Installation

LMMs-Lab Writer is available for macOS and Windows.

Download

Visit the download page to get the latest version for your platform.

The easiest way to install on macOS is via Homebrew — no security warnings, and auto-updates built in:

brew tap EvolvingLMMs-Lab/tap
brew install --cask lmms-lab-writer

To update later:

brew upgrade lmms-lab-writer

If Homebrew reports an architecture mismatch on Intel Macs, install the Intel (x64) DMG/PKG from the download page.

Two formats are available from the download page:

DMG (.dmg) — Drag-and-drop installation. Open the image and drag the app to your Applications folder.
PKG (.pkg) — Guided installer. Double-click and follow the wizard.

Both Apple Silicon (aarch64) and Intel (x64) builds are provided.

Since the app is not yet signed with an Apple Developer certificate, macOS will block it. Remove the quarantine attribute first:

# For DMG
xattr -cr ~/Downloads/LMMs-Lab\ Writer_*.dmg
 
# For PKG
xattr -cr ~/Downloads/LMMs-Lab_Writer_*.pkg

Then open the file and install normally.

Alternative: Right-click the downloaded file → select Open → click Open in the dialog → proceed with installation.

Download LMMs-Lab Writer_x.x.x_x64-setup.exe (recommended) or the .msi installer from the download page.
Run the installer and follow the prompts.
Launch from the Start Menu or desktop shortcut.

Note: Windows SmartScreen may show a warning because the app is not yet code-signed. Click More info → Run anyway to proceed.

A LaTeX distribution is required to compile documents. The app auto-detects your installation and will prompt you if none is found.

macOS:

Distribution	Size	Notes
TinyTeX	~150 MB	Lightweight, auto-installs missing packages. Recommended for most users.
MacTeX	~5 GB	Full TeX Live distribution. Includes everything out of the box.
BasicTeX	~100 MB	Minimal TeX Live. You may need to install extra packages manually.

Windows:

Distribution	Size	Notes
TinyTeX	~150 MB	Lightweight, auto-installs missing packages. Recommended for most users.
MiKTeX	~200 MB	Auto-installs missing packages on first use. Popular choice on Windows.
TeX Live	~5 GB	Full distribution. Includes everything out of the box.

The app supports these compilation engines:

pdfLaTeX — Standard engine, fastest compilation
XeLaTeX — Native Unicode support, can use system fonts (recommended for CJK)
LuaLaTeX — Modern, programmable engine with Lua scripting
Latexmk — Automated build tool that runs LaTeX the correct number of times

All engines are auto-detected from your LaTeX distribution.

For version control features (staging, committing, diffing, pushing):

For GitHub integration (creating repos, publishing directly from the app):

LMMs-Lab Writer is open source. To build from source you need:

git clone https://github.com/EvolvingLMMs-Lab/lmms-lab-writer.git
cd lmms-lab-writer
pnpm install
pnpm tauri:build

The built app will be in apps/desktop/src-tauri/target/release/bundle/:

The app includes a built-in updater that notifies you when new versions are available. You can also check manually from the releases page.

If you installed via Homebrew, run:

brew upgrade lmms-lab-writer