Pdflatex skill

Skill b1rd33/pdflatex-skill

Lean LaTeX skill for Claude Code — 6 templates, 9 references, ~2K token context cost, zero Python dependencies. Invoices, reports, CVs, presentations, academic papers.

Install

npx -y skills add b1rd33/pdflatex-skill

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What its author says it does

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Professional LaTeX document compilation skill for creating publication-quality PDFs. Supports pdflatex, xelatex, lualatex engines with full bibliography chains (BibTeX/Biber), smart cross-referencing (cleveref), publication-quality tables (booktabs/siunitx), and automated builds (latexmk). MANDATORY TRIGGERS: LaTeX, pdflatex, xelatex, lualatex, .tex file, compile LaTeX, research paper, academic paper, journal article, thesis, dissertation, conference paper, BibTeX, Biber, biblatex, bibliography, citations, documentclass, beamer presentation, equations, mathematical notation, academic writing, paper submission, ACM template, IEEE template, Springer, Elsevier, arXiv, LaTeX invoice, LaTeX CV, LaTeX resume, LaTeX letter, LaTeX report, LaTeX certificate, typesetting, latexmk, fontspec

The file declares its own license as MIT. That is the author’s claim about this one file, and it is not the same thing as the license GitHub reports for the repository, which is listed with the other numbers below.

SKILL.md

6.9 KB, as published. Nobody here has run it

PDFLaTeX Compilation Skill

Quick Start

# Basic compilation
pdflatex -interaction=nonstopmode document.tex

# With bibliography (biblatex + biber)
pdflatex document.tex && biber document && pdflatex document.tex && pdflatex document.tex

# Automated (recommended)
latexmk -pdf document.tex

Reference Documentation

Topic	File	Use When
Package reference	packages.md	Need specific package syntax
Smart cross-refs	cross-references.md	Using cleveref, labeling
Publication tables	tables-siunitx.md	Professional tables with aligned numbers
Build automation	latexmk-config.md	Configuring latexmk
Journal submission	journal-submission.md	ACM, IEEE, Springer, Elsevier requirements
Version control	version-control.md	Git, latexdiff for revisions
PDF/A archival	pdfa-archival.md	Thesis submission, long-term preservation
Troubleshooting	troubleshooting.md	Fixing compilation errors
Font guide	fonts.md	Custom fonts, XeLaTeX/LuaLaTeX font setup

Compilation Workflows

Automated (Recommended)

latexmk -pdf document.tex           # pdflatex + auto-detect bibliography
latexmk -xelatex document.tex       # XeLaTeX for custom fonts
latexmk -lualatex document.tex      # LuaLaTeX for advanced scripting
latexmk -pdf -pvc document.tex      # Watch mode (recompile on save)
latexmk -c document.tex             # Clean auxiliary files

Manual Chains

# BibTeX (traditional)
pdflatex doc.tex && bibtex doc && pdflatex doc.tex && pdflatex doc.tex

# Biber (biblatex - modern)
pdflatex doc.tex && biber doc && pdflatex doc.tex && pdflatex doc.tex

# Shell escape (minted, tikz externalize)
# WARNING: -shell-escape allows .tex files to run arbitrary system commands.
# Only use with trusted files. Prefer -shell-restricted when possible.
pdflatex -shell-escape document.tex

# IMPORTANT: Never hallucinate BibTeX entries. Always use the user's .bib file
# or ask for DOIs. Never fabricate citation data from memory.

PDF Preview After Compilation

# macOS
open output.pdf

# Linux (uses xdg-open)
xdg-open output.pdf

# Or use the preview script
./scripts/preview_pdf.sh output.pdf

Essential Package Loading Order

\documentclass[11pt,a4paper]{article}

% Encoding
\usepackage[utf8]{inputenc}
\usepackage[T1]{fontenc}

% Math
\usepackage{amsmath,amssymb,amsthm}
\usepackage{mathtools}

% Graphics and layout
\usepackage{graphicx}
\usepackage[margin=1in]{geometry}
\usepackage{booktabs,siunitx}
\usepackage{microtype}

% Bibliography
\usepackage[backend=biber,style=numeric]{biblatex}
\addbibresource{references.bib}

% Cross-references (LOAD ORDER MATTERS)
\usepackage{hyperref}
\hypersetup{colorlinks=true,linkcolor=blue,citecolor=blue,urlcolor=cyan}
\usepackage{cleveref}  % MUST be after hyperref

Engine Selection Guide

Engine	Use When	Key Feature
`pdflatex`	Default choice, most compatible	Widest package support
`xelatex`	Custom/system fonts, Unicode-heavy docs	`fontspec` package
`lualatex`	Advanced scripting, complex typography	Lua scripting in TeX
`latexmk`	Always — wraps any engine	Auto-detects passes needed

Project Structure

paper/
├── main.tex              # Main document
├── references.bib        # Bibliography
├── .latexmkrc            # Build config
├── sections/
│   ├── abstract.tex
│   ├── introduction.tex
│   ├── methods.tex
│   ├── results.tex
│   └── conclusion.tex
├── figures/
│   └── *.pdf, *.png
└── output/               # Compiled PDFs

Common Tasks

Smart References (cleveref)

\label{fig:results}              % After \caption
\cref{fig:results}               % → "Figure 1"
\Cref{fig:results}               % → "Figure 1" (sentence start)
\cref{fig:a,fig:b,fig:c}         % → "Figures 1 to 3"

Publication-Quality Tables

\begin{table}[htbp]
    \caption{Results comparison.}
    \label{tbl:results}
    \centering
    \begin{tabular}{l S[table-format=2.2] S[table-format=1.2]}
        \toprule
        Model & {Accuracy (\%)} & {F1} \\
        \midrule
        Baseline & 85.32 & 0.83 \\
        \textbf{Ours} & \bfseries 92.15 & \bfseries 0.91 \\
        \bottomrule
    \end{tabular}
\end{table}

Generate Revision Diff

# Compare current with submitted version
latexdiff-vc --git -r v1.0-submission main.tex
pdflatex main-diffv1.0-submission.tex

Quick Fixes

Problem	Solution
`??` in PDF	Run pdflatex twice
Citations missing	Run biber/bibtex + pdflatex x2
Undefined control	Add missing `\usepackage{}`
Overfull hbox	Add `\sloppy` or adjust text
Package conflict	Check load order (hyperref before cleveref)
Font not found (XeLaTeX)	Check font name with `fc-list`, use `fontspec`
Missing .sty file	`sudo tlmgr install packagename`

Example Templates

Ready-to-use templates in examples/:

research-paper.tex — Academic paper with biblatex, cleveref, siunitx (+ references.bib)
invoice.tex — Professional invoice with line items and totals
report.tex — Business report with TOC, sections, figures, tables
demo-report.tex — Rich report with charts, tables, and scatter plots (pgfplots)
letter.tex — Formal business letter
cv.tex — Modern CV/resume
.latexmkrc — Ready-to-use build configuration

Scripts

./scripts/compile_latex.sh document.tex [pdflatex|xelatex|lualatex] [--bib bibtex|biber] [--clean] [--shell-escape] [--output-dir DIR]
./scripts/clean_latex.sh [directory] [--all]
./scripts/preview_pdf.sh output.pdf