The short version
You get two kinds of cover letter. A primary one lives on your profile as your go-to draft. A per-role one lives on each tracked job, so you can tailor it to that company. Both use a rich editor with autosave, both can start from a Treehouse template, and both export to a clean PDF. One thing to know up front: cover letters are a drafting tool, so to actually send one you export it and attach it when you apply.
Primary vs per-role
- Primary cover letter. One per person, on your profile under "Cover letter." It's your strong, general draft: "Tailor a draft from any tracked job, then promote the best one to land here."
- Per-role cover letter. One per tracked job, on the job's Cover letter tab in Your Jobs. This is where you make it specific to the company and role.
They don't fill each other in automatically, but they connect: in a per-role draft you can click Use my primary to start from your general one, then tailor. And once a per-role draft is your best work, Promote to primary copies it onto your profile (your per-role draft stays put too).
The editor
Both editors are the same: real formatting (headings, bold, lists, links) and autosave, so you'll see "Saving" then "Saved" as you type, with no save button to hunt for. Below the text, a couple of gentle checks help you tailor:
- Mentions the company and names the role, which turn green once you've done each.
- A word count with light guidance (around 150 to 450 words reads as substantial but tight). It's a nudge, never a limit.
When it's ready, Export PDF gives you a clean file to attach.
Starting from a template
You don't have to face a blank page. Treehouse has copy-ready starters:
- From a tracked job's Cover letter tab: click Start from a template, described as "Pick a scaffold to drop into your cover letter. Every word is yours to edit after." Pick one, and it drops in. If your draft already has text, we'll check first ("Replace your draft?").
- From Treehouse templates: open a cover-letter template, choose which tracked job it's for, and it opens that job's editor already seeded.
Templates fill in what we know: the company name and role title slot in automatically, while placeholders like "[Your name]" and "[Hiring manager's name]" stay for you to complete. More on the template library is in What's in Treehouse?.
Sending a cover letter with an application
This is the part worth reading twice:
A cover letter you write in the editor is not automatically attached to your applications. It's your private drafting space. To send one, export it to a PDF and upload it in the application's documents section, the same way you'd attach a resume. See How to find and apply for jobs.
So the flow is: draft and tailor in the editor, export the PDF, then attach that file when you apply (if the employer asks for a cover letter). Writing a beautiful draft here doesn't put it in front of the employer on its own.
Good to know
- Per-role letters need a role we host. The Cover letter tab shows up on jobs posted through Green Jobs Board. For a role you're tracking from another site, use your primary or a template and export it.
- Promote copies, it doesn't move. Promoting a per-role draft to primary leaves the per-role one exactly where it is, so you can keep refining it.
- Templates fill in the company and role only. Other placeholders stay as brackets on purpose, so you don't send a letter with a name still missing. And if you rename a tracked job later, the already-filled text doesn't change.
- Uploaded files and editor drafts are separate. You can upload a finished cover-letter PDF to your profile's files and keep a working draft in the editor. They don't overwrite each other.
- Everything autosaves. Step away mid-sentence and it'll be there when you're back.