Aldine

Aldine

Write LaTeX together. Fast, versioned, yours.

Aldine is a self-hosted, open-source collaborative LaTeX editor and an Overleaf alternative. It is slim and built for speed: real-time multi-cursor editing, every project a real git repo with branches, native Zotero, ~2s warm recompiles. Two containers and flat files by default: no database to migrate, nothing to babysit.

Homepage · Try the live demo (resets nightly) · Quick start · How Aldine compares · Screenshots · Self-hosting · Contributing

Guides on aldine.dev: Self-hosting Overleaf (Community Edition, Server Pro) compared with Aldine · Git with Overleaf and a git-native alternative · A LaTeX MCP server for Claude

Live collaboration, a recompile, and a SyncTeX jump, in one real recording (compile wait trimmed):

Status: Aldine reached 1.0 in October 2026, three months after its first release. Within 1.x an upgrade starts on older data with no manual step, and stable settings, MCP tools and the plugin API keep their names until 2.0 (docs/STABILITY.md). That is a promise about upgrades, not a long track record. It compiles real papers daily and every headline feature has a Playwright end-to-end test; CI runs those on every pull request, next to typecheck, build and the integration suites. Expect rough edges, and file issues generously.

Features

• Bring your Overleaf projects, and take them with you: download any Overleaf project as a ZIP, drop it on the home screen, keep writing — root file detected, first typeset automatic.
• Real-time collaboration: CRDT-based (Yjs), multi-cursor with live presence, conflict-free by construction. Unlimited collaborators.
• Git-native with branches: every project is a real git repository. Create branches, edit them independently, merge back from the UI. Publish a project to GitHub, GitLab, Gitea or Forgejo and a co-author can clone it and keep using VS Code; their commits come back with one Pull.
• Fast, sandboxed compiles: TeX Live + latexmk with persistent incremental builds (~2s warm recompiles) in a no-egress container with restricted shell-escape; errors surfaced with line numbers and click-to-jump.
• GitHub/GitLab/Gitea/Forgejo sync: import from GitHub, GitLab, Gitea or Forgejo as a project or publish a local project to a fresh repo, push/pull with ahead/behind indicators, branches, a conflicting pull that lists the files and keeps your version until you take the remote's, server-side autopush, and open a pull or merge request, all from the editor. gitlab.com and self-hosted GitLab, any Gitea or Forgejo instance (Codeberg included); a personal access token needs no OAuth app. A team instance can create every new project in a GitLab group automatically and push every autosave from the server.
• Native Zotero integration: link your whole Zotero library or a single collection, from My Library or any of your group libraries, no premium tier required; keep a .bib in sync with cheap version-aware refresh, insert citations from a search panel or via \cite{ autocomplete.

• Claude as a collaborator (optional, ALDINE_MCP=1): Aldine has a built-in MCP server. Connect your instance to claude.ai, Claude Desktop, Cowork or Claude Code over MCP and Claude edits, typesets and shows the PDF in the chat (inline on claude.ai, Claude Desktop and Cowork; a signed link elsewhere); every change is a git commit authored "Claude" with a review-and-revert toast in the editor. Setup, reachability and the security model: docs/AGENT_API.md.

Everything else: visual editor, review mode, AI error fix, SyncTeX, plugins, auth, scaling…

