northgen

CLI tool to generate academic documents with Quarto, modular presets, and optional Word post-processing on Windows.

What It Does

northgen creates portable document projects and renders them with a vendored runtime, so the user mostly edits:

• index.qmd
• bibliography.bib
• _metadata.yml

Quick Start

npx northgen init my-project --preset apa7
cd my-project
npx northgen render

Commands

northgen init [name]

Creates a new project structure and materializes the selected preset runtime locally.

Options:

• --preset <name>: preset/cartridge to use. Default: apa7

northgen render [file]

Renders the document using the active preset.

Options:

• --preset <name>: change output style. Default: apa7
• --no-postprocess: skip Word finishing steps
• --verbose: show full Quarto logs

northgen doctor

Checks whether Quarto, Python, and related dependencies are available.

northgen destroy

Deletes the northgen-managed project footprint from the current directory.

Options:

• --all-docx: also remove generated .docx files in the current project root

northgen setup

Attempts to install core system dependencies automatically on Windows through winget.

northgen cartridge list

Lists bundled cartridges/presets.

Requirements

• Node.js 18+
• Quarto CLI
• Windows only, for advanced DOCX finishing:
  • Python 3
  • Microsoft Word

Publish

This package is intended to be published publicly to npm and then used as:

npx northgen init my-project

Runtime Layout

The package ships with:

• compiled CLI code in dist/
• executable wrapper in bin/
• runtime assets in src/runtime/

That runtime includes engine filters, presets, reference DOCX files, and Word automation scripts.

Project Teardown

Projects initialized with northgen init now include a .northgen-manifest.json file. northgen destroy uses it to remove the generated project scaffold (_extensions, _quarto.yml, _metadata.yml, index.qmd, bibliography.bib, etc.) and any outputs recorded by northgen render.