Scribe — an AI paper studio

Open Scribe →

Scribe is a LaTeX manuscript and its compiled PDF, in one page. A new paper starts from files that already compile — a main.tex, a references.bib, a bibliography style and one worked citation — so your first press of Compile succeeds and you are editing a real document rather than debugging an empty one. The PDF is previewed as 144 dpi page images and downloads as build.pdf, or the whole project as export.zip.

What Scribe makes

  • A LaTeX project — real .tex and .bib files you own, not a proprietary document format.
  • A compiled PDF, read in the Preview pane with a page bar and zoom, downloadable as build.pdf.
  • export.zip — the whole project, sources included, free to download.
  • Revisions — up to 30, so a bad afternoon is recoverable.

Walkthrough: from New paper to a PDF

1

Press New paper

You get main.tex and references.bib with a bibliography style set and one example citation key already wired up. Compile it now, before changing anything, so you know the baseline is good.

2

Write in the editor

Monaco, with an Insert menu for the constructs nobody enjoys typing: Section, Subsection, Inline math, Display equation, Figure, Table, Bullet list, Link, Footnote, Label, Abstract and Comment.

3

Press Compile and read the PDF

The Preview pane shows the rendered pages. If a compile fails, the last successful PDF stays on screen beside the new diagnostics — you are never left with a blank pane and an error log.

4

Find a reference

The References tab searches five scholarly databases at once: arXiv, Crossref, OpenAlex, Semantic Scholar and DBLP. There is an Open access only switch when you want something your readers can actually open.

5

Cite it

Cite merges the entry into your .bib without losing fields. You can also paste a BibTeX entry directly, or just a bare DOI or arXiv id and let Scribe resolve it.

6

Ask the Assistant

Three modes: Ask for a question, Plan for a structure, Agent to let it make edits. An agent turn is capped at four model calls, so it cannot wander.

7

Send the numbers to Code

Experiments seeds a Grafy Code project from the paper, so the analysis behind a table lives somewhere it can be re-run.

Options

  • Compile engine — tectonic, pdflatex or xelatex.
  • Paper search databases — arXiv, Crossref, OpenAlex, Semantic Scholar, DBLP, with an open-access filter.
  • Citation input — search and Cite, a pasted BibTeX entry, or a bare DOI / arXiv id.
  • Assistant modes — Ask, Plan, Agent.
  • Insert menu — twelve LaTeX constructs, from Section to Comment.

Limits

  • 200 files per paper, 400,000 characters per file, 8 MB in total.
  • 100 compiles an hour. The 429 says so, and says your manuscript is saved — the rate limit costs you time, never work.
  • 180 seconds of TeX wall clock per compile.
  • 12 saved conversations with the assistant and 30 revisions of the manuscript.
  • Saving from a stale tab returns a 409 with the code stale_source_rev rather than overwriting the newer copy.

What it costs

Scribe is a Starter app, and the parts of it that are arithmetic are free:

  • Free — compiling (the compile price is configured at zero, though it still writes a zero-amount ledger row so the history is complete), paper search, Cite, pasting BibTeX, export.zip and revisions.
  • Costs credits — the assistant, per call. An Agent turn is at most four calls.

One honest detail: a model call already in flight when you press Stop is still billed. The credits were committed to the provider before the button was pressed.

Frequently asked questions

Do I need to know LaTeX?

Enough to read it. The starter files already compile, the Insert menu writes the fiddly constructs for you, and the assistant can draft a section — but Scribe is a LaTeX editor, and the document it produces is LaTeX.

What happens when a compile fails?

The diagnostics appear and the last successful PDF stays in the Preview pane. You can keep reading the good version while you fix the broken one.

Does compiling cost credits?

No — the compile price ships at zero. A zero-amount row is still written to your ledger so that the usage history shows every compile that happened.

Will citing overwrite my .bib file?

No. Cite merges the entry, preserving the fields already there. If you have hand-edited an entry, your edits survive.

I left a tab open overnight and now saving fails.

That is the stale-tab guard: a 409 with stale_source_rev, which means a newer version of the file exists and Scribe refused to clobber it. Reload the paper and re-apply your change.

Can I get the source out?

export.zip gives you the whole project, free. Scribe is a place to write LaTeX, not a place LaTeX gets stuck.