make-concept-notes

name

make-concept-notes

description

Create polished standalone LaTeX concept-note documents from a topic, lecture notes, textbook material, handwritten outlines, algorithms, math derivations, or rough explanations. Use when the user asks for concept notes, lecture-style notes, summarized theory, algorithm notes, formula notes, step-by-step explanations, worked examples, complexity analysis, comparison tables, warnings about mistakes, or final one-box summaries in LaTeX.

Make Concept Notes

Output Contract

Produce a complete compilable .tex document unless the user explicitly asks for a section, snippet, or patch to an existing file. The finished note should feel like a clean teaching handout: clear title, boxed definitions, explained formulas, worked examples, warnings, summaries, and enough intermediate steps for a student to follow without extra context.

Core Workflow

1. Identify the topic, audience level, and source authority. If no topic or usable source is provided, ask for the missing topic before drafting.
2. If editing an existing .tex file, read it first and preserve its local style unless the user asks to convert it to this skill's style.
3. For a new document in this workspace, use python scripts\new-note.py --subject "<subject>" --topic "<topic>" --type concept when the subject and topic are known, then fill the generated .tex file. If drafting manually, start from templates/concept-note.tex and keep \input{styles/notes-style.tex}.
4. Read references/concept-patterns.md when the topic is an algorithm, math derivation, data structure, operating-system concept, or other complex CS topic.
5. Build the content in teaching order: title, introduction, problem or motivation, definitions, notation, main idea, formulas, step-by-step examples, procedure or pseudocode, analysis, tradeoffs, and final summary.
6. Verify the final LaTeX mentally or by compiling if a LaTeX compiler is available.

Project Folder Convention

Create notes as Subject/<Topic>/<Topic>.tex and put shared images, TikZ snippets, and reusable .tex fragments in Subject/assets/. In note files, reference shared assets as assets/name.png, assets/name.jpg, assets/name.jpeg, assets/name.tikz, or assets/name.tex. The project compiler adds both the subject folder and project root to the LaTeX search path, so assets/... and styles/notes-style.tex resolve correctly.

Writing Rules

• Define every symbol before using it. Do not introduce variables only inside a final formula.
• Explain what each major equation means in words before or after the equation.
• Show algebra, substitutions, unit conversions, and modular arithmetic step by step.
• Keep the user's exact example values where possible. If an example is inconsistent, add a short assumption or correction in a warningbox.
• Use direct, student-friendly prose. Avoid vague filler such as "it is obvious" or "clearly" when a real explanation is needed.
• Prefer one focused idea per paragraph. Long dense paragraphs should be split into bullets, equations, tables, or boxes.
• End important results with \boxed{...}.

Box Rules

• Use conceptbox for definitions, problem statements, setup, and main ideas.
• Use importantbox for takeaways, answers, interpretations, and "why this matters" notes.
• Use warningbox for common mistakes, false assumptions, edge cases, ambiguity, and spurious or exceptional cases.
• Use formulabox for named formulas, recurrence relations, procedures written as equations, and one-box summaries.
• Use pseudocodebox or lstlisting for code and pseudocode instead of raw verbatim.
• Use tabularx, booktabs, and rowcolors for comparison tables or summary tables.

Topic Patterns

• Algorithms: include input/output notation, core intuition, preprocessing, loop or recurrence, pseudocode, full worked trace, correctness intuition, running time, strengths, weaknesses, and final summary.
• Mathematics: include definitions, assumptions, formula boxes, derivation steps, solved examples, common mistakes, and a final boxed result.
• Data structures: include representation, supported operations, invariants, diagrams or tables when useful, operation examples, complexity table, and tradeoffs.
• Operating systems or systems topics: include definition, mechanism, why it exists, concrete example, policy/mechanism distinction when relevant, pitfalls, and comparison tables.
• Networking or architecture topics: include layered context, named fields/registers/components, step-by-step flow, timing or size calculations, and assumptions.

LaTeX Rules

• Keep generated files compile-ready: escape #, %, &, _, and literal backslashes outside code/listings.
• Use math mode for variables and formulas, not plain text approximations.
• Use \texttt{...} or lstlisting for code, commands, filenames, and APIs.
• Do not use Markdown syntax inside .tex files.
• Do not put very long unbreakable text inside \boxed{...}; use short boxed formulas or a boxed array.
• Keep tcolorbox environments balanced and do not nest large boxes unless necessary.

Validation Checklist

Before finishing a note file:

• Confirm every \begin{...} has a matching \end{...}.
• Confirm every displayed equation delimiter is paired.
• Confirm tables have the right number of columns per row.
• Confirm code or pseudocode is inside lstlisting if it contains many special characters.
• In this project, prefer python scripts\compile-latex.py --file path\to\note.tex --engine tectonic --clean for PDF compilation. If it cannot run because the local TeX installation is broken or unavailable, state that compilation was not run and include the script's diagnostic.