codex-overleaf-link

Codex Overleaf Link adds a Codex panel next to the Overleaf editor. Ask about your project, or let Codex edit it: changes go back through the editor, as tracked changes if you want, and a run can be undone until you accept its changes. Codex runs on your machine through the Codex CLI.

Features · Install · How it works · Configuration · Troubleshooting

Features

Ask, Auto and Track

With Track on, each rewritten sentence becomes one tracked change and small fixes stay word-level, so the Review panel reads like edits made by hand. Accept changes accepts the run's own tracked changes. Undo changes restores the files the run wrote and removes the files it created, also after a page reload.

• Auto doesn't ask before each edit, but deleting files and adding or replacing images and PDFs always ask first.
• If a file is edited again after the run, Undo stops at that file instead of overwriting it.
• Cancel stops a run. Files already written stay and can still be undone.
• Track Changes depends on the project owner's Overleaf plan. When it isn't available, the panel asks before the run whether to write without tracking.

Context

Attach project files with @ or ＋, add @compile-log for a compile problem, or select lines in the editor and choose Add to Chat to reference them as a range such as main.tex:22-24. Edit Selection limits the edit to the selected text. PDFs and images can be attached for Codex to read; they are never added to the project. The line above the composer shows what Codex will read next: the current file, the selected files, or the whole project.

Up to five project files stay attached across turns. Attachments are limited to 8 per turn, 12 MiB each and 32 MiB in total.

Run timeline and subagents

Each run keeps its steps and its answer together. Expand the timeline to see what Codex read, ran and changed. With Parallel Subagents on (experimental), the main agent can hand work to readers and workers that run alongside it. Open one to read its conversation, then go back to the main task.

Context window

The ring beside the model shows how full the conversation's context window is. Open it to see the latest input, cached input and output, or to compact the conversation; /compact does the same.

Results and compile check

Every run ends with a short result. If a run doesn't go as planned, its card names the cause, what it means for the document, and a next step: Didn't finish, Partly written, Not written, or Check Overleaf when a write couldn't be confirmed.

• If you or a collaborator edit a file while Codex works, Codex's patch is moved around your edit, and Undo keeps it. If both change the same text, the file is left as it is and reported as Not written. Retry sync writes only the files that are still pending.
• With Auto compile on, Overleaf recompiles after the write. Errors are read from that compile's log and listed on the card. The fix button drafts a request with @compile-log in the composer, for you to send.

Write in My Style (experimental)

Builds a writing-style skill from Overleaf projects and PDFs you choose.

1. Open Settings → This project → Writing.
2. Under Write in My Style, pick reference projects or add text-based PDFs.
3. Generate the style and turn it on for the project. After you change the references, Update style refreshes it.

The style guides phrasing, rhythm, structure and tone; facts, results and citations still come from your project. The same page holds the project's Personalization notes for terminology and LaTeX conventions.

Models and providers

The panel uses the local Codex CLI's models by default; choose the model and reasoning level in the composer. To use another endpoint (experimental), add a provider under Settings → All projects → Models & connections. Shortcuts fill in the defaults for OpenAI-compatible and Anthropic-compatible APIs, Kimi, GLM and DeepSeek; you add the API key and model IDs.

Install

You need Google Chrome on macOS, Windows or Linux (or Chromium on Linux), Node.js 20+, and the Codex CLI, installed and signed in. The extension works on overleaf.com, www.overleaf.com and cn.overleaf.com; self-hosted Overleaf is not supported.

Let Codex install it (recommended)

If you already use Codex in a terminal on the computer where Chrome runs, give it this prompt:

Install Codex Overleaf Link on this computer. Follow the install steps in https://github.com/Ghqqqq/codex-overleaf-link, then tell me what I still need to do in Chrome.

Install with npm

npm exec --yes codex-overleaf-link@2.6.0 -- install-managed

The installer sets up the native host and a managed copy of the extension, then prints the extension's folder.

Finish in Chrome

In chrome://extensions, turn on Developer mode, click Load unpacked and pick the extension folder. Open an Overleaf project and the panel appears on the right.

# macOS / Linux
CODEX_OVERLEAF_REF=v2.6.0 bash -c "$(curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/Ghqqqq/codex-overleaf-link/v2.6.0/install.sh)"

# Windows
iwr https://raw.githubusercontent.com/Ghqqqq/codex-overleaf-link/v2.6.0/install.ps1 -OutFile install.ps1
$env:CODEX_OVERLEAF_REF='v2.6.0'
powershell -ExecutionPolicy Bypass -File install.ps1

# From source. Unmanaged: rebuild and reload the extension yourself after changes.
git clone https://github.com/Ghqqqq/codex-overleaf-link.git && cd codex-overleaf-link
npm ci && npm run build:content && npm run install:native
# then load extension/ as an unpacked extension

The official build always has the extension ID illdpneeeopfffmiepaejglgmhpmdhdc. If a custom build gets a different ID, pass --extension-id <id> to the installer. For Chromium on Linux, add --browser chromium.

How it works

flowchart TD
    O[Overleaf project and editor] <--> P[Page bridge]
    P <--> C[Panel and content runtime]
    C <--> B[Extension service worker]
    B <-->|Native Messaging over stdio| N[Native host, Node]
    N <--> M[Project mirror and baseline]
    N <-->|JSON-RPC over stdio| A[codex app-server]
    A -->|reads and edits| M

1. When you send a task, the extension saves the run's settings and syncs the project into a local mirror, or reuses the mirror if it is still current.
2. The native host starts codex app-server on the mirror, with a Codex home of its own.
3. When Codex is done, the host compares the mirror with its baseline and turns the differences into text patches and file transfers. An Ask run ends here.
4. In Auto, the extension writes each patch through the Overleaf editor. Before writing it checks the project, path rules, edit mode and expected text, and shifts the patch past edits made elsewhere in the file since the run started.
5. It then records the undo point, confirms the save, refresh