**PaperDebugger** is an AI-powered academic writing assistant that helps researchers debug and improve their research papers with intelligent suggestions and seamless Overleaf integration, without leaving the editor. It is powered by our [custom MCP-based orchestration engine](demo/xtramcp/readme.md) that simulates the full academic workflow **Research → Critique → Revision**.
This enables multi-step reasoning, reviewer-style critique, and structured revision passes beyond standard chat-based assistance.
## Community
Our team is actively working to improve long-term reliability, hoping to iron out issues this month. Thank you for your patience.
Stay connected with the PaperDebugger community! Join our [Discord](https://discord.gg/WwTMzzt9xD) or WeChat channels for updates, announcements, and support.
## Table of Contents
- [Features](#-features)
- [Quick Start](#-quick-start)
- [For Users](#for-users)
- [Custom Endpoint Configuration](#custom-endpoint-configuration)
- [Architecture Overview](#architecture-overview)
- [Self-Host Development Setup](#self-host-development-setup)
- [Contributing](#contributing)
## Features
PaperDebugger never modifies your project, it only reads and provides suggestions.
- **🤖 AI-Powered Chat**: Intelligent conversations about your Overleaf project
- **⚡ Instant Insert**: One-click insertion of AI responses into your project
- **💬 Comment System**: Automatically generate and insert comments into your project
- **📚 Prompt Library**: Custom prompt templates for different use cases
- **🔒 Privacy First**: Your content stays secure - we only read, never modify
- **🧠 Multi-Agent Orchestration** – [XtraMCP](demo/xtramcp/readme.md) support for literature-grounded research, AI-Conference review, citation verification, and domain-specific revision
https://github.com/user-attachments/assets/6c20924d-1eb6-44d5-95b0-207bd08b718b
## Quick Start
### For Users
1. **Install the extension fron [Chrome Web Store](https://chromewebstore.google.com/detail/paperdebugger/dfkedikhakpapbfcnbpmfhpklndgiaog)**
2. **Ready to use**
- Open any Overleaf project
- Click the PaperDebugger icon on the top-left
- Begin chatting with your LaTeX document!
### Custom Endpoint Configuration
If you want to use a **self-hosted** PaperDebugger backend, you can configure a custom endpoint. Here are the steps:
1. Open the PaperDebugger extension
(a.) Go to Settings, click the version number **5 times** to enable "Developer Tools"
(b.) Enter your backend URL in the "Backend Endpoint" field
2. Refresh the page
Note: you can only use "Login by Overleaf" if you are self-hosting the backend.
If you encounter endpoint errors after refresh, use the "Advanced Options" at the bottom of the login page to reconfigure.
## Architecture Overview
The PaperDebugger backend is built with modern technologies:
- **Language**: Go 1.24+
- **Framework**: Gin (HTTP) + gRPC (API)
- **Database**: MongoDB
- **AI Integration**: OpenAI API
- **Architecture**: Microservices with Protocol Buffers
- **Authentication**: JWT-based with OAuth support
## Self-Host Development Setup
Please refer to [DEVELOPMENT.md](docs/DEVELOPMENT.md).
## Contributing
Please refer to [CONTRIBUTING.md](CONTRIBUTING.md) for branch structure, merge workflow, PR guidelines, and code quality requirements.
## Citation
```
@misc{hou2025paperdebugger,
title={PaperDebugger: A Plugin-Based Multi-Agent System for In-Editor Academic Writing, Review, and Editing},
author={Junyi Hou and Andre Lin Huikai and Nuo Chen and Yiwei Gong and Bingsheng He},
year={2025},
eprint={2512.02589},
archivePrefix={arXiv},
primaryClass={cs.AI},
url={https://arxiv.org/abs/2512.02589},
}
```
