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overleaf-sync

Two-way sync between a local paper directory and an Overleaf project, so ARIS audit/edit workflows stay on the local copy while collaborators edit in the Overleaf web UI

Install / Use

npx skills add wanshuiyin/Auto-claude-code-research-in-sleep --skill overleaf-sync

Installs into whichever agent you are using.

About this skill
📄

SKILL.md

Installable skill definition

Quality Score

96/100

Category

Automation

Supported Platforms

Universal

Tags

Our assessment of overleaf-sync

overleaf-sync scores 96/100 on our quality scale, 169th of 1,943 Automation skills we index (top 9%).

Its SKILL.md is 11 KB long, well organised into 21 sections with 7 code examples: a thorough specification that gives an agent plenty to work with.

With 16,644 GitHub stars, it is one of the more widely adopted skills in the catalogue.

Substance
29/30
Structure
20/20
Description
15/15
Adoption
18/20
Freshness
15/15

Maintenance, license and trust

  • The repository was last updated 9 days ago, so overleaf-sync is actively maintained.
  • It is released under the MIT license, a permissive license that allows use, modification and commercial use with attribution.
  • Its trust signals score 100/100, with no cautions. These come from repository metadata, not a code audit — read the skill file before letting an agent act on it.

overleaf-sync compared with similar skills

All 4 of these similar skills score higher than overleaf-sync; compare them before choosing.

SkillScoreStarsUpdatedFormat
overleaf-sync (this skill)by wanshuiyin9616.6k9d agoSKILL.md
Agent-Reachby Panniantong10085.8k12d agoCLAUDE.md
rufloby ruvnet10073.4ktodayCLAUDE.md
Scraplingby D4Vinci10084.1ktodayMCP Server
algorithmic-artby anthropics100177.9k5d agoSKILL.md

Frequently asked questions

How do I install overleaf-sync?
Run npx skills add wanshuiyin/Auto-claude-code-research-in-sleep --skill overleaf-sync. The install tabs above show the steps for each supported agent.
Which AI agents does overleaf-sync work with?
It is written for Universal, as a SKILL.md file. Other agents that read the same format can often use it too.
Is overleaf-sync safe to use?
It is MIT-licensed and scores 100/100 on trust signals. Skills are instructions an agent will follow, so read the file before installing it and do not approve commands you do not understand.
Is overleaf-sync still maintained?
The repository was last updated 9 days ago, so overleaf-sync is actively maintained.

name: overleaf-sync description: "Two-way sync between a local paper directory and an Overleaf project, so ARIS audit/edit workflows stay on the local copy while collaborators edit in the Overleaf web UI. Use when user says "同步 overleaf", "overleaf sync", "推送到 overleaf", "connect overleaf", "Overleaf 桥接", "pull overleaf", "push overleaf", or wants to bridge their ARIS paper directory with an Overleaf project." argument-hint: "[setup <project-id> | pull | push | status]" allowed-tools: Bash(*), Read, Grep, Glob, Edit, Write

Overleaf Sync

Bridge a local paper directory with an Overleaf project so that:

  • You can keep editing in the Overleaf web UI (or share editing access with collaborators)
  • ARIS can read your changes, run audits (/paper-claim-audit, /citation-audit, /auto-paper-improvement-loop), and push fixes back

This uses the official Overleaf Git bridge (Premium feature). The agent never sees your authentication token — you do the one-time auth manually so the token lives in macOS Keychain, not in chat history or .git/config.

When to Use This Skill

  • You want to use Overleaf as the editing surface (better collaboration, shared with team) but still run ARIS pipelines locally
  • You want to take an existing local ARIS paper and push it to Overleaf for a co-author to edit
  • A collaborator made changes in Overleaf and you want to pull + diff them before continuing local work

Constants

  • CLONE_DIR_DEFAULT = paper-overleaf (sibling of existing paper/, NOT inside paper/)
  • CREDENTIAL_HELPER = osxkeychain (macOS) / manager (Windows) / cache (Linux fallback)
  • TOKEN_HANDLING = NEVER write token to disk, env var, or chat. User pastes it once into the terminal credential prompt; the OS keychain stores it from then on.

Architecture

┌─────────────────┐       git pull/push      ┌─────────────────┐
│  Local paper/   │ ◄─── rsync ──── ►       │ paper-overleaf/ │ ◄──► Overleaf web
│  (ARIS audits)  │                          │ (git bridge)    │     (collaborators)
└─────────────────┘                          └─────────────────┘

The paper-overleaf/ directory is a git clone of the Overleaf project. The paper/ directory is the working copy where ARIS skills run. They are kept in sync via rsync.

