
        "Oracle documents candidate file import and Resume Upload blocks.",
        "Oracle says if Resume Parsing is on, candidates have the option of uploading a resume.",
        "Oracle says mapped fields can be populated by the profile import service."
      ],
      "whatIsNotPublic": [
        "A single file-type list for every employer's Taleo configuration is not public in this source.",
        "Parser behavior depends on application flow and configuration.",
        "No public candidate pass/fail score formula was found."
      ],
      "parserNotes": [
        "Treat the parsed profile fields as the object recruiters may search, not just the uploaded file.",
        "Use plain labels such as Experience, Education, Skills, and Certifications.",
        "After upload, manually review and correct any pre-filled fields if Taleo exposes them."
      ],
      "formatDos": [
        "Use a simple, text-based resume file and avoid scanned images.",
        "Put current title, employer, dates, and location in predictable order.",
        "Keep certifications and licenses as text, not badges."
      ],
      "formatDonts": [
        "Do not assume fields not shown in the application flow can be corrected later.",
        "Do not place core work history inside a graphic timeline.",
        "Do not use unusual section names that obscure common profile fields."
      ],
      "relatedRoleSlugs": [
        "administrative-assistant",
        "financial-analyst",
        "registered-nurse"
      ],
      "changelog": [
        {
          "date": "2026-06-29",
          "title": "Oracle Taleo documentation confirms Resume Upload block and parsed profile import behavior",
          "before": "Many Taleo tips focused only on file upload, ignoring field population.",
          "after": "Oracle documentation states mapped fields can be populated by profile import when resume parsing is on.",
          "sourceLabel": "Oracle Help Center - Candidate File Import",
          "source": "https://docs.oracle.com/en/cloud/saas/taleo-enterprise/21b/otcug/candidate-file-import.html",
          "confidence": "official"
        }
      ],
      "faqs": [
        {
          "q": "Why should I review fields after uploading to Taleo?",
          "a": "Oracle documentation says mapped fields may be populated from import. If the portal lets you review them, correct mistakes before submitting."
        },
        {
          "q": "Does every Taleo employer parse resumes the same way?",
          "a": "No. The Oracle documentation describes configurable application flows, so employer setup matters."
        }
      ]
    },
    {
      "slug": "successfactors",
      "name": "SAP SuccessFactors",
      "vendor": "SAP",
      "summary": "SAP public documentation describes SuccessFactors Recruiting resume parsing as reading candidate resumes and automatically entering information into corresponding candidate profile fields.",
      "sourceLabel": "SAP Help Portal - Configuring Resume Parsing",
      "source": "https://help.sap.com/docs/successfactors-recruiting/setting-up-and-maintaining-sap-successfactors-recruiting/configuring-resume-parsing",
      "lastVerified": "2026-06-29",
      "verified": false,
      "confidence": "official",
      "whatIsPublic": [
        "SAP describes a configurable resume parsing function.",
        "SAP says parsing reads resume information into candidate profile fields.",
        "SAP KB previews also describe limitations and cases where resume parsing may fail."
      ],
      "whatIsNotPublic": [
        "The full SAP KBA content may require login.",
        "Employer configuration affects which fields and upload flows are enabled.",
        "A universal candidate ranking formula is not public."
      ],
      "parserNotes": [
        "Make candidate profile fields easy to populate by using clear text and standard field names.",
        "Keep contact, employment, education, and certifications in normal reading order.",
        "If upload or parsing fails, follow employer instructions rather than trying hidden keyword tricks."
      ],
      "formatDos": [
        "Use a selectable-text PDF or DOCX and standard headings.",
        "Spell out certifications, tools, and licenses in text.",
        "Keep language and section structure consistent throughout the document."
      ],
      "formatDonts": [
        "Do not rely on a designer PDF where text extraction is unpredictable.",
        "Do not use a scanned resume without OCR.",
        "Do not hide keywords in white text, metadata, or off-page objects."
      ],
      "relatedRoleSlugs": [
        "human-resources-manager",
        "operations-manager",
        "registered-nurse"
      ],
      "changelog": [
        {
          "date": "2026-06-29",
          "title": "SAP Help documents configurable resume parsing into candidate profile fields",
          "before": "SuccessFactors tips often discussed generic ATS formatting without field-mapping context.",
          "after": "SAP's public help frames resume parsing as a configurable feature that reads resumes into candidate profile fields.",
          "sourceLabel": "SAP Help Portal - Configuring Resume Parsing",
          "source": "https://help.sap.com/docs/successfactors-recruiting/setting-up-and-maintaining-sap-successfactors-recruiting/configuring-resume-parsing",
          "confidence": "official"
        }
      ],
      "faqs": [
        {
          "q": "Can SuccessFactors read scanned resumes?",
          "a": "Do not rely on scanned-image resumes. Use text-layer files so parser fields can be populated reliably."
        },
        {
          "q": "Is SuccessFactors parsing the same for every employer?",
          "a": "No. SAP documents configurable resume parsing, so employer setup and enabled fields matter."
        }
      ]
    }
  ]
}