LaTeX Coder

A self-hosted LaTeX workspace where people, coding agents, and Git work on the same paper.

Website · Documentation

LaTeX Coder combines real-time collaborative editing, integrated LaTeX compilation, and a first-class editing path for coding agents. Your paper stays ordinary files on disk, and every project is a real Git repository you can clone, push to, and back up like any other directory.

Working with BibTeX? See Biblock, an auditable bibliography workflow for humans and agents.

Why LaTeX Coder

• Hover to preview images and equations. See a figure or rendered equation by hovering over its reference, even when it is defined in another file. Previews also work directly on \includegraphics paths and math expressions.
• Blame mode: see who wrote what. Character-level authorship in the editor, down to the Git checkpoint that introduced each range.
• Command-click to jump to a definition. Follow citations to their BibTeX entries and cross-references to their labels across the project (\cite, \citep, \citet, \ref, \eqref, \autoref, \cref). \input, \include, \includegraphics, and \url open their targets too.

Write together

• Edit simultaneously with live cursors and presence.
• Share a project with a view or edit link. Guests don't need an account.
• Comment, reply, and suggest changes inline. Reviews live in the source as LaTeX macros, so agents and Git can read them too — nothing is locked in a UI-only database.

Navigate the paper, not just its files

• Browse an indented file tree with folders, drag-and-drop moves, downloads, recoverable deletion, image/PDF previews, and open-file tabs.
• Edit Markdown beside LaTeX with a sanitized GFM preview: project-relative images, tables, task lists, code blocks, and links to other project files.
• Use Tree for the section outline and TreeWriter for a paper-level view of section titles, \tldr, and \sectiontldr summaries, editable in place.
• Complete citation keys with titles and authors visible in the suggestions.
• Search the whole project with optional regular expressions, and preview multi-file replacements before applying them.

Preview as you write

• Compile with Tectonic or latexmk. If neither is installed, a verified Tectonic binary is set up automatically on first use.
• Navigate both ways with SyncTeX: source to PDF and PDF back to source.
• The last successful PDF stays on screen while you edit and is only flagged when it goes stale.

Give agents a first-class editing path

Every collaborator can copy a project-specific Agent editing command from the Collaborate menu. It hands the agent a plain-text manual containing the project's files and its API URLs.

The edit workflow is deliberately simple:

1. Download a file.
2. Edit it with ordinary local tools.
3. Upload the replacement together with the original content hash.

The server applies the changes in one transaction; if a collaborator edited the file in the meantime, the upload is rejected instead of overwriting their work. Agent access can also be restricted so every edit arrives as a reviewable suggestion. The same manual covers project search, compilation, blame, reviews, and Git.

LaTeX Coder vs. Overleaf

For teams considering an alternative to Overleaf, start with the editor features above. LaTeX Coder also gives teams control of their infrastructure and makes coding agents part of the writing workflow. The table below compares collaboration and integration choices.

	LaTeX Coder	Overleaf
Hosting	Self-hosted Node service; persistent data stays on your volume.	Hosted service, with separate on-premises products.
Guest collaboration	View/Edit share links; an account is optional for project access.	Account-based collaboration with plan-dependent collaborator limits.
Review data	Comments, replies, and suggestions are LaTeX macros visible to humans, agents, and Git.	Comments and Track Changes are platform-managed; Track Changes is a premium feature.
Git model	Every project is a Git repository. The live documents represent main; incoming changes are merged before import.	Git Bridge translates Overleaf history into one linear branch named master; cloud Git integration is premium.
Git and reviews	Macro-backed review state travels with source and is validated on import.	Overleaf advises against mixing active Git use with comments or Track Changes because pushes can displace or lose review metadata.
Agent editing	Project-scoped plain-text manual, checked full-file edits, search, compilation, blame, review, and Git APIs.	General editor and integration workflows rather than this checked file-edit protocol.
Export	ZIP of the live working tree, including uncommitted source changes.	Source ZIP; the compiled PDF and most generated files are downloaded separately.

