MCP Server

July 2, 2026 · View on GitHub

@aloth/olcli ships an MCP (Model Context Protocol) server so AI assistants like Claude Desktop, Cursor, and Windsurf can interact with your Overleaf projects directly.

MCP Tools

Tool	Description
`list_projects`	List all Overleaf projects
`get_project_info`	Get file tree and metadata for a project
`pull_project`	Download and extract a project to a local directory
`push_file`	Upload a local file to a project
`compile`	Compile a project and get the PDF URL
`download_pdf`	Compile a project and save the PDF locally
`list_comments`	List review comments (filter: all / open / resolved)
`get_entities`	Get a flat list of all files in a project
`download_file`	Download a specific file by its remote path
`add_comment`	Add a review comment to a document
`reply_to_comment`	Reply to an existing comment thread
`resolve_comment`	Mark a comment thread as resolved
`delete_entity`	Delete a file or document by path
`rename_entity`	Rename a file or document
`compile_with_outputs`	Compile and return all output files (PDF, BBL, logs…)

Authentication

The MCP server reads credentials in this order:

OVERLEAF_SESSION environment variable — set in your MCP config (recommended)
OVERLEAF_EMAIL + OVERLEAF_PASSWORD environment variables — for password login (self-hosted)
.olauth file in cwd — written by olcli auth
Stored config — written by olcli auth (including saved password credentials)

When a session cookie expires and password credentials are available, the MCP server automatically re-authenticates.

Claude Desktop

Add to ~/Library/Application Support/Claude/claude_desktop_config.json:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "overleaf": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": ["-y", "@aloth/olcli-mcp"],
      "env": {
        "OVERLEAF_SESSION": "<your-overleaf-session-cookie>"
      }
    }
  }
}

Or if you have olcli installed globally (npm install -g @aloth/olcli):

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "overleaf": {
      "command": "olcli-mcp",
      "env": {
        "OVERLEAF_SESSION": "<your-overleaf-session-cookie>"
      }
    }
  }
}

Cursor

Add to your Cursor MCP settings (~/.cursor/mcp.json or project .cursor/mcp.json):

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "overleaf": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": ["-y", "@aloth/olcli-mcp"],
      "env": {
        "OVERLEAF_SESSION": "<your-overleaf-session-cookie>"
      }
    }
  }
}

Windsurf

Add to ~/.codeium/windsurf/mcp_config.json:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "overleaf": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": ["-y", "@aloth/olcli-mcp"],
      "env": {
        "OVERLEAF_SESSION": "<your-overleaf-session-cookie>"
      }
    }
  }
}

Open Overleaf in your browser and log in
Open DevTools → Application (Chrome) or Storage (Firefox) → Cookies
Find overleaf_session2 (or sharelatex.sid for self-hosted)
Copy the value — that's your OVERLEAF_SESSION

Or run olcli auth and then the MCP server will pick it up automatically.

Self-hosted Overleaf

Set OVERLEAF_BASE_URL in your MCP env:

"env": {
  "OVERLEAF_SESSION": "<cookie>",
  "OVERLEAF_BASE_URL": "https://overleaf.yourcompany.com"
}