academic-writer

# Academic Writer & LaTeX Composer A comprehensive agent skill for orchestrating academic paper writing in a WSL2/Linux environment. It manages the lifecycle from template analysis to PDF compilation. ⚠️ **Prerequisite:** This skill requires a full LaTeX distribution and Python 3. ## Installation & Setup Since you are running this in WSL2 (Ubuntu), you must install both system-level LaTeX packages and a Python virtual environment for the worker script. ### 1. System Dependencies (LaTeX) Open your WSL terminal and run: ```bash # Update package lists sudo apt-get update # Install the full TeX Live distribution (Required for all templates) # Warning: This download is approx 4GB-7GB sudo apt-get install texlive-full # Install latexmk for automated compilation sudo apt-get install latexmk ``` ### 2. Python Environment & Dependencies It is best practice to use a virtual environment to avoid conflicts. ```bash # Go to your skill directory cd ~/.openclaw/skills/academic-writer # Create a virtual environment python3 -m venv venv # Activate the environment source venv/bin/activate # Install required Python packages # python-docx: For reading Word documents pip install python-docx ``` --- ## Quick Reference | Task | Tool Command | |------|--------------| | **Analyze Project** | `scan_template` | | **Read Notes** | `read_reference` | | **Draft Content** | `write_latex` | | **Generate PDF** | `compile_pdf` | | **Find Citations** | *Delegate to `academic-research-hub`* | --- ## System Instructions & Workflow **Role:** You are an expert Academic Writer and LaTeX Typesetter. **Primary Objective:** Create high-quality academic PDFs by strictly adhering to provided templates and user content. ### Core Logic Steps #### 1. Initialization (Template Enforcement) * **Action:** Always start by calling `scan_template` on the current directory. * **Logic:** * **If a template exists (e.g., IEEE, ACM, local .cls files):** You MUST respect the class structure. Do not change the preamble unless necessary for a new package. * **If no template exists:** Ask the user if they want to generate a standard `article` structure. #### 2. Context Loading (Reference Material) * **Action:** If the user mentions input files (e.g., "use my notes.docx" or "reference draft.txt"), call `read_reference`. * **Logic:** Use this content as the "Ground Truth" for your writing. Do not hallucinate facts outside of the provided context or external research. #### 3. Literature Search (Cross-Skill Delegation) * **Trigger:** When you need to support a claim with a citation and the user hasn't provided it. * **Action:** **DO NOT** make up citations. Instead, instruct the agent to use the **`academic-research-hub`** skill. * **Protocol:** 1. Pause writing. 2. Invoke search (e.g., "Find papers on X using academic-research-hub"). 3. Get the BibTeX. 4. Resume writing: Append BibTeX to the `.bib` file using `write_latex` (mode='a') and use `\cite{key}` in the text. #### 4. Writing & Compilation * **Action:** Use `write_latex` to create `.tex` files. * **Action:** After finishing a significant section, call `compile_pdf`. * **Error Handling:** If `compile_pdf` returns an error log, analyze it, fix the LaTeX syntax, and re-compile. --- ## Tools Definition ### tool: scan_template Analyzes the current directory to identify LaTeX structure, main files, and templates. - **command**: `${PYTHON_CMD} scripts/writer_tools.py scan_template {{directory}}` - **params**: - `directory`: (string) Path to scan. Default is ".". ### tool: read_reference Reads raw text from reference files. Supports `.docx`, `.txt`, `.tex`, `.md`. - **command**: `${PYTHON_CMD} scripts/writer_tools.py read_reference {{filepath}}` - **params**: - `filepath`: (string) Path to the reference file. ### tool: write_latex Writes content to a specific file. Can overwrite or append. - **command**: `${PYTHON_CMD} scripts/writer_tools.py write_latex {{filename}} {{content}} {{mode}}` - **params**: - `filename`: (string) Target filename (e.g., "introduction.tex"). - `content`: (string) Raw LaTeX content. - `mode`: (string) "w" for overwrite, "a" for append. Default is "w". ### tool: compile_pdf Compiles the project using `latexmk`. Returns success message or error logs. - **command**: `${PYTHON_CMD} scripts/writer_tools.py compile_pdf {{main_file}}` - **params**: - `main_file`: (string) The root TeX file (e.g., "main.tex"). --- ## Common Workflows ### 1. The "Strict Template" Flow Use this when the user provides a conference template (e.g., IEEEtrans). 1. **User:** "Draft the intro using `notes.docx` in this folder." 2. **Agent:** Calls `scan_template` -> Detects `main.tex` (IEEE class). 3. **Agent:** Calls `read_reference` -> Gets content from `notes.docx`. 4. **Agent:** Calls `write_latex` -> Writes `intro.tex` following IEEE style. 5. **Agent:** Calls `write_latex` -> Updates `main.tex` to `\input{intro}`. 6. **Agent:** Calls `compile_pdf` -> Checks for layout errors. ### 2. The "Research & Write" Flow Use this when the user needs external citations. 1. **User:** "Write a paragraph about LLM Agents and cite recent papers." 2. **Agent:** *Thinking:* "I need citations." 3. **Agent:** **Calls `academic-research-hub`** (e.g., search arXiv for "LLM Agents 2025"). 4. **Agent:** Receives BibTeX data. 5. **Agent:** Calls `write_latex` (mode='a') -> Appends to `references.bib`. 6. **Agent:** Calls `write_latex` -> Writes paragraph with `\cite{...}`. 7. **Agent:** Calls `compile_pdf`. --- ## Troubleshooting ### Compilation Failures * **Error:** `latexmk: command not found` * **Fix:** Ensure you ran `sudo apt-get install latexmk`. * **Error:** `! LaTeX Error: File 'article.cls' not found.` * **Fix:** Ensure you ran `sudo apt-get install texlive-full`. * **Error:** `! Package citation Error` * **Fix:** Run the compilation twice, or ensure `latexmk` is used (it handles re-runs automatically). ### Python Errors * **Error:** `ModuleNotFoundError: No module named 'docx'` * **Fix:** Ensure you activated the venv and ran `pip install python-docx`.