latex-setup

latex-setup is a skill for Claude Code from terrylica/cc-skills. It costs 36 tokens per session (1,060 once invoked), scanned B, original, MIT.

A macOS setup guide for a LaTeX writing environment. LaTeX is a system for producing formatted documents, and the guide covers MacTeX, the Skim PDF viewer, SyncTeX links, installation checks, and troubleshooting.

In plain words
What is it for?
Use it when setting up LaTeX on a Mac, compiling a test document, configuring source-to-PDF navigation, or fixing missing packages.
Why use it?
It provides a repeatable way to install the required tools and verify that documents can be compiled and viewed.

Skill for Claude Code

Written for Claude Code: allowed-tools in frontmatter.

Part of the doc-tools plugin — 13 skills shipped together , and of cc-skills

Good fit Use it when setting up LaTeX on a Mac, compiling a test document, configuring source-to-PDF navigation, or fixing missing packages.

Compare 6 skills from other repositories ↓
Install with agentmods
npx agentmods add skills/terrylica/cc-skills/latex-setup
Install

Getting it into your agent

One page per mod, every tool's command on it. A separate URL per tool would split the same page into five that compete with each other.

Any agent
npx skills add terrylica/cc-skills --skill latex-setup
Clone the repo
git clone --depth 1 https://github.com/terrylica/cc-skills

Made for: Claude Code.

Or install doc-tools, the plugin that ships this one along with the rest of its 13 skills.

Wrote this? Show the measurements

A badge with what this costs and how it scanned, read live from this page, so it follows the numbers instead of freezing them. Markdown for a README, HTML for a documentation site or a project page.

agentmods badge for latex-setup

README.md
[![agentmods](https://agentmods.dev/badge/skills/terrylica/cc-skills/latex-setup/github.svg)](https://agentmods.dev/skills/terrylica/cc-skills/latex-setup)
Your own site
<a href="https://agentmods.dev/skills/terrylica/cc-skills/latex-setup"><img src="https://agentmods.dev/badge/skills/terrylica/cc-skills/latex-setup/github.svg" alt="Measured on agentmods" height="20"></a>

Or the 80×15 button, for a site that already has a row of RSS and ATOM ones. Only the verdict fits; the numbers stay here.

agentmods 80×15 button for latex-setup

Your own site · 80×15
<a href="https://agentmods.dev/skills/terrylica/cc-skills/latex-setup"><img src="https://agentmods.dev/badge/skills/terrylica/cc-skills/latex-setup.svg" alt="Reviewed on agentmods" width="80" height="20"></a>
Per session 36 Skills are progressive disclosure: only the name and description are preloaded; the body loads when the skill is used.
When invoked 1,060 The whole file, excluding the scripts and references it only reads on demand.
Security scan B 1 finding. A grade says what 26 rules found in the file — not that it is safe. Third-party audits
  • NVIDIA SkillSpector warn 7 Sept 2026
SkillSpector: 5 findings, up to high

These are SkillSpector’s own severities. On a checked sample its high-severity flags on skills were ~96% false positives — a documented command, a public API, a “never do X” rule — so we show them as a caution to read, not a verdict. Why →

  • high Rogue Agent · line 113
    Skill modifies its own code, configuration, or behavior at runtime. Self-modification enables an agent to escalate privileges, disable safety constraints, or install persistent backdoors.
    Fix: Prevent the skill from modifying its own code, SKILL.md, or configuration files. Treat skill files as read-only at runtime.
  • medium Privilege Escalation · line 72
    Commands invoke sudo or root privileges. Verify this elevated access is necessary and justified.
    Fix: Avoid sudo/root unless strictly required. Prefer least-privilege patterns. If elevation is needed, document the justification and scope.
  • medium Privilege Escalation · line 98
    Commands invoke sudo or root privileges. Verify this elevated access is necessary and justified.
    Fix: Avoid sudo/root unless strictly required. Prefer least-privilege patterns. If elevation is needed, document the justification and scope.
  • medium Privilege Escalation · line 101
    Commands invoke sudo or root privileges. Verify this elevated access is necessary and justified.
    Fix: Avoid sudo/root unless strictly required. Prefer least-privilege patterns. If elevation is needed, document the justification and scope.
  • medium Privilege Escalation · line 98
    Commands invoke sudo or root privileges. Verify this elevated access is necessary and justified.
    Fix: Avoid sudo/root unless strictly required. Prefer least-privilege patterns. If elevation is needed, document the justification and scope.
How audits are shown
Origin original No closer match found in the catalogue.
Token cost

What it costs to keep this loaded

Counted locally with the o200k_base tokenizer, which is exact for GPT models; Claude uses its own tokenizer and its counts differ. Treat this as one consistent yardstick across the catalogue rather than a bill. Prices are per million input tokens.

