This tutorial will demonstrate how to configure Gitpod to work with LaTeX files. You can find a complete example repository at the end.

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Installing LaTeX

First, you will probably want to install LaTeX in Gitpod. To do this, add a new file to your repository called .gitpod.Dockerfile, and add the following content to it: 
FROM gitpod/workspace-full

# Install LaTeX
RUN sudo apt-get -q update && \
    sudo apt-get install -yq texlive && \
    sudo rm -rf /var/lib/apt/lists/*
Next, create a file called .gitpod.yml and add the following to it: 
image:
    file: .gitpod.Dockerfile
Now commit both files into source control, and push them to your GitHub or GitLab repository. This will be your base configuration for LaTeX in Gitpod — from now on, every time you create a new Gitpod workspace for your repository, it will be configured as specified in your .gitpod.yml and .gitpod.Dockerfile.

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Automatically compiling LaTeX files on save

One way to achieve this is to install inotify-tools by modifying your earlier .gitpod.Dockerfile like so: 
FROM gitpod/workspace-full

# Install LaTeX
RUN sudo apt-get -q update && \
    sudo apt-get install -yq texlive-full inotify-tools && \
    sudo rm -rf /var/lib/apt/lists/*
Next, modify your .gitpod.yml like so: 
image:
    file: .gitpod.Dockerfile

tasks:
    - name: LaTeX auto-rebuild
      command: >
          while find . -name '*.tex' | xargs inotifywait -qqre modify .; do \
            latexmk -pdf ; \
          done
    - name: Terminal
This will start a watcher process that automatically recompiles your *.tex files when they are changed. Note: The watcher process will start in a separate Terminal on every workspace start.

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VS Code Extensions

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TexLab

This extension provides rich editing support for the LaTeX typesetting system powered by the TexLab language server. To install it in Gitpod, simply download the corresponding *.vsix file Open VSX, and then drag-and-drop it into Gitpod’s Extensions view (which can be found in the left vertical menu bar). This will automatically append something like this to your .gitpod.yml file:
.gitpod.yml
vscode:
    extensions:
        - efoerster.texlab@1.10.0:/Vq+k9Ug/81LYWajjTgMpA==
(Note: You can also append these lines yourself if you don’t want to download & re-upload the *.vsix file.)

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LaTeX Workshop

Another great LaTeX extension is LaTeX Workshop:
Boost LaTeX typesetting efficiency with preview, compile, autocomplete, colorize, and more.
It is also available on Open VSX.

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LaTeX Snippets

There is also LaTeX Snippets:
This extension includes a variety of snippets for LaTeX including making environments and plotting images for functions, etc.

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Try it!

To see a complete minimal example repository with a Gitpod configuration for LaTeX, including most of the tools we’ve covered, see ptrottier/latex. You can try it in your browser: Open in Gitpod