Packages and bibliographies

Packages

A package import works as in the typst CLI:

#import "@preview/oxifmt:0.2.1": strfmt
#strfmt("{} pages", 15)

typstgen looks for the package in this order:

1. The package data directory, for packages you install yourself (@local/… or any other namespace). Default: ~/Library/Application Support/typst/packages on macOS, ~/.local/share/typst/packages on Linux, %APPDATA%/typst/packages on Windows.
2. The package cache, for downloaded @preview packages. Default: ~/Library/Caches/typst/packages on macOS, ~/.cache/typst/packages on Linux, %LOCALAPPDATA%/typst/packages on Windows. Packages the typst CLI already fetched are reused.
3. Typst Universe: a missing @preview package is downloaded once and stored in the cache.

Inside both directories a package lives at <namespace>/<name>/<version>/, with its typst.toml at the top.

Offline and pinned builds

Package versions are fixed in the import, so a cached package never changes. For builds that must not touch the network, such as CI or archiving, turn downloads off and point the cache at a directory inside the project:

package_cache_path = "vendor/typst-packages"
download_packages = false

Fill vendor/typst-packages once (with downloads on, or by copying from your cache) and commit it. A missing package then fails the build instead of being fetched:

error: typst compilation failed:
paper.typ:1:9: error: package not found (searched for @preview/oxifmt:0.2.1)

Together with --creation-timestamp the output is byte-identical across runs.

Building the crate without the download feature removes the HTTP client entirely; local and cached packages still resolve.

Bibliographies

#bibliography reads BibTeX (.bib) or Hayagriva (.yml) files like any other project file, so they are found next to the document or in a template directory. All citation styles bundled with Typst are available, for example "apa", "ieee", "chicago-author-date" or "iso-690-author-date". A custom .csl file works the same way.

#set text(lang: "de")
Literate Programming @knuth1984 verbindet Code und Text.

#bibliography("refs.bib", style: "apa")

@article{knuth1984,
  author  = {Donald E. Knuth},
  title   = {Literate Programming},
  journal = {The Computer Journal},
  volume  = {27}, number = {2}, pages = {97--111},
  year    = {1984},
  doi     = {10.1093/comjnl/27.2.97}
}

typstgen compile paper.typ --pdf-standard a-2b --creation-timestamp "$(date +%s)"

Citations, formulas and the bibliography are compatible with PDF/A-2b and tagged PDF.

Example: a seminar paper as a local package

examples/ in the repository contains a complete seminar paper. Its layout (title page, outlines, numbering, bibliography, appendix, declaration; German and English) is a package in examples/packages/local/thesis/0.1.0/, imported as @local/thesis:0.1.0 through package_path = "packages". Copy that folder into your own package directory to use the layout in any project. The compiled PDF is in the showcase.