kirklin-typst

Curated Typst templates plus a one-command build. Each template is a complete, compile-tested document you copy and fill in; scripts/compile.sh turns it into a PDF with page previews. Paths below are relative to this skill's directory.

When to use

• Writing a research / academic paper (NeurIPS / arXiv style) → neurips-paper.
• Compiling any .typ to PDF and showing previews.
• More document types will arrive as templates — always check references/templates.md before assuming a type isn't covered.

Why Typst

Typst compiles in a single fast pass — no multi-run latexmk dance. It resolves cross-references, citations, and the outline incrementally, and ships one engine, so the build is just typst compile. Templates are plain .typ with an ordinary module system (#import, #include), so styling lives in readable functions instead of macros.

Workflow

1. Pick a template. Match the user's document type to a template using the catalog in references/templates.md.
2. Copy it out. Copy the whole template directory to the user's working area (default ./outputs/). Templates are self-contained — the style function, figures, and section files travel with them.
3. Customize. Edit the main .typ (title, authors, sections). Each template's own README.md documents its file map and exactly what to replace.
4. Compile.

   bash scripts/compile.sh <path>/paper.typ --preview
   

   Runs typst compile (single pass — references, citations, and outline resolved automatically), writes the PDF, and renders one PNG per page.
5. Deliver. Read the PNG previews to confirm the result, show them to the user, and hand over the PDF.

Templates

Template	Produces	Build file
neurips-paper	Single-column NeurIPS/arXiv-style research paper (sample: Attention Is All You Need)	templates/neurips-paper/paper.typ

Full details, variants, and "when to use each" → references/templates.md.

Compiling

bash scripts/compile.sh FILE.typ [--preview] [--preview-dir DIR] [--dpi N] \
     [--root DIR] [--font-path DIR]

Typst has a single engine, so there's no engine flag and no multi-pass build. --root sets the project root Typst may read files from (default: the file's directory); --font-path adds a directory of custom fonts. Requires the typst CLI, plus poppler-utils (pdftoppm) for previews. Run scripts/compile.sh --help for the full list.

Adding a template

This skill is a framework — new document types are added as template directories, not by editing a monolith. The contract (required layout, quality rules, how to register) is in references/adding-templates.md.

Conventions

• Write generated documents into ./outputs/ for user visibility; never edit a template in place — copy it first.
• Always render and view PNG previews after compiling, then show the user.
• Prefer self-contained templates: vendor the style as a local .typ function rather than depending on a @preview package that needs a network fetch.
• Escape Typst specials in user-supplied prose with a backslash: # $ @ * _ ` < > [ ] and \ itself (e.g. C\#, 20\% off… note % is not special in Typst — only // starts a comment). Inside math ($…$), _ ^ & # are structural — enter literals as \_, \^, \&, \#.