What it does

mergdown2tex takes your Obsidian note and transforms it into a publication-ready LaTeX document. Everything is merged automatically:

Output formats:

• PDF via TeX Live + Podman
• DOCX via Pandoc
• .tex for manual editing
• InDesign compatible output

How it works

┌─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│  Obsidian Note                                          │
│  ├── [[Note A]]          ──→  \input{note_a}           │
│  ├── ![[Note B]]         ──→  recursive expansion      │
│  ├── ![[image.png]]      ──→  \includegraphics{}       │
│  ├── @citation           ──→  \citep{} + arrows ↑↓     │
│  ├── $math$              ──→  LaTeX equation            │
│  └── ```mermaid```       ──→  rendered PNG              │
└─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘
                        │
                        ▼
┌─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│  WASM Engine (inside Obsidian)                          │
│  ├── Markdown → LaTeX conversion (pure Rust)            │
│  ├── Embed expansion (filesystem)                       │
│  ├── Citation extraction + navigation                   │
│  └── Mermaid → PNG rendering                            │
└─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘
                        │
                        ▼
┌─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│  Output Files                                           │
│  ├── document.tex    (LaTeX source)                     │
│  ├── document.pdf    (compiled PDF)                     │
│  └── document.docx   (Word document)                    │
└─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘

Dependencies

For PDF/DOCX compilation

Install the LaTeX environment using the included Dockerfile:

# Build the container (one time)
podman build -t mergdown2tex-env -f Dockerfile .

# Or use Docker
docker build -t mergdown2tex-env -f Dockerfile .

The container includes:

• TeX Live (full)
• Pandoc
• Python3 + Pygments (for minted)
• All required LaTeX packages

Install

Manual install

1. Download main.js and manifest.json from Releases
2. Copy to .obsidian/plugins/mergdown2tex/
3. Enable in Settings → Community Plugins

Folder structure

.obsidian/
└── plugins/
    └── mergdown2tex/
        ├── main.js          ~2.8 MB   ← plugin + WASM embarqué
        └── manifest.json     351 B    ← metadata

Commands

Settings

Why mergdown2tex?

Architecture

Release (2 files — installés par Obsidian) :

main.js          ~2.8 MB   ← plugin + WASM embarqué (Base64)
manifest.json     351 B    ← metadata

Développement (dans le repo) :

main.js             56 KB   ← plugin + WASM bindings
vlatex_bg.wasm     2.1 MB   ← WASM séparé (loaded from disk)
manifest.json       351 B   ← metadata
scripts/
└── bundle-release.js        ← encode WASM → Base64 → injecte dans main.js

Build release automatisé par GitHub Actions :

graph LR
    A[git tag 1.0.x] --> B[GitHub Actions]
    B --> C[bundle-release.js]
    C --> D[main.js + WASM]
    D --> E[Release]
    D --> F[Attestations]

Zero build step. WASM embarqué dans main.js à la release.

Troubleshooting

"WASM module not loaded"

• Ensure vlatex_bg.wasm is in the same folder as main.js
• Restart Obsidian

"Podman not found"

• Install Podman: https://podman.io/getting-started/installation
• Or use Docker instead

"Compilation failed"

• Check that the container is built: podman images | grep mergdown2tex-env
• Rebuild if needed: podman build -t mergdown2tex-env -f Dockerfile .

License

MIT

Support

• GitHub Issues
• Documentation