texforge

Self-contained LaTeX to PDF compiler — one curl, zero friction. No TeX Live, no MiKTeX, no Perl, no Node. A single install sets up everything you need.

Installation

Quick install (recommended)

curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/JheisonMB/texforge/main/install.sh | sh

This downloads and installs both texforge and tectonic (the LaTeX engine). Nothing else needed. No Rust toolchain required.

You can customize the install:

# Pin a specific version
VERSION=0.1.0 curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/JheisonMB/texforge/main/install.sh | sh

# Install to a custom directory
INSTALL_DIR=/usr/local/bin curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/JheisonMB/texforge/main/install.sh | sh

Via cargo

cargo install texforge

Note: This only installs texforge. You also need tectonic for compilation:

cargo install tectonic

Available on crates.io.

From source

git clone https://github.com/JheisonMB/texforge.git
cd texforge
cargo build --release
# Binary at target/release/texforge

GitHub Releases

Check the Releases page for precompiled binaries (Linux x86_64, macOS x86_64/ARM64, Windows x86_64).

Quick Start

# Create a new project from a template
texforge new mi-tesis

# Check for errors without compiling
texforge check

# Format your .tex files
texforge fmt

# Build to PDF
texforge build

Commands

Project Structure

texforge new generates this structure:

mi-tesis/
├── project.toml          # Project configuration
├── main.tex              # Entry point
├── sections/             # Document sections
│   └── body.tex
├── bib/
│   └── references.bib    # Bibliography
└── assets/
    └── images/           # Images and resources

project.toml

[documento]
titulo = "mi-tesis"
autor = "Author"
template = "general"

[compilacion]
entry = "main.tex"
bibliografia = "bib/references.bib"

Templates

Templates are managed through the texforge-templates registry. The general template is embedded in the binary and works offline.

# List installed templates
texforge template list

# Download a template
texforge template add apa-general

# Create project with specific template
texforge new mi-tesis -t apa-general

Templates are cached locally in ~/.texforge/templates/ after first download.

Linter

texforge check runs static analysis without compiling:

• \input{file} — verifies file exists
• \includegraphics{img} — verifies image exists
• \cite{key} — verifies key exists in .bib
• \ref{label} / \label{label} — verifies cross-reference consistency
• \begin{env} / \end{env} — detects unclosed environments

ERROR [main.tex:47]
  \includegraphics{missing.png} — file not found

ERROR [main.tex:12]
  \cite{smith2020} — key not found in .bib

ERROR [main.tex:23]
  \begin{figure} never closed
  suggestion: Add \end{figure}

Formatter

texforge fmt applies opinionated formatting inspired by rustfmt:

• Consistent indentation (2 spaces) inside environments
• Collapsed multiple blank lines
• Aligned \begin{}/\end{} blocks

One canonical output regardless of input style. Git diffs stay clean.

texforge fmt           # format in place
texforge fmt --check   # check without modifying (CI-friendly)

Runtime Directory

~/.texforge/
  bin/
    tectonic            # LaTeX engine (installed by install.sh)
  templates/
    general/            # Cached templates
    apa-general/
    ...

Platform Support

Tech Stack

Roadmap

See texforge-spec.md for the complete specification and roadmap.

License

MIT