Unofficial. Hilbert is an independent, community-built application. It is not the Typst web app, IDE, or compiler, and is not affiliated with or endorsed by the Typst team. "Typst" is a trademark of its respective owners; this project merely builds on top of the open-source Typst compiler.
It started as "an offline, Overleaf-feeling place to write physics and maths," and grew into a full scientific-writing IDE: a real code editor on the left, a live PDF on the right. Equations, matrices, plots, diagrams, theorems, citations, and running code are a click away instead of something you memorise. It runs entirely on your machine, works offline, and can execute your Python, Julia, or Wolfram snippets and drop the result straight into the document.
Download · Website · What changed · Handbook (PDF) · Every feature · Collaboration · Configuration and security
Hilbert updates itself. Install it once and every future version arrives on its own,
asking before it installs. On Linux the AppImage auto-updates; the .deb gets its
updates from the apt repository below.
Updates come once a month. A month is long enough to finish something and test it properly, and short enough that a fix is never far away. The exception is a real problem: anything broken is fixed and released as soon as it is ready, without waiting for the date.
The PDF re-renders as you type. The editor is Monaco, the same one VS Code runs on, with Typst hover-docs and autocomplete. It opens and is usable in well under a second.
Most of the syntax you'd otherwise have to memorise is a click away: equations, matrices, tables, figures, theorem boxes, citations by DOI or arXiv, 2D and 3D plots, commutative and Feynman diagrams. Each drops in as clean, editable Typst that stays yours. Press ⌘K and you can search every one of them by name.
It will also do the actual maths. Run a Python, Julia, or Wolfram snippet and get the result back as a typeset equation, or highlight an expression and simplify, solve, or integrate it where it sits. Run Notebook goes further and executes every code block in the document as one session, so variables carry from cell to cell and the output is written back under each block.
Plot Studio is one tool for every plot: 2D functions, 2D data, 3D surfaces, plus a
one-click launch into the interactive 3D studio and the Python/matplotlib runner. It
emits cetz and cetz-plot.
Switch proofreading on and the sidebar gains a Proofread panel: spelling in red,
grammar in amber, style in blue, with the fixes one click away. A complaint that
repeats forty times is one row with a count, and Ignore takes all forty with it.
English is built in; declare any other language with #set text(lang: "fr") and
Hilbert fetches that dictionary once, from a list of ninety-eight, after which it
works offline like the rest of the app.
A paper's cross-references are a structure nobody normally gets to see. View → Label Graph draws it: what each section refers to, which equations everything leans on, and which labels nothing refers to at all.
Underneath it behaves like a real workspace. Open any folder the way you would in VS
Code, split a document across #included chapters, drag files around the tree, search
the whole project at once.
It is also small. The backend idles at 12 MB and installs in 37 MB, a fraction of what a comparable Electron editor costs, and a thousand-file project only takes it to 18 MB (benchmarks). It works offline, updates itself, and keeps crashes contained: a broken tool shows an error rather than blanking the editor. On Windows it never flashes a console window at you.
Everything happens on your computer. A small local server drives the Typst compiler and (optional) code execution. Nothing leaves the machine unless you deliberately turn on Google Drive or WebDAV sync.
docs/FEATURES.md is the full list — visual builders for matrices, Feynman diagrams, commutative diagrams and flowcharts, slide decks, the reference and citation managers, templates, every export format, live collaboration and the hosted browser workspace.
Hilbert drives external tools rather than reimplementing them, so a couple of things
must be on your PATH:
- Typst CLI 0.15 or newer, required for compiling.
Install it with
brew install typst,winget install Typst.Typst,cargo install typst-cli, or a release binary. Verify withtypst --version. - tinymist, the Typst language server,
is optional but recommended, for diagnostics, hover docs, and autocomplete:
brew install tinymist,winget install --exact --id Myriad-Dreamin.Tinymist, orcargo install tinymist. Without it the editor still compiles and previews normally; language-server features stay quiet. The path, version and running state are shown under App Settings → General. - For running code, optionally: Python 3 (with
numpy,matplotlib,sympy), Julia (Latexifyfor equation mode), and WolframScript. - Node.js 18+ and a Rust toolchain (stable), only if you run from source.
