aldine.

Open source · Self-hosted · AGPL

Write LaTeX together.
Fast, versioned, yours.

A slim, self-hosted alternative to Overleaf — live collaboration, real git branches, Zotero built in. Two containers, nothing to babysit.

On Writing LaTeX Together

You · your co-authors · the advisor who hates installing TeX

Abstract

Aldine is a slim, open-source platform for collaborative LaTeX: multi-cursor editing where every keystroke arrives live, projects that are real git repositories with branches you can merge from the UI, review comments with one-click suggested edits, and a Zotero panel that cites from your own library. Compiles run in a sandboxed TeX Live container — no network egress, restricted shell-escape — and warm recompiles land in about two seconds. Deployment is two containers and flat files; the license is AGPL, so it stays free, including for whoever hosts it after you.

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The pitch, typeset.

Try the live demo View source on GitHub

The demo resets nightly — write anything, keep nothing.

Sixteen seconds of proof

Screen recording: a collaborator's edits stream in live, the PDF recompiles, and double-clicking the PDF jumps the editor to the source line

A collaborator types, the PDF recompiles, and a double-click on the page jumps the editor to the source line — one real recording.

What you get

Real-time collaboration

CRDT-based (Yjs): multi-cursor, live presence, conflict-free by construction. Unlimited collaborators.

Git-native branches

Every project is a real git repository. Branch, merge, and inspect history from the UI — or clone it and keep using VS Code.

Zotero built in

Link your whole library or one collection, keep the .bib in sync, cite from a search panel or \cite{ autocomplete.

Review mode

Anchored comment threads on text selections, with suggested replacements the author accepts in one click.

Sandboxed compiles

TeX Live in a no-egress container: dropped capabilities, restricted shell-escape, ~2s warm recompiles. All of CTAN one flag away.

GitHub sync & AI fix

Import a repo, push and pull, open PRs from the editor. Optional AI error diagnosis — bring your own key, or leave it 100% AI-free.

The honest comparison

Overleaf CE is good software — but its free self-hosted tier excludes track changes, git, and Zotero, and the deployment is a Toolkit-managed monolith with Mongo and Redis. In Aldine every feature is free, and the whole thing is two containers.

Where Overleaf still wins: a huge template gallery, a visual editor, and a decade of production maturity. We say so in the README table too — the visual editor is next on the roadmap.

Quick start

Auth off by default for single use; one env var turns on logins, SSO, and sharing. Postgres and Redis are opt-in when one box stops being enough.