LocalLeaf Community

LocalLeaf Community lets you work on Overleaf projects from VS Code while keeping a real local copy of every file. It is the continuation of LocalLeaf, the extension created by Teddy van Jerry, and is now maintained here with contributions from the wider community.

LocalLeaf Community is an independent, community-maintained continuation. It is not sponsored, endorsed, or maintained by Teddy van Jerry or by Overleaf.

The idea is deliberately simple: write with the local tools you already like, and let LocalLeaf keep the project in step with Overleaf.

What it can do

• Synchronize files in both directions with Overleaf and self-hosted Overleaf instances
• Show and link remote projects from the VS Code sidebar
• Keep documents updated in real time
• Show collaborators and jump to their cursor positions
• Help resolve local and remote conflicts with a visual diff
• Ignore build output and other generated files through .leafignore
• Remove old ignored artifacts from the remote project after confirmation
• Work alongside LaTeX Workshop for local compilation and PDF preview

Releases

Download the latest .vsix from GitHub Releases, then install it with Extensions: Install from VSIX... in VS Code.

To build the extension yourself:

npm install
npm test
npx @vscode/vsce package

If the original Marketplace extension is installed, disable or uninstall it first. Both versions currently keep the same commands and workspace format, so existing LocalLeaf projects continue to work.

Contributing

Contributions are welcome, whether they are code, documentation, bug reports, or testing against different Overleaf installations. The most useful starting points and the local development commands are collected in CONTRIBUTING.md.

Getting started

1. Open the folder that should contain your local project.
2. Run LocalLeaf: Login and authenticate with your Overleaf server.
3. Choose a project from the LocalLeaf sidebar and link it to the folder.
4. Review the first synchronization prompts before choosing which copy to keep.

[!WARNING] Your Overleaf cookies grant access to your account. Only send them to the real server you intend to use, check the URL carefully, and treat them like a password. LocalLeaf stores them in VS Code Secret Storage rather than inside the workspace. Use LocalLeaf: Logout if you suspect they were exposed.

Commands

Settings

The people behind the project

LocalLeaf was started by Teddy van Jerry (Wuqiong Zhao), who designed and built the original extension and maintained its first releases. Xingyu Chen (Asixa) later proposed a much broader interface and workflow in PR #3. Victor Stoica integrated and hardened parts of that work, fixed synchronization and security issues, and now maintains this continuation.

The full story, including links and a more precise account of the work, is in ATTRIBUTION.md. The original commit history is preserved, and Asixa's original PR history is kept in the archive/asixa-pr-3 branch.

Related projects

LocalLeaf was inspired by Overleaf-Workshop, which offers a more deeply integrated Overleaf experience inside VS Code. LocalLeaf takes a different route: it keeps a normal local project that remains usable with Git, LaTeX Workshop, scripts, and any other local tool.

LocalLeaf and LocalLeaf Community are not affiliated with or endorsed by Overleaf.

License

The project is distributed under the MIT License. Teddy's original copyright notice is kept intact, with a separate notice for the community's later work. See NOTICE, ATTRIBUTION.md, and THIRD_PARTY_NOTICES.md for project history, credits, and dependency licenses.