manim-simplex 0.13.0

Manim plugin and lecture-site CLI for Simplex presentations.

Simplex

Simplex is a toolkit for Manim lecture projects. The repository is named simplex, and the PyPI distribution is named manim-simplex because the bare simplex package name is already taken on PyPI. It ships one Python package namespace, simplex, with:

• a Manim plugin (plugins = simplex);
• theme tokens, mobjects, layout regions, slide bases, and animation helpers;
• a deck manifest schema and render reconciliation pipeline;
• the simplex CLI for deck scaffolding, rendering, site building, serving, testing, and diagnostics;
• a static lecture portal with notes, citations, math rendering, thumbnails, RevealJS playback, and GitHub Pages-friendly output.

The CLI and plugin intentionally live in one distribution so consumers only depend on manim-simplex.

Requirements

• Python 3.13+
• Manim Community 0.20.1+
• manim-slides 5.1.7+
• FFmpeg, Cairo, Pango, and a TeX distribution when rendering TeX. See the Manim installation guide: https://docs.manim.community/en/stable/installation.html

Typical system packages:

sudo apt-get install texlive-latex-extra texlive-fonts-recommended ffmpeg \
                     libcairo2-dev libpango1.0-dev

winget install MiKTeX.MiKTeX
winget install Gyan.FFmpeg

Install

pip install manim-simplex

With uv:

uv add manim-simplex

Verify that Manim can discover the plugin:

python -m manim plugins -l

The output should include simplex.

Configure Manim

Enable the plugin in the manim.cfg next to your scenes or deck:

[CLI]
plugins = simplex
save_sections = True

Manim imports simplex.plugin through the manim.plugins entry point. The plugin applies the active Simplex theme to Manim defaults, registers Pygments styles, sets the TeX template, sets the background color, and enables section JSON output.

Quick Start

from manim import ORIGIN, MathTex, Write

from simplex import Slide


class HelloSlide(Slide):
    def setup(self) -> None:
        super().setup()
        self.setup_chrome(header="Hello, Simplex")

    def construct(self) -> None:
        eq = MathTex(r"e^{i\pi} + 1 = 0")
        self.region.place(eq, ORIGIN)
        self.play(Write(eq))
        self.next_slide()

Render as a slide deck:

uv run manim-slides render path/to/scene.py HelloSlide
uv run manim-slides present HelloSlide

Or create a lecture-site deck and build the portal:

uv run simplex new algorithms/hash-tables
uv run simplex render hash-tables
uv run simplex build
uv run simplex serve

Public Surface

Module	Public surface
simplex.plugin	activate() entry point used by Manim.
simplex.slides	Slide, ThreeDSlide, OutlineScene, OutlinePart, Chrome, make_chrome.
simplex.engine	Region, ExitAnim, clear_scene, exit_for, register_exit, set_exit_animation, HighlightResult, apply_theme_defaults.
simplex.mobjects	Node, Edge, ArrayMob, ArrayEntry, ArrayPointer, OutlineProgressBar, Paper, ShowPaper, DismissPaper, PickPage.
simplex.theme	Theme, Palette, Typography, Spacing, Motion, LatexProfile, WebPalette, active_theme, get_active_theme, presets, resolve_palette, available_palette_names, render_web_css.
simplex.manifest	DeckManifest, MainSlide, Subsection, the manifest schema written by the render pipeline.
simplex.deck	DeckConfig, discover, scaffold, section metadata, bundled deck template.
simplex.render	Manim runner, manifest reconciliation, thumbnails, HTML, PDF, PPTX, notes PDF, filenames.
simplex.web	Portal builder, notes renderer, citations, refs, templates, static assets, live reload.
simplex.cli	Typer application installed as the simplex command.

CLI

Command	Purpose
simplex new <slug>	Create decks/<slug>/ from the bundled template.
simplex new <section>/<slug>	Create a deck inside a named section.
simplex init [dir]	Create a lectures repo from the GitHub template.
simplex render <slug>	Render one deck into site/decks/<slug>/.
simplex render <slug>::<Scene>	Render one scene from a deck.
simplex render <slug> --slide-theme light	Render only one true slide theme for a deck.
simplex build	Render decks and build the static portal under site/.
simplex build --no-render	Rebuild portal HTML from existing render output.
simplex build --slide-theme dark	Build only one true slide theme (dark or light) for faster tests.
simplex serve [--watch]	Serve site/ locally, optionally with live reload.
simplex test --slide-theme dark	Smoke-render decks by rendering only the first animation.
simplex theme-studio	Generate and open the palette/code-style editor.
simplex clean	Remove generated site/ and media/ output.
simplex doctor	Check required binaries on PATH.

