ResearchKit

ResearchKit is an AI-assisted research writing environment built on top of Overleaf Community Edition. It treats Overleaf as the IDE and the LaTeX paper project as the codebase, then layers on a dedicated Python service, project-aware memory, provider configuration, inline patch review, and specialized agents for academic writing workflows.

Documentation

• Architecture
• Current Features
• Roadmap
• ResearchKit Service Guide

ResearchKit architecture overview: Overleaf acts as the IDE, while the LaTeX project is treated as the codebase for agent-driven research writing workflows.

What It Does Today

• Treats Overleaf as the IDE and a LaTeX project as the codebase for agent-driven paper work
• Adds a ResearchKit sidebar inside the Overleaf editor
• Streams agent responses over SSE
• Captures editor context such as the active file, selected text, and cursor location
• Builds project memory from LaTeX structure and BibTeX files
• Persists conversations per project and supports resume, list, and clear flows
• Supports OpenAI, Anthropic, and OpenAI-compatible providers
• Lets users test provider settings and discover available models from the UI
• Produces inline patches and diff review actions for file changes
• Supports workspace-aware editing plus execution-oriented bash commands through the runner service
• Delegates literature-search tasks to an implemented Research Agent

What Is Not Finished Yet

• Figure Agent is still a placeholder
• Review Agent is still a placeholder
• The broader multi-agent workflow is present, but only the Research Agent is meaningfully implemented today

System Overview

+---------------------------+      +----------------------------+
| Overleaf Community        | ---> | ResearchKit FastAPI        |
| Edition                   |      | service                    |
| - ResearchKit sidebar UI  |      | - chat + config + memory   |
| - Express proxy routes    |      | - Main Agent               |
| - project file snapshot   |      | - Research Agent           |
+---------------------------+      | - MemoryManager            |
              |                    | - provider registry        |
              |                    +-------------+--------------+
              |                                  |
              v                                  v
+---------------------------+      +----------------------------+
| MongoDB                   |      | ResearchKit runner         |
| - researchkitMemory       |      | - isolated command exec    |
| - researchkitConversations|      | - overlay workspace diffs  |
| - researchkitConfig       |      +----------------------------+
+---------------------------+

Read the full breakdown in docs/architecture.md.

Quick Start

Prerequisites

• Docker and Docker Compose
• At least one LLM provider key
• Optional ASTA key for literature search features

1. Configure environment

cp .env.example .env

Set the provider credentials you need:

OPENAI_API_KEY=sk-...
ANTHROPIC_API_KEY=sk-ant-...
RESEARCHKIT_ASTA_API_KEY=...

Common optional settings:

RESEARCHKIT_PORT=3020
OPENAI_BASE_URL=http://your-proxy:4000
RESEARCHKIT_MODEL=gpt-4o
RESEARCHKIT_RUNNER_URL=http://researchkit-runner:3030

2. Start the stack

docker compose up -d --build

Main services:

Service	Port	Purpose
sharelatex	80	Overleaf UI
researchkit	3020	FastAPI backend
researchkit-runner	3030	command runner for bash tool execution
mongo	27017	shared persistence
redis	6379	Overleaf dependency

3. Create an admin account

docker exec sharelatex /bin/bash -c "cd /overleaf/services/web && node modules/server-ce-scripts/scripts/create-user --admin --email=admin@example.com"

4. Open the app

1. Visit http://localhost
2. Log in and open a LaTeX project
3. Open the ResearchKit rail entry in the editor
4. Index the project or start chatting

Development

Full stack with Docker

docker compose up --build

Python service with hot reload

Use this when working on agents, API routes, memory, or providers.

docker compose up sharelatex mongo redis

cd services/researchkit
python3 -m venv .venv
source .venv/bin/activate
pip install -e ".[dev]"

export MONGODB_URL="mongodb://localhost:27017/sharelatex"
export OPENAI_API_KEY="sk-..."
uvicorn researchkit.main:app --reload --host 0.0.0.0 --port 3020

Frontend and proxy module

ResearchKit's Overleaf integration lives under services/web/modules/researchkit/.

For frontend work, use the normal Overleaf development flow:

cd develop
bin/build
bin/dev

Current Runtime Flow

1. The Overleaf module captures project files and the active editor context.
2. ResearchKit treats that LaTeX workspace like a codebase, with files such as main.tex, section files, bibliography files, and figures forming the working project context.
3. The Express controller proxies requests to researchkit.
4. The FastAPI service loads provider config, refreshes memory when needed, and runs the MainAgent.
5. The Main Agent can edit files through str_replace_editor, run execution-only shell commands through the runner, or delegate literature work to the Research Agent.
6. The service streams message, action, patch, response, and done events back to the UI.

Repository Pointers

• services/researchkit/ contains the Python backend and runner
• services/web/modules/researchkit/ contains the Overleaf proxy layer and React UI
• docs/ contains project-level architecture, feature status, and roadmap docs

Testing

Backend tests:

cd services/researchkit
pip install -e ".[dev]"
pytest -q tests

Current backend baseline: 67 passed.

Base Project

This repository is built on top of Overleaf Community Edition. General Overleaf contribution guidance remains in CONTRIBUTING.md.

License

This project is licensed under the GNU Affero General Public License v3. See LICENSE.