Prebuilt installers are on the Releases page.
| Platform | Download |
|---|---|
| Windows | winget install Aburousan.Hilbert, or .exe / .msi |
| macOS, Apple Silicon | …-macOS-arm64.dmg |
| macOS, Intel | …-macOS-x64.dmg |
| Linux | .AppImage (auto-updates) / .deb / .rpm |
| Anywhere with Rust | cargo install hilbert-editor |
On a Mac, pick Apple Silicon for M-series chips and Intel for older Macs (About This Mac tells you which).
macOS, first launch. The app isn't notarised (there's no paid Apple developer account), so macOS quarantines it, and renaming or moving the
.appcan break its ad-hoc signature. If it won't open, or says it's "damaged", run these two commands once:xattr -cr "/Applications/Hilbert.app" codesign --force --deep --sign - "/Applications/Hilbert.app"Run these as two separate commands, one per line. If you paste them joined onto a single line, the shell reads
--forceas an option toxattrand reports it as unrecognised. (Adjust the path if the app is elsewhere.) This is a one-time step.
macOS, Homebrew. brew install --cask aburousan/hilbert/hilbert, then
brew upgrade --cask hilbert later. Gatekeeper may still refuse the first launch;
either add --no-quarantine to the install, or follow the note above.
Windows, winget. Hilbert is in the Microsoft package repository, so you can install it and everything it needs without visiting a download page:
winget install --exact --id Aburousan.Hilbert
winget install --exact --id Typst.Typst
winget install --exact --id Myriad-Dreamin.TinymistThat installs per user and asks for no administrator rights. winget upgrade Aburousan.Hilbert picks up a new release if the app hasn't already updated itself.
Or download the .exe (or .msi) from Releases and run it — same application.
Hilbert also looks where the Windows package managers actually put things — winget's
Links and Packages folders, scoop's shims, chocolatey's bin — so a Typst or
tinymist installed after the app was last started is still found.
Linux (Debian / Ubuntu). Install from the apt repository so apt upgrade keeps it
current:
curl -fsSL https://aburousan.github.io/hilbert-apt/hilbert-archive-keyring.asc \
| sudo gpg --dearmor -o /usr/share/keyrings/hilbert-archive-keyring.gpg
echo "deb [arch=amd64 signed-by=/usr/share/keyrings/hilbert-archive-keyring.gpg] https://aburousan.github.io/hilbert-apt stable main" \
| sudo tee /etc/apt/sources.list.d/hilbert.list
sudo apt update && sudo apt install hilbertIn a web browser. The app can serve a project to browsers, for people who haven't installed it or who work from another machine. In the app, choose Help → Use in a Browser…: it writes the command for the open project, with a fresh sign-in token. The details, and how to let other computers in safely, are in the collaboration guide.
Any platform, Cargo. With a Rust toolchain installed, this
builds Hilbert from crates.io and puts it on your PATH as hilbert:
cargo install hilbert-editorThe interface ships inside the binary, so nothing else needs downloading. On Linux the
build needs the WebKitGTK development files first (on Debian or Ubuntu:
sudo apt install libwebkit2gtk-4.1-dev build-essential libxdo-dev libssl-dev librsvg2-dev). A Cargo install doesn't update itself; run the same command again for
a new version. You still need Typst (cargo install typst-cli).
Everything lives in this one repository: the React/Monaco frontend at the root and
the Rust backend under src-tauri/. You need Node.js 18+ and a stable
Rust toolchain; the first run compiles the backend.
git clone https://github.com/aburousan/hilbert-editor.git
cd hilbert-editor
bash scripts/setup.sh # installs Typst + Python deps and runs npm install (macOS/Linux)
npm run dev # Vite UI on http://localhost:5173, backend on http://127.0.0.1:3001npm run dev serves the UI with Vite (hot reload) and starts the Rust backend in
headless mode on port 3001. For the real desktop app, npm run desktop builds the
frontend and opens the native window — that's also what a release build ships. On
Windows: winget install Typst.Typst, then npm install ; npm run dev.
