LaTeX Vault

An Obsidian plugin that renders LaTeX code blocks in your vault using a local TeX installation (MiKTeX / TeX Live), producing SVG images: TikZ diagrams, pgfplots, matrices, algorithms, code listings, math — with any installed package, including the ones TikZJax cannot load.

Features

• Renders latex-vault blocks (plus legacy tikz, tikzcd, pgfplots) to SVG using your local TeX (MiKTeX / TeX Live), in both Reading and Edit mode.
• Supports any LaTeX package (pgfplots, circuitikz, tikz-cd, forest, nicematrix, algorithmicx, listings, ...), unlike TikZJax.
• Automatic pdflatex + dvisvgm / latex + dvisvgm fallback, with disk caching.
• In Edit mode the code stays available behind a closed "Show LaTeX code" toggle.
• Smart wrapping: bare TikZ commands and pgfplots axes are wrapped in a tikzpicture, while self-contained environments (forest, circuitikz, quantikz, karnaugh-map, bytefield) and non-picture content (matrices, algorithms, code listings, math) are typeset as-is.
• Optional shell-escape (off by default) for packages that run external tools.

Requirements

• Obsidian (desktop).
• A local TeX installation with latex/pdflatex and dvisvgm on your PATH (or configured in the plugin settings):

For the build you also need Node.js.

Installation

From Obsidian Community Plugins (Recommended)

1. Open Settings → Community plugins → Browse in Obsidian.
2. Search for LaTeX Vault, click Install, and then Enable.

From Source

1. Clone the repo and build:

git clone https://github.com/GodJeam/latex-vault.git
cd latex-vault
npm install
npm run build

2. Copy the generated files into your vault:

<vault>/.obsidian/plugins/latex-vault/
    ├── main.js
    ├── manifest.json
    └── styles.css

3. In Obsidian: Settings → Community plugins → enable LaTeX Vault.

Usage

Wrap LaTeX code in a ```latex-vault fenced block:

```latex-vault
\begin{tikzpicture}
\draw (0,0) circle (1);
\end{tikzpicture}
```

Blocks are not limited to diagrams: matrices, pseudocode, code listings and formulas work too:

```latex-vault
$\begin{pNiceMatrix} 1 & 2 \\ 3 & 4 \end{pNiceMatrix}$
```

```latex-vault
\begin{algorithmic}
\For{$i = 1$ to $n$}
  \State $s \gets s + a_i$
\EndFor
\end{algorithmic}
```

Preamble and packages

Leading lines with preamble commands (\usepackage, \usetikzlibrary, \newcommand, \lstset, ...) are moved to the preamble. A block containing \documentclass is compiled verbatim; one containing \begin{document} only gets the missing class and tikz.

tikz, amsmath and amssymb are always loaded. These packages are loaded automatically when their environments/commands are detected (unless you load them yourself):

Floats (algorithm, figure, table) are forced to the [H] placement so they render inside the standalone image; \begin{algorithm} loads algorithm automatically unless you load algorithm2e.

Any other installed package can be loaded with \usepackage in the block or in the Extra preamble setting. A full TeX installation (e.g. texlive-scheme-full) avoids missing-package errors.

minted: recent TeX Live versions run it in restricted mode. If yours does not, enable shell-escape in the settings — only for trusted vaults, since it lets code blocks execute commands.

The latex-vault tag is dedicated to the plugin, so Obsidian's latex syntax highlighting keeps working for code you only want to show. The tikz, tikzcd and ```pgfplots tags still work for existing notes.

In the plugin settings you can configure the engine, binary paths, an extra preamble, shell-escape, and the interface language (English by default, Italian optional). Use the Test button to verify your TeX configuration.

Structure

• src/ — TypeScript source
• build/ — build tooling (esbuild config, tsconfig)
• main.js / manifest.json / styles.css — built plugin files (copy into the vault)

License

GPL-3.0 — see LICENSE.