manim-simplex 0.4.0

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 BaseSlide, make_chrome, presets


class HelloSlide(BaseSlide):
    def setup(self) -> None:
        super().setup()
        chrome = make_chrome(
            presets.SIMPLEX_DARK,
            self.region,
            header="Hello, Simplex",
        )
        self.add_to_canvas(**chrome.mobjects)
        self.region = chrome.body_region

    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	BaseSlide, OutlineScene, OutlinePart, Chrome, make_chrome.
simplex.engine	Region, Remove, 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, 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 build	Render decks and build the static portal under site/.
simplex build --no-render	Rebuild portal HTML from existing render output.
simplex serve [--watch]	Serve site/ locally, optionally with live reload.
simplex test	Smoke-render decks by rendering only the first animation.
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."
theme = "simplex_dark"
quality = "high_quality"
entrypoints = ["slides.intro:Intro", "slides.intro:KeyIdea"]

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

Development

git clone https://github.com/shlomi-perles/simplex.git
cd simplex
uv sync --all-extras
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 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.