| name | paper-narrative |
| description | Judge and reshape the story told by an entire paper figure deck. Use when writing or revising a paper to derive a grounded brief from the manuscript and captions, review the full deck as a handling editor, and hand an ordered figure arc to `figure-composer`. |
| license | Apache-2.0 |
Paper Narrative — manuscript → brief → figure arc → editorial loop
paper-narrative is the outermost figure workflow. It judges the paper-level
story before figure-composer designs any one figure. The inputs are the work
itself: a manuscript (or abstract), figure captions, and the current full deck.
Open Science Notebook call
Every notebook_execute request whose code uses a function named in this skill
includes this skill ID:
{ "kernelSkillIds": ["paper-narrative"], "code": "print(paper_brief_schema())" }
kernelSkillIds contains the skill ID; function calls belong in code. This
request is complete as written: call the named functions directly and do not add
an import or discovery step.
Required inputs and trust labels
Keep these inputs distinct throughout the workflow:
manuscriptVersionId: immutable manuscript Artifact Version (an abstract-only
manuscript is allowed) and the reviewed manuscript text read from it.
abstractText: reviewed abstract text when available; use it for bounded brief
reasoning while retaining the full manuscript Version as source provenance.
captionsVersionId: immutable captions Artifact Version and the reviewed
per-figure caption or claim text read from it.
deckVersionId: immutable deck Artifact Version containing every current
figure in review order.
rulesVersionId: immutable design-rules Artifact Version, used only as a
reference so the editor judges story rather than visual craft.
figureDataVersionIds: immutable data Artifact Versions grouped by figure.
figureWidthMmByFigure: reviewed positive venue width for each figure; the
downstream composer must not invent this physical output constraint.
Manuscript, captions, deck, and data are source inputs. Every brief, review,
arc, move, omission, and proposed analysis is model-generated and requires human review.
Never describe generated text as manuscript evidence or source data. Preserve
the input Version identities when publishing or delegating downstream work.
1. Reason from manuscript and captions
Load the reviewed manuscript/abstract and captions content into the JavaScript
control-plane request. Obtain paper_brief_schema() in Python first. Then call
the current tool-less Host model and require JSON only:
const briefSchema = paperBriefSchemaFromNotebook
const Ajv2020 = require('ajv/dist/2020').default
const validateBrief = new Ajv2020({ allErrors: true }).compile(briefSchema)
const briefSourceText = abstractText || manuscriptText
let repair = ''
let brief
for (let attempt = 1; attempt <= 2; attempt += 1) {
const prompt =
`Return JSON only. The complete paper_brief JSON Schema is:\n${JSON.stringify(briefSchema)}\n` +
`Manuscript Artifact Version: ${manuscriptVersionId}\n` +
`Captions Artifact Version: ${captionsVersionId}\n` +
`Reviewed abstract/manuscript source:\n${briefSourceText}\n\nCaptions/claims:\n${captionsText}\n\n` +
`Pitch is the grandest supportable one-sentence claim, not the method. ` +
`Vision is the killer application: what readers can now do. ` +
`Name the audience and the single most-arresting image.` +
repair
if (Buffer.byteLength(prompt, 'utf8') > 64 * 1024) {
throw new Error(
'paper brief prompt exceeds host.llm 64 KiB UTF-8 limit; provide a reviewed abstract or shorter captions'
)
}
briefDraft = host.(prompt)
(briefDraft. !== ) {
()
}
candidate
problem
{
candidate = .(briefDraft.)
((candidate)) {
brief = candidate
}
problem = .(validateBrief.)
} (error) {
problem = error ? error. : (error)
}
(attempt === ) ()
repair =
+
}
host.llm does not enforce a caller-provided schema. The code therefore checks
the UTF-8 request budget, requires stopReason === "end_turn", parses JSON, and
validates with the same bundled Ajv 2020 implementation used elsewhere in the
control plane. Prefer the reviewed abstract because a full manuscript commonly
exceeds the hard 64 KiB prompt limit; never silently truncate source text. If a
corrective retry still fails, stop. Do not fill missing required
fields with guesses. After validation, attach the immutable figure/data
references from the source claim table. Then review every field — pitch,
vision, audience, most-arresting asset, and every figure claim — before
continuing. Fix unsupported wording explicitly; never silently treat the first
model draft as approved.
