Open in Overleaf

Add a link to your website that opens a LaTeX file or a whole project in your instance.

Put a link on your website, blog or course page. Anyone who clicks it gets a new project of their own with your files. Nothing needs to be set up.

Visitors need an account on your instance. A visitor who is not logged in goes to the login page first, and the project opens after logging in.

The pages of this feature use the name Overleaf. Your own link or button can say anything, such as Open in Ayakaleaf.

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See the examples

Open /devs on your site, for example https://ayakaleaf.example.com/devs. No menu links to this page, so type the address. By default you have to be logged in to see it.

The Overleaf API page

Click A LaTeX code snippet or A zipped project. A new project opens with the example.

The project from the zipped example

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Link to a file on your website

1. Build the link

   Put the address of the file after /docs?snip_uri=, URL-encoded:

   https://ayakaleaf.example.com/docs?snip_uri=https%3A%2F%2Fexample.com%2Fmain.tex
   

   For a zipped project, use zip_uri:

   https://ayakaleaf.example.com/docs?zip_uri=https%3A%2F%2Fexample.com%2Fproject.zip
   

   Your instance downloads the file, so it must be reachable over HTTP or HTTPS. Addresses on a private network are refused, see External URL.

2. Add it to your page

   <a href="https://ayakaleaf.example.com/docs?snip_uri=https%3A%2F%2Fexample.com%2Fmain.tex">Open in Ayakaleaf</a>
   
3. Click it

   The new project opens in the editor, with a single file saved as main.tex.

   

   A project opened from a link

   Each click creates another project. The project is a copy, so later changes to your file do not reach it.

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Put the file in the link

For a small file, you do not need to host anything: put its content in the link as a Base64 data URL. In JavaScript:

const tex = '\\documentclass{article}\n\\begin{document}\nHello from a link.\n\\end{document}\n'
const link = 'https://ayakaleaf.example.com/docs?' + new URLSearchParams({
  snip_uri: 'data:application/x-tex;base64,' + btoa(tex),
  name: 'Hello from a link',
})

btoa only takes Latin-1 characters, so encode other text as UTF-8 first. For a zipped project, use zip_uri and data:application/zip;base64,.

A link longer than about 8 KB is refused with the error 414 Request-URI Too Large. For anything bigger, host the file or use a form.

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Choose the options

Add these to the link, or to the form as hidden fields:

Parameter	What it does	Example
name	Names the project. Without it, a zipped project takes the name in its \title, anything else is Open in Overleaf project.	name=My%20notes
engine	Sets the compiler: latex_dvipdf, pdflatex, xelatex or lualatex.	engine=xelatex
main_document	Sets the main .tex file, which opens first.	main_document=thesis.tex
snip_uri[], snip_name[]	Imports several files, each with its own name, in the same order.	snip_uri[]=.../a.tex&snip_name[]=a.tex

A .tex file without \documentclass is wrapped in a standard document, so it compiles right away:

\documentclass[12pt]{article}
\usepackage[english]{babel}
\usepackage{amsmath}
\usepackage{tikz}
\begin{document}
Your file
\end{document}

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Use a button instead of a link

A form sends the same parameters as a link:

<form action="https://ayakaleaf.example.com/docs" method="post" target="_blank">
  <input type="hidden" name="snip_uri" value="https://example.com/main.tex">
  <input type="hidden" name="engine" value="xelatex">
  <button type="submit">Open in Ayakaleaf</button>
</form>

To send the LaTeX itself, use snip for plain text or encoded_snip for text passed through encodeURIComponent.

A form does not always work, which is why a link is the better choice unless your file is too long for one:

Where the form is	Visitor is logged in	Visitor is not logged in
On the same domain as your instance, or a subdomain	The project opens	Login page, and no project
On another domain	Login page, and no project	Login page, and no project

If your administrator sets OVERLEAF_ALLOW_PUBLIC_ACCESS=true, the project opens in all these cases, after logging in if needed. That setting also opens other pages to signed-out visitors, see Page Access.

For the rest of what administrators can set, see Overleaf Import API. The /devs page has more examples.

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If the project does not open

The page says what went wrong. View the Overleaf API docs takes you to /devs.

A link the instance cannot use

Message	Why	What to do
no snippet, snip_uri or zip_uri provided	The link has none of these	Check the parameter names
invalid url: ...	The address does not start with HTTP or HTTPS	Use an HTTP or HTTPS address, or a data URL
could not download ... (HTTP 404)	The file is not at that address	Check the address
could not download ... (HTTP 403)	The address is on a private network	Host the file where your instance may reach it
zip_uri did not resolve to a zip archive	The file behind zip_uri is not a zip file	Check the file
invalid base64 data url	The data URL is damaged	Encode the file again and URL-encode the link