Compiling

Oleafly compiles with Tectonic, an XeTeX-based engine that ships inside the app. There is no TeX distribution to install and no build configuration: open a project, press compile, get a PDF. Output is Unicode-clean with embedded, subsetted fonts, which is exactly what ATS parsers and archives want.

Starting a compile

• ⌘↵ (Ctrl+Enter), anywhere.
• The Compile button at the top right of the toolbar.
• Recompile in the ⌘K command palette.
• Opening a project into a view that shows the PDF pane compiles once automatically, so you land on a fresh preview.

Compiling always saves the active file first, so the PDF matches what you see. If you’re in editor-only view, compiling reveals the split view so you can watch the result.

Auto-compile

Run Enable auto-compile from the ⌘K palette and Oleafly recompiles about 2.5 seconds after you stop typing. Only real edits trigger it; switching tabs or opening files doesn’t. It’s off by default, and the same palette entry turns it back off.

Compiles never pile up: if you keep typing while a build runs, exactly one follow-up compile is queued so the final PDF always reflects your latest edits.

Watching progress

A thin progress bar runs across the top of the preview during a build, and before the first PDF exists the pane shows a percentage estimate. When a build finishes, the toolbar shows a status chip with the compile time and a severity icon:

• Green check: compiled successfully.
• Amber triangle: compiled with warnings. You still get the PDF.
• Red cross: compiled with errors.

The preview switches to the PDF automatically on success. Only a genuine failure (no PDF produced) switches you to the Logs view.

Reading the logs

The Logs button at the left of the preview toolbar flips between the PDF and the compile log, with a badge counting errors (red) or warnings (amber):

• A parsed diagnostics list up top: each error or warning with its kind and, when known, the l.42 line reference.
• The full raw TeX log below, colorized: errors bold red, line references highlighted, file nesting indented.
• A Copy log button grabs the whole thing for a bug report or a forum post.

Compile errors also become squiggles in the editor via the linter pipeline, and the AI assistant can read this same log with its get_log tool when you ask it to fix the errors.

Packages: fetched once, cached forever

Tectonic downloads a LaTeX package the first time a document needs it, then caches it locally. That makes the very first compile of a new document type slower (and needs a network connection), and every compile after it fast and offline.

Offline mode (Settings, General, or the ⌘K palette) makes this a guarantee: the compiler runs with --only-cached and never touches the network. A document needing an uncached package fails fast with a clear error instead of hanging on a download.

Limits and safety valves

• One compile runs at a time per project; newer requests supersede stale ones, so switching projects mid-build never paints the wrong PDF.
• A hard 300-second timeout kills a wedged build rather than letting it spin forever.

Common failures, quick fixes

• “Missing package” in Offline mode: turn Offline mode off for one compile to fetch and cache it, then turn it back on.
• Undefined citation or reference warnings: Preflight pinpoints every one, with the file and line.
• An error you can’t parse: ask the AI. “Fix the LaTeX errors” triggers a compile, log read, targeted edit, and recompile loop, with every change shown to you for approval first.

Beyond Tectonic

Tectonic covers everyday compiling. For tagged, accessible PDFs (Section 508 / PDF-UA), Oleafly can use LuaLaTeX via a system TeX Live or a self-contained TinyTeX install. That story lives on LaTeX engines & packages.