tex-mcp-web

Review a LaTeX paper from its rendered PDF while Claude Code or Codex edits the source.

If it helps your writing, a star is very welcome.

You read the PDF in a browser and comment on selected text, a section, or the whole paper. The agent reads those comments over MCP, edits the LaTeX, compiles once after the batch, and replies in the same thread. Because you point at the rendered PDF, you never hunt for the source line.

you:    select text in the PDF -> write a comment
                  |
agent:  read comments -> edit LaTeX -> compile -> reply or resolve
                  |
you:    read the rebuilt PDF -> comment again

Install

Python 3.10 or newer and a compiler on PATH (latexmk for LaTeX by default; pdflatex, xelatex, lualatex, and pandoc are also supported).

pip install "tex-mcp-web[mcp] @ git+https://github.com/MiiKiyoshi/tex-mcp-web"

Related MCP server: overleaf-mcp

Connect Claude Code or Codex

Register the MCP server once for the agent you use.

Claude Code:

claude mcp add --scope user tex-mcp -- tex-mcp

Codex:

codex mcp add tex-mcp -- tex-mcp

The agent starts tex-mcp itself; you do not run it separately. It also serves the review page for the project it starts in, so a paper needs no second process.

Set up a paper

Each paper needs a .tex-mcp-web.yaml at its root. Create it once in the paper directory:

cd my-paper
tex-mcp-web init --main main.tex

--main is the top-level source file that produces the PDF. init will not overwrite an existing file. It writes:

main: main.tex
watch:
- '*.tex'
- '*.bib'
- '*.md'
- '*.txt'
ignore:
- '*_backup.tex'
compiler: auto
auto_compile: false
port: 8765

Start Claude Code or Codex from the paper directory (or a subdirectory) and ask the agent to call paper(). The review page opens at the configured port, or the review_url that paper() reports.

Use it

Drag over PDF text and write a comment; add a suggested wording in the replacement box when you have one. Use + Note for a whole-paper comment and the Sections tab for a section comment. Then ask the agent in plain language:

Process the open tex-mcp comments.

The agent reads them, edits the source, compiles, and either replies or resolves each one. If an edit misses, reply in the same thread.

Several papers at once

Give each paper its own port, then start an agent session in each directory:

cd paper-a && tex-mcp-web config port 8765
cd paper-b && tex-mcp-web config port 8766

They open at http://localhost:8765 and http://localhost:8766. A port already serving another paper is an error, not shared; after changing a port, restart that paper's agent session.

Configuration

tex-mcp-web config finds the nearest .tex-mcp-web.yaml from the current directory upward.

tex-mcp-web config                 # print the whole config
tex-mcp-web config port            # print one field
tex-mcp-web config port 8766       # change one field
tex-mcp-web config compiler xelatex
tex-mcp-web config watch 'main.tex,sections/**,*.bib'

Comma-separated patterns set watch and ignore.

More commands

tex-mcp-web compile          # compile once, without the review page
tex-mcp-web compile --json   # errors and warnings as JSON
tex-mcp-web goto Methods     # move a running viewer to a section, page (p2), or tex/intro.tex:47

Acknowledgements

tex-mcp-web is a hard fork of queelius/scholia at commit e6c7454 (version 0.6.1), independently developed since under the MIT license; see LICENSE. PDF viewing uses EmbedPDF and its PDFium WebAssembly engine, whose notices are in tex_mcp_web/static/embedpdf/LICENSE and tex_mcp_web/static/embedpdf/LICENSE.pdfium.