Issues with LaTeX Workshop Extension (Mac, XeLaTeX, AltaCV)

[ignaciobalaschsola]

System Information
• OS: macOS (latest version)
• VS Code Version: (insert your version)
• LaTeX Workshop Version: (insert your version)
• LaTeX Distribution: TeX Live 2024 (installed via MacTeX)
• Compiler Used: XeLaTeX
• Template Used: AltaCV

Problem Description

I am trying to compile the AltaCV template using XeLaTeX in VS Code, but I keep running into several issues:

1️⃣ LaTeX Workshop Not Detecting altacv.cls
• Folder structure:

CV/
├── AltaCV/
│ ├── altacv.cls
│ ├── sample.tex
├── content.tex # My main LaTeX file
├── profile.jpg
├── settings.json

•	In content.tex, I have:

\documentclass[10pt,a4paper,ragged2e,withhyper]{AltaCV/altacv}

•	Yet, I receive the following error:

LaTeX Error: File AltaCV/altacv.cls not found.

•	Running latexmk -xelatex content.tex in the terminal only works when executed inside AltaCV/, which seems odd.
•	LaTeX Workshop does not seem to recognize the .cls file.

2️⃣ PDF Viewer Doesn’t Auto-Update (Cmd + Opt + B)
• Using Cmd + Opt + B to build the document does not refresh the preview automatically.
• Manually reopening the PDF shows the changes, so the document is compiling but not linking properly to the viewer.

3️⃣ PDFX CreationDate Error
• Compilation fails with:

Package pdfx Error: CreationDate is not properly supported; PDF validation may fail.

•	Manually running:

xelatex -shell-escape -output-driver="xdvipdfmx -z 0" content.tex

sometimes works, but LaTeX Workshop does not handle it correctly.

Debugging Attempts

I have tried the following:

✅ Verified that latexmk and xelatex are correctly installed:

which latexmk
which xelatex

✅ Cleaned auxiliary files and recompiled:

latexmk -C && rm *.aux *.log *.synctex.gz && latexmk -xelatex content.tex

✅ Checked settings.json:

"latex-workshop.latex.tools": [
{
"name": "xelatexmk",
"command": "/Library/TeX/texbin/latexmk",
"args": [
"-synctex=1",
"-interaction=nonstopmode",
"-file-line-error",
"-xelatex",
"-shell-escape",
"-outdir=%OUTDIR%",
"%DOC%"
]
}
]

✅ Tried forcing manual date handling in pdfx:

\PassOptionsToPackage{nodates}{pdfx}

✅ Verified altacv.cls is correctly located.

Questions for the Community
1. How can I get LaTeX Workshop to detect altacv.cls? Should I adjust "latex-workshop.intellisense.package.dirs"?
2. Why isn’t the PDF viewer auto-updating? Do I need additional tweaks to "latex-workshop.view.pdf.viewer"?
3. Is there a known fix for the pdfx CreationDate error? Should I modify the recipe?
4. Are there any best practices for setting up TeX Live 2024 in VS Code?

Final Thoughts

Setting up a LaTeX environment in VS Code has been far more time-consuming than expected. I’ve followed best practices, but fundamental functionality like detecting class files and auto-refreshing the viewer isn’t working as expected. Given how widely used LaTeX Workshop and TeX Live are, the setup should be more seamless.

If anyone has suggestions beyond the documentation, I’d greatly appreciate the help!

Thanks in advance!

[ignaciobalaschsola]

I uninstalled LaTeX and the Extension.
Reinstalled both.
Tinkered with NOTHING.
And it worked.
This was my sunday :)