@pressa/cli

Pressa CLI

Command-line interface for Pressa - Compile-as-a-Service. LaTeX in, PDF out.

Installation

npm install -g @pressa/cli

Quick Start

# Set your API key
pressa auth

# Compile a LaTeX file
pressa compile report.tex

# Compile with a specific engine
pressa compile report.tex --compiler xelatex

# Read from stdin
cat report.tex | pressa compile -

# JSON output (for AI agents)
pressa compile report.tex --json

Commands

pressa auth

Configure your API key.

# Interactive
pressa auth

# Non-interactive
pressa auth --key pressa_xxxx

pressa compile <file>

Compile a LaTeX file to PDF.

Option	Description
-c, --compiler	LaTeX compiler: pdflatex (default), xelatex, or lualatex (Pro and Business plans only)
-o, --output	Output PDF filename
--json	Machine-readable JSON output
--no-download	Don't download PDF, just return URL
-u, --url	API base URL override

Use - as filename to read from stdin.

The file must be LaTeX source code (containing \documentclass, \begin{document}, \input{}, or \include{}). Pressa is a LaTeX compiler, not a text-to-PDF converter. The CLI prints a yellow warning if the file does not look like LaTeX, and the server rejects non-LaTeX input with not_latex_source even if the warning is ignored. To produce a PDF from plain text or markdown, ask an AI agent to generate LaTeX from your content first.

Each plan has limits on pages per document, LaTeX source size, PDF output size, and compile timeout. If a compile exceeds your plan's page limit, the document does not count against your monthly quota and the CLI prints the limit and an upgrade URL.

pressa usage

Show your API usage statistics.

Plan:    free
Used:    3/50 this month
Resets:  April 30, 2026
API Key: pressa_c... (Test Key)

Configuration

Config is stored in ~/.pressa/config.json:

{
  "api_key": "pressa_xxxx",
  "api_url": "https://api.pressa.dev"
}

Development

cd cli
npm install
npm run build
npm run dev    # watch mode

License

MIT