Comparison details are based on Overleaf's official documentation for plans, Track Changes, advanced Git behavior, and project downloads.

Quick Start

Requirements: Node.js 22+, pnpm 10+, and Git.

pnpm install
pnpm check
LATEXCODER_ADMIN_PASSWORD='use-a-long-random-password' pnpm start

Open http://127.0.0.1:8090 and sign in as admin with that password (10+ characters, used only to create the first account). You can then invite more users from the admin panel with registration links.

Deploy with Docker or Railway

The image includes Tectonic, SyncTeX, Git, ripgrep, and bubblewrap, and stores all persistent state beneath /data.

docker build -t latexcoder .
docker volume create latexcoder-data
docker run --rm \
  --name latexcoder \
  --publish 8090:8090 \
  --publish 2222:2222 \
  --security-opt seccomp=unconfined \
  --env LATEXCODER_ADMIN_PASSWORD='use-a-long-random-password' \
  --volume latexcoder-data:/data \
  latexcoder

The seccomp override lets bubblewrap create the namespaces used by sandboxed regex search; skip it if you only need literal search.

For Railway, use the deploy button above, attach a persistent volume at /data, and set LATEXCODER_ADMIN_PASSWORD. Railway's injected PORT is picked up automatically — no custom start command needed. For SSH Git, expose TCP port 2222 and set LATEXCODER_SSH_PUBLIC_HOST and LATEXCODER_SSH_PUBLIC_PORT to the externally reachable TCP address. An HTTP proxy alone does not forward SSH.

In Railway's Settings → Networking → TCP Proxy, set the target port to 2222. Keep the existing HTTPS domain for the web app. If Railway assigns shuttle.proxy.rlwy.net:15140, for example, configure:

PORT=8080
LATEXCODER_PORT=8080
LATEXCODER_SSH_PORT=2222
LATEXCODER_SSH_PUBLIC_HOST=shuttle.proxy.rlwy.net
LATEXCODER_SSH_PUBLIC_PORT=15140

SSH key management and SSH clone options appear only when both public endpoint variables are valid and the SSH listener starts successfully. Otherwise, the Git menu provides the existing access link.

Keep the HTTPS domain target port at 8080; HTTP and SSH must use different internal ports. Replace the example hostname and public port with your assigned TCP proxy address, then redeploy. The Git menu uses these values for SSH clone commands; the existing HTTPS access links remain available under Access link.

Accounts and sharing

Signed-in users get a project dashboard with tags, search, and archiving. Invite links create either Internal accounts, which can invite further users, or External accounts, which can create projects but not invite anyone. Guests join a single project through a share link, no account required.

Each collaborator gets their own browser, agent, and Git credentials. Rotating a collaborator's link credentials revokes their previous links without affecting anyone else. SSH keys are managed separately in Account Settings. The admin panel covers user search, password resets, account deletion that preserves projects and attribution, and project deletion.

Projects can be created from ZIP archives, and uploading a ZIP inside an existing project adds files without overwriting existing ones.

Git

Every project lives on main, and the live collaborative documents always represent that branch. Browser edits are checkpointed automatically, so a git pull in another tool always sees the latest state — nobody has to "push" from the editor.

Add your SSH public key under Account Settings → SSH keys, then copy the SSH command from Collaborate → Git access. SSH is selected by default; clone and push require the matching private key and project membership. Viewers can clone but cannot push. Removing a key revokes its SSH access.

git clone ssh://git@your-host:2222/<project-id>.git
cd <project-id>
# edit and commit normally
git push origin main

The Access link option retains the existing HTTPS remote at https://your-host/git/<project-id>/<personal-secret>. It works without an SSH key; anyone holding the link can use it.

The SSH host key is generated on first startup and persisted in the state directory. The Git dialog shows its fingerprint for the first connection.

Pushes are merged into the live documents automatically. If a push cannot be merged safely, it is kept on a conflict/<timestamp> branch while main and the live documents stay untouched.

The History view provides paginated checkpoints, per-file diffs, an Agent edits filter, and whole-project or single-file restore. Restores are new commits — history is never rewritten.

