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Tectonic Engine

Tectonic is the default PDF engine in TeXSmith. It bundles automatic package fetching, fast incremental builds, and minimal setup -- ideal for CI pipelines and lightweight containers. You can switch to latexmk with --engine lualatex or --engine xelatex when you need full control of the traditional toolchain.

Install Tectonic

  • macOS: brew install tectonic
  • Ubuntu/Debian: sudo apt install tectonic (or cargo install tectonic)
  • Fedora: sudo dnf install tectonic
  • Windows: scoop install tectonic or choco install tectonic
  • Fallback: grab a prebuilt archive from https://tectonic-typesetting.github.io/ and put the tectonic binary on your PATH.

After installation, run tectonic --version to confirm the binary is available.

Building with Tectonic

  • CLI: texsmith notes.md --template article --build uses Tectonic automatically.
  • Latexmk: add --engine lualatex (or --engine xelatex) to opt into the latexmk + .latexmkrc flow.
  • API: call ConversionService.build_pdf(render_result, engine="tectonic") after rendering a template.

TeXSmith still checks for optional helpers -- biber, makeindex/texindy, makeglossaries -- and reports anything missing before the engine runs.