Weibian1 is a software for taking scientific notes in the spirit of Forester, using Typst as the markup language. It is built around Typst's experimental bundle export: Weibian discovers notes and assets, generates a synthetic bundle entrypoint, and delegates rendering, links, transclusion, backmatter, and HTML output to Typst templates.
There is a demo site showcasing Weibian's features, built with Weibian itself as a live example.
- Rust toolchain only if building from source
Weibian uses Typst as a library by default, so no separate Typst installation is required. If compatibility issues arise, one could switch to a compiler installed on the host system through the --compiler host option. Note that the host compiler must be newer than Typst 0.15 (which is in RC stage as of this writing) to work with Weibian.
cargo install --path .cargo install --locked --git https://github.com/hanwenguo/weibian.gitNote that the binary will be named wb.
If a release is available for your platform, download it from:
https://github.com/hanwenguo/weibian/releases
Place the binary on your PATH.
Using the installed binary:
wb compileBy default, Weibian reads Typst sources from typ/, copies bundle assets from typ/public/, and outputs the final Typst bundle to dist/. Override paths if needed:
wb compile \
typ \
dist \
--public-dir public \
--pretty--public-dir is resolved relative to the input directory unless it is absolute, so --public-dir public means typ/public. Include/exclude globs in weibian.toml are matched against paths relative to the input directory. If you keep a handwritten bundle entrypoint such as typ/index.typ, exclude it explicitly to avoid duplicate #document or #asset output.
wb compile supports most Typst compile options. Weibian owns the input/output paths, project root, output format, and feature flags, and always invokes Typst as bundle export with bundle,html enabled.
By default, wb compile uses the embedded Typst-as-a-library compiler. To use a host Typst binary instead:
wb compile --compiler hostIf the host compiler is not named typst or is not on PATH, pass its path:
wb compile --compiler host --host-compiler /path/to/typstYou can also set the backend in weibian.toml:
[compiler]
backend = "library" # or "host"
path = "/path/to/typst" # optional, used by the host backendThe Cargo features library-compiler and host-compiler are both enabled by
default. Build with --no-default-features --features host-compiler for a
host-only binary, or with --no-default-features --features library-compiler
for an embedded-only binary.
Use wb watch or wb w while editing notes:
wb watchWatch mode uses the same input, output, public directory, site, compiler, and
Typst compile flags as wb compile. It is currently implemented only for the
embedded library compiler. Running wb watch --compiler host exits with a clear
unsupported-backend error.
By default, watch mode writes the Typst bundle to dist/, starts a local
live-reload HTTP server, and reloads connected browsers after successful bundle
updates. Server flags mirror Typst watch:
wb watch --no-serve
wb watch --no-reload
wb watch --port 4000A binary built without the library-compiler Cargo feature still parses
wb watch, but exits with an error explaining that watch mode requires the
library compiler.
- Utilizes Typst bundle export: just use your Typst templates/styles
- Out-of-the-box dark mode support
- Transclusion of notes
- Backmatter generation (backlinks, contexts, references, related notes)
- TOC generation
- Include/exclude notes based on glob patterns
- Datalog-based querying of notes
- Generalized backmatter
After the above features are implemented, Weibian will be feature-comparable to Forester. There are also some other nice-to-have features:
- More templating support
- Parallel processing of notes
These will be on the roadmap for version 2.0.
Weibian is following the spirit of Forester. Main differences are now:
- Forester uses its own markup language and LaTeX/KaTeX for math, and Weibian uses Typst for everything.
- Forester, as for now, is more mature than Weibian.
- Forester now generates XML and Weibian generates HTML.
Kodama is a similar project that uses Typst and Markdown to manage notes. The main difference is that Kodama uses Markdown as the primary note format with good Typst support, while Weibian uses Typst as the only note format.
Typsite is a project that uses Typst to generate static sites. It is very similar to Weibian in that they both generate a static site from a collection of Typst files. However, Typsite aims to be a general purpose static site generator, and provides many features (e.g. schema, rewriting, etc.) for that. Weibian is more focused on being a tool for taking scientific notes, thus more opinionated and less flexible.
This project is licensed under the GNU General Public License v3.0.
Footnotes
-
Weibian (simplified Chinese: 韦编; traditional Chinese: 韋編; Chinese Pinyin: wéi biān; IPA: [weɪ˧˥ pjɛn˥˥]; roughly “Way-Byen”) means the ancient Chinese technology of bookmaking. Before the invention of paper, Chinese scholars wrote on narrow vertical slips of bamboo or wood (simplified Chinese: 简牍; traditional Chinese: 簡牘) which were then bound together with leather straps to form a book. “韦” (weí) refers to the leather straps used to bind the bamboo slips, and “编” (biān) means to weave, bind, organize or compile. Just as leather straps bind scattered bamboo slips into a scroll, this project aims to weave your notes into a structured, cohesive knowledge base. The name is also a tribute to the spirit of learning and researching. According to 《史记》 (Shiji, or the Records of the Grand Historian), Confucius studied 《易经》(Yijing, or I Ching, or the Book of Changes) with such intensity that the leather bindings of his bamboo book wore out and snapped multiple times. The source text reads: “读《易》，韦编三绝” (“[Confucius] read the Yijing [so frequently that] the leather bindings broke multiple times”). By naming this project Weibian, I honor both the structure of knowledge (the binding) and the persistence required to master it. ↩