PureTeX
VS Code Marketplace
·
Website
·
How to use
·
Engineering guide
PureTeX is a local-first LaTeX extension for VS Code. It builds, diagnoses, and previews TeX projects locally, giving researchers, students, technical writers, and developers a reliable compile workflow without sending documents to the cloud.
PureTeX ships target-specific VSIX packages for Windows x64, Linux x64, macOS Intel, and macOS Apple Silicon.
Highlights
- Local LaTeX builds with automatic runtime selection.
- Docker, managed local toolchain, and system compiler support.
- Smart diagnostics for compiler, bibliography, glossary, runtime, and package-recovery issues.
- Live PDF preview with refresh, zoom, fit width, fit page, search, page jump, external open, and PDF download.
- SyncTeX-backed source and preview navigation.
- Structured runtime and recovery logs in the
PureTeX output channel.
Getting Started
- Open a folder containing a
.tex project.
- Open a
.tex file.
- Press the PureTeX play button in the editor title bar, or run
PureTeX: Open Live Preview.
- Build from the preview toolbar or save the document.
PureTeX resolves the project root, chooses a runtime, builds the document, and shows the generated PDF in the preview panel.
Visit the hosted site at hn026.github.io/PureTeX for the demo and install links.
Runtime Support
- Docker mode supports basic, full, and custom image profiles.
- Local mode can use
tectonic, extension-managed latexmk, or plain system latexmk.
- Controlled Docker and managed local paths support automatic missing-package recovery where possible.
Plain system latexmk cannot guarantee package installation because host TeX distributions and permissions vary.
Packaging Notes
- Marketplace builds bundle the Rust backend inside the VSIX under a target-specific
bin/<platform-arch>/ directory.
puretex.backendPath remains available as an override for custom backend locations during development or advanced setups.- Release packaging should use the matching VS Code target:
win32-x64, linux-x64, darwin-x64, or darwin-arm64.
Contributing
PureTeX is developed in the public repository. Please keep changes focused, include tests for behavior changes, and update the README or Marketplace notes when user-facing behavior changes.
