Overleaf MCP Server

A minimal, auditable MCP server for editing Overleaf projects from Claude.

What it is

A local Model Context Protocol server that gives Claude five tools for working with an Overleaf project: list_projects, list_files, read_file, edit_file, sync. Every change goes through Overleaf's per-project Git remote, so the round-trip is Claude → MCP server → git push → Overleaf web UI.

What it is not

• Not a replacement for Overleaf
• Not a hosted multi-user service — single researcher, single Claude session, stdio transport
• Not a LaTeX compiler — Overleaf still does the rendering
• No branch / merge / diff tooling — use git directly for that
• No real-time collaboration with humans editing in the Overleaf web UI at the same moment (use Overleaf's native real-time collab for that; the MCP server pulls before every write to stay honest, but doesn't subscribe to live updates)

If those constraints feel restrictive, that's deliberate — see the project notes for the design rationale.

Requirements

• Python 3.11 or newer
• A paid Overleaf account (Git integration is a paid feature)
• An Overleaf Git authentication token: Overleaf web UI → Account Settings → Git Integration → New token
• git on your PATH
• git config user.name and git config user.email set globally (the server signs commits with this identity)

Install

pipx install overleaf-mcp-server

or with uv:

uv tool install overleaf-mcp-server

Either gives you the overleaf-mcp command.

Quick start

# 1. Configure a project alias
overleaf-mcp init
#   Project alias (short nickname): my-paper
#   Overleaf project ID: 5f4a...           # from the project URL on overleaf.com
#   Display name (optional): My Paper

# 2. Store your Overleaf token in the OS keychain
overleaf-mcp auth add --project my-paper
#   Overleaf token: ****                    # paste, hidden input

# 3. Clone the project locally (one-time)
git clone https://git.overleaf.com/<project_id> ~/.cache/overleaf-mcp/my-paper

# 4. Verify
overleaf-mcp doctor

doctor prints a clean pass/fail report. If everything is green you're ready to wire up Claude Desktop.

Claude Desktop configuration

Edit ~/Library/Application Support/Claude/claude_desktop_config.json (macOS) or %APPDATA%\Claude\claude_desktop_config.json (Windows) and add:

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

Fully quit and relaunch Claude Desktop (cmd-Q on macOS — closing the window isn't enough). In a new conversation, ask Claude something like "use overleaf list_projects" to verify.

Tools

Tool	What it does
list_projects	Lists configured Overleaf project aliases
list_files	Lists files tracked in the project's git clone (optional extension filter)
read_file	Reads a file from the project
edit_file	Pulls latest, overwrites a file, commits, pushes to Overleaf
sync	Pulls latest from Overleaf into the local clone

GitHub mirror (optional)

The MCP server only knows about your Overleaf remote. If you want a GitHub backup of a project, add it as a second remote on the local clone:

cd ~/.cache/overleaf-mcp/my-paper
git remote add github git@github.com:you/my-paper-mirror.git
git push github main

Then git push github main whenever you want to update the mirror, or wire up a cron / launchd job. The MCP server intentionally doesn't manage GitHub — that boundary keeps the server's surface small and the mirror under your control.

Security

• Tokens are stored in the OS keychain (keyring library — macOS Keychain, Windows Credential Manager, libsecret on Linux). Never on disk.
• The config file (~/.config/overleaf-mcp/config.toml) contains aliases and project IDs only — no secrets. Safe to put under version control if you really want to.
• Subprocess git invocations pass tokens via env vars consumed by a transient GIT_ASKPASS script. Tokens never appear on the subprocess command line, so they don't show in ps.
• The server only talks to git.overleaf.com and the local filesystem. No telemetry, no analytics, no other network traffic.

Limitations

• Regex section parser. Handles \section, \subsection, \subsubsection (and starred variants) at the start of a line. Doesn't follow \input{} / \include{} across files, doesn't expand custom section macros, and doesn't parse titles with nested {} groups. Swap-in of a pylatexenc-backed parser is staged behind the abstract base class for a future minor release.
• Single-user assumption. No locks, no concurrent-edit detection beyond git pull --ff-only (which fails fast if the local clone has diverged). Real-time collaboration with humans editing in the Overleaf web UI works because the server pulls before every write, but it's not a streaming sync.
• stdio transport only in v0.1. HTTP/SSE for remote / multi-client setups is staged for v0.2.
• No clone orchestration. doctor reports if the local clone is missing and prints the git clone command; the MCP server itself doesn't create or refresh the cache. Plain git is the right tool there.

Contributing

Bug reports and PRs welcome. See CLAUDE.md for project-local design notes if you're working on the server itself.

License

MIT — see LICENSE.