Claude LaTeX Skill

Produce high-quality, compilable LaTeX instantly — using Claude, for free.

Created by Hassan Mohammad · Open Source · MIT Licence

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What Does This Skill Do?

This skill turns Claude into a specialist LaTeX assistant for mathematics, science, and engineering. Instead of generic output, you get:

• ✅ Fully compilable .tex files — ready to compile with any LaTeX compiler
• ✅ Complete Beamer presentation slides with proper slide structure
• ✅ Correct mathematical notation (theorems, proofs, algorithms, convergence analysis)
• ✅ Professional preamble with all packages pre-configured
• ✅ Three modes: Document, Snippet, and Beamer Presentation

You do not need Claude Code. You do not need a terminal. You only need a free Claude account.

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Who Is This For?

• 📐 Mathematics and science students writing reports or theses
• 🎓 Researchers typesetting theorems, proofs, and derivations
• 👨‍🏫 Lecturers preparing Beamer presentation slides
• 💻 Anyone who finds LaTeX preambles and package configuration frustrating
• 🌍 Users worldwide — no subscription, no installation required

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How to Use (Free Claude — No Terminal Needed)

This is the simplest method. It works with the free version of Claude at claude.ai.

Step 1 — Download the skill file

Click this link to open SKILL.md on GitHub:

👉 View SKILL.md

On that page, click the Copy raw file button (the two-overlapping-squares icon near the top right of the file). This copies the entire skill to your clipboard.

Alternative: Click the green Code button on the main repo page → Download ZIP → this gives you a .zip file containing SKILL.md.

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Step 2 — Open Claude and install the skill

Go to claude.ai and install the skill using the built-in Skills manager:

1. Click the ➕ (plus) icon in the main chat interface
2. Navigate to Skills in the menu that appears
3. Click Manage Skills
4. Click the ➕ icon near the search bar
5. Click Create Skill, then click Upload Skill
6. Drag and drop your downloaded SKILL.md file (or .zip containing it) into the upload area, or click to browse and select the file
7. Click Save — the skill is now installed and active

Not sure how to install? You can also ask Claude directly: type "How do I install a skill in Claude?" and Claude will walk you through the steps for your current version.

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Step 3 — Start a conversation and make your request

Once the skill is installed, open a new conversation in Claude. The skill will activate automatically when you make a LaTeX-related request. Just describe what you need:

Example requests you can try:

What you want	What to type
A theorem with proof	Write a theorem and proof for the convergence of gradient descent
A Beamer slide deck	Create a Beamer presentation on conjugate gradient methods
A LaTeX snippet	Give me a LaTeX table comparing three optimisation algorithms
A full report	Produce a full LaTeX document for my numerical experiments section

Without skill installation: You can also use the skill without installing it. Copy the contents of SKILL.md, then paste it into your message wrapped in <skill>...</skill> tags, followed by your request. This works in any conversation without any setup.

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Step 4 — Compile the output

Copy Claude's .tex output and compile it using any LaTeX compiler available to you:

Online (no installation required):

• Overleaf — paste into a blank project and click Recompile
• Papeeria, LaTeX.Online, or any other online LaTeX editor

On your computer (if you have a LaTeX distribution installed):

• TeX Live (Linux/macOS/Windows) — compile with pdflatex filename.tex in a terminal
• MiKTeX (Windows) — open in TeXworks or any MiKTeX-compatible editor and compile
• MacTeX (macOS) — open in TeXShop or TeXstudio and click Typeset

The output from Claude is immediately compilable — no manual package installation or preamble editing needed.

That is it. No command line required for the online route.

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How to Use (Claude Code — For Advanced Users)

If you have Claude Code installed, you can install this skill permanently so it activates automatically whenever you work on LaTeX in any project.

How Claude Code skills work: Skills are loaded from the filesystem. Each skill must live inside a named directory (the directory name becomes the /command you invoke), with SKILL.md as the entrypoint. There is no claude skill install command — the installation is a file-copy operation into one of the paths Claude Code watches.

Where skills can live

Scope	Path	Effect
Personal (recommended)	~/.claude/skills/latex/SKILL.md	Active in all your projects
Project	.claude/skills/latex/SKILL.md	Active in the current project only

Claude Code watches these directories automatically. Changes take effect within the current session; creating the directory for the first time requires restarting Claude Code.

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Option A — One-line download (recommended)

This downloads SKILL.md directly from GitHub and places it in the correct directory. No git clone required.

macOS / Linux (Terminal):

mkdir -p ~/.claude/skills/latex && \
curl -fsSL \
  https://raw.githubusercontent.com/hameefy/claude-latex-skill/main/SKILL.md \
  -o ~/.claude/skills/latex/SKILL.md

Windows (PowerShell):

New-Item -ItemType Directory -Force -Path "$HOME\.claude\skills\latex" | Out-Null
Invoke-WebRequest `
  -Uri "https://raw.githubusercontent.com/hameefy/claude-latex-skill/main/SKILL.md" `
  -OutFile "$HOME\.claude\skills\latex\SKILL.md"

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Option B — From source (git clone)

Use this if you want the full repository, including the references/ folder.

macOS / Linux:

git clone https://github.com/hameefy/claude-latex-skill.git
mkdir -p ~/.claude/skills/latex
cp claude-latex-skill/SKILL.md ~/.claude/skills/latex/SKILL.md

Windows (PowerShell):

git clone https://github.com/hameefy/claude-latex-skill.git
New-Item -ItemType Directory -Force -Path "$HOME\.claude\skills\latex" | Out-Null
Copy-Item claude-latex-skill\SKILL.md "$HOME\.claude\skills\latex\SKILL.md"