2. Review the full deck as a handling editor
Generate the task with
narrative_review_task(reviewedBrief, deckVersionId, rulesVersionId) and obtain
narrative_review_schema() in Python. Dispatch one reviewer from
repl_execute. All three work inputs are explicit alongside the deck; the
schema makes the expected model result reviewable:
const collectStructuredBatch = async (requests) => {
const receipts = await host.delegate(requests, { wait: false })
const children = await host.collect(
receipts.children.map(({ frameId, attemptId }) => ({ frameId, attemptId })),
{ returnWhen: 'all', timeoutSeconds: 1800 }
)
return children.map((child) => {
if (!child || child.status !== 'completed' || child.error) {
throw new Error(
`delegated workflow failed: ${child?.error ?? child?.status ?? 'missing child'}`
)
}
if (child.structuredOutputUnsatisfied || child.structuredOutput === undefined) {
throw new Error('delegated workflow returned no schema-valid structuredOutput')
}
return child.structuredOutput
})
}
let narrativeRound = 1
const request = {
name: `paper-narrative-editor-r`,
: reviewTask,
: [manuscriptVersionId, captionsVersionId, deckVersionId, rulesVersionId],
: reviewSchema
}
[review] = ([request])
Require a completed child and a schema-valid result. Human-review the result as
an editorial recommendation, not a fact extraction. Preserve all of the
original narrative judgments:
hook_verdict: whether Figure 1 alone earns external review, why, what it is,
and what it should become.
arc: hook → mechanism → evidence → application; off-arc material moves to
supplement unless a reviewed exception is justified.
figure_moves: panels whose correct figure changes, with the reason.
missing_panels: what to show, the concrete analysis to run, and the closest
source-data hint. Search existing project artifacts before proposing new work.
kill_list: content to demote to supplement/caption or delete.
boldest_defensible_fig1: the strongest supportable Figure 1 claim, never a
merely louder unsupported claim.
3. Hand the reviewed arc to figure-composer
After human review, build root-level composition specifications only for arc
figures that actually need a visual revision. A figure needs recomposition when
it gains or loses a moved panel, receives an accepted missing-panel analysis,
has no existing composite_vid, or its reviewed claim/layout differs from the
current figure. Record any additional human-approved layout changes in
explicitlyReviewedRecomposeFigures; do not treat a new narrative order alone
as a reason to redraw a figure. Reuse the exact existing composite_vid for
every untouched figure. Do not delegate the whole figure-composer: delegated children cannot
call host.delegate, while the composer must fan out panel workers. Remain in
the Main/root agent, load figure-composer, and complete its workflow for each
changed specification in review order. Each specification must include:
- that entry's exact reviewed
one_line claim;
- every reviewed moved-in panel whose
to_fig matches the arc figure and every
moved-out panel whose from_fig matches it, so the source composition removes
the transferred material;
- the immutable data Artifact Version references grounding the claim and
moved panels; and
- any accepted missing-panel analysis result after it has actually been run
and published as an Artifact Version; and
- the reviewed physical
width_mm for that figure.
Build inputs as an order-preserving union: the target figure's source-data
Versions, every moved item's from_fig source-data Versions, and the published
missing-analysis Versions for the target. Deduplicate identities. A brief
figure's composite_vid identifies rendered figure output; it is not source
data and must never be substituted for these input references.
After the human decision and analysis run, keep the independently reviewed
acceptedMissingPanelRecommendations. Populate
publishedMissingAnalysisVersionIdsByRecommendation only from successful
Artifact writes, then map every accepted recommendation to its published Version.
Each resolved entry carries the reviewed target_fig, what_to_show, and exact
version_id. Fail closed if any accepted recommendation has no verified published
Version; never derive redraws directly from all model-proposed
review.missing_panels.
