doc-engine-cli

Zero-config Markdown → PDF documentation engine

Transform any README.md into a premium, print-ready PDF report — no configuration, no templates, no LaTeX.

pipx install doc-engine-cli

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Overview

doc-engine-cli is a developer-first CLI tool that converts Markdown files into professionally styled PDF documents using Typst as its rendering backend. It is designed for teams and individual developers who need high-quality documentation artifacts without the complexity of LaTeX or manual typesetting.

The tool auto-detects your README.md, extracts metadata from Git, and produces an IEEE-inspired technical document — complete with cover page, table of contents, and premium typography — in a single command.

doc-engine build

That's it. Zero configuration required.

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Features

Feature	Description
Zero-Config	Auto-detects README.md, Git author, and document title. No setup files needed.
Five Templates	Academic, modern, minimal, technical, and book layouts, each with a configurable accent color.
Error Checking	Reports source problems with line and column before compiling. A --dry-run mode runs the check on its own.
Premium Typography	Inter font family with fallback chain, justified text, and optimized line spacing.
Code-Centric	Syntax-highlighted code blocks with Cascadia Code font and GitHub-style backgrounds.
Pure Python	No external binaries required (no Pandoc, no LaTeX). Ships as a single pip install.
Cross-Platform	Works on Windows, macOS, and Linux with Python 3.10+.

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🎓 Academic Features (v0.1.2+)

doc-engine-cli ships with a premium scientific layout (using Linux Libertine and Inter font-families) and Zero-Config Bibliography handling.

To add an IEEE-styled bibliography to your PDF:

1. Create a refs.bib, references.bib, or bibliography.bib file in your repository.
2. In your README.md, cite using standard syntax: [@citation-key].

When you run doc-engine build, the CLI will automatically detect your .bib file, securely bind it to the sandbox, and inject a formatted References page at the end of the document.

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Quick Start

Installation

pipx install doc-engine-cli

(If you don't have pipx, you can install it via pip install pipx)

Generate Your First PDF

Navigate to any project directory containing a README.md and run:

doc-engine build

The tool will:

1. Auto-detect README.md in the current directory
2. Extract the document title from the first # heading
3. Read your Git user.name for the author field
4. Generate a README_doc.pdf with cover page, ToC, and formatted content

Explicit Options

doc-engine build path/to/file.md -o output.pdf -t "Custom Title" -a "Author Name"

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Usage

Switching templates, recoloring the accent, and checking a file for errors.

Commands

doc-engine build [INPUT_FILE]   Convert a Markdown file into a PDF
doc-engine info                 Show version, repository, and templates
doc-engine --version            Print the version and exit
doc-engine --help               Show all commands and flags

build flags

Flag	Default	Description
INPUT_FILE	auto-detect README.md	Path to the Markdown file to convert.
-o, --output	<input>_doc.pdf	Output PDF path.
-t, --title	first # heading	Document title override.
-a, --author	git config user.name	Author name override.
--template	academic	Layout to render with: academic, modern, minimal, technical, book.
--accent	template default	Accent color as a hex value (#2563eb) or a name (blue, teal, rose, ...).
--bib	auto-detect refs.bib	Path to a custom .bib file for the bibliography.
--no-branding	off	Hide the doc-engine attribution from the PDF.
--dry-run	off	Check the Markdown for errors and exit without writing a PDF.
--open	off	Open the PDF after it is generated.

Examples

Basic — zero-config mode:

cd my-project
doc-engine build
# → Generates README_doc.pdf

Specify input and output:

doc-engine build CONTRIBUTING.md -o contributing_guide.pdf

Override metadata:

doc-engine build -t "API Reference v2.0" -a "Engineering Team"

Pick a template and accent color:

doc-engine build --template modern --accent teal
doc-engine build --template technical --accent "#7c3aed"

Check for errors before building:

doc-engine build --dry-run

Drop the engine attribution from the PDF:

doc-engine build --no-branding

Generate and open immediately:

doc-engine build --open

Use as Python module:

python -m doc_engine build README.md

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Templates

doc-engine ships with five layouts. Switch with --template <name>, and recolor any of them with --accent.

Template	Look
academic	Serif IEEE-style report with cover page, table of contents, and running headers. The default.
modern	Clean sans-serif layout with generous spacing and a left-aligned cover.
minimal	No cover or table of contents — a compact title block, then straight into the content.
technical	Bold layout with a filled accent banner and section markers. Good for engineering docs.
book	Classic centered title page with chapter-style section breaks.

doc-engine build --template book
doc-engine build --template modern --accent rose

Accent colors take a hex value (#0ea5e9) or one of these names: blue, sky, indigo, violet, purple, red, rose, orange, amber, green, emerald, teal, slate, black.

