texmini 0.2.1

Approachable LaTeX compiler with automatic TeX Live package installation.

texMini

LaTeX that just works, without managing a full TeX installation.

Try it now

Choose either path. Both run texMini without a separate texMini installation.

On macOS or Linux with uv:

uvx texmini paper.tex

With Docker Desktop or Docker Engine:

docker run --rm -v "${PWD}:/work" ghcr.io/alexmill/texmini:latest paper.tex

The Docker command works in Bash, zsh, and PowerShell. The image downloads on its first use. Pin ghcr.io/alexmill/texmini:0.2.1 instead of :latest when reproducibility matters.

texMini builds existing LaTeX projects with real TeX Live and latexmk. On the first run, it downloads a minimal private TinyTeX runtime. When a document needs a package that is not installed, texMini finds the corresponding TeX Live package, installs it, and retries the build.

The result is a TeX installation that grows with your documents instead of arriving as a multi-gigabyte desktop distribution. It lives in ~/.texmini, does not modify the system TeX installation, and can be removed by deleting that directory.

paper.tex  ──▶  texmini  ──▶  install what is missing  ──▶  paper.pdf

pdfLaTeX, LuaLaTeX, XeLaTeX, Biber, and the wider TeX Live package ecosystem remain available. Existing projects do not need to adopt a new document language or a different TeX engine.

Why texMini

A conventional TeX installation offers broad compatibility, but asks you to install and maintain an entire distribution. Tectonic offers an excellent self-contained build experience, but uses its own XeTeX-derived engine and cannot replace every traditional TeX engine and utility. TinyTeX provides the small, portable TeX Live foundation used here, while its most automatic missing-package workflow is normally accessed through R.

texMini combines conventional TeX compatibility with a disposable command-line experience:

• Use the project you already have. Build ordinary .tex files with TeX Live and latexmk.
• Install only what the document needs. Missing classes, packages, fonts, bibliography styles, and Biber are resolved and installed automatically.
• Keep TeX contained. The managed runtime and its packages stay under ~/.texmini.
• Remove it like ordinary files. There is no system-wide uninstaller or package database to unwind.
• Choose native or containerized execution. The published Docker image is a ready-to-run, cross-platform option for common documents.

Comparison

System	Existing LaTeX projects	Package handling	Installation and removal	Main compromise
texMini	Builds conventional projects with pdfLaTeX, LuaLaTeX, or XeLaTeX	Automatically detects and installs needed TeX Live packages into a private runtime	Run with uvx or Docker; delete ~/.texmini to remove the native runtime	Specialized external tools can require additional setup
Tectonic	Builds many projects, subject to its XeTeX-derived engine and build model	Downloads support files from a configured bundle	A single executable and a removable cache	It does not provide every engine and utility in conventional TeX Live
TinyTeX with R	Broad TeX Live compatibility	The R package can detect and install missing packages during compilation	A small, portable TeX Live directory	The automated workflow is coupled to R
TinyTeX from the shell	Broad TeX Live compatibility	Packages are managed directly with tlmgr	A small, portable TeX Live directory	Compilation and missing-package repair are manual
TeX Live, MacTeX, or MiKTeX	Broadest conventional compatibility	Large package sets or distribution-specific package management	A conventional desktop or system installation	More disk usage and distribution administration
Overleaf	Builds projects supported by its hosted TeX environment	A large package set is supplied by the service	No local TeX installation	The build environment is remote and controlled by the service
Typst	LaTeX projects must be rewritten	Uses Typst packages rather than TeX Live packages	A simple executable and package cache	It is a different document language, not a LaTeX compiler

Native workflow

The native managed runtime supports macOS and Linux and requires uv and Perl. TinyTeX uses Perl for tlmgr and latexmk. Windows users should use the Docker pathway above.

Run texMini directly from PyPI:

uvx texmini paper.tex

The first compile downloads TinyTeX-0 into ~/.texmini/TinyTeX, bootstraps the compiler, and installs the packages required by paper.tex. Later builds reuse that runtime.

For repeated authoring, use the default incremental workflow:

texmini paper.tex

texMini retains LaTeX's auxiliary build state so unchanged builds and partial rebuilds are substantially faster. For a one-shot or CI build that should remove supported auxiliary files after success, use:

texmini --clean paper.tex

Install the command for repeated use:

uv tool install texmini
texmini paper.tex

If a directory contains exactly one .tex file, the filename is optional:

texmini

What happens during a build

Running:

texmini paper.tex

causes texMini to:

1. Select paper.tex, or find the only .tex file in the current directory.
2. Check the source for required classes, packages, and bibliography tooling.
3. Install the private TinyTeX runtime if it does not exist.
4. Compile with managed latexmk and pdfLaTeX.
5. Read a failed build for missing TeX files, resolve their TeX Live packages, and install them together.
6. Continue installing and retrying while each round discovers a new package, with a 20-round safety ceiling.
7. Write paper.pdf beside the source and retain incremental build state by default.

