| name | paper |
| description | Use when starting or scaffolding a new research paper in a papers-style monorepo (a repo of LaTeX paper directories that share one bibliography). Triggers include "scaffold a paper", "start a new paper", "set up a paper dir", "new paper from <repo>", "add a paper to papers/". |
Paper Scaffold
Overview
Papers in a research monorepo follow one shape: a per-paper LaTeX directory that shares the
repo's references.bib, harvests its results from a sibling code repo, and is tracked in a
portfolio record. This skill scaffolds that shape so a new paper builds on day one and you
only write prose.
Core principle: a paper is a harvest of the code — result numbers come from a script
that reads the source repo's corpus, never hand-typed.
When to use
- Starting a new first-author paper in a
papers/-style repo.
- "Scaffold a paper called X", "new paper from
<sister>".
- NOT for editing an existing paper's prose, or for one-off non-repo documents.
Inputs
<name> — kebab-case paper / directory name (e.g. kourai, velocity-fl-systems).--from <repo> (optional) — sibling code repo the results harvest from.--venue <venue> (optional) — target venue, recorded in the header and portfolio.
Config
Read the ## paper section of <repo>/.claude/skill-context.md for: author,
affiliation, email, bib (default ../references), engine (default tectonic, else
pdflatex), and portfolio (default LINEAGE.md). Use sensible defaults if absent.
Procedure
- Refuse if
papers/<name>/ already exists — never overwrite a paper.
- Copy
templates/main.tex.tmpl → papers/<name>/main.tex, filling __TITLE__ (title-cased
from <name>; confirm with the user), __AUTHOR__, __AFFIL__, __EMAIL__, __VENUE__,
__BIB__, __NAME__, __ENGINE__.
- Copy
templates/harvest.py.tmpl → papers/<name>/harvest.py, filling __SISTER__
(--from, else TODO). Create papers/<name>/figures/.gitkeep.
- Append a row to the portfolio file's first-author table:
| <name> | <repo> | (contribution -- fill in) | scaffolded |.
- Build-verify: run the configured engine in
papers/<name>/. On success, report the PDF
path + size. If no engine is installed, print an Overleaf note instead of failing.
- Report the directory, the build status, and: "write prose into the
% HARVEST: blocks;
run python harvest.py once --from is wired."
Common mistakes
- Hand-typing result numbers — they belong in
harvest.py output (\input-ed) so they
regenerate. The template's \nocite{*} line is only a build-enabler; delete it once real
\cite{} commands exist (an empty bibliography errors under many classes).
- Overwriting an existing paper dir — step 1 guards this.
The exact main.tex and harvest.py scaffolds live in templates/.
