To use a local checkout of the template’s repository as a package (e.g. while contributing or to get the bleeding-edge version), follow these steps to install it into your local Typst package directory.

mise-en-place is an optional but recommended prerequisite here. It can be used to install both the template and Typst itself. However, assuming Typst is installed, each task is a plain shell script, so you can also run the bash mise/tasks/… form directly.

Inside your clone of the repository, run either of the following:

# copy — changes require re-installation (recommended for stability)
mise run install # or bash mise/tasks/install/_default

# symlink — changes apply immediately (recommended during development)
mise run install:editable # or bash mise/tasks/install/editable

When installed this way, imports use @local/kinetic-kit:0.1.0 in place of @preview/kinetic-kit:0.1.0.

The repository also bundles the Libertinus fonts. Install them into your user font directory with

mise run install:fonts # or bash mise/tasks/install/fonts

The components namespace exports the individual building blocks for assembling a document without the full dissertation() / thesis() orchestrator. Use this when the high-level templates don’t fit your layout needs. You are responsible for applying the setup wrappers in the correct order.

Available components: setup-page, setup-front-matter, setup-content, setup-appendix, print-dissertation-title, print-thesis-title, print-toc, print-lof, print-lot, print-lol, print-list-of.

#import "@preview/kinetic-kit:0.1.0": components, kit-style

#let format = "a5"
#let font-sizes = kit-style.font-sizes-by-format.at(format)

// 1. Apply base KIT formatting (page geometry, fonts, heading styles, …)
#show: components.setup-page.with(
  format: format,
  margin-preset: "short",
  lang: "de",
  colored-links: true,
)

// 2. Front matter — Roman numerals, no heading numbers
#show: components.setup-front-matter

#components.print-dissertation-title(
  [Titel der Dissertation],
  author-title: "M.Sc.",
  author-firstname: "Vorname",
  author-surname: "Nachname",
  department: "KIT-Fakultät für Maschinenbau",
  university-genitive: "des Karlsruher Instituts für Technologie (KIT)",
  format: format,
)

= Abstract
Your abstract here.

#components.print-toc(font-sizes, lang: "de")

// 3. Main content — Arabic numerals, numbered headings
#show: components.setup-content

= Introduction
Your content here.

= References
#bibliography("refs.bib", title: none, style: "ieee")

The kit-style namespace exposes the template’s visual constants so custom figures and diagrams can match the document’s typography and color palette exactly.

#import "@preview/kinetic-kit:0.1.0": kit-style

// kit-style.fonts                — (serif, sans, mono) font family arrays
// kit-style.font-sizes-by-format  — dict keyed by format: font sizes per format
// kit-style.leading               — paragraph line spacing (0.75em)
// kit-style.colors                — KIT color palette (green, blue, red, …)

#figure(
  {
    set text(font: kit-style.fonts.sans, size: kit-style.font-sizes-by-format.at("a5").small)
    rect(
      fill: kit-style.colors.green15,
      stroke: kit-style.colors.green,
      width: 6cm, height: 3cm,
    )
  },
  caption: [A custom figure using template styles.],
)

Typst gives every figure kind its own counter and supplement, but only styles the ones it knows: image, table and raw. The template carries strings for exactly those three, because their names are template chrome. Anything else is your document’s vocabulary, so you declare it.

Declaring a kind. Give it a supplement, and a list-title if it should get a back-matter list page. Both take either one value or one per language:

#show: dissertation.with(
  figure-kinds: (
    (
      kind:       "algorithm",
      supplement: (de: [Algorithmus],            en: [Algorithm]),
      list-title: (de: [Algorithmenverzeichnis], en: [List of Algorithms]),
      show-list:  true,
    ),
    // Supplement only — no list page.
    (kind: "theorem", supplement: (de: [Satz], en: [Theorem])),
  ),
)

Then tag the figure:

#figure(
  algorithm-body,
  caption: [This is an algorithm.],
  kind: "algorithm",
)

kind: "algorithm" must be spelled out. A figure whose body is a raw block is inferred as kind: raw otherwise, and lands among the listings.

The built-in kinds stay out of it. image, table and raw are configured by show-lof / show-lot / show-lol alone

List order. Figures, tables, listings, then your kinds in declaration order. For a different order, place them yourself with components.print-list-of, which also sets the state that switches flex-caption to its short form.

Set draft: true to show an “ENTWURF” (German) or “DRAFT” (English) watermark on every page. Pass draft-info for an additional version string:

#show: dissertation.with(
  // ...
  draft:      true,
  draft-info: sys.inputs.at("git-sha", default: none),
)

Compile with the SHA injected:

typst compile --input git-sha=$(git rev-parse --short HEAD) main.typ

Set draft: false before submission.

Use the glossarium package for automatic first-use expansion.

Important: #show: make-glossary must appear before #show: dissertation.with(...). Forgetting this causes silent failure — abbreviations will not expand.

#import "@preview/kinetic-kit:0.1.0": dissertation
#import "@preview/glossarium:0.5.10": make-glossary, register-glossary, print-glossary

#let abbrevs = (
  (key: "ml",  short: "ML",  long: "Machine Learning"),
  (key: "cnn", short: "CNN", long: "Convolutional Neural Network"),
)

// Must come before #show: dissertation.with(...)
#show: make-glossary
#register-glossary(abbrevs)

#show: dissertation.with(
  // ...
  // The template adds the translated section heading automatically.
  abbreviations: print-glossary(abbrevs),
)

// @ml expands to "Machine Learning (ML)" on first use, "ML" thereafter.

For a nicer two-column grid layout (bold abbreviation on the left, long form on the right) instead of the default print-glossary output, see the custom abbrevs-glossary() helper in examples/content/abbreviations.typ.

Use the drafting package to add margin notes during writing. Tie is-draft to both the watermark and note visibility so they are toggled in one place:

#import "@preview/kinetic-kit:0.1.0": dissertation
#import "@preview/drafting:0.2.2": set-margin-note-defaults, margin-note

#let is-draft = true
#set-margin-note-defaults(hidden: not is-draft)

#show: dissertation.with(
  // ...
  draft: is-draft,
)

// In your text:
#margin-note[Revisit this paragraph.]

Set is-draft = false before final compilation to hide all margin notes and remove the watermark.