latex-mcp-server

An **MCP (Model Context Protocol) server** that can supercharge your VSCode + LaTex Workshop writing workflow
Currently houses MCP tools, and new tools can be easily added in either Python and TypeScript. The Python process is the MCP server; selected tools are delegated to a small Node/TypeScript module via a bridge.
LaTex MCP Server + Copilot/Claude/Cursor, what can you do?
- Read your cited papers, verify / add onto your claims
- Access your python scripts to generate new figures / latex tables based on your experiment data, and **place them into latex autonomously**
- Can verify every step and ensure your pdf compiles
- Functionally it can autonomously take your outline + experimental results and turn it into a paper (may looks like slop though)
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Python Tools
- **list_tex_files**
Lists all .tex files under your LaTeX workspace (relative paths). Useful for LLMs or agents to discover available chapters and sections.
- **read_file**
Reads a text or binary-safe slice of a file given a relative path inside the workspace. Supports specifying a maximum number of bytes to return.
- **extract_bibliography**
Parses a BibTeX file and returns structured entry metadata, including download URLs (DOI, arXiv). Helps agents or scripts work with citation data programmatically.
- **download_bibliography**
Downloads PDFs for bibliography entries listed in resources/cited_papers/index.json. Can force re-downloads and limit the number of new downloads.
- **compile_latex**
Runs LaTeX compilation (pdflatex/xelatex via latexmk) on the main document and returns success plus a log snippet. Supports specifying the entry .tex file and number of passes.
- **read_pdf**
Extracts text and metadata from a PDF filepath using pypdf, with page and character limits. Stores a JSON artifact for downstream use.
- **read_pdf_from_citation**
Resolves a citation key via resources/cited_papers/index.json to its PDF and extracts text (auto-downloads if needed). Returns extracted text, metadata, and the citation key.
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TypeScript Bridge Tools
- **summarize_text**
Produces a concise natural language summary of provided LaTeX or text content. Accepts a maximum sentence count for the summary.
- **suggest_bib_key**
Suggests a stable BibTeX key based on authors, year, and title metadata. Useful for generating consistent citation keys.
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Install (with uv)
From the repository root:
or
This will make the console script latex-mcp-server available on your PATH.
> If you prefer a one-off run without installing as a tool:
>
>
MCP Configuration Snippet
Add to your mcp.json (VS Code / Claude Desktop user settings):
If you omit --workspace, the server will infer the current working directory.
Windows example
On Windows (PowerShell / Bash), if your paper_1 root is at C:\Users\User\projects\paper_1, use:
Forward slashes are fine; they avoid the need to escape backslashes. Be sure to replace the placeholder ABSOLUTE_PATH_TO_YOUR_PAPER_1_ROOT — leaving a placeholder like WORKSPACE_FOLDER_PATH will cause the runtime error:
Alternative: Install once, then call directly
After running:
You can simplify the config to:
Troubleshooting
| Symptom | Cause | Fix |
|---------|-------|-----|
| No solution found when resolving tool dependencies | The tool name latex-mcp-server isn’t published on PyPI and uv tried to resolve it as a dependency (often happens if you used a config field like requires or didn’t install locally) | Run uv tool install -e ./latex-mcp-server from repo root, then update your mcp.json to invoke the installed script directly |