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LaTeX Environment Setup

Diagnoses your LaTeX toolchain, installs only the missing packages, and gives the exact compile pipeline for your project.

Dev & CodingIntermediate★ 416⑂ 36AI score 9/10Last updated: Oct 11, 2026

What it does

  • Probes your machine first for pdflatex, xelatex, lualatex, biber, bibtex, and tlmgr.
  • Reads your main .tex file to detect the document class, all \usepackage requirements, and whether the project needs biber (biblatex) or bibtex (natbib).
  • Suggests OS-specific installs — apt on Ubuntu/Debian, MacTeX/BasicTeX on macOS, tlmgr for individual packages — installing only what's actually missing.
  • Provides the correct multi-pass compile pipeline for bibtex vs. biber, plus fixes for undefined citations, font errors, missing .bib paths, and TikZ externalize issues.
  • Includes a venue table (CVPR/ECCV, NeurIPS, ICLR, ACL/EMNLP, IEEE, Springer) with expected class files and bib systems.

Who it's for

  • Grad students and researchers fighting LaTeX errors close to a submission deadline.
  • Anyone unsure whether to use biber or bibtex.
  • Anyone setting up a TeX environment from scratch on a new laptop or server.

Examples

  1. "My NeurIPS draft shows citations as [?]" → detects the bib system and prescribes bibtex plus two pdflatex passes.
  2. "Set up LaTeX for me" → checks the installed distribution and lists only the missing texlive packages to install.
  3. "minted throws an error" → checks the pygments dependency and whether write18/shell-escape is enabled.

· · · Install guide · · ·

Try it now, no install

Paste this into Claude to use the skill without installing anything.

Read the instructions in this file and follow them to help me:
https://raw.githubusercontent.com/fcakyon/phd-skills/HEAD/plugin/skills/latex-setup/SKILL.md

What I want: (describe your task here)

If Claude can't open the link, open it yourself and paste the contents instead.

↓ If it works for you, download the ZIP below and install it. Then it runs on its own — no pasting each time.

Install in the Claude app (no terminal)
  1. Download the ZIP with the button below.
  2. In Claude, open Settings → Capabilities and turn on 'Code execution and file creation'. (one time)
  3. Go to Customize → Skills → + → 'Upload a skill' and upload the ZIP.
↓ Download ZIP
Install in Claude Code

Let Claude do it — paste this into Claude Code

Install the skill I found on Claude Skill Mart.
Copy the plugin/skills/latex-setup folder from the GitHub repo fcakyon/phd-skills into my ~/.claude/skills/latex-setup/.
When it's done, tell me in one line what this skill can do.

Install with a command instead

git clone https://github.com/fcakyon/phd-skills.git && mkdir -p ~/.claude/skills && cp -r phd-skills/plugin/skills/latex-setup ~/.claude/skills/

⚠ This is a third-party skill. Check the source repository before installing.

  1. Open a terminal.
  2. Clone the repository: git clone https://github.com/fcakyon/phd-skills.git
  3. Create the skills folder: mkdir -p ~/.claude/skills
  4. Copy the skill: cp -r phd-skills/plugin/skills/latex-setup ~/.claude/skills/
  5. Restart Claude Code, then ask something like "setup latex" or "biber vs bibtex" to trigger it.
  6. Review any suggested sudo apt / tlmgr commands before running them.
View source on GitHub ↗License: MIT