• Visual editing mode: LaTeX renders as formatted text while the source stays authoritative and byte-stable (it never rewrites source you didn't deliberately edit). WYSIWYG math (click a formula to edit it in a MathLive popover; a formula MathLive would rewrite, such as one with a \label, alignment, a comment or a line break inside, opens as source), editable tables, inline tracked changes from review suggestions, paste-rich-text-to-LaTeX, image-previewing figure chips, and an outline. From the keyboard, Ctrl+Enter (⌘Enter on a Mac) with the caret in a formula's or a table's source opens its editor. Cursor-reveal shows raw source under the caret, including a remote collaborator's. Switch between Source and Visual in the toolbar or the command palette (⌘K); a .tex file opens as source until you pick Visual, and your browser remembers the last choice.
• Review mode: select text and leave an anchored, threaded comment; optionally attach a suggested replacement the author accepts with one click. Comments highlight in the editor, resolve/reopen, and track edits.
• AI error fix (optional, BYO key): on a failed typeset, get a plain-English diagnosis and one-click fixes. Set OPENROUTER_API_KEY, OPENAI_API_KEY, or ANTHROPIC_API_KEY on the server to enable (that precedence order if several are set; ALDINE_AI_MODEL overrides the model). With ALDINE_AI_AUTOFIX=1 a failed typeset opens the Fix tab and runs the diagnosis without a click, once per new error. The key stays server-side and never reaches the browser. Unset the key and Aldine is a 100% AI-free editor.
• Find and cite papers without leaving the editor: search the literature by title or author (OpenAlex), or paste a DOI / arXiv id — one click appends the BibTeX and inserts the \cite (no account, free public APIs).
• SyncTeX both ways: double-click the PDF to jump to source; ⌘J to jump the PDF to your cursor, with a highlight flash.
• Plugin system: manifest + ES module plugins add sidebar panels and write into the editor. Zotero, references, and AI-fix ship as plugins; write your own.
• Templates & import: article, IAC conference paper, beamer and report/thesis; a template for each publisher class the compiler's TeX Live carries (Elsevier, IEEE, ACM, REVTeX, LNCS and more: 15 in the published images); 25 official conference and journal kits (NeurIPS, ICML, ACL, CVPR, Springer Nature, Wiley, …) downloaded from the publisher when you create the project; plus your group's own templates from any git repository (TEMPLATE_REPOS). Or import an existing project from an Overleaf ZIP.
• Editor niceties: auto-typeset on idle, live whole-document word count, spellcheck, Vim keybindings, PDF zoom + download, drag-drop figure upload, previews of images and PDFs from the file tree, plain-English error hints + raw log, command palette (⌘K / Ctrl+K).
• Search and replace across the project: every text file on the branch, open or not, with match case, whole word and regular expressions; Replace all changes open documents live for everyone and lands as one commit.
• Multi-user auth (optional): set AUTH_ENABLED=1 for login, per-project ownership, and sharing (invite-only or link). Google, GitHub & ORCID SSO, your own OpenID Connect provider (Keycloak, Authentik, Authelia, Pocket ID; docs/OIDC.md), or email/password (scrypt-hashed, revocable HTTP-only-cookie sessions); ALDINE_SSO_ONLY=1 disables passwords entirely. Off by default (single-tenant); the collab socket is access-checked. ALDINE_ADMIN_EMAILS=you@example.org opens /admin: accounts, active users (7 / 30 days, editing now), projects, compile time, and per account disable, confirm address, password reset and delete. Never project content. No compose file passes this variable through; add it under environment: of the app service. ALDINE_SIGNUP=approval keeps every new account, password or single sign-on, waiting until an administrator approves it on /admin; with email set up, the administrators get a mail when one starts waiting.
• Scales when you need it: flat-file storage by default; set DATABASE_URL for Postgres and REDIS_URL for shared rate limits and cross-node collab events. One app node is still the supported topology; docs/SCALING.md says exactly what is and isn't built.
• Apple-style UI: system fonts, hairline borders, light & dark mode, keyboard-first (⌘S typeset, ⌘J jump, ⌘K command palette).

Quick start

No clone, no build: save this as docker-compose.yml and run docker compose up -d:

name: aldine

services:
  app:
    image: ghcr.io/trahloff/aldine-app:${ALDINE_VERSION:-1.5.0}
    ports:
      - "8080:3000"
    volumes:
      - aldine-data:/data
      - aldine-secrets:/secrets
    networks: [frontend, backend]
    init: true
    restart: unless-stopped

  compiler:
    image: ghcr.io/trahloff/aldine-compiler:${ALDINE_VERSION:-1.5.0}${ALDINE_TEXLIVE:-}
    volumes:
      - aldine-data:/data
    # The compiler runs untrusted LaTeX. Keep this block.
    networks: [backend]
    mem_limit: 2g
    pids_limit: 256
    cap_drop: [ALL]
    security_opt: [no-new-privileges]
    init: true
    restart: unless-stopped

networks:
  frontend: {}
  backend:
    internal: true # no route to the internet

volumes:
  aldine-data:
  aldine-secrets:

Open http://localhost:8080. That's it. Projects live in the aldine-data volume, and everything else (auth, SSO, AI fix, email) is opt-in via environment variables when you want it.

