Public Access

How to let guests, signed-out visitors and new users access your Overleaf instance?

You can open your Overleaf instance to people without an account in three ways:

• #project-access: let guests open a shared project link without logging in
• #page-access: let signed-out visitors browse pages such as /learn, /templates and /devs
• #public-registration: let users sign up themselves, optionally with an activation email and limited to email domains

Project Access

By default, even if a user obtains a project sharing link, they must log in before they can join a collaborative project editing session.

To allow anonymous access for link-shared projects, set both variables below:

config/variables.env

OVERLEAF_ALLOW_ANONYMOUS_READ_AND_WRITE_SHARING=true
OVERLEAF_ALLOW_PUBLIC_ACCESS=true

OVERLEAF_ALLOW_ANONYMOUS_READ_AND_WRITE_SHARING enables anonymous read/write on link-shared projects.

OVERLEAF_ALLOW_PUBLIC_ACCESS prevents non-authenticated users being redirected to the login page.

For read-only access only, set OVERLEAF_ALLOW_PUBLIC_ACCESS=true alone: guests can then open view links (/read/...) without logging in, while edit links still ask them to log in.

Recreate containers with bin/up. Then open a link-sharing URL in a private window.

Page Access

By default (OVERLEAF_ALLOW_PUBLIC_ACCESS not set), every page except the login and registration pages redirects signed-out visitors to the login page. This includes pages that are meant to be public, so links to them only work for users who are already logged in.

With OVERLEAF_ALLOW_PUBLIC_ACCESS=true, signed-out visitors can open:

Page	Requires
LaTeX help at /learn (see adding-latex-user-help.md)	OVERLEAF_PROXY_LEARN=true
The template gallery at /templates, template pages, previews and ZIP downloads (see templates.md)	OVERLEAF_TEMPLATE_GALLERY=true
The Overleaf Import API page at /devs (see overleaf-import-api.md)	—

It also lets the #signed-out-visitors keep a form submission from a signed-out visitor until they have logged in.

The project list, the editor and creating projects (also from a template or through the Import API) still require a login.

Public Registration

Public registration is only available in ayaka-notes/ayakaleaf-pro.

Please note that once you enable public registration, anyone with access to your Overleaf instance can register as a user.

With true, the registration process does not verify email addresses, so please only use it on an intranet or in a trusted environment, or use registration with an activation email instead.

On an instance with OIDC, do not use true: anyone could sign up with a colleague’s email before the colleague’s first OIDC login, which would link the colleague to that account. Use registration with an activation email or no public registration, see Accounts and passwords.

By default, neither the Community Edition nor Overleaf Pro allows public registration.

To enable it, add this to config/variables.env:

config/variables.env

OVERLEAF_ALLOW_PUBLIC_REGISTRATION=true

Recreate containers with bin/up.

Then click Sign up or visit /register.

Registration With Activation Email

Registration with an activation email is only available in ayaka-notes/ayakaleaf-pro. Users sign up with their email alone and set their password through the link in the activation email, so only the owner of an address can use the account. A list of domains and wildcards needs v6.4.0 or later; earlier versions take one domain only, like @example.com.

Before enabling this, configure email delivery, otherwise users never get the activation email. See Email delivery.

Then add the following line to config/variables.env:

config/variables.env

OVERLEAF_ALLOW_PUBLIC_REGISTRATION=@example.com,@*.example.org

OVERLEAF_ALLOW_PUBLIC_REGISTRATION can be set to:

Value	Who can sign up	Email verified
true	Anyone, with email and password	No
@example.com	Addresses of example.com	Yes
@*.example.org	Addresses of subdomains such as cs.example.org, not example.org itself	Yes
@example.com,@*.example.org	Any of the listed entries, separated by commas	Yes
@*	Anyone	Yes

Domains are matched case-insensitively. To allow a domain and its subdomains, list both: @example.org,@*.example.org.

Q&A

What can a signed-out editor do with comments?

Answer: A signed-out user who opens a project through its edit link gets the same access as an editor, except for actions that record who did them:

Action	Signed-out editor
Edit the text, view comments and tracked changes	Yes
Accept tracked changes, switch the editing mode	Yes
Delete a comment or a whole thread	Yes
Add, reply to or edit a comment	No
Resolve or reopen a comment	No

The review panel still shows the Resolve button to them, but resolving fails with an error message.

Users who open a project through its view link see no comments at all, see Roles and permissions.

Can I add users and invite collaborators without email, or with an invitation code?

Answer: There are no invitation codes, but users can be added without email. In Admin → Manage Users, click Create account. Then open the user’s Info: it shows the activation link, valid for one week, which you can copy and send to the user yourself. To share a project, invite users who already have an account: the invitation also appears on their project list, so they can accept it without the email. People without an account only get the invitation by email, so create their account first.