Show HN: TeXbrain, a LaTeX editor that runs pdfTeX in the browser via WASM

TeXbrain A free, open-source LaTeX editor that runs entirely in your browser. No accounts. No installs. No servers. Just open a tab and write. Try it now → tex.swimmingbrain.dev I built this because I was tired of paying for features that should be free. I wrote my thesis last year in LaTeX and spent more time fighting tooling than actually writing. Online solutions lock git sync behind a paywall. Local setups break between machines. I wanted something that just works. Open a browser, write LaTeX, get a PDF. So I built it. What it does texbrain is a full LaTeX editor that compiles your .tex files to PDF directly in the browser. There is no backend. No server processing your files. Everything (the editor, the compiler, the git client) runs client-side. You can open a local project folder, edit your files, see the PDF update, commit your changes, and push to GitHub. All from one tab. Features LaTeX compilation in the browser. Uses a WebAssembly port of pdfTeX (SwiftLaTeX). Your .tex files are compiled to PDF without ever leaving your machine. Packages are loaded on demand and cached locally, so the first compile only downloads what your document actually uses. Recompilations take 1 to 5 seconds depending on project complexity. Most of CTAN, loaded on demand. Common packages ship with the app. Anything else ( memoir , abntex2 , KOMA-Script, you name it) is resolved automatically from a TeX Live mirror the first time a document needs it, then cached locally for offline use. Live …