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aeroxy/paper-bro

Paste an arXiv paper link and get an interactive, step-by-step course generated from it, hosted on AERO.

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What is it?

paper-bro turns an arXiv paper into an interactive course. You paste a paper's arXiv ID or URL, and a pipeline reads the text, builds an outline, writes lessons with embedded labs, checks them in a headless browser, and publishes the result. Each paper gets one course: the first request starts the build, and later visitors are sent to the same page.

The server is a single Rust binary (axum and tokio) with a Neon Postgres database and a React front end. Model calls go to any OpenAI-compatible endpoint, and each build stage is checkpointed so an interrupted job resumes. Progress streams to the paper page over SSE. Publishing uses AERO's MCP endpoint with a personal access token.

Lesson text is sanitized, and labs run in sandboxed iframes with an opaque origin, so model-written code cannot reach cookies, storage or the network of the host site. The project is intended for self-hosting behind a reverse proxy.

Key features

  • 01Turns an arXiv paper ID or URL into a multi-lesson interactive course.
  • 02Generates lessons in parallel and checks them with headless-browser QA before publishing.
  • 03Resumes interrupted builds from stored checkpoints instead of regenerating everything.
  • 04Streams build progress to the paper page in real time.
  • 05Runs model-written labs in sandboxed iframes isolated from the host site.
  • 06Works with any OpenAI-compatible model server.

Use cases

  • Studying a research paper with guided lessons and quizzes instead of reading it cold.
  • Hosting a self-run course generator for a team or class working through a set of papers.
  • Reviewing how a sandboxed LLM content pipeline is structured in Rust.

Quick start

  1. 1

    Copy the environment template and fill in the database, AERO token and LLM settings

    cp .env.example .env
  2. 2

    Install the headless Chrome build from Chrome for Testing and point CHROME_PATH at it

  3. 3

    Build the front end

    (cd frontend && bun install && bun run build)
  4. 4

    Start the server

    cargo run -- serve

Things to know

  • Needs a Neon Postgres database, an AERO token and an OpenAI-compatible model API key.
  • Each course build costs roughly $1 in model fees.
  • Requires a headless Chromium; on Ubuntu 24.04 it needs an AppArmor profile to run.

In collections

Self-hosted appsLearning & education tools

Topics

#arxiv#research-papers#llm#rust#education#interactive-learning#self-hosted

FAQ

What is paper-bro?
Paste an arXiv paper link and get an interactive, step-by-step course generated from it, hosted on AERO. paper-bro turns an arXiv paper into an interactive course. You paste a paper's arXiv ID or URL, and a pipeline reads the text, builds an outline, writes lessons with embedded labs, checks them in a headless browser, and publishes the result. Each paper gets one course: the first request starts the build, and later visitors are sent to the same page.
Is paper-bro free to use? What license does it have?
paper-bro is open source under the MIT license. Check the license terms before using it in commercial products.
Is paper-bro still maintained?
Actively maintained. The last commit to paper-bro was on Nov 3, 2026.
What can I use paper-bro for?
Studying a research paper with guided lessons and quizzes instead of reading it cold. Hosting a self-run course generator for a team or class working through a set of papers. Reviewing how a sandboxed LLM content pipeline is structured in Rust.
How do I install paper-bro?
Copy the environment template and fill in the database, AERO token and LLM settings: cp .env.example .env Install the headless Chrome build from Chrome for Testing and point CHROME_PATH at it Build the front end: (cd frontend && bun install && bun run build) Start the server: cargo run -- serve
Where can I get paper-bro?
The source code and installation instructions are on GitHub: https://github.com/aeroxy/paper-bro

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