NovaForge: a LaTeX, Typst and Markdown note template for exam prep and research

The problem NovaForge targets: notes that never become review material

Most note-taking advice stops at capture. NovaForge starts from the other end. The README frames the goal as moving "from scattered information to structured knowledge, from passive input to active output," and the artifact that carries that idea is a fixed seven-step sequence: concept, principle, method, example, practice, exercise, review. Every template in the repository, whether a LaTeX preamble or a Markdown file, is built around those stages. That is a deliberate constraint. You are not given a blank page and a font choice; you are given a form that forces each topic through explanation, worked example and self-testing before it counts as done.

The audience is narrow and specific. The README names graduate entrance exams, civil service exams, specialized coursework, research literature notes, project summaries and competition preparation. These share one trait: the material is bounded by a syllabus, a paper list or a project scope, and the student is expected to be tested on it later. NovaForge is a poor fit for freeform journaling or for a personal wiki where topics connect to each other rather than to an exam. It is also not a note-taking application. There is no server, no sync, no search index. The repository is a directory tree of .tex, .typ and .md files, plus shell and batch scripts.

How the template layer is organized across LaTeX, Typst and Markdown

The repository splits into parallel format directories. latex/ holds preamble.tex, which the README describes as a preamble that can be included independently with \input{}, and template.tex, a complete compilable document running from cover to table of contents to body to appendix. typst/ mirrors that split with preamble.typ for shared styles and custom functions, and template.typ as the full document. markdown/ takes a different route: instead of one generic file it ships four scenario-specific templates, chapter-notes.md, exam-review.md, research-note.md and project-summary.md.

That asymmetry is the interesting design decision. LaTeX and Typst share one structural skeleton because the compile step handles pagination, numbering and cross-references for you. Markdown cannot do that, so the repository compensates with separate files per scenario. The exam-review template is described as containing an exam-situation analysis section and an error log; the research-note template as containing literature cards and experiment records. The research mode also adds a literature overview table and a section connecting the reading to your own work, which the README marks as non-optional.

A second mechanism is the color switch. The README lists "change one line of code to switch the whole visual style" as a feature, implemented in the preamble so that headings, rules and accent colors move together. The TikZ arrow-label styles added in the 2026-05-17 release notes are the same kind of thing at a smaller scale: alabel, alabel above and alabel below are defined globally in preamble.tex with pos=0.4 and auto, so diagram labels stop colliding with the arrowheads they belong to.

Installing NovaForge and writing a first chapter note

The README gives a clone-and-pick-a-version flow. Clone the repository, then enter the directory for the format you want. Nothing is published to a package registry, so there is no install command for NovaForge itself.

git clone https://github.com/SiriusFzh/NovaForge.git
cd NovaForge

For the LaTeX version you need a TeX distribution that provides xelatex, because the template uses xeCJK for Chinese typesetting. The README lists TeX Live on Windows, mactex via Homebrew on macOS, and the texlive-xetex plus texlive-latex-extra packages on Linux.

brew install --cask mactex
sudo apt install texlive-xetex texlive-latex-extra

After editing latex/template.tex, compile it with xelatex. The release notes mention that auxiliary files such as .aux, .log, .out and .toc should be cleaned up, so expect more than one file in the working directory after a build.

cd latex
xelatex template.tex

The Typst path is lighter. Install the CLI with Cargo or Homebrew, then compile or watch the template. The README notes that Typst compiles in a single pass, which is the practical difference from the multi-pass LaTeX workflow.

cargo install typst-cli
cd typst
typst compile template.typ
typst watch template.typ

If you would rather not install a compiler, the Markdown directory needs nothing. Open markdown/chapter-notes.md in VS Code or Obsidian and start filling in the seven headings. The scripts/ directory also ships new-project.bat and new-project.sh for spawning a fresh project, alongside compile.bat, compile.sh, compile-typst.bat and compile-typst.sh for one-command builds.

The Claude Code skill and where its automation stops

NovaForge ships a skill file for Claude Code rather than only static templates. The same SKILL.md lives in two places, .claude/skills/novaforge/SKILL.md for local discovery and skills/novaforge/SKILL.md as the standard-layout copy that external tools such as ccswitch can find. A standalone NovaForge.skill download sits at the repository root, and scripts/install-skill.bat and install-skill.sh install it. The 2026-05-17 notes state that the .claude/skills/novaforge/ duplicate was removed so that skills/novaforge/SKILL.md is the single source.

