Free-tier (Experimental)

The git bridge requires an Overleaf premium token. Free-tier Overleaf users can instead opt into the session-cookie tier — the only way to get list / pull / push / compile against their cloud projects without premium.

Read this first. This tier is unofficial, experimental, and best-effort. It works by reusing your browser's Overleaf session cookie, which is a grey area under Overleaf's terms of service. It can break at any time when Overleaf changes its web app. It is off by default. You enable it yourself, with your own cookie, at your own discretion. vibeTeX never stores a password.

Enabling it

Set both variables:

VIBETEX_EXPERIMENTAL_SESSION=true \
OVERLEAF_SESSION_COOKIE='paste-your-overleaf_session2-value-here' \
npx -y @oscardvs/vibetex

If VIBETEX_EXPERIMENTAL_SESSION=true but OVERLEAF_SESSION_COOKIE is missing, vibeTeX refuses to start with a clear error — the tier is deliberately explicit.

Getting your session cookie

You paste your own cookie. No passwords are ever sent to or stored by vibeTeX.

1. Sign in to Overleaf in your browser.
2. Open your browser's developer tools → Application (Chrome) or Storage (Firefox) → Cookies → https://www.overleaf.com.
3. Copy the value of the overleaf_session2 cookie.
4. Paste it as OVERLEAF_SESSION_COOKIE.

The cookie expires when your Overleaf session does; refresh it the same way when sync starts failing.

What you get

When active, the session tier surfaces dashboard projects and best-effort sync:

• overleaf_list_projects includes your dashboard projects (include_dashboard, default true);
• pull / push / compile operate against those projects on a best-effort basis.

overleaf_whoami reports experimentalSession: { enabled, active } so you can confirm the tier is live.

Caveats

• Best-effort: behavior depends on Overleaf's private web endpoints and may break without notice.
• ToS-grey: automating the web session is not an officially supported integration — the supported path is the git bridge (premium).
• Your responsibility: you supply the cookie and accept the risk.
• Not used by the hosted tier: the paid hosted connector does not rely on session cookies.

If you rely on Overleaf day-to-day, the git bridge is the stable, recommended path. The session tier exists so free-tier users aren't locked out entirely.