Overleaf Resume

Edit and compile your resume(s) locally instead of on the Overleaf website, with an MCP server that syncs source files with Overleaf when needed. Works with any number of Overleaf projects side by side — every sync tool takes an explicit project_id, so nothing is pinned to a single "the" project.

Built for free-plan Overleaf accounts (no Git/API access). If your account has Git integration (paid plan), just git clone your project instead — you don't need this.

How it works

• Day-to-day editing: once a project is pulled (see below), edit its .tex file directly under projects/<name>/, then compile locally with Tectonic — no Overleaf round trip needed:

  tools/tectonic.exe projects/<name>/<main file>.tex
  

  This produces a PDF right next to it. (tools/tectonic.exe is a standalone binary already set up in this repo — gitignored since it's a large downloaded binary, not source.)

• Syncing with Overleaf: since this is a free-plan Overleaf account (no Git/API access), an MCP server (overleaf_mcp/) drives a real, logged-in Chromium session with Playwright to download a project's source and push edits back into its online editor — the same actions you'd take by hand in the browser.

Project layout

Each Overleaf project you pull lands in its own subfolder, so multiple resumes can coexist without collisions:

projects/
  <your-project-name>/
    resume.tex (or whatever the project's main file is named)
    ...other pulled files (.cls, .sty, images)
    .backups/            # timestamped backups made before each re-pull
  <another-project-name>/
    ...

projects/ is gitignored — it holds your actual resume content (pulled from Overleaf), so it stays local and never gets committed.

One-time setup

Steps 1-2 are already done in this repo (.venv/ has the dependencies installed and Playwright's Chromium browser downloaded; tools/tectonic.exe is ready to use). They're listed here in case you need to redo them on another machine or after a clean checkout.

1. Create a virtual environment and install dependencies:

   python -m venv .venv
   .venv\Scripts\activate
   pip install -r requirements.txt
   playwright install chromium
   

2. Get Tectonic: winget/choco may need admin rights that aren't always available. The reliable no-admin option is to download the Windows binary directly and drop it in tools/:

   gh release download tectonic@0.17.0 --repo tectonic-typesetting/tectonic \
     --pattern "tectonic-0.17.0-x86_64-pc-windows-msvc.zip" --dir tools
   # then unzip it so tools/tectonic.exe exists
   

   Verify with tools/tectonic.exe --version.

3. Log in to Overleaf once so the MCP server can reuse the session:

   .venv/Scripts/python.exe scripts/overleaf_login.py
   

   A browser window opens to Overleaf's login page. Log in with email + password, not "Sign in with Google" — Google blocks its sign-in form inside any automated browser, so Google-only accounts need a password set on Overleaf first (Account Settings). The session is then saved to .auth/storage_state.json (gitignored — never commit or share it). Re-run this script whenever overleaf_login_status reports the session has expired.

4. This repo's .mcp.json registers the server with Claude Code automatically. Restart Claude Code (or run /mcp) so it picks up the overleaf-resume server.

5. Call overleaf_list_projects to see all your Overleaf projects and their ids, then overleaf_pull(project_id) for whichever one(s) you want to work on. Files land under projects/<name>/.

MCP tools

• overleaf_login_status — check whether the saved session is still valid.
• overleaf_list_projects — list every Overleaf project (name + id).
• overleaf_pull(project_id, local_dir?) — download that project's source into projects/<name>/ (or local_dir if given), backing up any existing .tex/.cls/.sty/.bib files there under .backups/ first.
• overleaf_push(project_id, file_path) — push a local file's current content back into that Overleaf project's online editor. file_path is relative to this repo root, e.g. projects/<your-project-name>/resume.tex.

project_id is always required — there's no single default project, so this works the same whether you have one resume or several. Use overleaf_list_projects whenever you need to look one up.

Troubleshooting local compiles

Overleaf compiles with pdfLaTeX by default; Tectonic uses a XeTeX-based engine. Two issues this surfaced on the popular "Jake's Resume"-style templates, in case you hit them too:

• \pdfglyphtounicode / \input{glyphtounicode} / \pdfgentounicode=1 are pdfTeX-only primitives. Guard them so both engines work:

  \usepackage{iftex}
  \ifPDFTeX
    \input{glyphtounicode}
  \fi
  ...
  \ifPDFTeX
    \pdfgentounicode=1
  \fi
  

• enumitem's \begin{itemize}...\end{itemize} pairs (via this template's \resumeSubHeadingListStart/End macros) must stay balanced even across commented-out sections — a stray, unmatched \end{itemize} left behind after commenting out a block produces a cryptic Undefined control sequence deep inside enumitem internals (\enit@enditemize). This isn't a Tectonic/Overleaf difference — it'll fail on Overleaf's own compiler too if you look at the error count.

Caveats

• This automates Overleaf's actual web UI with your own logged-in session — there's no public API for free-plan projects. It can break if Overleaf changes its UI, and the saved session will occasionally expire (re-run scripts/overleaf_login.py).
• The first tectonic compile needs network access to fetch LaTeX packages; later compiles are cached and work offline.
• .auth/storage_state.json holds live session cookies — keep it out of version control.