A command-line tool to transform arXiv papers into a single LaTeX source that can be used as a prompt for asking LLMs questions about the paper. It downloads the source files, automatically finds the main tex file containing \documentclass, and flattens multiple files into a single coherent source by resolving \input and \include commands. The tool also provides options to remove LaTeX comments and appendix sections from the output (which can be useful to shorten the prompt).

pip install arxiv-to-prompt

Basic usage:

# Display LaTeX source with comments
arxiv-to-prompt 2303.08774
# Display LaTeX source without comments
arxiv-to-prompt 2303.08774 --no-comments
# Display LaTeX source without appendix sections
arxiv-to-prompt 2303.08774 --no-appendix
# Combine options (no comments and no appendix)
arxiv-to-prompt 2303.08774 --no-comments --no-appendix
# Copy to clipboard
arxiv-to-prompt 2303.08774 | pbcopy
# Combine with the `llm` library from https://github.com/simonw/llm to chat about the paper
arxiv-to-prompt 1706.03762 | llm -s "explain this paper"

The arXiv ID can be found in the paper's URL. For example, for https://arxiv.org/abs/2303.08774, the ID is 2303.08774. It will automatically download the latest version of the paper, so you don't need to specify the version.

You can also use arxiv-to-prompt in your Python code:

from arxiv_to_prompt import process_latex_source
# Get LaTeX source with comments
latex_source = process_latex_source("2303.08774")
# Get LaTeX source without comments
latex_source = process_latex_source("2303.08774", keep_comments=False)
# Get LaTeX source without appendix sections
latex_source = process_latex_source("2303.08774", remove_appendix_section=True)
# Combine options (no comments and no appendix)
latex_source = process_latex_source("2303.08774", keep_comments=False, remove_appendix_section=True)

Here are some projects and use cases that leverage arxiv-to-prompt:

• arxiv-latex-mcp: MCP server that uses arxiv-to-prompt to fetch and process arXiv LaTeX sources for precise interpretation of mathematical expressions in scientific papers.
• arxiv-tex-ui: chat with an llm about an arxiv paper by using the latex source.
• paper2slides: transform an arXiv paper into slides.

If you're using arxiv-to-prompt in your project, please submit a pull request to add it to this list!