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Checking for Errors

Before compiling, doc-engine scans the Markdown for problems and reports them with the exact line and column, so you can jump straight to the fix:

README.md:42:8: error: link URL must not be empty
README.md:51:1: warning: image source is empty

Errors stop the build; warnings don't. Use --dry-run to run the check on its own without producing a PDF — handy in CI:

doc-engine build --dry-run

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Architecture

                    ┌─────────────┐
                    │  README.md  │
                    └──────┬──────┘
                           │
                    ┌──────▼──────┐
                    │   CLI Layer  │  click + rich
                    │  (cli.py)    │  arg parsing, git detection
                    └──────┬──────┘
                           │
              ┌────────────┼────────────┐
              │                         │
       ┌──────▼──────┐          ┌───────▼──────┐
       │  Converter   │          │   Compiler   │
       │(converter.py)│          │(compiler.py) │
       │              │          │              │
       │ Markdown AST │          │  Typst → PDF │
       │  → Typst     │          │  via typst-py│
       └──────┬──────┘          └───────┬──────┘
              │                         │
              │    ┌──────────────┐     │
              └────► templates/   ◄─────┘
                   │   *.typ      │
                   └──────┬──────┘
                          │
                   ┌──────▼──────┐
                   │  output.pdf  │
                   └─────────────┘

Pipeline

Stage	Module	Responsibility
1. Input Resolution	cli.py	Locate Markdown file, detect Git metadata
2. Source Checking	linter.py	Report empty links and unclosed fences with line/column
3. Markdown Parsing	converter.py	Parse Markdown AST via mistune, emit Typst markup
4. Template Injection	compiler.py	Merge converted content with the selected template
5. PDF Compilation	compiler.py	Compile via typst Python bindings

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How It Works

Markdown → Typst Conversion

The converter module parses Markdown using mistune and generates equivalent Typst markup:

Markdown	Typst Output
# Heading	= Heading
**bold**	*bold*
*italic*	_italic_
`code`	`code`
[text](url)	#link("url")[text]
- item	- item
1. item	+ item
> blockquote	#block(...)
---	#line(...)

Special characters (#, $, @, *, _, etc.) are automatically escaped to prevent Typst interpretation.

PDF Templates

Each template lives in doc_engine/templates/ and exposes the same setup_doc entry point, so the compiler can swap between them with --template. The default academic template provides:

• Cover page with title, author, and date
• Table of contents with depth-3 navigation
• Running headers with document title and author
• Page footer with page numbers and engine attribution
• Code blocks with rounded corners and subtle borders
• Heading hierarchy with accent-colored H2 sections

The other templates (modern, minimal, technical, book) keep the same content but change the fonts, layout, and cover. The accent color is injected at compile time, so --accent recolors any of them.

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Project Structure

doc-engine-cli/
├── doc_engine/
│   ├── __init__.py          # Package version
│   ├── __main__.py          # python -m doc_engine entrypoint
│   ├── cli.py               # Click-based CLI + Git detection
│   ├── converter.py         # Markdown → Typst transpiler
│   ├── compiler.py          # Typst → PDF compilation engine
│   ├── linter.py            # Source checks (line/column reporting)
│   └── templates/
│       ├── academic.typ     # Default IEEE-style report
│       ├── modern.typ       # Clean sans-serif layout
│       ├── minimal.typ      # Compact, no cover page
│       ├── technical.typ    # Accent banner + section markers
│       └── book.typ         # Centered title page, chapter breaks
├── tests/
│   ├── __init__.py
│   ├── test_converter.py    # Unit tests for the converter
│   ├── test_linter.py       # Unit tests for the linter
│   └── test_cli.py          # CLI and template/accent tests
├── pyproject.toml            # Package configuration + dependencies
├── LICENSE                   # MIT License
├── .gitignore
└── README.md

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Dependencies

Package	Purpose	License
click	CLI framework	BSD-3
rich	Terminal formatting and progress indicators	MIT
mistune	Markdown parser (pure Python)	BSD-3
typst	Typst compiler bindings	Apache-2.0

All dependencies are pure Python — no external binaries (Pandoc, LaTeX, etc.) are required.

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Development

Setup

git clone https://github.com/leonardosalasd/doc-engine-cli.git
cd doc-engine-cli
pip install -e ".[dev]"

Run Tests

python -m pytest tests/ -v

Project Commands

# Generate PDF from this project's README
python -m doc_engine build

# Run with verbose error output
python -m doc_engine build README.md -o docs_output.pdf

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Docker

A container image is published to GitHub Container Registry on every release. Mount your project into /workspace and run build as usual:

docker run --rm -v "$PWD:/workspace" ghcr.io/leonardosalasd/doc-engine-cli build

The entrypoint is doc-engine, so you can pass any command or flag:

docker run --rm -v "$PWD:/workspace" ghcr.io/leonardosalasd/doc-engine-cli build --template modern --accent teal

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Supported Markdown Elements

• Headings (H1–H6)
• Bold, italic, strikethrough
• Inline code and fenced code blocks (with language hints)
• Links
• Ordered and unordered lists
• Nested lists
• Blockquotes
• Tables
• Horizontal rules
• Line breaks (<br>)
• Images (rendered as alt-text; remote images not embedded)
• Footnotes
• Math blocks

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Roadmap

• Template selection via --template flag
• Configurable accent color via --accent
• Source error checking with line/column and --dry-run
• User-supplied template files (point --template at a path)
• Multi-file documentation merge
• Image downloading and embedding for remote URLs
• YAML front-matter support for metadata override
• PDF/A compliance for archival

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Contributing

Contributions are welcome. Please follow these guidelines:

1. Fork the repository
2. Create a feature branch (git checkout -b feature/your-feature)
3. Write tests for new functionality
4. Ensure all tests pass (python -m pytest tests/ -v)
5. Submit a pull request

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License

This project is licensed under the MIT License.

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Built with Typst · Parsed with mistune · Styled with Rich