Quick Start Guide

You have a paper draft and a deadline. Let's get TeXRA working for you in under five minutes. On a fresh install, the setup assistant offers to run this whole loop for you in one conversation; this page is the reference for the Launcher you'll drive every day after.

The whole story in one line: Setup is the doorman, polish is the demo, the orchestrator is the habit.

draft.tex — texra-sample

Launcher Progress

InteractiveWorkflow

Tighten the abstract and fix the awkward phrasing in §2 — keep my notation.

polish

sonnet46

% sample project

\begin{abstract}

We present a novel and efficient method for the

estimation of spectral gaps in random regular

graphs, that is both fast and accurate.

\end{abstract}

\section{Preliminaries}

Let $G$ be a $d$-regular graph on $n$ vertices.

The Launcher tab: point it at your file, pick an agent and a model, write one sentence, and press Execute.

Overview

TeXRA sits inside VS Code and helps you polish writing, fix errors, create figures, and transform documents—without leaving your editor. Here's the short version:

1. Select your file
2. Pick an agent and model
3. Write a short instruction
4. Click Execute
5. Review the diff

💡 Tip: Inside VS Code you can open the Get started with TeXRA walkthrough from the Get Started page (or by running TeXRA: Open Getting Started Walkthrough). It tells the same story in three beats — sign in or add a key, the setup assistant takes it from here, meet the orchestrator — and links directly to the relevant commands.

Prefer the terminal?

This guide walks through the VS Code extension. If you installed the CLI, the same agents run from the command line — start an interactive session with texra chat, or run a single agent with texra run polish --input draft.tex. Run texra agents list to see what's available.

Sign in or add a key

A credential is the one step no agent can do for you. On a fresh install, the Welcome to TeXRA card in the TeXRA panel offers the same two choices, in the same order:

1. Sign in — free for academics — Researcher Access: no API key needed (recommended). Run TeXRA: Sign In from the Command Palette, or pick the sign-in option on the welcome card. Signing in also unlocks remote agents, including the orchestrator.
2. Use your own provider API key — Anthropic, OpenAI, Google, and more. Open the Dashboard's Models tab (the gear icon at the top of the TeXRA panel) and set your provider's key in the API Configuration table, or place a .env file in your workspace with variables like OPENAI_API_KEY.

The full per-provider key reference — the API Configuration table, Set / Get / Remove actions, and per-provider toggles — lives in Models → Setting API Keys.

Once a credential is in place, the setup assistant takes it from here: one conversation that checks your environment, applies a team for your field, and runs your first polish, ending at a diff. First run is the manual mirror of that conversation.

CLI credentials

The terminal uses the same two paths — texra login for included hosted access, or provider env vars for your own keys. See Authentication on the CLI page.

Basic Workflow

Haven't run an agent yet? First run walks through the whole loop — sample file, one polish run, read the diff — in five minutes, side-by-side for the extension and the CLI. The sections below cover the Launcher controls you'll use beyond that.

The Launcher in Detail

Open the TeXRA panel from the brain icon in the sidebar, or press Ctrl+Alt+M (Cmd+Option+M on macOS).

Select Files

1. In the Input section, click Add files and pick your document from the file picker. You can also drag-and-drop it from the OS file manager. If you have several .tex files open and want them all, use Add opened files — it appends every editor tab whose extension matches.
2. (Optional) Use the same buttons in Context to add read-only references or preamble, and Media to add figure files.

Multiple Files

Each category holds an ordered list — add as many files as the task needs and drag rows to reorder them.

draft.tex — texra-paper

Launcher Progress

Files

Input

draft.tex

Context

references.bib

preamble.sty

Media

figure1.pdf

\documentclass{article}

\usepackage{preamble} % from Context

\begin{document}

\input{sections/intro}

\includegraphics{figure1.pdf} % from Media

\bibliography{references} % from Context

\end{document}

The file selector: Input holds the document you're editing, Context holds references and preamble, and Media holds figures.

