Projects Collection

Project represents a single LaTeX project in Overleaf. It stores project metadata, ownership and access control, file structure, compilation settings, and collaboration state.

Core Identification & Metadata

• _id: Unique MongoDB ObjectId identifying the project.

• name: Project display name.

• description: Optional textual description of the project.

• active: Indicates whether the project is currently active.

• version: Internal schema or project format version.

• trashed: List of items moved to trash (soft-deleted).

• deletedDocs: Records of permanently deleted documents.

Ownership & Access Control

• owner_ref: Reference to the user who owns the project.

• collaberator_refs: Users with edit permissions.

• reviewer_refs: Users with reviewer-level access.

• readOnly_refs: Users with read-only access.

• pendingEditor_refs / pendingReviewer_refs: Pending invitations.

Token-Based Access

• tokens: Token registry for shared links.

• tokenAccessReadOnly_refs: Tokens granting read-only access.

• tokenAccessReadAndWrite_refs: Tokens granting read–write access.

Activity Tracking

• lastUpdated: Timestamp of the most recent modification.

• lastUpdatedBy: User who performed the last update.

• lastOpened: Timestamp of the last time the project was opened.

• deletedByExternalDataSource: Whether deletion was triggered by an external integration.

Project Structure

Root Document & Folder

• rootDoc_id: ObjectId of the main LaTeX entry document (usually main.tex).

• rootFolder: Inlined representation of the project’s file tree.

Each folder entry contains:

• name / _id: Folder name and identifier.

• docs: List of LaTeX source documents with name and _id.

• fileRefs: Binary file references (images, data files), including:

  • name: Filename

  • created: Upload timestamp

  • rev: Revision counter

  • hash: Content hash for deduplication

  • linkedFileData: External storage linkage (if any)

• folders: Nested subfolders.

Compilation & Editor Settings

• compiler: Selected LaTeX engine (pdflatex, xelatex, lualatex, etc.).

• spellCheckLanguage: Spell checker language for this project.

Public & Sharing Settings

• publicAccesLevel: Project visibility (private, readOnly, public, etc.).

• collabratecUsers: Linked users from external collaboration platforms.

Overleaf-Specific Extensions

• overleaf.history:

  • id: Identifier used by the history service.

  • display: Whether history is enabled and visible.

Internal Versioning

• __v: Mongoose internal version key for concurrency control.

Here is an real example for Overleaf User.

Project Example

{
    _id: ObjectId('69686c09bcb72ccea226ff33'),
    name: 'overleaf-example',
    lastUpdated: ISODate('2026-01-15T04:25:34.637Z'),
    lastUpdatedBy: ObjectId('696868f6bcb72ccea226fe5f'),
    lastOpened: ISODate('2026-01-15T04:25:22.286Z'),
    active: true,
    owner_ref: ObjectId('696868f6bcb72ccea226fe5f'),
    collaberator_refs: [],
    reviewer_refs: [],
    readOnly_refs: [],
    pendingEditor_refs: [],
    pendingReviewer_refs: [],
    rootDoc_id: ObjectId('69686c09bcb72ccea226ff38'),
    rootFolder: [
        {
            name: 'rootFolder',
            _id: ObjectId('69686c09bcb72ccea226ff32'),
            docs: [
                {
                    name: 'main.tex',
                    _id: ObjectId('69686c09bcb72ccea226ff38')
                },
                {
                    name: 'sample.bib',
                    _id: ObjectId('69686c09bcb72ccea226ff3f')
                }
            ],
            fileRefs: [
                {
                    name: 'frog.jpg',
                    created: ISODate('2026-01-15T04:24:41.963Z'),
                    rev: 0,
                    linkedFileData: null,
                    hash: '5b889ef3cf71c83a4c027c4e4dc3d1a106b27809',
                    _id: ObjectId('69686c09bcb72ccea226ff45')
                }
            ],
            folders: []
        }
    ],
    version: 3,
    publicAccesLevel: 'private',
    compiler: 'pdflatex',
    spellCheckLanguage: 'en',
    deletedByExternalDataSource: false,
    description: '',
    trashed: [],
    deletedDocs: [],
    tokens: {},
    tokenAccessReadOnly_refs: [],
    tokenAccessReadAndWrite_refs: [],
    overleaf: {
        history: {
            id: '69686c09bcb72ccea226ff33',
            display: true
        }
    },
    collabratecUsers: [],
    __v: 0
}