latex-paper-writer

LaTeX Paper Writer Skill

Use this skill when the user wants a scientific paper, survey, technical report, research-derived PDF summary, LaTeX experiment table, or edits to an existing LaTeX document.

This is the canonical OpenColab path for paper production. Research, grounding, figure extraction, and architecture diagrams stay delegated to the existing shared skills; this skill owns the LaTeX workspace, document structure, template selection, scoped Git version control, PDF compilation, validation, and final delivery packaging.

Mission

Given source material for a scientific document:

1. Select or preserve the right LaTeX template.
2. Create or reuse a Git-controlled paper workspace.
3. Draft or edit the LaTeX sources with grounded claims and citations.
4. Generate experiment tables when useful.
5. Add user-supplied, extracted, or generated figures when they clarify the paper.
6. Build and validate the PDF.
7. Create scoped Git checkpoints when the paper has meaningful changes.
8. Return the final PDF path, and emit a raw Telegram file directive when needed.

Prerequisites

• git is installed and available in PATH.
• python3 is installed and available in PATH.
• latexmk is preferred for PDF builds:

latexmk -v

If latexmk is missing, read references/document-types.md for install guidance and do not claim that compilation succeeded. Only run install commands after the user explicitly approves installing system packages.

Hard Requirements

• Read references/conference-map.md before choosing a venue template.
• Read references/citation-policy.md before writing claims from papers.
• Read references/deep-research-integration.md when converting research outputs into a PDF summary or survey.
• Read references/experiment-tables.md before generating result tables.
• Use the existing paper's template and macros when editing an existing paper.
• Treat ICLR as the canonical venue name; infer it from near misses such as ICRL only when context makes that clear, and mention the correction briefly.
• Do not claim official venue-template compliance unless the official template is bundled, user-supplied, or otherwise verified.
• Keep every generated or managed paper workspace under Git version control.
• Never stage or commit unrelated files outside the paper workspace.
• Inspect git status before editing an existing paper repository.
• Use pdf-figure-extract for figures from already-downloaded local PDFs.
• Use block-diagram for synthesized architecture, taxonomy, pipeline, or literature-map diagrams.
• Use pageindex-grounded for exact local evidence checks over downloaded papers when a technical claim needs verification.
• Do not fabricate citations, metadata, benchmark values, or architecture details.
• When sending a PDF through Telegram, emit a raw @telegram-file {"kind":"document","file":"<path>","caption":"optional"} line on its own line with no code fence. Keep the JSON on one line, keep kind as document, and on Windows write the path with forward slashes.

Workflow

1. Classify the task

Choose the path:

• new paper draft: create a workspace and template
• existing paper edit: inspect and preserve the current structure
• research-to-PDF summary: use findings.md, paper summaries, diagrams, and PDFs
• experiment report: generate tables/plots and cite the experiment artifacts
• table-only task: generate .tex table fragments under tables/

If the user provides a conference, map it with references/conference-map.md. If no venue is known, use generic-paper, generic-survey, or generic-technical-report.

2. Initialize or inspect the workspace

For a new paper:

python3 projects/SKILLS/latex-paper-writer/scripts/init_paper_workspace.py \
  --template iclr \
  --output research/latex/<slug> \
  --title "<paper title>" \
  --author "<author line>" \
  --venue "ICLR"

Use --dedicated-git only when the user explicitly wants the paper folder to be its own repository even if it is inside a parent worktree.

For an existing paper, inspect files first:

git -C <paper-root> status --short
find <paper-root> -maxdepth 3 -type f | sort

Do not overwrite user changes or replace an existing template.

3. Write or edit the paper

Use the document type guidance in references/document-types.md.

Default new-paper tree:

main.tex
references.bib
sections/
figures/
tables/
main.pdf

Keep the document source-first. The PDF is a derived deliverable, but it may be tracked when the user wants deliverable history.

4. Generate experiment tables

For CSV, JSON, markdown table, or simple key=value logs:

python3 projects/SKILLS/latex-paper-writer/scripts/make_results_table.py \
  --input research/results.csv \
  --output tables/results.tex \
  --caption "Main benchmark results." \
  --label tab:main-results

Include the generated fragment from main.tex with \input{tables/results}.

5. Build and validate the PDF

bash projects/SKILLS/latex-paper-writer/scripts/build_pdf.sh \
  --root research/latex/<slug> \
  --main main.tex

The build script prefers latexmk, falls back to a bounded pdflatex plus bibliography flow when possible, and then runs validation. If the compiler is missing, return install guidance instead of pretending the PDF exists.

6. Commit scoped checkpoints

After a successful meaningful edit or build:

python3 projects/SKILLS/latex-paper-writer/scripts/git_checkpoint.py \
  --root research/latex/<slug> \
  --message "draft: add method section"

The checkpoint script stages only the paper workspace and aborts when unrelated pre-staged files would be included in the same commit.

Output Contract

For a full paper or report task, return:

• paper workspace path
• primary .tex path
• final PDF path when built
• important warnings from validation
• Git checkpoint commit hash when one was made
• raw @telegram-file line when Telegram delivery was requested

Canonical Assets

• Skill doc: projects/SKILLS/latex-paper-writer/SKILL.md
• Conference map: projects/SKILLS/latex-paper-writer/references/conference-map.md
• Document types: projects/SKILLS/latex-paper-writer/references/document-types.md
• Citation policy: projects/SKILLS/latex-paper-writer/references/citation-policy.md
• Research integration: projects/SKILLS/latex-paper-writer/references/deep-research-integration.md
• Experiment tables: projects/SKILLS/latex-paper-writer/references/experiment-tables.md
• Templates: projects/SKILLS/latex-paper-writer/assets/templates/
• Workspace initializer: projects/SKILLS/latex-paper-writer/scripts/init_paper_workspace.py
• PDF builder: projects/SKILLS/latex-paper-writer/scripts/build_pdf.sh
• PDF validator: projects/SKILLS/latex-paper-writer/scripts/validate_latex.sh
• Table generator: projects/SKILLS/latex-paper-writer/scripts/make_results_table.py
• Git checkpoint helper: projects/SKILLS/latex-paper-writer/scripts/git_checkpoint.py