Working in Citet

Compilation

Citet captures a project revision and compiles it to PDF in a separate LaTeX worker. The result records which source revision it used, so the workspace can show when the PDF is behind your current edits.

Compilers

Choose a compiler in Project settings → Compilation:

→Tectonic

the default for new projects. Uses the worker's installed package bundle and manages repeated passes and BibTeX internally.

→pdfLaTeX

the classic TeX Live engine, with latexmk managing repeated passes and the required BibTeX or biber step.

→XeLaTeX

a TeX Live engine for Unicode text and OpenType fonts, including documents using fontspec. Uses the same latexmk bibliography pipeline.

→Shipout

a native engine that produces PDF and, for Beamer projects, SVG slides with reveal steps, animations, and media. Motion and media are authored in LaTeX. Unsupported rendering operations appear as compile errors.

For documents using biblatex with biber, choose a TeX Live compiler. Font availability depends on the installed worker image.

Presentations

Citet detects \\documentclass{beamer} in your main file and opens a workspace with files, source, and slides. You can also choose the Presentation starter when creating a project. Your saved layout takes precedence over the automatic layout.

Compile, then click Present to open a separate audience view. Use the arrow keys or Space to advance, Home and End to jump, and F for full screen. The presenter keeps the build you opened while you continue editing. PDF engines show individual PDF pages; Shipout groups frames and reveal steps.

With Shipout, load shipout-motion and author animations such as\\FlyIn<2->[id=claim,from=left,duration=650]{Your claim}in the source. Load shipout-media for local media, for example\\ShipoutVideo[id=clip,width=10cm,height=5.625cm]{assets/clip.webm}. Upload media to your project. Playback follows browser autoplay rules; a Play button appears when autoplay is blocked.

Triggering a compile

→Toolbar

click the compile button in the workspace header.

→Keyboard

press ⌘S / Ctrl+S or ⌘↵ / Ctrl+Enter.

→Command palette

open ⌘K / Ctrl+K and select Compile project.

Compile panel

→Diagnostics

errors and warnings from the latest compile. Click a diagnostic with a source location to navigate to it.

→Logs

captured compiler output and the engine log.

→Summary

compile status, source revision, compiler, and timing by phase. TeX Live engine and bibliography passes are grouped into the latexmk build phase.

Commands stop when they exceed the configured execution time or output limit. The report identifies those failures; logs are bounded and can be truncated.

Builds and caching

Each build uses a temporary directory that is removed afterwards. Intermediate files do not persist between builds. Citet can reuse completed artifacts when the source, compiler, and toolchain version match a previous successful build. Switching compilers changes the cache identity.

Worker isolation

The Compose LaTeX worker runs as a non-root user with a read-only container filesystem, temporary writable storage, CPU and memory limits, and an internal network. Compiler subprocesses receive a restricted environment without application or storage credentials.