git-overleaf-sync

Help with the process of downloading Overleaf projects, sync them into a local Git repository, generate AI-assisted commit messages, and sync the changes remotely.

Features

• 🔄 Sync Overleaf Projects: Helps download .zip exports of Overleaf projects via Selenium.
• 🧠 AI-Powered Commit Messages: Uses OpenWebUI with LLaMA model to generate meaningful commit messages based on git diff.
• 🧪 Logging: Logs everything into timestamped log files.

Requirements

• Python 3.9+
• Firefox (for Selenium)
• geckodriver in $PATH
• Overleaf account (read-only share URL)
• Git repository for syncing, git configuration set up
• OpenWebUI instance with API access

Setup

1. Install dependencies

pip install -r requirements.txt

2. Set up .env Create a .env file in the root directory:

OVERLEAF_URL=https://www.overleaf.com/read/abc123...
GIT_REPO_PATH=~/your/local/git/repo
TMP_ZIP_FOLDER=/tmp/
LOGS_FOLDER=/tmp/overleaf_logs
OPENWEBUI_URL=http://localhost:3000
API_KEY=your_openwebui_api_key

3. Install Firefox & Geckodriver

4. Run the main script:

python main.py --overleaf_url https://www.overleaf.com/read/abc123 \
               --git_path ~/my-paper \
               --log_level DEBUG \
               --openwebui_url http://localhost:3000 \
               --api_key sk-abc...

You can omit CLI args to use values from .env.

Note

Configuring a cron job to run this script periodically is recommended for continuous syncing.

Environment Variables

Variable	Description
OVERLEAF_URL	Share URL of the Overleaf project (read-only)
GIT_REPO_PATH	Path to the local Git repo where LaTeX files are synced
TMP_ZIP_FOLDER	Temp directory for Overleaf .zip downloads
LOGS_FOLDER	Directory for storing log files
OPENWEBUI_URL	Base URL of the OpenWebUI instance
API_KEY	API key for authenticating with OpenWebUI

How it works

• Launches a headless Firefox browser via Selenium.
• Logs into Overleaf (via shared link)
• Downloads the .zip file of the project.
• Unzips the .zip archive into a Git repo.
• Runs git diff to detect changes.
• Sends the diff to OpenWebUI for commit message generation.
• Adds, commits, and pushes the changes to the remote repo.

File Structure

main.py         - Entry point
helpers.py      - Logging, datetime utilities, OpenWebUI helper
parser.py       - Selenium-based Overleaf project downloader
git.py          - Git CLI wrapper for add/commit/push/diff

Potential Issues

• geckodriver must be installed and match Firefox version.
• Assumes Overleaf’s UI doesn’t change, based on XPath selectors
• AI-generated commit messages may contain errors or irrelevant text.

Important

This tool is intended for personal use. It helps download Overleaf projects via publicly shared read-only URLs. It is the user's responsibility to ensure their use of this tool complies with Overleaf's terms. The authors take no responsibility for misuse of this software.

License

See LICENSE for details.