The skill drives an intake step: the README says vague instructions produce two to four contextual options, and that compile-format selection is handled through an AskUserQuestion prompt. The 2026-05-25 release fixed a tool-call error caused by a missing custom subagent type, and added .agents/segment-writer.md and .agents/verifier.md; SKILL.md now uses the default general-purpose subagent type so dispatch works in any environment.

Where this stops matters. The skill generates text and LaTeX or Typst source. It does not verify that your citations exist, and there is no documented evaluation of generated notes against a source document. The verifier agent is named in the release notes but the repository does not describe what it checks. Treat the skill as a drafting accelerator for the seven-step skeleton, not as a fact-checking layer.

Limitations: Chinese-first typesetting, no sync, and a thin documentation surface

The most concrete constraint is the toolchain. The LaTeX version requires xelatex specifically, not pdflatex, because of xeCJK. If your machine has a minimal TeX install, or your CI image ships only pdflatex, the template will not compile until you add the CJK packages. The README's dependency list is short and does not enumerate every package the preamble pulls in, so the first compile is the real test.

The second limitation is scope. NovaForge has no note database, no backlinks, no full-text search across files and no synchronization between devices. If you want to find every note that mentions a concept across a semester of material, you are relying on your editor or on grep. The Markdown templates are four separate files, so a note that spans two scenarios, say a project that is also coursework, means copying content or picking one template and bending it.

The third is documentation depth. The README explains the template system and the release log is unusually detailed, but there is no documented rollback path if an upgrade breaks your preamble, and no migration notes for someone moving from an older layout. The repository also carries no homepage, so the README and the changelog are the whole reference. Anyone who edits preamble.tex heavily, which the color-switch feature invites, is maintaining a fork rather than consuming a versioned dependency.

How NovaForge differs from Pandoc and generic Markdown-to-PDF pipelines

The obvious alternative is to write Markdown and convert with Pandoc, supplying your own LaTeX template. The approaches diverge at the point where structure is decided. Pandoc assumes the structure is already in your document and its job is translation; you supply a template and the headings come from your prose. NovaForge assumes the structure is the hard part and ships it, so the seven steps and the six scenario layouts exist before you write a word. With Pandoc you get a converter and full control over the output template. With NovaForge you get a fixed template and a small set of scripts.

A second alternative is a note application with a graph view and a plugin ecosystem. Those give you linking, search and sync, which NovaForge does not attempt. They also give you a proprietary file format or a database, and exporting to a print-ready PDF with Chinese typography and numbered equations usually means a conversion step. NovaForge's format is the source: the .tex or .typ file is what compiles, and the PDF is a direct product of it. That is the trade. You give up query-ability and cross-device access in exchange for a document that goes straight to print with no intermediate tool.

Licence, maintenance and upgrade cost

NovaForge is MIT licensed, and the LICENSE file sits at the repository root. For a template that means you can copy the preamble into a private or commercial document, modify it, and redistribute it, provided the copyright notice and permission text travel with substantial portions of the work. The repository does not state a separate licence for the preview images in assets/, so if you intend to reuse those rather than the code, check the LICENSE file yourself rather than assuming it covers them. Nothing here is legal advice.

The maintenance picture is mixed and worth stating plainly. The last push was on 2026-05-25, which is nearly four months before the date of this review, and the repository is not archived. The changelog shows a burst of activity in mid-May 2026, with three releases in nine days: v1.1.1 on 2026-05-16, v1.1.2 on 2026-05-17 and v1.0.1 on 2026-05-25. Note the version ordering: the newest release carries a lower number than the one before it, which suggests the version scheme is not strictly chronological. Upgrading means diffing preamble.tex and template.tex against your edited copies, since there is no package manager to resolve the change for you. If you have customized the color definitions or the TikZ styles, that diff is manual work every time.

Editorial conclusion

Adopt NovaForge if you already write notes in LaTeX, Typst or Markdown and want a fixed seven-step skeleton plus six scenario layouts instead of building your own preamble. Skip it if you need a database-backed note system, cross-device sync, or an app with a UI: this repository is files and scripts. Before committing, clone it, compile latex/template.tex with xelatex on your machine to confirm xeCJK and the bundled fonts resolve, and open markdown/chapter-notes.md to check whether the seven-step headings match how you actually study. The last push was on 2026-05-25, so check the open issues yourself before you build a semester around it.

Frequently asked questions

Official sources

1. Issues
2. License: MIT
3. README
4. Releases
5. SiriusFzh/NovaForge on GitHub