What is ai-latex?

Ai-LaTex is a LaTeX editor you run on your own computer, with an AI assistant built in. LaTeX is a document preparation system widely used in academic and scientific writing. Unlike a word processor, you write LaTeX as plain text with formatting commands, and then compile it into a polished PDF. This tool provides the editing environment, the compilation pipeline, and AI help all in one place. The editor runs in your web browser at localhost after you start it locally, and it uses Monaco, the same text editor that powers Visual Studio Code, for the editing surface. Smart code completion is available for LaTeX commands. The backend handles compiling your document using standard LaTeX tools (pdflatex, bibtex, and latexmk), producing a PDF you can view alongside your source. The AI side of the tool operates as an agent, meaning it can take actions rather than just answer questions. It can read your files, propose edits, ask clarifying questions, and help refine content or formatting. There are two collaboration modes: a general mode for broader assistance, and a fine collaboration mode for more targeted, content-level and format-level adjustments. You can define preset quick prompts to speed up repeated tasks. For the AI connection, the tool supports OpenAI Codex, Claude Code CLI (using your existing local login rather than an API key), or any provider that exposes an OpenAI-compatible API endpoint. You supply the URL and API key in the settings panel, and the tool will fetch the available models from that provider automatically. Installation requires Node.js, the .NET 10 SDK, and a LaTeX distribution with the latexmk command available. After cloning the repository and running a start script, the application is accessible at port 3001. Optional configuration files allow setting server-side defaults for the AI provider or enabling Supabase-based login, but neither is required to get started. The project is open source under the MIT license.