Migrate from Overleaf

You do not have to leave Overleaf to use Overfull. You can keep editing there and run checks on a Git copy, or move the build to Docker and GitHub Actions.

Why people move builds

Overleaf’s free plan has a short compile timeout. Since 2025 it has been 10 seconds, which a thesis with many figures or pgfplots plots can exceed. Paid plans allow longer compiles. Check Overleaf’s plans page for current limits.

Building with Docker locally or in GitHub Actions has no such limit, uses a pinned TeX Live, and gives you a history of every change.

Option 1: keep Overleaf, check with Git

Overleaf’s Git integration and GitHub sync are available on paid plans.

With the Git integration:

1. In Overleaf, open Menu and find the Git clone URL for the project. Create a Git authentication token in your Overleaf account settings.

2. Clone it:

   git clone https://git.overleaf.com/<project-id> my-paper
   cd my-paper

3. Add an overfull.yml (see Configuration) with your main file and bibliography. Overfull builds with LuaLaTeX unless a .latexmkrc sets $pdf_mode = 1; (pdfLaTeX, Overleaf’s default). If your project was written for pdfLaTeX, add a .latexmkrc next to main.tex:

   $pdf_mode = 1;   # pdfLaTeX, as on Overleaf

   Then build and check:

   overfull build --engine docker
   overfull check

4. Fix problems in Overleaf or locally. If you fix them locally, git push sends the changes back to Overleaf.

With GitHub sync: link the project to a GitHub repository from the Overleaf menu. Add the GitHub Action or the template workflow to that repository, and every sync runs the checks.

Without a paid plan, download the source as a zip from Overleaf and run the same commands on the extracted folder.

Option 2: move the project

1. Get the source onto your machine (Git clone, GitHub sync, or zip download).

2. Start from a template and copy your content in, or keep your own structure:

   overfull init paper my-paper

   Copy sections into sections/ (or chapters/), images into figures/, and your .bib into references.bib. Move title and author into metadata.tex.

3. Build and check:

   cd my-paper
   make build
   make check

4. Push to GitHub. The template’s workflow builds the PDF in Docker on every push and pull request and attaches it as an artifact.

Differences to expect

• Engine. The templates use LuaLaTeX. If your project relied on pdfLaTeX packages such as inputenc or fontenc with Type 1 fonts, check fonts and encoding after the move.
• Tagging. The templates turn on PDF tagging. A package that does not yet support tagging may cause warnings; the accessibility check shows them.
• File name case. Overleaf is forgiving about case in some paths; Linux and arXiv are not. The build check reports missing files.
• Collaboration. Overleaf’s real-time editing and comments have no equivalent in Git. Many groups keep Overleaf for writing and use Git and Overfull for checks and releases.