Overleaf MCP Server

Overleaf MCP: check and compile your Overleaf paper from Claude Code, Codex or Cursor

Work on an Overleaf project with the AI agent you already use. Through one hosted MCP server, hedwigai, your agent can:

• Check every reference in the .bib. Each entry is looked up in Crossref, at doi.org and on the web. It comes back found, found with a different year or authors, or not found. A DOI that belongs to a different paper, and a paper that has been retracted, are flagged.
• Check every sentence that cites a reference. The cited work is read, and the sentence comes back supported, contradicted or unsupported, with the passage that settles it.
• Compile the project to a PDF. Real TeX (Tectonic), with BibTeX and journal classes such as IEEEtran, acmart and elsarticle, up to 4 minutes a run, with nothing to install. If it fails, the failing line comes back for the agent to fix.

Overleaf has no MCP server of its own. Most community servers reach a project through Overleaf's Git integration (a paid Overleaf plan) or your login. Some compile with a TeX you install yourself, and they match \cite keys to the .bib. None of them checks that a reference is real. This repository is the setup for doing that, and it works with Overleaf's free plan.

hedwigai is not affiliated with Overleaf.

1. Get your Overleaf project onto your machine

Use any one of these:

Open that folder in your agent.

2. Connect the MCP server

The server is https://mcp.hedwigai.com. You sign in once with OAuth. A new account starts with $1 of credit and needs no card.

Claude Code

claude mcp add --transport http --scope user hedwigai https://mcp.hedwigai.com

Then run /mcp, choose hedwigai and Authenticate. Or copy this repository's .mcp.json into your project for a project-scoped server.

Codex

codex mcp add hedwigai --url https://mcp.hedwigai.com
codex mcp login hedwigai

Cursor: add this to ~/.cursor/mcp.json, then click Connect:

{ "mcpServers": { "hedwigai": { "url": "https://mcp.hedwigai.com" } } }

Claude (web or desktop): Settings → Connectors → Add custom connector, and paste https://mcp.hedwigai.com.

Skills (optional). In Claude Code, /plugin marketplace add un-seen/hedwigai-skills then /plugin install hedwigai@hedwigai adds the reference-checker and latex-papers skills, which walk the agent through each step.

3. Ask

Copy AGENTS.md (Codex, Cursor) or CLAUDE.md (Claude Code) into your project so the agent knows the workflow. Then ask:

Check every reference in references.bib and tell me which ones are wrong.
Check that each sentence citing a paper says what that paper says.
Compile main.tex with render_document and fix any errors.

Try it on the example

example/ is a short paper whose refs.bib holds two planted problems:

• pijoanmas2006 cites Pijoan-Mas (2006) with DOI 10.1016/j.red.2005.11.001. That DOI is registered to Domeij and Flodén's paper in the same issue. The right one is …11.002.
• wakefield1998 cites a Lancet paper that was retracted in 2010.

Open example/ in your agent, connect the server and ask it to check the references. Both problems come back flagged. The paper also compiles as it stands.

No agent? Check a .bib in the browser

These free tools need no account (3 checks a day, 25 entries each):

• BibTeX checker: paste a .bib from Overleaf or Zotero.
• Retraction checker: find retracted papers in a reference list.
• DOI checker: check that each DOI exists and names the paper you mean.
• Citation checker: match every in-text citation to the reference list.

What it costs

Compiling is free. Checking references and citing sentences is billed per reference from prepaid credit; a thesis with 80 references comes to a few dollars. See pricing.

Limits

• No live co-editing, track changes or history: those stay in Overleaf.
• Shell escape is off, so minted does not run (use listings).
• No biber (use BibTeX) and no LuaLaTeX.
• The TeX package set is TeX Live 2022's.
• "Not found" is a finding, not proof of fabrication: books, theses, reports and very new or non-English works are often missing from Crossref.

More

• Overleaf MCP for Claude Code: the comparison with community Overleaf MCP servers.
• A LaTeX MCP server: a whole IEEE paper compiled from Claude Code.
• hedwigai-skills: the agent skills.

MIT licensed. Issues and pull requests are welcome.