Document Generation Process

This guide explains what happens between clicking Generate and holding your finished documents — how progress is shown, how long it takes, how credits are handled, and what to do when something goes wrong. For the wizard steps that come before the click (CV, job details, template, language, tone), see How to Generate Your Application Documents.

The Moment You Click Generate

The Generate button sits in the wizard footer on Step 4 and shows the credit cost (100) directly on the button. It stays disabled until everything is in place — if something is missing, the reason appears next to it, for example Not enough credits to generate. or a note listing missing personal-info fields.

When you click it, three things happen in quick succession:

1. Your credit balance drops by 100 immediately. The credits are reserved for this run up front, so the balance you see is always accurate.
2. A confirmation dialog appears titled Request Submitted. It walks through a short submission sequence — Preparing your request..., Sending to generation queue..., Adding to processing queue... — and ends with Request submitted successfully and the message Your job has been added to the queue!
3. You are redirected automatically to the History tab a couple of seconds later, where the new entry appears at the top with a Processing status.

If the request is rejected at this stage (for example a validation problem or too many requests in a row), the dialog closes, an error is shown, and the 100 credits snap straight back to your balance. Sending many generations in quick succession triggers a short cooldown on the button — wait for the countdown and try again.

You don't need to keep the tab open. Generation runs entirely on our servers. Close the browser, come back later, and your documents will be waiting in History.

What Is Being Generated

One run produces up to five documents, each tailored to your CV and the specific job:

• Motivational Letter — a tailored cover letter matching your CV to the job requirements. (All plans.)
• Application Email — a ready-to-send email body you can paste into your email client. (All plans.)
• Job Posting — an archived copy of the original job posting, PDF only. (All plans.)
• Interview Q&A — 20 tailored interview questions with suggested answers based on your experience, spanning categories from motivation and company fit to behavioral, situational, and gap questions. (Pro and Premium.)
• Job Summary — a structured summary of the posting: requirements, responsibilities, and key details. (Pro and Premium.)

The system also gathers fresh information about the company so the letter feels researched, and applies your chosen template, language, and tone. On the Free plan, the Motivational Letter and Application Email carry a preparAItor watermark; paid plans remove it from those two documents. The other document types always include a watermark.

Documents your plan doesn't include still appear in the download menu as greyed-out entries — clicking them takes you to the upgrade page rather than a download.

Tracking Progress in History

Your new generation appears at the top of the History tab with a spinning Processing chip. While anything is in flight, the list refreshes itself automatically about every 10 seconds — no need to reload the page.

The documents don't all finish at once. Open the row's download menu while it's processing and you'll see each document listed with format chips (PDF, DOCX, TXT):

• A chip with a small spinner means that file is still being written — the tooltip reads Generating — available in a moment.
• A filled chip means that file is done — you can download it immediately, even while the rest of the run is still going.
• When every document your plan includes is finished, the status flips to Ready to download, and finally to Ready once the run completes. Download All (ZIP) (Premium) only appears at that point.

How Long Does It Take?

Most generations finish in 2–3 minutes; the confirmation dialog says Document generation can take up to 5 minutes, and that's the realistic worst case for complex postings or peak traffic. If a run seems stuck well past that, check whether the status has flipped to Failed (see below) rather than starting a second run on top of it.

Credits: Reserved, Released, Never Refunded on Delete

• Each run costs 100 credits — including regenerations of the same job.
• The credits are reserved when you click Generate and confirmed when the run completes.
• If the run fails, the reservation is released back to your balance automatically — you are not charged for a run that didn't complete.
• Deleting a generation never refunds credits. Delete removes the entry and its files; it is housekeeping, not a cancellation. You also can't delete an entry while it's still processing — the menu shows Generation in progress — delete available once complete.

See Understanding the Credit System for how the monthly pool works.

Reviewing Your Results

There is no in-app preview — download a document to read it. Before sending anything to an employer, check:

• Accuracy — your personal details, the company name, address block, and job title. The letter header is built from the company information you confirmed in the wizard, so a typo there lands on the page.
• Relevance — does the letter address the actual requirements from the posting, not generic ones?
• Tone — does the language match the tone you selected?
• Interview Q&A (Pro/Premium) — expect exactly 20 questions, each with a suggested answer and key points.

AI-generated text is a strong starting point, not a finished product — personalize at least the opening paragraph. If the result misses the mark, the fastest fixes are better input (a complete CV, the full job posting text) or a different tone, then regenerate. Regeneration is a fresh 100-credit run; the previous generation stays in History until it expires, so you can compare versions.

When Something Fails

A failed run shows a red Failed chip in History (you can filter the list by Failed to find them). Your reserved credits are released automatically. What to do:

• Just retry. Go back to the Build tab and click Generate again — transient AI-service or traffic hiccups account for most failures.
• If the submission dialog times out, don't immediately start over: the run may still have gone through. Check History first — the timeout message itself says to look there for completed documents.
• If one format chip is greyed out on an otherwise finished generation (tooltip: file has expired or could not be generated), regenerate to produce a fresh set.
• If the download menu shows no files at all, the menu lists the likely reasons (still generating, failed, expired). Regenerate, or contact support if it keeps happening.

After Generation: Expiry and Long-Term Records

Generated documents are intentionally short-lived. Every History entry shows an expiry countdown; hovering it explains: documents are automatically deleted after your data retention period — download before expiry.

• The retention period is set in Settings under Data Retention Period: 1 day, 7 days, or 30 days. 30 days is both the default and the maximum.
• After expiry, the files can no longer be downloaded and the entry disappears.
• For anything you want to keep beyond that, use Add to Tracker on a completed row. The Application Tracker is the long-term home for applications — it keeps records for 365 days and tracks your process from applied to offer.
• On Premium with a connected cloud drive, each generation also syncs automatically — the row's cloud badge moves through Analyzing, Syncing, and Synced, giving you an off-platform copy that outlives the retention window. See Cloud Storage Setup.

Next Steps

For searching, filtering, per-format downloads, and ZIP configuration in detail, continue with Generation History and Downloads. To design your own Word template with placeholders for future runs, see Custom Templates.