openleaf

How it works

1. Open any project on overleaf.com
2. Click the green OpenLeaf button in the bottom-right corner
3. Citations tab — click "Find Citations" to discover papers paragraph by paragraph, scored 0-100 with LLM reasoning
4. Review tab — get AI feedback on your paper in Friendly (constructive) or Fire (Reviewer #2) mode
5. Click + Add to append BibTeX entries to your .bib file automatically

Click to open OpenLeaf

Citation search — find papers paragraph by paragraph

LLM-scored results with reasoning

Friendly review — constructive mentor

Fire review — the Reviewer #2 experience

Configure your LLM and API keys

Browser support

OpenLeaf is a Manifest V3 web extension. A single Chromium build serves Chrome, Opera, and Edge; Safari is built from the same source through Apple's converter.

Install

Chrome / Edge — Web Store

openleaf extension link

Chrome / Opera / Edge — load unpacked

1. Download the latest openleaf-chromium-vX.Y.Z.zip from Releases and unzip it (or build it yourself — see From source).
2. Open your browser's extensions page:
   • Chrome / Edge: chrome://extensions
   • Opera: opera://extensions
3. Enable Developer mode.
4. Click Load unpacked and select the unzipped folder.

Safari (macOS)

Safari runs the same extension wrapped in a small native app, which you build once with Xcode:

git clone https://github.com/demfier/openleaf.git
cd openleaf
npm install
npm run package:safari    # generates an Xcode project under safari/

Requires the full Xcode app, not just the Command Line Tools. If the converter is missing, install Xcode from the App Store, run sudo xcode-select -s /Applications/Xcode.app/Contents/Developer, then re-run the command.

Then:

1. Open the generated project in safari/ with Xcode.
2. Product → Run to build and install the app.
3. For locally-built (unsigned) extensions, enable Safari's Develop → Allow Unsigned Extensions, then turn on OpenLeaf under Safari → Settings → Extensions.

From source (Chromium)

git clone https://github.com/demfier/openleaf.git
cd openleaf
npm install
npm run build      # outputs to dist/

Then load unpacked (see above), selecting the repo root folder. To produce a distributable zip instead, run npm run package:chromium → web-ext-artifacts/openleaf-chromium-vX.Y.Z.zip.

Configuration

Click the extension icon → Options (or right-click → Options) to configure:

LLM Backend (for citation ranking & paper review)

Works with any OpenAI-compatible API:

Ollama on Mac/Linux: By default, Ollama blocks requests from browser extensions. You need to allow Chrome extension origins before starting Ollama:

OLLAMA_ORIGINS=chrome-extension://* ollama serve

To set this permanently:

launchctl setenv OLLAMA_ORIGINS "chrome-extension://*"

Then restart Ollama. Without this, the reviewer will return a 403 error.

Paper Search APIs

• Semantic Scholar — works without key (rate-limited)
• Serper (Google Scholar) — optional, skipped if no key
• OpenAlex — no key needed, email improves rate limits

Development

npm run dev               # build + watch mode
npm run build             # one-off build → dist/
npm run package:chromium  # zip for Chrome/Opera/Edge → web-ext-artifacts/
npm run package:safari    # Xcode project for Safari → safari/ (needs Xcode)

After changing code, reload the extension from your browser's extensions page (chrome://extensions or opera://extensions). For Safari, re-run the app from Xcode.

Privacy

See PRIVACY.md. TL;DR: No data collection, no analytics, no accounts. Everything stays in your browser.

License

MIT