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Option C — Project-level installation (current project only)

Run this inside the root of your project directory if you want the skill scoped to that project alone.

macOS / Linux:

mkdir -p .claude/skills/latex && \
curl -fsSL \
  https://raw.githubusercontent.com/hameefy/claude-latex-skill/main/SKILL.md \
  -o .claude/skills/latex/SKILL.md

Windows (PowerShell):

New-Item -ItemType Directory -Force -Path ".claude\skills\latex" | Out-Null
Invoke-WebRequest `
  -Uri "https://raw.githubusercontent.com/hameefy/claude-latex-skill/main/SKILL.md" `
  -OutFile ".claude\skills\latex\SKILL.md"

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Verify the installation

Start (or restart) Claude Code in a terminal:

claude

Then either type /latex directly, or describe a LaTeX task in plain language. Claude Code will auto-discover the skill based on your request.

Why not claude skill install? That command does not exist in the official Claude Code CLI. Skills are filesystem resources — placing SKILL.md in the correct directory is the complete installation. No package manager or CLI subcommand is needed.

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What Can I Ask It?

Document Mode — Full .tex Files

Ask for anything that needs a complete, standalone document:

Write a LaTeX document containing Theorem 3.1 and its proof for the global convergence
of the Fletcher–Reeves conjugate gradient method under Wolfe line search conditions.

Produce a LaTeX report of my numerical experiments comparing Adam, SGD, and RMSProp
on a logistic regression problem. Include a performance table and convergence graph
placeholder.

Beamer Mode — Presentation Slides

Any of these phrases will trigger slide output:

Create Beamer slides for my talk on proximal gradient methods.

Make a presentation on regularisation techniques for inverse problems.
Include introduction, related work, methodology, convergence results,
numerical experiments, and conclusion sections.

Snippet Mode — Single Equations or Tables

Give me a LaTeX snippet for a 3×4 table of optimisation results with booktabs formatting.

Write the LaTeX for the proximal operator definition and the ISTA update rule.

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Three Modes at a Glance

Mode	Output	When to use
Document	Full .tex file	Reports, papers, thesis chapters, technical notes
Snippet	LaTeX code block	Single equations, tables, algorithms to paste into your own doc
Beamer	Full .tex slide deck	Conference talks, seminar presentations, lecture slides

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Compatibility

Requirement	Detail
Claude version	Any version at claude.ai (free or paid) · Claude Sonnet 4 or later for Claude Code
LaTeX engine — article	pdfLaTeX (primary); LuaLaTeX and XeLaTeX supported for BibLaTeX/Biber
LaTeX engine — Beamer	pdfLaTeX (recommended); LuaLaTeX supported
TeX distribution	TeX Live 2022 or later; MiKTeX 22 or later · Or use Overleaf (no installation)
pgfplots	compat = 1.18 or later
Beamer	Any version included in TeX Live 2022 or later
perpage package	Included in TeX Live and MiKTeX standard installations

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Repository Structure

claude-latex-skill/
├── SKILL.md              # Main skill file — all production rules and preamble
├── references/
│   └── preamble.md       # Supplementary macro variants (legacy reference)
├── README.md             # This file
├── banner.svg            # Repository banner image
└── LICENSE               # MIT Licence

The canonical preamble is embedded directly in SKILL.md (Step 2). The references/preamble.md file is retained for supplementary macro variants only.

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Feedback and Contributions

This skill is actively maintained. If something does not work, or you want a new feature:

• 🐛 Found a bug? Open an issue
• 💡 Have a suggestion? Open a discussion or submit a pull request
• ⭐ If it helped you, please star the repository — it helps others find it

What feedback is most useful?

• LaTeX that did not compile — paste the error message in the issue
• A mathematical structure the skill did not handle correctly
• Missing packages or notations for your field
• Any mode (Document / Snippet / Beamer) producing wrong output

When submitting changes to SKILL.md, ensure that:

• The preamble in Step 2 remains conflict-free and compilable.
• New macros follow the naming conventions established in Step 3.3.
• Any new reference entries in Step 9 use the \bibitem format specified in Step 5.
• The pre-output checklist in Step 7 remains complete and internally consistent.

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Quick-Start Summary

Free Claude (no terminal required):
  1. Copy SKILL.md from GitHub (use the "Copy raw file" button)
  2. Go to claude.ai → ➕ → Skills → Manage Skills → ➕ → Create Skill → Upload Skill
  3. Upload SKILL.md → Save
  4. Open a new conversation and describe your LaTeX task
  5. Copy the .tex output → compile in Overleaf or any LaTeX distribution

Shortcut (no install): Paste SKILL.md contents inside <skill>...</skill> tags in any
message, followed by your request. Works immediately without Steps 2–3.

Claude Code (advanced):
  macOS / Linux:  mkdir -p ~/.claude/skills/latex && curl -fsSL \
                    https://raw.githubusercontent.com/hameefy/claude-latex-skill/main/SKILL.md \
                    -o ~/.claude/skills/latex/SKILL.md
  Windows:        New-Item -Force -Path "$HOME\.claude\skills\latex" -ItemType Directory
                  Invoke-WebRequest -Uri "https://raw.githubusercontent.com/hameefy/claude-latex-skill/main/SKILL.md" `
                    -OutFile "$HOME\.claude\skills\latex\SKILL.md"
  Then restart Claude Code and type /latex or describe a LaTeX task.

No terminal required for the free-Claude route. Works on the free plan.

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Built by Hassan Mohammad · Applied Mathematics & Numerical Optimisation Bayero University | Kyungpook National University · Open Source · MIT Licence