🍃 Overleaf Claude MCP

🤖 Let Claude read, write, and push your Overleaf LaTeX projects — all from the chat.

An MCP (Model Context Protocol) server that connects Claude Code / Claude Desktop with your Overleaf projects.

🆚 What's New vs mjyoo2/OverleafMCP

The original OverleafMCP is read-only — you can view your files but can't change anything. This fork adds full write support:

| Capability | mjyoo2/OverleafMCP | ✨ This Project | |:-----------|:------------------:|:---------------:| | 📖 Read files from Overleaf | ✅ | ✅ | | 📑 Parse LaTeX sections | ✅ | ✅ | | 📋 List projects & files | ✅ | ✅ | | 📊 Project status summary | ✅ | ✅ | | ✏️ Write / edit files | ❌ | ✅ NEW | | 🚀 Commit & push to Overleaf | ❌ | ✅ NEW |

💡 With write + push, Claude becomes a full co-author — it can read your paper, make edits, and push them back to Overleaf in one conversation.

🛠️ All Available Tools

| Tool | Description | |:-----|:------------| | 📋 list_projects | List all configured Overleaf projects | | 📂 list_files | List files in a project (filter by extension) | | 📖 read_file | Read any file from your Overleaf project | | 📑 get_sections | Extract all section/subsection headings from a LaTeX file | | 🔍 get_section_content | Get content of a specific section by title | | ✏️ write_file | Write/update a file in the project (NEW) | | 🚀 push_changes | Commit and push changes back to Overleaf (NEW) | | 📊 status_summary | Get a quick overview of the project |

📋 Prerequisites

📦 Node.js >= 18
🔧 Git installed on your system
🍃 An Overleaf account with Git integration enabled

🚀 Setup

Step 1: Clone this repo

git clone https://github.com/Junfei-Z/overleaf-claude-mcp.git
cd overleaf-claude-mcp
npm install

Step 2: Get your Overleaf credentials

You need two things from Overleaf:

🔑 Project ID

Open your project in Overleaf

Look at the browser URL:

https://www.overleaf.com/project/64a1b2c3d4e5f6a7b8c9d0e1
                                  ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
                                  This is your Project ID

🔐 Git Token

Go to Overleaf Account Settings
Scroll to the Git Integration section
Click Create token
Copy the token (it starts with olp_...)

⚠️ Important: Keep your Git Token private. Never commit it to version control.

Step 3: Configure your project(s)

cp projects.example.json projects.json

Edit projects.json with your credentials:

{
  "projects": {
    "default": {
      "name": "My Paper",
      "projectId": "64a1b2c3d4e5f6a7b8c9d0e1",
      "gitToken": "olp_xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx"
    }
  }
}

📚 You can add multiple projects:

{
  "projects": {
    "default": {
      "name": "PhD Thesis",
      "projectId": "64a1b2c3d4e5f6a7b8c9d0e1",
      "gitToken": "olp_xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx"
    },
    "paper2": {
      "name": "Conference Paper",
      "projectId": "75b2c3d4e5f6a7b8c9d0e1f2",
      "gitToken": "olp_yyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy"
    }
  }
}

Step 4: Connect to Claude

💻 Option A: Claude Code (CLI / IDE extension)

Create or edit .mcp.json in your project directory (or ~/.claude/.mcp.json for global access):

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "overleaf": {
      "command": "node",
      "args": ["/absolute/path/to/overleaf-claude-mcp/overleaf-mcp-server.js"]
    }
  }
}

Then restart Claude Code.

⚠️ Important: Claude Code only loads .mcp.json from the directory where you launch it. Make sure you start Claude Code in the same directory as your .mcp.json:
cd /path/to/your/project   # where .mcp.json lives
claude                     # start Claude Code here
Alternatively, place it at ~/.claude/.mcp.json for global access from any directory.

🖥️ Option B: Claude Desktop

Edit your Claude Desktop config file:

🍎 macOS: ~/Library/Application Support/Claude/claude_desktop_config.json
🪟 Windows: %APPDATA%\Claude\claude_desktop_config.json

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "overleaf": {
      "command": "node",
      "args": ["/absolute/path/to/overleaf-claude-mcp/overleaf-mcp-server.js"]
    }
  }
}

Then restart Claude Desktop.

💬 Usage Examples

Once connected, you can ask Claude things like:

📖 Reading

"List all files in my Overleaf project"

"Read main.tex from my Overleaf project"

"Show me all the sections in my paper"

"Get the content of the Introduction section"

✏️ Writing (NEW!)

"Add a new paragraph to the Related Work section"

"Fix the typo in line 42 of main.tex"

"Rewrite the abstract to be more concise"

"Push the changes to Overleaf with commit message 'Updated abstract'"

🔄 Typical Workflow

You:    💬 "Read main.tex from my Overleaf project"
Claude: 📖 [reads the file via MCP]

You:    💬 "Rewrite the introduction to emphasize our main contribution"
Claude: ✏️ [rewrites and calls write_file]

You:    💬 "Push to Overleaf"
Claude: 🚀 [calls push_changes, changes appear in Overleaf]

After pushing, open Overleaf in your browser — the changes will be there! ✅

📚 Multi-Project Usage

When using multiple projects, specify which one:

"Read main.tex from project paper2"

"List files in my PhD Thesis project"

The projectName parameter matches the key in your projects.json (e.g., "default", "paper2").

🔒 Security

🛡️ projects.json is in .gitignore and will never be committed
🔑 Git tokens are only used locally to communicate with Overleaf's Git bridge
🔄 You can rotate your token anytime in Overleaf Account Settings

❓ Troubleshooting

| Problem | Solution | |:--------|:---------| | 🔌 MCP server not showing up | Make sure you restarted Claude Code / Claude Desktop after editing config | | ⚙️ Error loading projects.json | Run cp projects.example.json projects.json and fill in your credentials | | 🔗 Git clone fails | Double-check your project ID and git token | | 🚫 Push fails | Make sure your git token has write access; check if someone else is editing the same file on Overleaf |

🙏 Credits

📦 Original read-only MCP server: mjyoo2/OverleafMCP
✨ Write/push functionality added by Junfei-Z with Claude Code

📄 License

MIT

MCP Servers