Compilation

Project settings select the main TeX file, the compiler, and optional automatic compilation. The Log view groups errors and warnings, highlights the first fatal error, and links each diagnostic to its source file and line alongside the full compiler output.

PDF navigation needs the synctex executable (included in the Docker image). Compile an older project once after deployment to generate its synchronization data.

Choose Top-level root or Chapter root beside Compile to build the whole document or just the chapter you are working on, including its child files. If no chapter root is declared or its file is missing, compilation automatically falls back to the top-level root.

Keep chapter configuration in the project source: a child file declares %% latexcoder:chapter-root chapters/methods.tex, and the chapter entry declares %% latexcoder:template templates/chapter.tex. The template supplies the document class, packages, and surrounding content, with %% latexcoder:content marking where the chapter is inserted. An optional %% latexcoder:root main.tex selects the top-level entry. Paths are relative to the project root, and chapter builds keep their own PDF, log, and source-navigation data. See the chapter compilation guide for a complete example.

Configuration

Variable	Default	Purpose
LATEXCODER_ADMIN_PASSWORD	none	Creates the initial admin account on an empty database.
LATEXCODER_STATE_DIR	.latexcoder	SQLite database, projects, Git repositories, Yjs snapshots, build cache, and PDFs.
LATEXCODER_HOST	0.0.0.0	Listener address.
LATEXCODER_PORT	PORT or 8090	HTTP listener port.
LATEXCODER_SSH_PORT	2222	SSH Git listener port; enabled only with a valid public host and port.
LATEXCODER_SSH_HOST	0.0.0.0	SSH listener address.
LATEXCODER_SSH_PUBLIC_HOST	RAILWAY_TCP_PROXY_DOMAIN	Public hostname for SSH Git; explicit configuration overrides the Railway fallback.
LATEXCODER_SSH_PUBLIC_PORT	RAILWAY_TCP_PROXY_PORT	External SSH port; explicit configuration overrides the Railway fallback. Does not change the internal listener port.
LATEXCODER_LATEX_BIN	auto-detected	Explicit Tectonic or latexmk executable.
LATEXCODER_TECTONIC_BUNDLE_URL	Tectonic default	Tectonic bundle mirror URL, useful when the default package bundle is slow or unavailable.
LATEXCODER_COMPILE_CONCURRENCY	2	Process-wide concurrent build limit.
LATEXCODER_RG_BIN	rg	ripgrep executable used by regex search.
LATEXCODER_BWRAP_BIN	bwrap	bubblewrap executable used to sandbox ripgrep.
LATEXCODER_SYNCTEX_BIN	synctex	SyncTeX executable used for source/PDF navigation.

GET /health/live is the liveness probe. GET /health/ready additionally reports detected external tools; missing optional tools are reported without making the editor itself unready.

Where your data lives

<state-dir>/
  state.sqlite
  projects/<project-id>/
    project/        source files and the project's .git directory
    build/          current compilation artifacts

SQLite stores accounts, sessions, and project settings. Papers stay as plain files with real Git repositories, so backups are an ordinary file copy.

Security model

LaTeX Coder is designed for trusted teams, not hostile multi-tenant workloads. Passwords are scrypt-hashed and share/invite links use high-entropy tokens. Anyone holding an Edit, Agent, or Git link can modify that project within the link's scope.

Regex search runs through ripgrep in a read-only bubblewrap sandbox (no network, 15-second timeout, 4 MiB output limit); literal search works without it. LaTeX compilation is not sandboxed — do not compile untrusted projects, and do not store unrelated secrets inside project directories.

Development

TypeScript throughout: src/client is the React/Vite interface, src/server handles HTTP, Git/Yjs coordination, persistence, and compilation, and src/shared holds the schemas and parsers used by both.

LATEXCODER_ADMIN_PASSWORD='1234567890' pnpm dev   # Vite on 5173 → app server on 8090
pnpm check                                        # build + typecheck
pnpm test                                         # full test suite

License

MIT