aldine.

Open source · Self-hosted · AGPL

Write LaTeX together.
Fast, versioned, yours.

A slim, self-hosted alternative to Overleaf: live collaboration, real git branches, Zotero built in. Two containers, nothing to babysit.

On Writing LaTeX Together

You · your co-authors · the advisor who hates installing TeX

Abstract

Aldine is a slim, open-source platform for collaborative LaTeX: multi-cursor editing where every keystroke arrives live, projects that are real git repositories with branches you can merge from the UI, review comments with one-click suggested edits, and a Zotero panel that cites from your own library. Compiles run in a sandboxed TeX Live container (no network egress, restricted shell-escape), and warm recompiles land in about two seconds. Deployment is two containers and flat files; the license is AGPL, so whoever hosts it after you gets the same source you did.

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Try the live demo View source on GitHub

No account, no install. The demo is a shared sandbox and resets every night.

Aldine in Action

Aldine in action: A collaborator types, the PDF recompiles, and a double-click on the page jumps the editor to the source line.

Features

Real-time collaboration

CRDT-based (Yjs): multi-cursor, live presence, conflict-free by construction. Unlimited collaborators.

Git-native branches

Every project is a real git repository. Branch, merge, and inspect history from the UI, or publish to GitHub and keep using VS Code.

Citations, solved

Zotero library sync, paper search by title (OpenAlex), or paste a DOI — BibTeX appended and \cite inserted in one click.

Review mode

Anchored comment threads on text selections, with suggested replacements the author accepts in one click.

Sandboxed compiles

TeX Live in a no-egress container: dropped capabilities, restricted shell-escape, ~2s warm recompiles. All of CTAN one flag away.

GitHub sync & AI fix

Import a repo, push and pull, open PRs from the editor. Optional AI error diagnosis with your own key, or leave it 100% AI-free.

Bring your Overleaf projects

Download any Overleaf project as a ZIP and drop it on the home screen — root file detected, first typeset automatic.

Made for real papers

SyncTeX both ways, whole-document word count, plain-English compile errors that jump to the offending line, one-click PDF download.

Your files stay yours

Projects are plain .tex files in plain git repos on your disk — readable without Aldine running, and yours to take anywhere. AGPL-3.0, self-hosted, nothing phones home.

The honest comparison

Overleaf CE is good software, but its free self-hosted tier excludes track changes, git, and Zotero, and the deployment is a Toolkit-managed monolith with Mongo and Redis. In Aldine nothing is behind a paid tier, and the whole thing is two containers.

Where Overleaf still wins: a huge template gallery and a decade of production maturity. We say so in the README table too. On the visual editor, though, Aldine goes further.

Visual editing, done right(experimental)

Overleaf’s visual editor is infamous for one thing: it rewrites your LaTeX in arbitrary ways, so collaborators tell each other not to use it. Aldine’s is a pure rendering layer over the same source: it never changes a byte you didn’t deliberately edit. And it does more:

Aldine’s visual editing mode: the paper rendered as formatted text with typeset math, next to the live PDF

WYSIWYG math

Click an equation to edit it in a real math editor; your changes write back as precise LaTeX.

Editable tables

Tables render as a grid. Edit cells, add rows and columns; each change is an exact source edit.

Tracked changes

Review suggestions show inline as strikethrough + proposed text, accepted or dismissed in place.

Paste to LaTeX

Paste rich text from Word or Docs and it converts to clean LaTeX on the way in.

Live & collab-safe

The construct under your caret (or a co-author’s) reveals its source; everything else stays rendered.

One keystroke away

Toggle Source / Visual instantly, no reload. Off by default; enable it from the command palette.

Quick start

Auth off by default for single use; one env var turns on logins, SSO, and sharing. Postgres and Redis are opt-in when one box stops being enough.