Guide

How can developers get new job alerts in the terminal?

2026-09-28

How can developers get new job alerts in the terminal? Connect Find your role first to Claude Code or Codex over MCP, then run a short prompt on a schedule with claude -p or codex exec and append the results to a file you read in the morning. The feed checks 8,519 company career boards every two hours, so a scheduled run always has something current to look at.

No inbox, no app, no alert email you learned to ignore. Just a file that grows while you sleep.

Why run job alerts from the terminal?

Because you control every part of it. The query is yours, written in plain English, and you can change it by editing one line. The timing is yours too, set by cron or whatever scheduler you already use. And the output lands where you already work.

There's another quiet benefit. An agent can do more than match keywords. It can open each new posting, read it, and write one line on why it's worth your time or not. A keyword alert can't.

How does the feed decide what's new?

Every role carries two times: when the company says it published it, and when the feed first discovered it. Boards are checked every two hours, and the checks are spread across that window, so new roles land continuously. Across the whole feed that's dozens every hour.

For alerts, discovery time is the one to use. A board can show an older published date on a role that only just went live. "Discovered in the last two hours" catches it. "Published in the last two hours" might not.

What's the simplest alert that works?

A rolling time window. No state to keep. Every run asks for roles discovered since the previous run, and because the feed is checked on a two hour cycle, running every two hours lines up nicely.

With Claude Code in print mode:

claude -p "Search jobfeed for backend engineer and platform engineer roles in the US or remote, discovered in the last 2 hours. One line each: company, title, location, apply link. If nothing, print nothing." \
  --allowedTools "mcp__jobfeed__search_jobs" >> ~/job-alerts.md

With Codex:

codex exec "Search jobfeed for backend engineer and platform engineer roles in the US or remote, discovered in the last 2 hours. One line each: company, title, location, apply link. If nothing, print nothing." >> ~/job-alerts.md

Then schedule it. A crontab line for every two hours looks like this:

0 */2 * * * /full/path/to/claude -p "..." --allowedTools "mcp__jobfeed__search_jobs" >> $HOME/job-alerts.md 2>&1

Two things trip people up with cron. It runs with a bare environment, so use the full path to the binary. And for Codex, JOBFEED_API_KEY has to be set in that environment too, since the bearer token comes from it.

Overlapping windows cost nothing extra. A role you've already seen that month is free to read again, and a search that finds nothing is free.

How do I avoid missing roles between runs?

Use get_changes. It returns new, updated, reopened and closed roles since a saved cursor, so nothing slips through if your laptop was asleep for six hours.

Read the cursor from ~/.jobfeed-cursor if it exists. Call get_changes from that cursor. Keep only new roles whose title matches engineer, developer or SRE, in the US or remote. Print one line each with the apply link. Save the new cursor back to ~/.jobfeed-cursor.

In Claude Code print mode you'd allow the file tools as well, for example --allowedTools "mcp__jobfeed__get_changes" "Read" "Write". Codex handles approvals its own way, so check its settings for non interactive runs.

Can the alert read the postings too?

Yes, and honestly this is where it gets good. The feed returns short records: title, company, location, both dates, the posting link, the apply link and closed status. No description text. Your agent opens postings itself with its own web tool.

So the alert prompt can say:

For each new role, open the posting. Keep it only if it mentions TypeScript or Go as a requirement. Print company, title, the stack line you found, and the apply link.

That costs more time per run, since the agent is reading pages. For a twice a day alert, it's usually worth it. Allow the web fetch tool for Claude Code if you go this route.

How do I check my usage from a script?

get_usage shows how much of your monthly allowance is left and doesn't count against it. The plan is 3,000 new roles a month, up to 1,000 a day. A tight query plus discovery windows keeps an alert well inside that. If you'd rather poll without an agent in the loop, there's a REST API as well.

How do I set up terminal job alerts?

Sign in with Google at findyourrolefirst.click/account, subscribe, create an agent key, then paste one line.

Claude Code:

claude mcp add --transport http --scope user jobfeed https://findyourrolefirst.click/mcp --header 'Authorization: Bearer YOUR_API_KEY'

Codex CLI:

export JOBFEED_API_KEY=YOUR_API_KEY
codex mcp add jobfeed --url https://findyourrolefirst.click/mcp --bearer-token-env-var JOBFEED_API_KEY

Run one of the alert commands by hand first. Once it prints what you expect, put it in cron. $9 a month, cancel anytime, refund within 3 days. It won't apply for you.

Questions

Can I get job alerts in my terminal?

Yes. Connect Find your role first to Claude Code or Codex, then run a prompt on a schedule with claude -p or codex exec and write the output to a file or your terminal.

How often should a terminal job alert run?

Every two hours matches how often each board is checked. Running more often is harmless, since empty searches and roles you've already seen that month are free.

What's the difference between a time window and get_changes?

A time window asks for roles discovered in the last few hours and needs no saved state. get_changes works from a saved cursor, so runs you missed while offline are still covered.

Can the alert filter by tech stack?

The feed searches title, company and location only. For stack filtering, have the agent open each new posting and keep the ones that mention what you want.

Which companies does it cover?

Companies whose career boards run on Greenhouse, Lever or Ashby, 8,519 boards and about 250,000 open roles. Companies on other systems aren't included.