Single-source-of-truth rule: at any given time, treat one of them as authoritative for active editing. Switch directions explicitly with pull or push, and run a status check before either to surface unexpected divergence.

Sub-commands

setup <project-id> — one-time

Sets up the bridge for a new Overleaf project. The user runs this in their own terminal, never through the agent. The skill ships with a hardened setup script that:

  1. Refuses to run unless stdin/stdout are a TTY (won't run inside an agent harness)
  2. Reads the token from a hidden prompt (no chat history, no shell history)
  3. Strips the token from the remote URL immediately after cloning
  4. Primes the OS keychain so subsequent agent operations are auth-free
  5. Auto-installs a pre-commit hook in paper-overleaf/.git/hooks/ that refuses to commit any blob containing the token pattern olp_[A-Za-z0-9]{20,} — a hard technical block, not a behavioral rule

The agent's only role here is to print the user instruction:

Run this in your own terminal (NOT through me):

    bash <ARIS_REPO>/tools/overleaf_setup.sh <project-id-or-url>

When it finishes, tell me "setup done" and I'll verify.

After the user reports "setup done", the agent verifies (token-free):

cd paper-overleaf
git remote -v                    # must show URL WITHOUT token
git config --get credential.helper
git fetch && git log --oneline -3   # must succeed without prompting
ls .git/hooks/pre-commit         # must exist
bash <ARIS_REPO>/tools/overleaf_audit.sh .   # must report "Audit clean"

If paper-overleaf/ exists but is empty (new Overleaf project), the agent then mirrors local paper/ into it (see push workflow).

pull — before each editing session

cd paper-overleaf && git pull --ff-only

# Show what changed since last pull
LAST=$(git rev-parse HEAD@{1})
git diff --stat $LAST..HEAD
git diff $LAST..HEAD -- 'sec/*.tex'        # detailed view for prose changes

Diff protocol — DO NOT blindly merge into local paper/. Overleaf edits frequently include:

  • Half-finished sentences (collaborator clicked save mid-thought)
  • Typos that aren't in canonical references (Lrage for Large)
  • Commented-out blocks that may be intentional or may be a stash
  • Number changes that should re-trigger /paper-claim-audit
  • Cite key changes that should re-trigger /citation-audit

For each diff hunk, decide one of:

| Hunk character | Action | |----------------|--------| | Clean editorial improvement | Sync into paper/, no audit needed | | Numerical / claim change | Sync, then re-run /paper-claim-audit | | New \cite{...} | Sync, then re-run /citation-audit | | Half-sentence / obvious typo | Flag to user, do NOT auto-sync | | New section / restructure | Stop, ask user before syncing |

After deciding per-hunk:

# Sync only the files the user approved into local paper/
rsync -av paper-overleaf/sec/0.abstract.tex paper/sec/0.abstract.tex
# (or use Edit tool for surgical changes that skip half-sentences)

push — after local editing

Use after ARIS skills have edited paper/ and you want collaborators on Overleaf to see the changes.

# 1. Always pull first to surface remote drift
cd paper-overleaf && git pull --ff-only

# 2. If pull was a no-op, sync local paper → paper-overleaf
rsync -av --delete \
  --exclude='.git' --exclude='.DS_Store' \
  --exclude='*.aux' --exclude='*.log' --exclude='*.bbl' --exclude='*.blg' \
  --exclude='*.fls' --exclude='*.fdb_latexmk' --exclude='*.out' \
  --exclude='*.synctex.gz' --exclude='*.toc' \
  paper/ paper-overleaf/

# 3. Show what would be pushed
git status --short
git diff --stat

# 4. Commit + push
git add -A
git commit -m "<descriptive message — what ARIS changed and why>"
git push

Commit message protocol: include the ARIS skill that produced the change so collaborators on Overleaf understand provenance. Examples:

  • paper-write: regenerated sec/3.assurance after audit cascade refactor
  • citation-audit: fix 14 metadata entries (madaan2023, lee2024, ...)
  • paper-claim-audit: correct sec/5 numbers vs results/run_2026_04_19.json

Confirmation gate: push writes to a shared resource. ALWAYS show the user git diff --stat (and a representative hunk for prose changes) before running git push. Wait for explicit confirmation unless the user said auto: true upfront.

