# tectonic-typesetting/tectonic

A modernized, complete, self-contained TeX/LaTeX engine, powered by XeTeX and TeXLive.

Repository: https://github.com/tectonic-typesetting/tectonic
Canonical: https://ross.abutalabs.com/products/tectonic
Homepage: https://tectonic-typesetting.github.io/
Language: C
License: NOASSERTION
License Family: other
Topics: tex, xetex, tex-engine, texlive, typesetting, tex-typesetting, rust
Last push: 2026-08-01T05:01:58+00:00

## Health v2 (maintenance only)
Score: 92/100 (v2, computed 2026-09-03T02:39:23.370411+00:00)
- activity 95, release rhythm 83, longevity 100
- inputs: {"age_days": 3565, "days_push": 32, "days_rel": 38, "gap_med": 0, "n_releases_24m": 82}
- flags: no_license
- formula: round(0.45*activity + 0.35*rhythm + 0.20*longevity); archived -> min(score, 10)

## Adoption (not part of the score)
Stars 5052, forks 216 (observed 2026-08-28T04:09:09.014661+00:00)

## What it is
Tectonic is a modernized, self-contained TeX/LaTeX typesetting engine built on XeTeX and TeXLive, implemented largely in Rust. It compiles TeX documents to PDF without requiring a full TeX distribution installation, fetching needed packages on demand.

## Use cases
- compile latex documents to pdf
- typeset academic papers without installing texlive
- build latex in CI pipelines
- self-contained tex engine for reproducible builds
- compile xetex documents with system fonts
- process latex on arxiv-scale corpora

## When to choose
- you want LaTeX compilation without a multi-gigabyte TeX Live install
- you need reproducible, dependency-free LaTeX builds in CI or Docker
- you want XeTeX features like system font support in a modern toolchain

## When to avoid
- you need full compatibility with every TeX Live package or engine-specific features
- you rely on tools tightly coupled to a traditional TeX distribution
- you need real-time collaborative editing rather than compilation

## Facets
- artifact type: cli-tool
- maturity: active
- function: compiler, pdf, developer-tools
- domain: developer-tools, documentation, files, pdf
- platform: windows, cli, cross-platform
- tags: tex, latex, xetex, texlive, typesetting, rust, self-contained, linux, macos

## Member repositories
- tectonic-typesetting/tectonic (main) score 92

## Provenance
- Observed fields: from GitHub, fetched 2026-08-28T04:09:09.014661+00:00.
- Health v2: computed from the inputs above; adoption is never an input.
- Inferred fields (summary, facets, guidance): AI-extracted, prompt v1, taxonomy v1, on 2026-08-29T18:17:21.176348+00:00, confidence not recorded.
  - readme: https://github.com/tectonic-typesetting/tectonic (fetched 2026-08-28T04:09:09.014661+00:00, sha dc2e9449828f)
  - homepage: https://tectonic-typesetting.github.io/ (fetched 2026-08-29T08:57:45.498778+00:00, sha 00d3610e5b3c)
- Data as of 2026-08-30T08:39:29.467469+00:00.