PaperDebugger is an AI-powered academic writing assistant that helps researchers debug and improve their LaTeX papers with intelligent suggestions and seamless Overleaf integration.

• ✨ Features
• 🎯 Quick Start
  • For Users
  • Custom Endpoint Configuration
• 🛠️ Development Setup
  • Prerequisites
  • Backend Build
  • Frontend Extension Build
• 🏗️ Architecture Overview

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

1. Install the Extension

   • Chrome Web Store (Recommended)
   • Latest Release (Manual Install)

2. Manual Installation

   • Download the latest release
   • Open Chrome and go to chrome://extensions/
   • Enable "Developer mode"
   • Click "Load unpacked" or drag the extension file

3. Start Using

   • Open any Overleaf project
   • Click the PaperDebugger icon
   • Begin chatting with your LaTeX assistant!

If you want to use a self-hosted PaperDebugger backend, you can configure a custom endpoint. Note: You need to handle HTTPS serving yourself, as Chrome blocks HTTP requests from HTTPS websites for security reasons.

Steps:

1. Open the PaperDebugger extension
2. Go to Settings, click the version number 5 times to enable "Developer Tools" (a.)
3. Enter your backend URL in the "Backend Endpoint" field (b.)
4. Refresh the page

If you encounter endpoint errors after refresh, use the "Advanced Options" at the bottom of the login page to reconfigure.

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

• Go: 1.24 or higher
• Node.js: LTS version (for frontend build)
• MongoDB: 4.4 or higher
• Git: For cloning the repository

• Buf: Protocol Buffer compiler
• Wire: Dependency injection code generator
• Make: Build automation

# Install Go brew install go # Install Buf (required for Protocol Buffers) brew install bufbuild/buf/buf # Install Node.js brew install node

git clone https://github.com/PaperDebugger/paperdebugger.git cd paperdebugger

# Using Docker (recommended) docker run -d --name mongodb -p 27017:27017 mongo:latest

cp .env.example .env # Edit the .env file based on your configuration

# Build the backend make build # Run the backend server ./dist/pd.exe

The server will start on http://localhost:6060.

cd webapp/_webapp # Install frontend dependencies npm install # Build for production (connects to production server) npm run build:prd:chrome # Package the extension cd dist zip -r paperdebugger-extension.zip *

1. Open Chrome and navigate to chrome://extensions/
2. Enable "Developer mode" (toggle in top-right)
3. Click "Load unpacked" and select the webapp/_webapp/dist directory
   • Or drag the paperdebugger-extension.zip file into the extensions page