status — diagnostic

cd paper-overleaf
git fetch
echo "=== Remote-vs-local divergence ==="
git log --oneline HEAD..origin/master    # remote ahead
git log --oneline origin/master..HEAD    # local ahead
echo "=== paper/ vs paper-overleaf/ divergence ==="
diff -rq --brief paper/ paper-overleaf/ 2>/dev/null \
  | grep -v "Only in paper/.*\.\(aux\|log\|out\|fls\|fdb_latexmk\|bbl\|blg\|synctex\|toc\)" \
  | grep -v "Only in paper-overleaf/.git" \
  | grep -v "DS_Store"

Three-way state assessment:

| Remote ahead? | paper/ vs paper-overleaf/ differ? | Meaning | Recommended action | |:-------------:|:---------------------------------:|---------|--------------------| | No | No | Clean | Nothing to do | | Yes | No | Overleaf has new edits | Run pull, then re-run status | | No | Yes | Local ARIS edits unsynced | Run push | | Yes | Yes | Diverged — needs merge | Stop, surface to user, do NOT auto-resolve |

Conflict Resolution

If git pull --ff-only fails because of true divergence:

  1. Do not run git pull (which would auto-merge).
  2. Do not run git reset --hard or git push --force (destructive).
  3. Show the user git log origin/master ^HEAD (their Overleaf commits) and git log HEAD ^origin/master (local ARIS commits).
  4. Ask the user which side to take per file, or to manually merge in Overleaf and then re-pull.

Token Security — Defense in Depth

Behavioral rules alone are not enough — the next agent reading this skill might forget them. The skill therefore relies on technical guards that hold even if the agent misbehaves:

| Layer | Guard | Where enforced | |-------|-------|---------------| | 1. Setup | overleaf_setup.sh refuses to run without an interactive TTY (agents don't have one) | tools/overleaf_setup.sh | | 2. Input | Token is read by read -s (hidden prompt, no shell history, never enters chat) | tools/overleaf_setup.sh | | 3. Storage | Token goes straight into OS keychain via git credential approve; remote URL is stripped to a token-free form | tools/overleaf_setup.sh | | 4. Commits | paper-overleaf/.git/hooks/pre-commit greps staged content for olp_[A-Za-z0-9]{20,} and aborts | auto-installed by setup script | | 5. Audit | overleaf_audit.sh scans working tree, remote URLs, git history, credential files | tools/overleaf_audit.sh |

Behavioral rules (still apply, but secondary):

  • Never ask the user to paste a token into chat. If they do anyway: (a) acknowledge it, (b) tell them to revoke it at https://www.overleaf.com/user/settings, (c) recover via keychain if already primed.
  • Never write a token to a file (.env, .netrc, tools/*.sh, etc.) committed to any repo.
  • Never include a token in a git remote -v URL — strip it after clone.
  • On 401 Unauthorized from push/pull, tell the user the keychain entry expired and to re-run overleaf_setup.sh. Do not ask for a fresh token.

Mutual-Exclusion Rule

The single biggest source of pain in two-way sync is simultaneous editing on both sides.

  • If the user is in an active Overleaf editing session, ARIS skills should read-only access paper/ until the user runs /overleaf-sync pull.
  • If ARIS is in the middle of /auto-paper-improvement-loop or /paper-write, the user should pause Overleaf editing until the loop finishes and /overleaf-sync push is run.

When in doubt, run status first.

Output Contract

  • paper-overleaf/ directory at repo root, git clone of Overleaf project (origin URL has NO token)
  • paper/ directory unchanged in role — still the ARIS working copy
  • Each pull/push operation: a one-line summary back to the user (commits pulled / pushed, file count, link to Overleaf project URL)

See Also

  • /paper-claim-audit — re-run after pulling Overleaf changes that touch numbers
  • /citation-audit — re-run after pulling Overleaf changes that add/edit \cite{...}
  • /paper-compile — local LaTeX build; Overleaf compiles independently in the cloud
  • Overleaf Git bridge docs: https://www.overleaf.com/learn/how-to/Using_Git_and_GitHub

Related Skills

View on GitHub
GitHub Stars16.6k
CategoryAutomation
Updated9d ago
Forks1.4k

Languages

Python

Trust signals

100/100

From repository metadata: license, adoption, age and documentation. Not a code audit — see the Safety scan above for what the skill file itself contains.

No cautions