Deck Layout

simplex new hash-tables creates:

decks/hash-tables/
|-- deck.toml
|-- manim.cfg
|-- notes.md
|-- refs.bib
|-- assets/
`-- slides/
    |-- __init__.py
    `-- intro.py

The important fields in deck.toml are:

slug = "hash-tables"
title = "Hash Tables"
summary = "A one-line deck summary."
quality = "high_quality"
entrypoints = ["slides.intro:Intro", "slides.intro:KeyIdea"]

[slide_themes]
enabled = true
dark = "simplex_dark"
light = "simplex_light"
default = "dark"

[slides."Key Idea"]
notes_anchor = "key-idea"

[slide_themes] enabled = true renders real dark and light slide videos, thumbnail images, and slide HTML into isolated themes/dark/ and themes/light/ folders. The deck player swaps between those compiled artifacts when the slide-theme toggle changes, so light mode is not a CSS filter over dark pixels. The package defaults are simplex_dark and simplex_light; set [slide_themes] enabled = false in site.toml or a deck's deck.toml to keep the legacy single render plus filter toggle. Deck settings override site settings.

The top-level theme = "..." field is intentionally omitted from new decks. It is only a single-render fallback for projects that disable true slide themes. With [slide_themes] enabled = true, rendered slide pixels come from the dark and light theme names below.

During local iteration or CI smoke tests, render one true variant:

uv run simplex build --slide-theme dark
uv run simplex render hash-tables --slide-theme light
uv run simplex test --slide-theme dark

Themes And Palettes

Theme names come from built-ins (simplex_dark, simplex_light) or JSON files in simplex_themes/themes/. Configure them globally in site.toml:

[slide_themes]
enabled = true
dark = "simplex_dark"
light = "my_light"
default = "dark"

Deck deck.toml files may include their own [slide_themes] block when one deck needs different themes. Deck settings override site.toml.

Theme JSON files can declare manim_palette = "...". Simplex resolves that palette before scene imports, patches Manim color constants such as BLUE, BLUE_A, WHITE, and GRAY, then derives any missing Simplex semantic colors from it. Explicit theme palette fields still win. simplex_dark keeps Manim's default palette, while simplex_light uses the built-in simplex_light palette.

Example simplex_themes/themes/my_light.json:

{
  "manim_palette": "simplex_light",
  "code_style": "simplex_solarized_light",
  "palette": {
    "background": "#EEEAD8",
    "font": "#3C313F",
    "vertex": "#355561",
    "vertex_stroke": "#426A79"
  },
  "web_palette": {
    "surface": "#F8F2DD",
    "text_muted": "#756E63"
  }
}

palette controls rendered Manim slide pixels: background, font, accent, vertex, vertex_stroke, edge, weight, visited, label, and distance. Missing fields are derived from manim_palette; if manim_palette is omitted, missing fields derive from Manim defaults.

code_style controls Manim slide Code objects for that theme. It accepts a Simplex style, a Pygments style name, or a custom style exported into simplex_themes/code_styles/.

web_palette controls generated HTML/RevealJS shell colors. Decks can still override those shell colors with [web] background, [web] text_primary, [web] accent, etc. Markdown notes code blocks are separate and default to SimplexSolarizedLight; override them per deck with:

[web]
notes_code_style = "simplex_pycharm"

Create or compare palettes and code styles with:

uv run simplex theme-studio

In lecture repos, put Theme Studio code-style exports in simplex_themes/code_styles/, palette .json or .itermcolors exports in simplex_themes/palette_styles/, and complete theme JSON files in simplex_themes/themes/.

Append @opengl to one entrypoint when a scene should render with ManimCE's OpenGL renderer:

entrypoints = ["slides.intro:Intro", "slides.surface:SurfaceColoring@opengl"]

Development

git clone https://github.com/shlomi-perles/simplex.git
cd simplex
uv sync --all-extras
uv run playwright install chromium
uv run pre-commit install

Useful checks:

python tools/check_readmes.py
uv run ruff check .
uv run ruff format --check .
uv run basedpyright
uv run pytest -q
uv run pytest tests/web/test_player_browser.py -q
uv run python tools/vendor_web_assets.py
uv build --no-sources
uvx twine check dist/*

Run smoke tests locally:

uv run python -c "import simplex.plugin; simplex.plugin.activate(); print('ok')"
uv run manim plugins -l
uv run simplex --help
uv run simplex test --only showcase

Release

Releases are automated through Release Please and PyPI Trusted Publishing. Commit changes using Conventional Commits (feat:, fix:, chore:). When changes land on main, Release Please opens or updates a release PR. Merging that PR creates the GitHub release, builds the package with uv, publishes manim-simplex to PyPI via OIDC, and dispatches a template update workflow.

Manual version bumps and chained simplex-web releases are no longer part of the release process.

License

MIT. See LICENSE.