\usepackage{curl}

FormaTeX REST API with curl

Compile LaTeX to PDF from the terminal in a single curl command. No SDK, no dependencies — just the REST API and your API key.

Get your API key Try the playground

Also available in:Python·Node.js·Go·PHP·Ruby·Rust·cURL|Full API reference

\section{Basic Compile}

Basic compile

Send a POST request to /v1/compile/sync with your LaTeX source. The response body is the raw PDF binary — save it directly with --output.

terminal

curl -X POST https://api.formatex.io/v1/compile/sync \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $FORMATEX_API_KEY" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{
    "source": "\\documentclass{article}\\begin{document}Hello World\\end{document}",
    "engine": "pdflatex"
  }' \
  --output output.pdf

\section{Engine Selection}

Engine selection

Set the engine field to switch compilers. Use xelatex for Unicode and system fonts, or lualatex for Lua scripting. See engine documentation for the full comparison.

terminal

# pdfLaTeX (fastest)
curl -X POST https://api.formatex.io/v1/compile/sync \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $FORMATEX_API_KEY" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{"source": "...", "engine": "pdflatex"}' \
  --output pdflatex.pdf

# XeLaTeX (Unicode + system fonts)
curl -X POST https://api.formatex.io/v1/compile/sync \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $FORMATEX_API_KEY" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{"source": "...", "engine": "xelatex"}' \
  --output xelatex.pdf

\section{From a .tex file}

Compile from a .tex file

Use jq to safely escape the file contents into a JSON string before passing it to curl. This handles newlines and special characters correctly.

terminal

# Read from file using shell substitution
curl -X POST https://api.formatex.io/v1/compile/sync \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $FORMATEX_API_KEY" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d "{\"source\": $(cat main.tex | jq -Rs .), \"engine\": \"pdflatex\"}" \
  --output output.pdf

# Or use jq to build the JSON properly
jq -n --rawfile src main.tex '{"source": $src, "engine": "pdflatex"}' | \
  curl -X POST https://api.formatex.io/v1/compile/sync \
    -H "Authorization: Bearer $FORMATEX_API_KEY" \
    -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
    -d @- \
    --output output.pdf

\section{Response Headers}

Check response headers

Use --dump-header to capture response headers. The API returns X-Compile-Duration-Ms and X-Engine on every successful compile.

terminal

curl -X POST https://api.formatex.io/v1/compile/sync \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $FORMATEX_API_KEY" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{"source": "...", "engine": "pdflatex"}' \
  --output output.pdf \
  --dump-header headers.txt

# X-Compile-Duration-Ms: 94
# X-Engine: pdflatex
# Content-Type: application/pdf
cat headers.txt

\section{Endpoints}

API endpoints

Method	Endpoint	Description
POST	/v1/compile/sync	Compile LaTeX synchronously. Returns raw PDF bytes.
POST	/v1/compile/async	Submit a compile job. Returns a job ID to poll.

Response codes: 200 — PDF binary, 401 — invalid/missing API key, 422 — LaTeX compilation error (JSON body with error field).

\section{Authentication}

Authentication

All requests require an Authorization header with a Bearer token. Export your key as an environment variable so you can reference it in every command.

export FORMATEX_API_KEY=your-api-key

→Generate API keys from your dashboard after signing up.
→Keys are shown once on creation — save yours immediately.
→Add the export line to your ~/.bashrc or ~/.zshrc to persist it across sessions.

\section{Other SDKs}

Language guides and integrations

Pythonrequests and httpx examples for Python

Node.js / TypeScriptaxios, fetch, and async examples for Node.js

GitHub ActionsCompile LaTeX in CI with a GitHub Actions workflow

\end{curl}

Start compiling LaTeX with curl

Get your API key, run the quickstart command, and have a PDF in under a second — directly from your terminal.

Get API key Try the playground