The repository also builds a container that runs Hilbert's hosted mode: the browser is the editor, the compiler and the project live in the container, and the folder you mount is the project.
docker build -t hilbert-editor:latest .
docker run -d --name hilbert-editor \
-p 127.0.0.1:8080:3001 \
-e HILBERT_SERVER_TOKEN="a-random-secret-of-at-least-32-characters" \
-v "$(pwd)/hilbert-workspace:/app/data" \
hilbert-editor:latestOpen http://localhost:8080 and sign in with that token.
Leave HILBERT_SERVER_TOKEN out and the container prints a fresh one to
docker logs hilbert-editor at every start. The mounted folder must be writable by
uid 1000; if yours is not, add --user "$(id -u):$(id -g)". Code cells are confined
by the container and nothing else — bubblewrap cannot work inside an ordinary
container, so the image sets HILBERT_SANDBOX=off and relies on the container
boundary; -e ALLOW_CODE_EXECUTION=0 turns code cells off entirely. Before putting
the port on a network, read the hosted-workspace section of
docs/COLLABORATION.md.
- Saving: edits are written to disk and recompiled after a short pause, and leaving the window saves at once. ⌘S also keeps a version you can compare and restore from the clock button (Version history); Settings can keep one on a timer as well. Text not yet written is kept aside, so after a crash or a forced restart Hilbert offers it back.
- Find anything: ⌘K opens the command palette; every menu action is in it.
- Numbering: put the cursor on a heading or block equation and press ⌘⇧N.
- Cross-references: add a label (
= Intro <sec:intro>), then type@and pick it. - Cite a paper: Insert → References → Citations, look it up by DOI or arXiv, hit Cite.
- Plots: Insert → Plots → Plot Studio for everything, or cetz Canvas for free-form diagrams.
- Compute: select an expression, then Insert → Math → Compute Selection.
- Run code: the
</>toolbar button runs every code block in the file as one session.
- macOS says the app is "damaged" or won't open. Gatekeeper quarantine, or a
broken signature from renaming the
.app. Fix it with the two commands in Get it, run one per line. - Window is blank, or it says "couldn't start its local engine". Something else is using port 3001. Quit it and reopen.
- It opens but nothing compiles. The Typst CLI isn't installed or on
PATH. Confirmtypst --versionworks. - Tinymist works in a terminal but the app says it isn't installed. A running
program keeps the environment it started with, and the desktop hands every app the
one it captured at login. Send the output of Help → Copy Diagnostics, which
includes the
PATHit searched. - It sits on "Compiling…" and won't finish. Past a few seconds the status bar says
still waiting on Typst; saving still works meanwhile. Recompile to start over, and
Help → Copy Diagnostics records every line
typst watchemitted. - Typing feels slow on Linux. Usually WebKit has no GPU to draw with, as in a
virtual machine, over
ssh -X, or without graphics drivers. Hilbert switches to plain drawing when it can tell; if it can't, start it withHILBERT_SOFTWARE_RENDERING=1. - A template fails with an error inside
@preview/…. A package compatibility problem, not the editor: some Typst Universe templates pull in helper packages written for an older Typst. Your own document is fine. npm run devonly prints the concurrently line and stops. Run a fullnpm install(not--production).
Before filing a bug, run Help → Copy Diagnostics. It puts the activity log on the
clipboard together with the Typst and tinymist it found and the PATH it searched,
and the bug report form has a box waiting for it. On Windows especially, a windowed
app has no console to print to, so without that text a report can only describe the
symptom.
I built Hilbert for my own writing, and at this point it does everything I personally need. So there's no roadmap of features I'm racing to add. From here it's bug fixes, whatever users ask for, and the occasional update when something genuinely useful comes along.
That means the fastest way to change what happens next is to ask. If something is broken, missing, or annoying, open an Issue or a Discussion. Feature requests from people actually writing papers are what I'll act on first.
New versions go out once a month, gathered into one release rather than dribbled out a piece at a time. Issues are different: I read them as they arrive and close them as quickly as I can, and a fix for something broken ships on its own rather than waiting for the month to be up.
MIT; see LICENSE. Built and maintained by
Kazi Abu Rousan. Bundled third-party software:
quiver (MIT, © varkor) with
KaTeX (MIT) under public/quiver/.