Initialize currentFiguresByKey once from the brief before the first review round,
then retain and update it across every round. Build the complete changed-figure
queue without slicing it. The stable arc index
prevents sanitized or truncated figure keys from colliding, while the round
keeps panel/reviewer delegate names unique across narrative rounds:
const currentFiguresByKey = new Map(brief.figures.map((figure) => [figure.key, figure]))
const acceptedPublishedMissingAnalyses = acceptedMissingPanelRecommendations.map(
(recommendation) => {
const version_id = publishedMissingAnalysisVersionIdsByRecommendation.get(recommendation)
if (typeof version_id !== 'string' || !version_id) {
throw new Error(
`accepted missing-panel analysis has no published Version: ${recommendation.what_to_show}`
)
}
return { ...recommendation, version_id }
}
)
const changedFigures = new Set([
...review.figure_moves.flatMap((move) => [move.from_fig, move.to_fig]),
...acceptedPublishedMissingAnalyses.map((analysis) => analysis.target_fig),
...review.arc
.filter((item) => {
existing = currentFiguresByKey.(item.)
!existing?. || existing. !== item.
})
.( item.),
...explicitlyReviewedRecomposeFigures
])
compositionQueue = review..( {
(!changedFigures.(item.)) []
movedIn = review..( move. === item.)
movedOut = review..( move. === item.)
missingAnalyses = acceptedPublishedMissingAnalyses.(
analysis. === item.
)
sourceInputs = [
...(figureDataVersionIds[item.] ?? []),
...movedIn.( figureDataVersionIds[move.] ?? []),
...missingAnalyses.( analysis.)
]
width_mm = figureWidthMmByFigure[item.]
(!.(width_mm) || width_mm <= ) {
()
}
figureKey = (item.)
.()
.(, )
.(, )
.(, )
(!figureKey) ()
[
{
: item.,
: item.,
: movedIn.( move.),
: movedOut.( move.),
: [... (sourceInputs)],
width_mm,
:
}
]
})
For every queued entry, pass its claim, data summaries/Version IDs, width_mm, and
delegatePrefix into the root figure-composer workflow. Record the actual
final version_id returned by the successful write_artifact_file call; never
accept a model-proposed or merely non-empty string as the composite identity.
Use currentFiguresByKey as the figure-to-Version map, and after every successful
composer run replace that entry with the reviewed claim and the actual returned
version_id. Never recreate this map from the initial brief on a later round. The
composer itself sends panel workers in waves of four. Once every queued entry
has a verified composite Version, build and publish a new deck from the mapped
Versions in complete arc order, including reused untouched Versions. Retain its
immutable rebuiltDeckVersionId, and include that exact identity in the next
review request's inputs. Never invent an identity, hard-code the next
revision, omit queue entries beyond the first four, or substitute a redrawn
Version for an untouched figure.
The current notebook request schema records the composer's collected delegated
panel Versions through artifactVersionInputs. The main process resolves those
identities and persists them as inputFiles with artifact-version source kind;
callers supply identities only and never paths or provenance metadata.
4. Re-review and converge
Review the rebuilt full deck again with the manuscript and captions identities
still present in
inputs: [manuscriptVersionId, captionsVersionId, rebuiltDeckVersionId, rulesVersionId]. Convergence is exactly:
review.hook_verdict.would_send_for_review === 'yes' &&
review.figure_moves.length === 0 &&
review.missing_panels.length === 0
Do not erase a kill list or weaken an arc merely to satisfy convergence. If the
condition is false, human-review the new recommendations, run accepted missing
analyses, increment narrativeRound, and rebuild only the newly affected
figures with new delegate prefixes while retaining untouched composite Version
identities. Stop and report an
unresolved editorial disagreement when the evidence cannot support the desired
hook.
Minimal invocation
Load paper-narrative. Manuscript: @manuscript.tex. Captions:
@captions.md. Deck: @all_figures.pdf. Derive the brief, ask me to review
model-generated judgments, reshape only affected arc figures through
figure-composer while reusing every untouched composite Version, and re-review
until the explicit convergence condition is met or the evidence blocks it.