Academic LaTeX — Compile LaTeX to PDF

Overview

This skill lets you compile LaTeX documents into PDFs using the container's full TeX Live 2023 installation. Three engines are available: pdflatex (fastest), xelatex (Unicode/system fonts), and lualatex (Lua scripting).

When To Use

• User asks to compile LaTeX, create a PDF, or typeset a document
• User provides .tex content or asks you to write LaTeX
• User needs academic paper templates (IEEE, ACM, article, beamer)

Compile via REST API

The LaTeX server runs at http://localhost:8080.

Basic compile

# Write LaTeX to a file
cat > /tmp/doc.tex << 'TEX'
\documentclass{article}
\begin{document}
Hello, world!
\end{document}
TEX

# Compile via API — output is raw PDF bytes
curl -sf -X POST http://localhost:8080/compile \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d "$(jq -n --arg tex "$(cat /tmp/doc.tex)" '{content: $tex, engine: "pdflatex"}')" \
  -o /workspace/output/document.pdf

Engine selection

Engine	Use when
pdflatex	Default. Fast. Standard ASCII/Latin documents.
xelatex	Unicode text, system fonts, CJK characters.
lualatex	Lua scripting, advanced typography.

# Chinese document — use xelatex
curl -sf -X POST http://localhost:8080/compile \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d "$(jq -n --arg tex "$(cat /tmp/doc.tex)" '{content: $tex, engine: "xelatex"}')" \
  -o /workspace/output/document.pdf

Quick preview (lower quality, faster)

curl -sf -X POST http://localhost:8080/preview \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d "$(jq -n --arg tex "$(cat /tmp/doc.tex)" '{content: $tex}')" \
  -o /workspace/output/preview.pdf

List available templates

curl -sf http://localhost:8080/templates | jq .
# → {"templates": ["article", "article-zh", "beamer", "ieee"], "engines": [...]}

Health check

curl -sf http://localhost:8080/health | jq .

Compile via CLI (alternative)

For multi-file projects or BibTeX workflows, use CLI directly:

cd /workspace/projects/my-paper
pdflatex -interaction=nonstopmode main.tex
bibtex main
pdflatex -interaction=nonstopmode main.tex
pdflatex -interaction=nonstopmode main.tex
cp main.pdf /workspace/output/

API Reference

Endpoint	Method	Body	Response
/compile	POST	{"content": "<tex>", "engine": "pdflatex|xelatex|lualatex"}	PDF binary (200) or error JSON (4xx)
/preview	POST	{"content": "<tex>"}	PDF binary
/templates	GET	—	JSON list of templates and engines
/health	GET	—	JSON health status

Error Handling

• HTTP 400+: compilation failed. Response body is JSON with error and log fields.
• Read the LaTeX log to identify missing packages or syntax errors.
• All standard TeX Live packages are pre-installed.
• For missing packages, check: kpsewhich <package>.sty

Workflow

1. Write .tex content (inline or from user input)
2. Save to /tmp/ or /workspace/projects/<name>/
3. Compile via API or CLI
4. Save PDF to /workspace/output/
5. Report the output path to the user

Tips

• Always save PDFs to /workspace/output/ for persistence and web UI access.
• For multi-file projects, use CLI compilation instead of the API.
• BibTeX/Biber are available for bibliography management.
• Pandoc 3.1 is available for format conversion (Markdown → LaTeX, etc.).