Texforge

Texforge is a unified LaTeX workspace: one tool for writing, rendering diagrams (Mermaid, Graphviz) and building PDFs. Set it up once and stay focused on your document.

It is a single binary written in Rust. You do not need TeX Live, MiKTeX, Node.js, a browser, or Graphviz installed — the LaTeX engine (Tectonic) is downloaded automatically on first build, and diagrams are rendered in pure Rust.

Why texforge

A classic LaTeX setup means installing a multi-gigabyte distribution, wiring up latexmk, and gluing external renderers for diagrams. Texforge collapses that into a single workflow:

• One-command setup — install once; engine, templates and diagram renderers are included or fetched on demand.
• Diagrams as first-class citizens — write Mermaid or Graphviz blocks directly in your .tex files; they render and embed during build.
• Guided workflows — start a new project or migrate an existing one with texforge init.
• Template registry — install, manage and validate templates, with a built-in offline fallback.
• Build and live edit — compile once or use watch mode.
• Smart linting — catch missing files, broken references, bibliography keys and unclosed environments before compiling.
• Opinionated formatter — one canonical .tex style, clean git diffs.

How the documentation is organized

• Installation — install, update and uninstall.
• Quick Start — from zero to PDF in two commands.
• Building — build, watch mode and the runtime directory.
• Diagrams — Mermaid and Graphviz environments.
• Templates — using the template registry.
• Configuration — global config and project.toml.
• Linting & Formatting — check and fmt.
• CLI Reference — every command and flag.

Part of UniverLab

Texforge is an experiment of UniverLab, an open computational laboratory. It follows the lab’s engineering principles: one tool one job, reproducibility first, offline-friendly design.