LaTeX Compiler Service

A lightweight API that compiles LaTeX projects into PDFs. Send a ZIP archive containing your .tex files, get a compiled PDF back.

API

POST /

Compile a LaTeX project.

Headers:

• X-Latex-Main-Path (required) — relative path to the main .tex file inside the ZIP
• Authorization: Bearer <API_KEY> (optional) — required if API_KEY env var is set

Body: ZIP file containing your LaTeX project

Response: application/pdf on success, plain text error on failure

Example:

zip -r project.zip resume.tex
curl -X POST https://your-service.onrender.com \
  -H "X-Latex-Main-Path: resume.tex" \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer YOUR_API_KEY" \
  --data-binary @project.zip \
  -o output.pdf

GET /

Health check. Returns {"status": "ok"}.

Environment Variables

Variable	Default	Description
API_KEY	(none)	If set, requires Bearer token auth
COMPILE_TIMEOUT	120	Max seconds per pdflatex run
MAX_PASSES	2	Number of pdflatex passes (for references/TOC)
MAX_BODY_SIZE	10MB	Max upload size
MAX_EXTRACTED_SIZE	50MB	Max extracted ZIP size

Deploy

Render

1. Connect your GitHub repo
2. Select Docker environment
3. Set API_KEY env var (optional)

Docker (local)

docker build -t latex-compiler .
docker run -p 8080:8080 -e API_KEY=your_secret latex-compiler