Overleaf Web MCP

Overleaf Web MCP

Let Claude, Cursor, or any MCP client read, edit, compile, and review your Overleaf projects, signed in as you.

Overleaf Web MCP is an unofficial Model Context Protocol server. It signs in to Overleaf once through a browser window you control, then lets an AI assistant work on your projects the way you would in the web editor: browse files, make revision-checked edits, optionally as tracked changes, compile, and handle review comments. It uses the same browser-facing endpoints the Overleaf editor uses, so no Git integration or premium plan is needed for the core workflow.

What you can say

Once connected, talk to your assistant in plain language. It picks the tools.

• "Create a new project called Grant renewal from the folder I zipped, and make proposal.tex the root."
• "List my Overleaf projects and open the one called Thesis."
• "Rewrite the introduction of main.tex for a general audience, as a tracked change."
• "Compile the paper and tell me whether it built."
• "Which figures in ./figures differ from what's in the project? Upload only those."
• "Make the project match ~/papers/thesis, and show me what would be deleted first."
• "Summarize the open review comments and reply to the one about Table 2."

[!CAUTION] This client uses Overleaf's private, browser-facing APIs, which Overleaf may change without notice. Automating www.overleaf.com may carry Terms-of-Service and account risk. Start with a disposable project and keep request volume low.

Get started

You need Node.js 20 or newer, a Chrome-family browser (Chrome, Chromium, Brave, or Edge), and an Overleaf account.

1. Sign in once. A dedicated browser window opens. Complete the normal Overleaf login, including SSO or two-factor. Only cookies for the Overleaf origin are saved, to a file only your user can read. The session lasts five days from its last use, so sign in again after five idle days, or schedule npx overleaf-web-mcp keepalive daily to keep it alive (see configuration).

npx overleaf-web-mcp login

2. Connect your MCP client. For Claude Code:

claude mcp add overleaf --scope user -- npx -y overleaf-web-mcp serve

For Claude Desktop, Cursor, VS Code, and other clients, add this to their MCP configuration:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "overleaf": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": ["-y", "overleaf-web-mcp", "serve"]
    }
  }
}

3. Restart the client and ask it to check your Overleaf connection.

Client-by-client steps, self-hosted Overleaf, and troubleshooting, including the "failed to connect" you get when node is older than 20, are in the installation guide.

What it can do

• Start and manage projects. Create a blank or example project, clone one, or import a zip; rename, trash, restore, or archive projects with the name confirmed first; set the root document, TeX engine, and TeX Live image so the web editor's Recompile follows.
• Browse and organize. List and search projects, read the file tree with the configured root document and compiler, create folders and files, rename, move, upload one file or a list of them, download a file or the whole project as a zip, and delete with confirmation.
• Sync a folder. Compare a local folder with the project without changing anything, then upload only what changed, and optionally delete what you removed locally, in one confirmed call. Changed text files go through the same revision-checked edits as a single write, so a collaborator's concurrent edit is never overwritten.
• Write safely. Replace a whole document or a single section. Every edit is checked against the revision you read first, so a collaborator's concurrent change is reported instead of overwritten. Edits can be recorded as Overleaf tracked changes.
• Work by section. Parse \section headings in a file, read one section, replace one section.
• Compile. Build the project's configured root document, or any document you name, and stop a running compile.
• Review. List comment threads with their locations, reply, add a comment anchored to exact text, and resolve or reopen threads.
• Follow history. Poll recent project history with a version cursor to see who changed what.

Tools

All 29 tools, grouped as in the tool reference, which has every parameter and result. Read-only tools change nothing on Overleaf and write nothing on your computer. Destructive tools can replace or remove existing content. All but stop_compile need a value repeated back first: the path, name, or count of what they delete, the revision of the document they replace, the planToken of a folder sync, or overwrite for a file that exists. Until 0.6.0, an upload that replaces a file and a folder sync without a planToken still run without one and report a deprecation; from 0.6.0 they are refused. The last column shows which tools read or write files on the computer the server runs on.

Group	Tool	What it does	Annotation	Local effect
Account	auth_status	Verify the saved session and report when it expires	read-only
Account	list_projects	List and search projects, newest first	read-only
Project lifecycle	create_project	Create a blank or example project
Project lifecycle	clone_project	Copy a project, files and settings included
Project lifecycle	import_project_zip	Create a project from a local .zip archive		reads
Project lifecycle	manage_project	Rename, trash, restore, archive, unarchive, or delete a project	destructive
Project lifecycle	update_project_settings	Set the root document, TeX engine, TeX Live image, or spell-check language
Files	get_project_tree	Read the file tree with the project's compile settings	read-only
Files	read_file	Read a text document and its revision	read-only
Files	write_file	Replace a document with a revision-checked, minimal edit	destructive	reads
Files	create_file	Create a text document, optionally with content
Files	manage_entity	Create a folder, or rename, move, or delete an entity	destructive
Files	upload_file	Upload a local file, replacing what is at that path when confirmed	destructive	reads
Files	batch_upload	Upload a list of local files to the paths given, creating missing folders	destructive	reads
Files	download_file	Save a document or binary file locally	destructive	writes
Files	download_project_zip	Save the whole project locally as one zip archive	destructive	writes
Folder sync	plan_sync	Compare a local folder with the project and show what a sync would do	read-only	reads
Folder sync	sync_directory	Upload what changed, and in mirror mode delete what is gone locally	destructive	reads
Folder sync	delete_entities	Delete several files or folders in one confirmed call	destructive
Sections	get_sections	Parse the section headings of one file	read-only
Sections	get_section_content	Read one section's body	read-only
Sections	write_section	Replace one section's body, revision-checked	destructive
Compilation	compile_project	Compile the project
Compilation	stop_compile	Stop the active compile	destructive
Review	list_comments	List review threads with their locations	read-only
Review	reply_to_comment	Reply in an existing thread
Review	add_comment	Add a comment anchored to exact text
Review	set_comment_status	Resolve or reopen a thread	destructive
History	monitor_project_history	Poll recent project history with a cursor	read-only