That is equivalent to the repo-root docker-compose.yml (same services, images and sandbox settings), so a clone works identically: git clone https://github.com/trahloff/Aldine && cd Aldine && docker compose up -d. Keep the name: aldine line wherever you save it: it fixes the volume names, which is what lets you switch compose files later and what deploy/backup.sh looks for.

• You are pinned to a version. The block above says ${ALDINE_VERSION:-1.5.0}, so a fresh copy installs the current release and nothing under a running install changes on its own. To upgrade, read the CHANGELOG, back up (deploy/backup.sh), write the new version into a .env file next to docker-compose.yml, then pull:

  # .env ALDINE_VERSION=<new version>

  docker compose pull && docker compose up -d

  Compose reads .env on every call, so a later up stays on that version. A prefix (ALDINE_VERSION=… docker compose pull && docker compose up -d) reaches only the first command, and up starts the old version again. To roll back, put the previous release in .env and run the same two commands. Your projects live in the aldine-data and aldine-secrets volumes and an image swap does not touch them. :latest still exists and points at the newest release; pinning is what lets you choose when to move.

• Stability. Versions follow SemVer. A 1.x release starts on data from an earlier 1.x, or from 0.14 or later, with no manual step, and nothing covered is removed before 2.0. Every release is built from a commit that passed CI, and its images are booted and made to typeset a real document before :latest moves to them. Before that, it is also started on volumes left by the previous release and by 0.14.4, on the JSON store and on Postgres, and the projects, comments, shares and tokens have to survive. Back up first anyway. Watch the repo's Releases for security fixes: per SECURITY.md, only the latest release gets them. Which data, settings and APIs every 1.x keeps working, and how each promise is checked, is in docs/STABILITY.md.
• The first pull is big. TeX Live lives in the compiler image: about 2.4 GB to download, about 5 GB on disk. It carries TeX Live's medium scheme plus the pictures, latexextra and bibtexextra collections (pgfplots, tikz-cd, cleveref, todonotes, minted, biblatex, …), the publisher classes, and the Arabic, Persian, Cyrillic and Greek scripts; the one family it leaves out is CJK. After the first pull, starts take seconds. Ready when curl localhost:8080/api/health returns {"ok":true,"name":"aldine"}.

• Need a package it does not have? The missing-package error in the editor names it. Two ways to get it, and project settings show which image you are on:

  • Add just that package. Put a docker-compose.override.yml next to docker-compose.yml that builds a derived compiler image, then docker compose up -d --build. tlmgr installs from the same dated TeX Live snapshot the release was built from, so this keeps working after the release ages:

    services:
      compiler:
        image: aldine-compiler-local
        build:
          dockerfile_inline: |
            FROM ghcr.io/trahloff/aldine-compiler:1.5.0
            RUN tlmgr install pgfplots tikz-cd

    Bump the FROM tag when you bump ALDINE_VERSION. Compose builds the image on your machine, so this works for arm64 servers as well.

  • Get everything. Every release from 0.4.0 also ships all of TeX Live as -full (about 2.8 GB compressed, 9 GB on disk; CJK is only here). Add ALDINE_TEXLIVE=-full next to ALDINE_VERSION and pull again.
• Port 8080 taken? Change the left side of ports:; with docker-compose.full.yml, set ALDINE_PORT=8081 in .env instead.
• On a NAS, with the same compiler sandbox:
  • CasaOS and ZimaOS: import deploy/casaos/docker-compose.yml under App Store → Custom Install.
  • TrueNAS 24.10 and later: docs/TRUENAS.md (Install via YAML).
  • Unraid: docs/UNRAID.md (Compose Manager Plus).
• Everything beyond the minimum: building from source (latest main, not a release), auth/SSO/AI/email options, TLS, Postgres/Redis. All of it lives in docker-compose.full.yml, which carries the same compiler sandbox and the same volumes, so you can switch without losing data: docker compose -f docker-compose.full.yml up -d --build. The first build installs TeX Live into the compiler image; expect 20–60 minutes (the tlmgr install step is most of it), then seconds per start. ALDINE_TEXLIVE_SCHEME=full builds the all-of-TeX-Live variant instead.

