Hello HN! We’re a small team from NUS (undergrad + PhD). PaperDebugger started as a research project and evolved into an open-source tool that integrates directly into Overleaf as an academic writing assistant. It provides LaTeX-aware debugging, reviewer-style feedback, and targeted revision suggestions without leaving the editor, ideal for users who already write and collaborate on projects in Overleaf.
A small beta release picked up more traction than we expected over the past week. It’s far from perfect but since people are already trying it, we decided to share it more widely and prioritise stability, reliability, and gathering feedback earlier than planned.
There’s no signup: install the Chrome extension and it attaches immediately to your Overleaf project. You can highlight any section and receive specific suggestions, issue reports, or multi-step revision passes. Under the hood, it reads your project structure and is powered by our custom MCP-based orchestration engine that simulates a Research → Critique → Revision workflow rather than a single chat prompt.
Try it:
Chrome extension (Overleaf integration): https://chromewebstore.google.com/detail/paperdebugger/dfked...
Landing page (demo + overview): https://www.paperdebugger.com/
What we’re looking for:
• Whether the Overleaf-embedded workflow is actually more useful than copy/paste LLM editing
• Thoughts on UX and interaction inside the Overleaf editor
• Any concerns, e.g., about privacy or extension behaviour (we do have a policy published)
• Feature requests that would help with conference/journal submissions (we’re currently working on a formatter, citation verifier)
For readers interested in the technical details and research background that motivated the system, here’s a link to the paper: https://arxiv.org/abs/2512.02589
Happy to answer questions about the architecture, MCP design, prompts, or anything else.
Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46289247
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