How it keeps your project safe

• Text edits require the revision from a prior read and fail with a conflict if the document changed underneath.
• Tracked changes are opt-in and never silently downgraded to plain edits.
• Deleting a file requires its path to be confirmed, deleting several requires their count, and trashing or deleting a project requires its name. Projects go to the trash first; permanent deletion only works from there. Downloads, including a whole-project zip, never overwrite a local file unless asked, and never write over the saved session.
• A write that times out is observed, never resubmitted, so nothing is applied twice. The same holds for each file in a batch upload.
• Given the planToken from plan_sync, a folder sync stops before changing anything if the project or the folder changed since the plan. Without one there is nothing to compare against, which 0.6.0 will refuse. It deletes only in mirror mode, only with the delete count confirmed, and never after a failed upload.
• Optionally, you can limit which projects, which folders on your computer, and which kinds of change the server may touch (access policy). It keeps an assistant inside what you gave it; it is not a sandbox.
• Your session cookie stays on your machine in a file only you can read, and is never returned by any tool.
• While a project is open, up to 90 seconds after the last call, you may appear online to collaborators.

How it compares

The three most-starred Overleaf MCP servers and the two closest in design to this one, each checked against its own source code on 2026-09-22. They change often, so follow the links for their current state. ✅ supported, 🟡 partly (see the numbered notes), ❌ not supported.

	This project	OverleafMCP	olcli	overleaf-mcp-server	overleaf-mcp-rt	netique/overleaf-mcp
Connects through	Web session	Git bridge	Web session	Git bridge	Web session	Web session
Tools	29	8	19	4	22	17
Works without Overleaf's paid Git integration	✅	❌	✅	❌	✅	✅
Self-hosted Overleaf	✅	❌	✅	🟡¹	✅	🟡²
List and search your projects	✅	🟡³	🟡⁴	❌	🟡⁵	✅
Returns a document's text to the assistant	✅	✅	🟡⁶	✅	✅	✅
Sends edits as collaborative OT operations, not whole files	✅	❌	❌	❌	✅	✅
Refuses an edit if the document changed since it was read	✅	🟡⁷	❌	❌	✅	🟡⁸
Writes as tracked changes when asked	✅	❌	❌	❌	❌	✅
Accepts or rejects tracked changes	❌	❌	❌	❌	❌	✅
Reads and replaces one \section	✅	✅	❌	❌	❌	❌
Creates, renames, moves, and deletes files and folders	✅	🟡⁹	🟡¹⁰	🟡⁹	✅	❌
Uploads and downloads binary files	✅	❌	✅	❌	✅	🟡¹¹
Compares a local folder with the project	✅	❌	✅	❌	❌	❌
Compiles on Overleaf	✅	❌	✅	❌	✅	✅
Reads the compile log and errors	❌	❌	❌	❌	✅	✅
Review comments: list, reply, add, resolve	✅	❌	✅	❌	✅	🟡¹²
Creates, clones, imports, archives, and deletes projects	✅	❌	🟡¹³	❌	❌	❌
Saves the root document, compiler, and TeX Live image	✅	❌	❌	❌	❌	❌
Reads project history	✅	❌	❌	❌	🟡¹⁴	❌
Installs from	npm	npm	npm, Homebrew	source	npm	npm
License	MIT	MIT	MIT	MIT	AGPL-3.0	AGPL-3.0

1. Only where Overleaf's Git bridge exists, which on a self-hosted instance means Server Pro.
2. Documented, but sign-in appears to require overleaf.com's overleaf_session2 cookie, which Community Edition does not set by default.
3. Only the projects named in its own configuration.
4. Lists projects without search, and leaves out archived and trashed ones.
5. Lists projects, with no search or filter.
6. Files are saved to the server's disk; no tool returns a document's text.
7. Git rejects the push if Overleaf moved on after the tool's own pull, but an edit made between the assistant's read and that pull is overwritten.
8. Only with strict_version: true; by default a concurrent edit is reported after the write.
9. Creates files by writing them; no rename, move, or delete.
10. Creates, renames, and deletes files and folders; no move.
11. Downloads binary files; no upload.
12. Lists, replies to, resolves, and reopens threads, but cannot add a comment.
13. Creates and renames projects.
14. Reports what collaborators changed during the session.

Documentation

Page	What it covers
Install	Claude Code, Claude Desktop, Cursor, VS Code, self-hosted Overleaf, troubleshooting
Using it	Example prompts and what happens underneath
Tool reference	All 29 tools with parameters and results
Safety model	Revisions, tracked changes, confirmations, error codes
Configuration	Environment variables, the access policy, proxies, where the session is stored, and keeping it alive
Internals	Protocol notes, reliability guarantees, related projects
Roadmap and Changelog	Where this is going and what changed

For AI agents

The server sends usage instructions to the MCP client when it connects, and every tool description is self-contained, so an assistant does not need this README to use it correctly. Coding agents contributing to the repository should read AGENTS.md.

License

MIT.