How Aldine compares

[ol-cmp]: https://docs.overleaf.com/on-premises/welcome/server-pro-vs.-community-edition [ol-req]: https://docs.overleaf.com/on-premises/getting-started/requirements/software-requirements [ol-tl]: https://docs.overleaf.com/on-premises/installation/upgrading-tex-live [ol-repo]: https://github.com/overleaf/overleaf [ol-about]: https://www.overleaf.com/about [ol-gitdocs]: https://docs.overleaf.com/integrations-and-add-ons/git-integration-and-github-synchronization [ol-onprem]: https://www.overleaf.com/for/enterprises/when-to-use-overleaf-on-premises-vs-in-the-cloud [ol-visual]: https://github.com/overleaf/overleaf/tree/main/services/web/frontend/js/features/source-editor/extensions/visual

If Overleaf CE fits you, use it; it's good software. Aldine exists for people who want review comments with suggested edits, git and Zotero without paid tiers, in a deployment they can hold in their head.

Every Overleaf CE cell except "Not measured" links to the Overleaf page it was checked against on 2026-10-12. For GitHub synchronization and Zotero we found no Overleaf page that states them for the on-premises editions, so those cells quote what Overleaf does say. A longer, dated version of this comparison is at aldine.dev/self-hosted-overleaf.

Screenshots

Home: every project shows page 1 of its last typeset. Search, sort, or start a new one from a template, a ZIP or a git host.

Visual editing: the source rendered as formatted text, byte-stable, with math and tables editable in place. Switch with Source/Visual in the toolbar.

|

| | Review mode: threads + one-click suggestions | Branches: create, switch, merge from the UI | |

|

| | Zotero: cite from your library or collection | History: auto-checkpoints, named checkpoints, diffs |

Development

npm install
npm run dev:server     # API + collab on :3000
npm run dev:web        # Vite on :5173 (proxies to :3000)
docker build -t aldine-compiler apps/compiler
docker run -d -p 4020:4020 -v $PWD/.data:/data aldine-compiler

Tests

npm run typecheck -w apps/web && npm run test -w apps/web   # tsc + vitest
npm run test:github -w apps/server                          # GitHub-sync integration
npm run test:gitlab -w apps/server                          # GitLab-sync integration
npm run test:gitea -w apps/server                           # Gitea/Forgejo-sync integration
npm run test:db -w apps/server                              # datastore conformance

End-to-end (Playwright; covers compile, collab, branches, plugins, Zotero). The suite starts its own app on :3100 but not the compiler, and it runs against .data-e2e, so the compiler has to point at that directory or every compile test fails against a healthy-looking compiler:

npx playwright install chromium
DATA_DIR=$(pwd)/.data-e2e PORT=4020 node apps/compiler/server.js &   # or a container on the same dir
npm run test:e2e
ALDINE_URL=http://localhost:8080 npm run test:e2e   # against a running compose stack instead

Production deploy

Settings live in a .env file next to the compose files, so every later docker compose call picks them up. Give each comment its own line: anything after a value becomes part of the value, and AUTH_ENABLED=1 multi-user login is not 1, so auth silently stays off.

# app on loopback only; your reverse proxy fronts it
ALDINE_APP_BIND=127.0.0.1
# absolute URL of the app, used in OAuth callbacks, password-reset links and
# the PDF links the MCP connector hands out. Give it a path to serve Aldine
# under a prefix (https://server/internal/aldine); the Claude connector URL
# is <ALDINE_PUBLIC_URL>/mcp
ALDINE_PUBLIC_URL=https://aldine.example.com
# signs the connector's 15-minute PDF links; generated into META_DIR when
# unset — set it explicitly when several nodes do not share that volume.
# At least 32 characters (`openssl rand -base64 32`); shorter values refuse to boot
ALDINE_SIGNING_SECRET=
# MCP endpoint for Claude (docs/AGENT_API.md); needs AUTH_ENABLED=1 or ALDINE_MCP_TOKEN
ALDINE_MCP=
# static bearer for /mcp with auth off (single-tenant); ignored when AUTH_ENABLED=1
ALDINE_MCP_TOKEN=

