Batch-compile every .tex file in a directory tree into .pdf, with caching. Use when the user wants to compile LaTeX files — for example "compile all slides in exp/ml/", "build the PDFs for this chapter", or after editing multiple .tex files.

LaTeX Batch Compile

Recursively finds .tex files under a directory and compiles each to .pdf using pdflatex (or xelatex), with a per-file cache directory so that auxiliary files don't pollute the source tree.

When to invoke this skill

User asks to "compile all .tex in folder X"
User has modified LaTeX files and wants fresh PDFs
Post-processing after course-generate (it emits .tex, not .pdf)

Prerequisites

A LaTeX distribution on PATH. Check:

which pdflatex || which xelatex

If missing, point the user to TeX Live or MacTeX.

Usage

python3 "${CLAUDE_PLUGIN_ROOT}/skills/latex-compile/scripts/compile.py" \
  <directory> [--also-pptx]

Arguments

Arg	Required	Description
`<directory>`	yes	Root directory to scan recursively
`--also-pptx`	no	Also convert each `.tex` to `.pptx` after PDF compilation

Engine

The underlying compiler uses pdflatex (hardcoded in src.compile.LaTeXCompiler). For xelatex / lualatex support, open an issue upstream.

Example

python3 "${CLAUDE_PLUGIN_ROOT}/skills/latex-compile/scripts/compile.py" \
  exp/reinforcement_learning --also-pptx

Output

*.pdf next to each *.tex
Aux files (.aux, .log, .toc, …) stored in <dir>/.cache/<stem>/

Citation

This skill wraps src.compile from Instructional Agents (arXiv:2508.19611).