gzurowski/latex-devcontainer repository overview

⁠LaTeX Dev Container

Ready-to-use LaTeX environment for Visual Studio Code Dev Containers.

A complete LaTeX environment with zero configuration. No installation, no subscription, no limitations.

Ready-to-use images available on Docker Hub⁠.

⁠Features

• Built with the TeX Live 2026⁠ distribution.
• Images with different Tex Live schemes⁠:
  • gzurowski/latex-devcontainer:basic⁠ for a basic setup.
  • gzurowski/latex-devcontainer:medium⁠ with more packages.
  • gzurowski/latex-devcontainer:full⁠ with everything.
• Based on a Dev Container-friendly Ubuntu 24.04 LTS base image using devcontainers/base:noble⁠.
• Linting with ChkTeX⁠ for caching errors as you type.
• Formatting with latexindent⁠ for consistent style of save.
• Multi-architecture images with support for AMD64 and ARM64 (Apple Silicon).

⁠Quick Start

⁠Option 1: Visual Studio Dev Container

You must have Docker and Visual Studio Code with the Dev Containers extension⁠ installed. See the Visual Studio Code's Dev Containers documentation⁠ for setup details.

You can simply create a new LaTeX project repository with this template:

Or, you can manually add the following .devcontainer/devcontainer.json file to your project:

{
  "name": "LaTeX",
  "image": "gzurowski/latex-devcontainer:full",
  "customizations": {
    "vscode": {
      "extensions": ["James-Yu.latex-workshop"],
      "settings": {
        "editor.formatOnSave": true,
        "latex-workshop.formatting.latex": "latexindent",
        "latex-workshop.latex.autoBuild.run": "onSave",
        "latex-workshop.linting.chktex.enabled": true
      }
    }
  }
}

Target the desired scheme using the image tag (basic, medium or full).

Open the folder in VSCode and select Dev Containers: Reopen in Container.

⁠Option 2: GitHub Codespaces

Click the button below to launch a fully configured LaTeX environment in your browser:

⁠Option 3: Docker

You can also use the container directly (without Visual Studio Code) to build your LaTeX projects:

docker run --rm -v $(pwd):/workspace -w /workspace gzurowski/latex-devcontainer:full latexmk -pdf document.tex

This mounts your current directory into the container, builds the document, and writes the output PDF back to the host.

⁠Additional Packages

Use the TeX Live package manager⁠ to install packages not included in your chosen scheme:

tlmgr install <PACKAGE_NAME>

For a persistent installation, extend the Dockerfile or add to postCreateCommand in your devcontainer.json file:

{
  "postCreateCommand": "tlmgr install <PACKAGE_NAME>"
}

⁠Images and Tags

The following container images are available:

If you install a scheme smaller than full, you can still add any missing packages later with tlmgr⁠.

⁠Included Tools

The following tools are included with every image:

⁠Building from Source

Clone the repository⁠ and build with Docking using the following commands.

Basic scheme (default):

docker build -t latex-devcontainer .

Full scheme:

docker build --build-arg TEXLIVE_SCHEME=scheme-full -t latex-devcontainer:full .

⁠Issues

If you encounter any problems or have suggestions, please open an issue⁠.

⁠License

This project is licensed under the MIT License⁠.