Choose Agent, Model, and Instruction

The dropdown menus at the bottom of the instruction box pick the agent (e.g. polish for improving writing) and the model (e.g. sonnet46). Then write a specific instruction in the text area:

Improve the clarity and flow of this document. Focus on making the technical
explanations more accessible. Fix any grammatical issues or awkward phrasing.
Ensure consistent terminology throughout.

Effective Instructions

Be specific about what you want! Include what should change and what should remain the same.

Configure Tools

Two icon buttons sit in the file-group header rows of the file selector — one next to the Input label, one next to the Media label. They light up when a helper is active.

1. Click the Tool configuration options button to:
   • Attach TeX Count — include document word-count statistics so the agent knows the document's size and structure
2. Click the Auto-extract options button to enable, for this run:
   • Figures — pull figures out of the document automatically
   • TikZ Figures — extract TikZ figures
   • Compile Input PDF — compile the input to PDF first

Reflection rounds are controlled by the selected agent—most writing agents already include a follow-up critique pass.

draft.tex — texra-sample

Launcher Progress

Files

Input

Attach TeX Count

draft.tex

Media

Figures

TikZ Figures

Compile Input PDF

figure1.pdf

% sample project

\begin{abstract}

We present an efficient method for the estimation

of spectral gaps in random regular graphs.

\end{abstract}

\section{Preliminaries}

Let $G$ be a $d$-regular graph.

The two helper menus in the Input and Media file-group headers. Active helpers tint their buttons; here Attach TeX Count and Figures are on.

Save Prompts for Later

For advanced debugging, enable the texra.debug.saveInputPrompt setting (in .texra/config.json or VS Code settings) to store the generated prompt alongside other debug artifacts.

Execute and Watch the Run

Press Execute (). The ProgressBoard opens in the TeXRA view and streams the run live — see the ProgressBoard guide for interpreting the logs.

entanglement-paper — texra

Launcher Progress

orchestratorGoal4 turns, 18 tool calls

Todos (2/3)

Ground the literature

Derive the concurrence

Formalize subadditivity in Lean

09:02:11

Survey steady-state entanglement, derive the concurrence, and formalize the entropy bound.

I'll split this across three specialists and assemble their results.

delegate_agent — lean0:24

Agentlean(opus47T)

InstructionFormalize subadditivity of the von Neumann entropy.

FilesEntropy.lean(input)

% 3 references found · DOIs verified via Crossref

@article{wolff2021steady,

title = {Steady-state entanglement in driven spin chains},

author = {Wolff, S. and Kollath, C.},

journal = {Phys. Rev. A}, year = {2021},

doi = {10.1103/PhysRevA.103.022210}

}

Every entry resolves to a real DOI — no fabricated citations. ✓ 3/3 verified

(* concurrence of the steady state, N = 2 *)

rho = SteadyState[lindblad];

C = Concurrence @ rho // FullSimplify

(γ² Sin[2θ]) / (γ² + 4Δ²)

Cross-checked against exact diagonalization at N = 8. ✓ agrees to 1e-9

theorem entropy_subadditive (ρ : State H) :

S (ptrace ρ) ≤ S ρ := by

have h := strong_subadditivity ρ

linarith

⟳ checking proof state · Loogle found 1 lemma

The ProgressBoard streams the run live — todos, delegated subagents, and the tool-use log — with the output files alongside.

Review Results

1. When the agent completes, VS Code will open the generated output file from the run's task storage folder (e.g., r0/draft.tex, preserving the input filename).
2. Review the changes made by the AI. Remember, it's smart, but hasn't passed its quals yet!
3. You can compare the original and modified versions using:

   • ProgressBoard Diff: Click the Diff button on the completed stream to compare the original file against the generated task-storage output.

     draft.tex ↔ r0/draft.tex (Working Tree) — texra-sample

     

     r0/draft.tex TeXRA

     12\begin{abstract}

     13We present an efficient method for the

     14estimation of spectral gaps in random regular graphs.

