Migrate from tex-thesis

Overfull is the new name of the tex-thesis repository. The thesis template is still here, with the same LuaLaTeX, biblatex, pgfplots and Docker foundations. Around it there is now a CLI that checks the build, references, accessibility and venue rules, plus templates for papers and slides and instructions for AI agents.

If your thesis builds today, nothing forces you to move. Your fork or copy keeps working. Releases up to v2.4.1 stay available, and Overfull continues the version line at v3.0.0.

Old links: GitHub redirects github.com/amet13/tex-thesis (the repository, clones and issues) to github.com/amet13/overfull. The old GitHub Pages address under /tex-thesis/ does not redirect; the site now lives at https://amet13.github.io/overfull/.

What changed

tex-thesis	Overfull
One repository: thesis plus slides/	Separate thesis, paper and slides templates, created with overfull init
preamble.tex holds packages, styling and PDF metadata	main.tex holds the preamble; title, authors and PDF metadata are in metadata.tex
images/	figures/, with plot data in figures/data/
No PDF tagging	\DocumentMetadata{… tagging=on}: tagged, accessible PDF by default
make check = chktex + latexindent check	make check = overfull check (build, output, references, accessibility, venue)
No reference checking	Every cited entry is looked up in CrossRef, doi.org, arXiv, DBLP (and OpenAlex with OPENALEX_API_KEY)
GPLv3 code, CC BY-SA content	Templates are MIT-0, so your thesis carries no licence obligations
(none)	overfull.yml project configuration
(none)	AGENTS.md, CLAUDE.md and skills for AI agents
(none)	notes/ for your own notes

Option 1: add checks to your existing thesis

The quickest path. Keep your files and add Overfull on top.

1. Build as usual with make build. The PDF is thesis.pdf.

2. Create overfull.yml at the root:

   main: main.tex
   jobname: thesis
   bib: [references.bib]
   profile: thesis
   checks: [build, output, references, accessibility, venue]

3. Run the checks:

   overfull check

   Or with Docker only:

   docker run --rm -v "$PWD":/work -w /work ghcr.io/amet13/overfull:3 overfull check

The accessibility check will fail, because the old template does not tag the PDF. That is expected. Option 2 fixes it, or you can add \DocumentMetadata to your main.tex yourself (see Accessibility).

Option 2: move to the new thesis template

1. Create the new project next to the old one:

   overfull init thesis my-thesis

2. Copy your content:

   • chapters/*.tex into my-thesis/chapters/, and update the \input lines in main.tex;
   • images/* into my-thesis/figures/, and update \includegraphics paths;
   • references.bib as is.

3. Move title, author, supervisor and keywords into metadata.tex.

4. Compare your preamble.tex with the new main.tex. Carry over only what your university requires (font size, spacing, margins, heading styles). The old defaults were Times New Roman, 14pt and 1.5 line spacing.

5. Add alt text to every \includegraphics and plot. See Accessibility.

6. Build and check:

   cd my-thesis
   make build
   make check

7. Fix what the report shows. Packages you added yourself may need updates to work with tagging.

8. Slides: create them separately with overfull init slides my-slides.

Linting and formatting

If you relied on chktex, latexindent and pre-commit, copy .chktexrc, .latexindent.yaml and .pre-commit-config.yaml into the new project. They work alongside Overfull.

Questions

Open an issue on the repository if something from the old template has no obvious place in the new one.