overleaf-claude-mcp

Connect Claude to your Overleaf account. Claude can list your projects, pick one, read the LaTeX and the figures, edit files, compile, and pull the PDF back.

Overleaf has no public API on the free tier: the Git bridge and Dropbox sync are Premium features. So this server speaks the same internal HTTP and socket endpoints the Overleaf web app uses, authenticated with a browser session you create once. Every endpoint was read out of Overleaf's own JavaScript bundle and then exercised against a live account. See Verified endpoints.

Tutorial

What you need

• Node 20 or newer (node -v)

• Chrome or Edge installed

• An Overleaf account, free tier is fine

• Claude Code (claude --version) or Claude Desktop

Step 1: Run setup

From this folder, on Windows:

setup.cmd

On macOS or Linux:

./setup.sh

Setup runs five steps and prints each one:

1. Installs dependencies

2. Builds to dist/

3. Checks for a working Overleaf session. If there isn't one, a browser window opens on the Overleaf login page

4. Reads one of your real projects back, to prove the connection works

5. Offers to register the server with Claude Code

Step 2: Sign in when the browser opens

The browser window is a real Chrome. Sign in the way you normally would, including 2FA. Nothing types your password for you and your password is never read or stored.

Once you land on your project list, the window closes on its own and setup continues. Your session cookies are saved to ~/.overleaf-claude-mcp/session.json.

That file is equivalent to full access to your Overleaf account. It is gitignored, and written with 0600 permissions on macOS and Linux. On Windows those permission bits are ignored, so the file is only as private as your user profile folder. Do not share it and do not commit it.

Step 3: Let setup register the server

At step 5 you get a prompt:

      Register this server with Claude Code now? [y/N]

Answer y. That runs:

claude mcp add overleaf -- node C:/CoolYEAH/overleaf-claude-mcp/dist/index.js

If you skipped it, or you use a different client, register by hand. For Claude Code, run the command above. For Claude Desktop, edit %APPDATA%\Claude\claude_desktop_config.json on Windows or ~/Library/Application Support/Claude/claude_desktop_config.json on macOS:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "overleaf": {
      "command": "node",
      "args": ["C:/CoolYEAH/overleaf-claude-mcp/dist/index.js"]
    }
  }
}

Step 4: Restart Claude

MCP servers are only picked up at startup. Quit and reopen Claude Code or Claude Desktop.

Confirm it loaded:

claude mcp list

You should see overleaf listed as connected. Inside a Claude Code session, /mcp shows the same thing.

Step 5: Use it

Just ask in plain language. Claude picks the tools itself.

List my Overleaf projects

Select the Efficient Reasoning project

Read sections/methodology.tex

In sections/results.tex, change "Table 1" to "Table~\ref{tab:main}"

Compile it and tell me what the LaTeX errors are

Show me figures/fig1.png

Save the compiled PDF to C:/tmp/paper.pdf

Pick a project once and it sticks. The selection is stored in ~/.overleaf-claude-mcp/state.json and survives restarts, so every later request applies to that project until you switch. To work on a different project in one request without switching, name it: "read main.tex from my thesis project".

Related MCP server: claudeleaf

How to trigger it

There is no slash command and nothing to type. Claude reads the tool descriptions and calls them when your request matches. Mentioning Overleaf, or a project or file you already selected, is enough.

If Claude does not reach for the tools, the usual causes are: you did not restart after registering, or no project is selected yet. Ask "what Overleaf project is selected?" to check.

Tools

overleaf_select_project takes a project id or any part of a project name. If the name matches more than one project it lists the candidates instead of guessing. overleaf_delete refuses to run unless confirm is true, so Claude cannot delete a file by accident.

Troubleshooting

"No Overleaf session at ..." — you have not signed in yet, or the session expired. Run npm run login, or setup.cmd again.

Claude does not see the tools — you did not restart Claude after registering. Check claude mcp list.

A tool suddenly fails — Overleaf may have changed an endpoint. Run npm run recon, which probes each endpoint read-only and tells you exactly which call broke.

Check your setup from the terminal, without Claude:

npm run read -- "Efficient Reasoning"

Prints the file tree and every section heading of the matching project. Add a path to dump a single file:

npm run read -- "Efficient Reasoning" sections/methodology.tex

Re-run setup any time. It reuses a working session and re-verifies the connection, so it doubles as a health check.

How it works

The file tree comes from Overleaf's socket connection, because that is the only source that carries entity ids, and ids are what writes need. The handshake is GET /socket.io/1/?projectId=<id>, which is socket.io 0.9 framing; the server then pushes joinProjectResponse with the whole project including rootFolder, doc ids and file hashes. The tree is cached for OVERLEAF_TREE_TTL_MS (default 15s) and invalidated after every write.

Text files are read per document, so a read always reflects the current state. overleaf_grep reads the project archive instead, so a whole project search costs one request rather than one per file.

Writes go through the upload endpoint. Uploading over an existing name is an in place update: the entity id is preserved, so Overleaf history and anyone else in the document keep working. Missing parent folders are created first.

Verified endpoints

Confirmed live against a real account, not assumed:

:type is doc, file or folder.

Scripts

npm run smoke creates a project called claude-mcp-smoketest, then exercises write, overwrite, image upload, rename, move, delete and compile. It leaves the project in your account so you can inspect it. Trash it when you are done.

Configuration

All optional. Copy .env.example to .env in this folder and it is loaded on startup.

Limits

None of this is a supported API, and Overleaf can change it at any time. Use it against your own account. Real time collaborative editing is not implemented: writes replace a whole document rather than sending character level operations, so avoid writing to a file while someone else is typing in it.