     15\end{abstract}

     16

     17\section{Preliminaries}

     18Let $G$ be a $d$-regular graph.

     draft.tex Previous draft

     12\begin{abstract}

     13We present a novel and efficient method for the

     14estimation of spectral gaps in random regular graphs.

     15\end{abstract}

     16

     17\section{Preliminaries}

     18Let $G$ be a graph.

     VS Code's diff editor opens with your original on the left and the round-0 output (r0/draft.tex) on the right — removed text in red, improved text in green.

     You can accept reviewed outputs from the ProgressBoard after comparing the changes.

   • TeXRA's LaTeXdiff feature: Use the LaTeXdiffs section in the TeXRA panel for a compiled, visual comparison. This creates a PDF with additions highlighted in blue and deletions in red.

Open full example

Red strikethrough: Removed content

Blue underlined: Added/improved content

For details on how LaTeX diff works, see the LaTeX Diff guide.

From the CLI

The same agents are one command away from the terminal. After npm install -g @texra-ai/cli (Node.js >=22.9.0) or brew install texra-ai/tap/texra:

# Sign in for included hosted access, or set ANTHROPIC_API_KEY / OPENAI_API_KEY in your shell:
texra login

# One-shot run (prints the revised file's path; --output copies it next to the input):
texra run polish --input draft.tex \
  --instruction "Improve clarity; preserve math and citations."

# Or open an interactive tool-use session:
texra chat

texra run

$texra run polish --input draft.tex --instruction "Improve clarity; preserve math and citations."

• r0 — draft revision
• r1 — critique and revise

.texra/runs/9f3a6c81d24e/r1/draft.tex

What a one-shot run looks like: rounds stream as progress, then the path to the revised document prints on stdout.

Run history is shared with VS Code, so a run started in the CLI shows up in the extension's ProgressBoard (and vice versa). See TeXRA CLI for sign-in, workspace defaults, and headless output formats.

Common Quick Tasks

Here are some common tasks you can try with TeXRA. Each is just an agent, a model, and a one-line instruction in the Launcher footer:

Fix grammar & typos

correct

qwenturboor deepseek, gemini31p, sonnet46

Fix grammatical errors and typos without changing the content or technical terminology.

Paper to slides

paper2slide

sonnet46Tor opus48T, gpt55

Convert this paper into presentation slides using the beamer template. Create approximately 12–15 slides highlighting the key points, methodology, and results.

Polish writing style

polish

opus46or sonnet46T

Improve the writing style to make it more engaging and clear. Enhance the flow between paragraphs while preserving all technical content.

Three starter recipes — pick the agent and model, then paste the instruction. The first model listed is a good default; the others are interchangeable alternatives.

Understanding the Output

A completed run writes everything into the run's task storage folder, one folder per round. Each round holds three artifacts, and the document keeps your input filename (draft.tex, not output.tex):

task storager{round}/<input-filename>

r0/Round 0

• draft.texOutputinput filename preserved
• draft.logLogprocess details
• draft_polish_r0_diff.pdfDifforiginal vs revised

r1/next round, same trio

One folder per round under r{round}/<input-filename>: the revised Output, a Log of the run, and the Diff PDF. Round 1 (and any further reflection rounds) repeat the same trio.

So if your input file is paper.tex, the first round's output lands at r0/paper.tex — the filename you started with, never output.tex. The CLI writes the same per-round tree under .texra/runs/<run-id>/ — see First run for the terminal walkthrough.

Next Steps

Now that you've completed your first task with TeXRA, you can:

• Explore more built-in agents for specialized tasks
• Learn about LaTeX diff for comparing document versions
• Discover how to use intelligent merge for combining changes
• Optimize your workflow with custom configuration

For any issues or questions, refer to the troubleshooting section or check the GitHub repository.