law-build

name	law-build
description	Compile a LaTeX academic paper with pdflatex. Use when the user asks to build, compile, or check the paper. Also run law-pagecount and law-verify after a successful build.

LAW Build

Compile a LaTeX paper using pdflatex, producing a timestamped PDF main-YYYYMMDDHHMM.pdf. The build script opens this file automatically after compilation.

Workflow

Step 1: Detect platform and run build script

• macOS/Linux: bash scripts/build.sh
• Windows: build.bat

The script detects whether bibtex is needed by checking for \bibliography{ in main.tex.

Step 2: After build succeeds

Tell the user the build succeeded and show the output filename. Then:

1. Run law-pagecount — counts pages per section from the compiled PDF
2. Run law-verify — runs post-build checks (emdashes, refs, cites, formatting)
3. Commit to git with a meaningful message

If either skill is not installed, tell the user the install command.

Step 3: Commit after build

After every successful build, commit all changes to git. This creates a recoverable snapshot of the paper state at each build.

To generate a meaningful commit message, run git diff --staged (or git diff if nothing staged) and git status --short to see what changed. Summarize the changes in one line. Examples:

• "write §1 introduction with SCQA structure"
• "add §3 system overview and architecture diagram"
• "fix: replace bold numbers with normal text per writing rules"
• "build: add real citations for related work"
• "shrink §4 from 2.5 to 1.8 pages to fit page limit"

If nothing changed (rebuild with no edits), do not create an empty commit. Only commit when there are actual changes.

Use git add -A to stage everything, then git commit -m "message".

Step 4: Check nref.bib for unresolved citations

The paper uses two bib files:

• refs.bib — verified citations with complete entries
• nref.bib — placeholder entries for citations that need the user to fill in

After every build, check nref.bib:

1. Count entries with TODO in the title field (unresolved)
2. Count entries without TODO in the title field (user has filled them in)
3. For newly filled entries: move them from nref.bib to refs.bib by:
   • Appending the complete entry to the end of refs.bib
   • Removing it from nref.bib
4. Report to the user:
   • "nref.bib: N entries moved to refs.bib, M entries still need attention"
   • If any unresolved entries remain, list them with their TODO descriptions

An entry is "filled" when its title field no longer starts with {TODO:. An entry is "unresolved" when its title field starts with {TODO:.

If nref.bib does not exist in the paper repo, skip this step.

Step 5: If build fails

Display the last 20 lines of temp/main.log to the user. Do NOT try to fix LaTeX errors automatically. Do NOT retry the build. The user will fix the issue and ask to build again.

Prerequisites

• pdflatex must be installed. If not found, print: "Install MacTeX from https://tug.org/mactex/ (macOS) or TeX Live from https://tug.org/texlive/ (Windows/Linux)."
• bibtex (comes with TeX distribution)

Important

• Always rebuild the full paper. Do not skip passes or optimize.
• The build output goes to temp/.
• The build produces main-YYYYMMDDHHMM.pdf in the paper root and opens exactly that one file.
• All main-*.pdf are in .gitignore — they are build artifacts, not source.
• Never compose your own build command. Always use bash build.sh (macOS/Linux) or build.bat (Windows). Do not run pdflatex directly. Do not use open main-*.pdf or any wildcard — the build script handles opening the correct file.