# Everything below is optional and off unless set.
# multi-user login, ownership and sharing (unset = single-tenant)
AUTH_ENABLED=1
# Google SSO
GOOGLE_OAUTH_CLIENT_ID=
GOOGLE_OAUTH_CLIENT_SECRET=
# GitHub SSO
GITHUB_LOGIN_CLIENT_ID=
GITHUB_LOGIN_CLIENT_SECRET=
# ORCID SSO: a Public API client (orcid.org/developer-tools, HTTPS callback
# <ALDINE_PUBLIC_URL>/api/auth/oauth/orcid/callback); ORCID_SANDBOX=1 for sandbox.orcid.org
ORCID_CLIENT_ID=
ORCID_CLIENT_SECRET=
# OpenID Connect SSO (Keycloak, Authentik, Authelia, Pocket ID, …): redirect URI
# <ALDINE_PUBLIC_URL>/api/auth/oauth/oidc/callback; every option in docs/OIDC.md
OIDC_ISSUER=
OIDC_CLIENT_ID=
OIDC_CLIENT_SECRET=
OIDC_LABEL=
OIDC_ALLOWED_GROUPS=
# GitHub repo sync: a separate OAuth app with repo scope
GITHUB_CLIENT_ID=
GITHUB_CLIENT_SECRET=
# GitLab sync (gitlab.com or self-hosted); PAT connect works without these
GITLAB_URL=https://gitlab.com
GITLAB_CLIENT_ID=
GITLAB_CLIENT_SECRET=
# Gitea / Forgejo sync needs nothing here: users paste a token and their instance URL
# REMOTE_PROVIDERS=github,gitlab,gitea   # hide a provider by leaving it out
# Optional: every new project is also created on GitLab in this group (service
# account PAT with scope api and Owner on the group). Off unless both are set.
GITLAB_TOKEN=
GITLAB_DEFAULT_GROUP=
# GITLAB_DEFAULT_VISIBILITY=private   # or internal | public
# AUTOPUSH_DEBOUNCE_MS=30000
# AI error fix, bring your own key
OPENROUTER_API_KEY=
# password-reset email: SMTP, or SES_FROM + AWS_REGION instead
SMTP_HOST=
SMTP_PORT=587
SMTP_USER=
SMTP_PASS=
SMTP_FROM=
# error tracking, and which instance the errors came from
SENTRY_DSN=
SENTRY_ENVIRONMENT=production
# Templates from your own git repositories (see templates/README.md)
# TEMPLATE_REPOS='[{"id":"lab","label":"Lab templates","url":"https://gitlab.example.org/latex/templates.git","tokenEnv":"TEMPLATE_REPO_LAB_TOKEN"}]'
# TEMPLATE_REPO_LAB_TOKEN=

# Behind your existing reverse proxy (nginx, Traefik, …), the usual setup. The
# prod overlay trusts proxy headers, sets secure cookies, and rotates logs;
# point your proxy at 127.0.0.1:8080.
# Sample nginx vhost (WebSocket + body-size gotchas handled): deploy/nginx.conf
docker compose -f docker-compose.full.yml -f deploy/docker-compose.prod.yml \
  up -d --build

# …or, if nothing else owns ports 80/443, add the bundled Caddy for
# zero-config HTTPS: append `--profile tls` and set ALDINE_DOMAIN in .env.

# Back up the data + secrets volumes (and the bundled Postgres, if you use it):
deploy/backup.sh aldine-backup.tar.gz
# Restore, after stopping the stack with `docker compose down` (with Postgres,
# start the database alone first: deploy/README.md, "Restore"):
#   deploy/restore.sh aldine-backup.tar.gz

Every variable Aldine reads is listed in deploy/README.md.

