AI assistants (MCP)

Texpile exposes a local MCP server, so an AI assistant can see what you are working on and drive the editor. It stays off until you turn it on in Preferences.

Where to find it

Setting: Preferences › MCP server Preferences opens from the start screen, and from File › Preferences… once a folder is open.

The Connect an assistant dialog, with setup commands for Claude Code and Codex

Setting it up

Preferences shows the server's address along with a ready-made command for Claude Code and a config entry for Codex. They are not interchangeable, so copy the one for your client. Preferences fills in the real port for you.

Claude Code

claude mcp add --transport http texpile http://127.0.0.1:PORT

Codex, in its config file

[mcp_servers.texpile]
url = "http://127.0.0.1:PORT"

What an assistant can do

The server offers a small, deliberate set of actions rather than general access to your disk.

Read the editor state: the open file, the current view, and the selection.
Read content you have typed but not saved yet.
Read the current compile errors and warnings.
Open a file in the editor.
Show a diff of a file.
Switch between the visual, source, and diff views.
Show a given source line in the PDF.
Run a compile.

None of these edit your files. To make changes, an assistant should use its own terminal or file-editing tools on the .tex files on disk, the same as it would if Texpile were not open.

During a shared session

The server is local to whichever machine is running Texpile, so it only ever shows what is open in that machine's own window. In a real-time collaboration session, that means only the host can connect an assistant to it; guests do not get one of their own.

Local only

The server listens on 127.0.0.1 and is reachable only from your own machine. Texpile itself sends nothing anywhere.

What your assistant does with what it reads is between you and your assistant. If it is a cloud model, your document content reaches that provider the same way it would if you pasted it in.