ModelPer sessionOnce invoked
Fable 5.1 $0.00036 $0.01060
Opus 5 $0.00018 $0.00530
Sonnet 5 $0.00007 $0.00212
Haiku 4.5 $0.00004 $0.00106

Measured 3d ago against content hash b62a0cec5fa9, method: parsed. Prices are Anthropic first-party input rates as of 2026-09-08, from the pricing page.

Security

Grade B, and why

latex-setup scanned grade B with 1 finding against 26 rules in 11 categories — prompt injection, anti-refusal, data exfiltration, privilege escalation, supply chain, agent snooping, system-prompt leakage, SSRF and excessive agency — measured 3d ago.

A static scan of the body, not an audit. Every finding is printed with the line that produced it so you can judge whether it matters here. A mod is markdown that instructs an agent; that is exactly why what it instructs is worth reading.

Asks for rootmediumPrivilege escalation

A mod that escalates privileges can change anything on the machine, not only the project.

- [ ] Test package installation: `sudo tlmgr install <package>`
plugins/doc-tools/skills/latex-setup/SKILL.md · 116 lines

How it starts

The opening of the file, as written. The whole thing — 116 lines — stays where its author put it; the contents beside it link to each section on GitHub.

LaTeX Environment Setup

Self-Evolving Skill: This skill improves through use. If instructions are wrong, parameters drifted, or a workaround was needed — fix this file immediately, don't defer. Only update for real, reproducible issues.

When to Use This Skill

Use this skill when:

  • Installing LaTeX on a new machine
  • Setting up MacTeX distribution
  • Configuring Skim PDF viewer with SyncTeX
  • Verifying LaTeX installation
  • Troubleshooting missing packages

Quick Reference

Component Purpose Status
MacTeX 2025 Full LaTeX distribution (TeX Live 2025) ✅ Recommended
Skim 1.7.11 PDF viewer with SyncTeX support ✅ macOS only
TeXShop 5.57 Integrated LaTeX IDE (optional) ✅ Native macOS

Quick Start

Install MacTeX

brew install --cask mactex
# Size: ~4.5 GB (includes everything)

Verify Installation

tex --version
# Expected: TeX 3.141592653 (TeX Live 2025)

pdflatex --version
latexmk --version

Test Compilation

echo '\documentclass{article}\begin{document}Hello World!\end{document}' > test.tex
pdflatex test.tex
ls test.pdf  # Verify PDF created

Post-Installation Checklist

  • Verify tex --version shows TeX Live 2025
  • Verify latexmk --version shows 4.86a+
  • Verify pdflatex test.tex creates PDF
  • Install Skim if using mactex-no-gui
  • Test SyncTeX: compile with -synctex=1 flag
  • Configure Skim preferences for editor integration
  • Add /Library/TeX/texbin to PATH if needed
  • Test package installation: sudo tlmgr install <package>

Reference Documentation

For detailed information, see:

Read the full file on GitHub · 116 lines

Files

What ships with it

7 files beside SKILL.md in the same directory: the scripts, references and assets a skill reads on demand. Not counted in the per-session cost; read them before you install if any of them is executable.

Changes

What this file has done since we first saw it

Hashed on every crawl. A supply-chain change to an agent config is a question of when, not whether, so the history is kept rather than the latest state alone.

  1. 3d ago First seen · 116 lines · 36 tokens per session scan B b62a0cec5fa9

Subscribe to this mod's changes

latex-setup is a skill published in the GitHub repository terrylica/cc-skills (66 stars, last pushed today), licensed MIT. It adds 36 tokens to every session and 1,060 once invoked, about $0.0002 per session on Opus 5. A static security scan graded it B with 1 finding (asks for root). No closer match exists in the catalogue, so it is treated as the original; first seen 2026-09-05.

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