Isolation & limits. The compiler runs on an internal-only Docker network (no internet egress), drops all Linux capabilities, and is bounded on CPU / memory / PIDs; LaTeX compiles with restricted shell-escape (whitelist only) and openin_any=p. Per-client rate limits guard login, AI, and reference lookups; compiles are concurrency-capped, with optional per-user compile quotas (ALDINE_COMPILE_QUOTA_MIN) if you host for a group.

See deploy/README.md for the full single-VPS runbook (nginx/Traefik/Caddy ingress, backups, SSO setup, Postgres/Redis, every config variable), deploy/aws for a Terraform/Fargate deployment, and SECURITY.md for the threat model and how to report vulnerabilities.

Architecture

┌────────────┐   HTTP/WS    ┌──────────────────────────────┐
│  Browser   │ ───────────► │  app (Node 22)               │
│  React +   │              │  Fastify API + Hocuspocus    │
│  CM6 + Yjs │              │  git repos + worktrees       │
└────────────┘              └──────────┬───────────────────┘
                                       │ shared volume /data
                            ┌──────────▼───────────────────┐
                            │  compiler (TeX Live medium)  │
                            │  latexmk wrapper, sandboxed  │
                            └──────────────────────────────┘

• One Yjs document per file per branch (project::branch::path), persisted straight to the git worktree with debounced writes and auto-commits.
• Branches are git worktrees, so every branch is editable concurrently.
• Compile output stays inside the project tree (.aldine-out/, kept out of git history) which keeps latexmk's incremental cache warm.

Data & storage

Two separate concerns, behind two seams:

• Project files: real git repos + worktrees on disk (store.ts). This is what gives you branches and history.
• Relational/metadata: users, sessions, project metadata, review comments, and usage go through the DataStore interface (db/). Two backends:
  • JSON files (default, zero-dependency): the slim single-node self-host.
  • Postgres (set DATABASE_URL): the horizontally-scalable backend, and the prerequisite for ever running multiple app nodes. pg is an optional dependency; the same conformance suite runs against both.

For how this scales past one box (and what the remaining walls are), see docs/SCALING.md.

Plugins

A plugin is a folder in plugins/:

plugins/hello/
├── manifest.json   # { "id": "hello", "name": "Hello", "version": "1.0.0", "entry": "index.js" }
└── index.js        # export default { activate(aldine) { ... } }

The aldine API exposes ui.registerSidebarPanel, ui.showPanel (select one of the plugin's own panels), editor.insertAtCursor, project context, compile(), toast(), and fetch(). See plugins/zotero for a complete example.

Templates

A template is a folder with a template.json and the files to start from; the shipped ones live in templates/. A group that keeps its own thesis, poster or report templates puts the same layout in any git repository (GitHub, GitLab, Gitea, a bare repo over https), lists it in TEMPLATE_REPOS, and the templates appear in the gallery under the repository's name, refreshed on an interval or with "Refresh templates", with {{PROJECT_NAME}}, {{AUTHOR}}, {{DATE}} and {{YEAR}} filled in on create. Layout, manifest fields, placeholders and private-repository tokens: templates/README.md.

License

Copyright (C) 2026 Tobias Rahloff.

AGPL-3.0: self-host freely; if you offer a modified Aldine as a service, share your changes. Third-party plugins interact with Aldine over its plugin API and may use any license. Each folder under templates/ carries its own LICENSE and states it in template.json (the gallery shows it on the tile): the generic templates are MIT, and templates/iac-paper is LPPL-1.3c, the customary license for a LaTeX class file. Venue templates are generated from the classes installed in the compiler image, with the license tlmgr reports. Venue kits are downloaded from the publisher when a project is created, and their tile links the publisher's terms instead of naming a license. No publisher file is stored in this repository. Overleaf is a trademark of its owner. Claude, Zotero, GitHub, GitLab and other names are trademarks of their respective owners. Aldine is an independent project, not affiliated with or endorsed by any of them.

Two things stated plainly, because finding them out later feels like a bait-and-switch. A hosted Aldine service is planned, and contributions are accepted under a CLA that permits relicensing, so a commercially licensed edition is possible in future. What will not change: the self-hosted edition stays AGPL-3.0, and no feature that works today moves behind a paid tier. The name is handled separately in TRADEMARK.md.