Package mappings are cached in ~/.texmini/package-map.json. Package installation modifies only texMini's private TinyTeX tree.

Engines and options

texmini [install-tinytex] [--engine pdflatex|lualatex|xelatex] [OPTIONS] [document.tex] [refs.bib ...]

Examples:

texmini paper.tex
texmini --engine lualatex paper.tex
texmini --engine xelatex paper.tex
texmini --clean paper.tex
texmini --verbose paper.tex
texmini paper.tex references.bib

Options:

• --engine ENGINE: select pdflatex, lualatex, or xelatex.
• --clean: remove supported auxiliary files after a successful build.
• --verbose: show complete TeX, latexmk, Biber, and package-manager output.
• --no-install: do not install missing TeX Live packages.
• --version: print the texMini version.

Arguments not handled by texMini are passed to managed latexmk. Continuous preview mode (-pvc) is not supported.

Prepare the managed runtime without compiling a document:

texmini install-tinytex

Bibliographies

texMini detects \bibliography{...}, \addbibresource{...}, and biblatex. Biber is installed automatically when a managed document uses biblatex.

Explicit bibliography files are checked before compilation:

texmini paper.tex references.bib

Build cleanup

By default, successful builds retain .aux, .bbl, .bcf, .fdb_latexmk, and related state so latexmk can avoid unnecessary work on the next invocation.

With --clean, texMini removes supported auxiliary files after a successful build while preserving .tex, .bib, .pdf, and unrelated files. Failed builds always retain their logs and auxiliary files for diagnosis.

Output and diagnostics

Normal builds show short, stable progress messages and suppress successful tlmgr, TeX, Metafont, Biber, and latexmk transcripts. Warnings that affect the finished document, including unresolved references and missing characters, remain visible.

Use --verbose to stream complete subprocess output. On failure, the default output shows the primary LaTeX error and source line when available, points to the retained log, and warns when the failed invocation created or changed the PDF.

Docker

Docker is the cross-platform, isolated pathway for Docker Desktop and Docker Engine users, including Windows. Compile a document in the current directory with:

docker run --rm -v "${PWD}:/work" ghcr.io/alexmill/texmini:latest paper.tex

Use the versioned image for a reproducible invocation:

docker run --rm -v "${PWD}:/work" ghcr.io/alexmill/texmini:0.2.1 paper.tex

The image bundles TinyTeX plus packages used by many math, layout, bibliography, hyperlink, color, and TikZ documents. Common documents can therefore build from the downloaded image alone. When networking is available, texMini downloads uncommon TeX Live packages as needed. Those additions are discarded with --rm; this is an isolated ready-to-run workflow, not a promise that every possible project compiles offline.

On native Linux, the entrypoint writes outputs as the owner of the mounted directory. Explicit Docker --user settings remain supported. Docker Desktop handles bind-mount ownership through its virtual machine.

Automation and AI agents

texMini is noninteractive and uses stable status lines without spinners or terminal-only formatting. A successful build exits with zero; a failed build returns the underlying nonzero status, retains its log and diagnostic files, and prints the primary error near the end. Use --verbose for complete tool transcripts and --clean when an automation should remove supported auxiliary files after success.

This makes texMini friendly to scripts, CI, and AI coding agents without adding an agent-specific protocol: the same small CLI is used by people and automation.

Compatibility and limitations

texMini targets ordinary projects that build with real TeX Live, latexmk, and pdfLaTeX, LuaLaTeX, or XeLaTeX. It can plausibly replace the compilation part of an Overleaf workflow, but it is not a collaborative editor or document-hosting service.

• Native runtime installation supports macOS and Linux; Windows uses Docker Desktop.
• Specialized external tools such as glossary generators, Pygments-based syntax highlighting, or project-specific scripts may require additional setup.
• The managed native runtime grows as packages are installed. It is shared across builds and is not locked independently per project.
• TeX projects can depend on system fonts, executables, or shell-escape behavior that texMini does not automatically provision.

Environment

• TEXMINI_ENGINE: default engine; defaults to pdflatex.
• TEXMINI_CLEAN=true: remove supported auxiliary files after successful builds.
• TEXMINI_AUTO_INSTALL=false: disable document-driven package installation.
• TEXMINI_TINYTEX_ROOT: managed TinyTeX directory; defaults to ~/.texmini/TinyTeX.
• TEXMINI_TINYTEX_BUNDLE: release bundle; defaults to TinyTeX-0.
• TEXMINI_PACKAGE_MAP: package mapping cache; defaults to ~/.texmini/package-map.json.

Development

Run texMini from the source tree:

uv run texmini paper.tex

Run the test suite and validate the distributions:

uv run python -m unittest discover -s tests -v
uv build --sdist --wheel
uvx --from twine==6.2.0 twine check dist/*

Build and smoke-test Docker:

docker build -t texmini .
docker run --rm --network none \
  -v "${PWD}/tests/fixtures/bibliography:/work" \
  texmini bibliography.tex

TinyTeX bundle benchmark methodology and raw results are in benchmarks.