Comparison
kove vs Typst
Typst is a modern typesetting language, a faster and friendlier LaTeX. The typography is excellent and you get full control over layout. The cost is that you learn and write a real markup language, build your own templates and scripting, feed it the data yourself, and run the compiler in your pipeline. For data-driven documents like invoices and reports, that is a lot of language to maintain.
kove takes a different path: it is a hosted document API. You send a JSON document, not a language, and get a finished PDF back. Tables, totals, sections and pagination are handled, with a clean default look, and we run all the infrastructure, so there is nothing to compile or host. kove ships AI-friendly docs (llms.txt, an OpenAPI spec and a simple JSON model), so your coding agent can integrate the hosted API into your app for you. A CLI covers local and CI runs.
Side by side
| Feature | kove | Typst |
|---|---|---|
| How you build the document | Send JSON, declarative | Write a typesetting language |
| Learning curve | A documented JSON shape | A new markup and scripting language |
| Infrastructure | Hosted, we run it | You run the compiler in your pipeline |
| AI integration | Your agent wires the hosted API into your app | An agent writes Typst markup |
| Fine typographic control | Good defaults, less low-level control | Excellent, full control |
| Cost | Pay-per-use hosted API, free CLI for local and CI | Free and open source |
When Typst is the better choice
Use Typst when you want a real typesetting language and care about fine typographic control: papers, books, math-heavy documents, or anything where you want to own the layout down to the detail. If writing markup is the point, Typst is excellent and free.
Send JSON. Get a finished PDF.
A hosted document API. Your coding agent wires it into your app for you, with no infra to run.