| name | paper-reader |
| description | Use when asked to read, analyze, summarize, or generate a report for an arXiv or Hugging Face paper using native AI agent capabilities. |
Paper Reader Skill (paper-reader)
This skill provides step-by-step instructions for reading, analyzing, auditing, extracting figures, and generating structured paper reports for arXiv and Hugging Face papers directly using native agent capabilities.
Output Target & Directory Structure
All generated outputs must be stored under the target directory:
output/<YYYY-MM-DD>/<paper_id>/
Target structure:
output/<YYYY-MM-DD>/<paper_id>/
├── report.md
├── report.html
└── assets/
└── figure1.png
(Where <YYYY-MM-DD> is current date and <paper_id> is the canonical arXiv ID, e.g. 2606.01075)
Execution Pipeline (6 Phases)
Follow this 6-phase agent workflow when triggered with a paper request (arXiv ID, arXiv URL, or Hugging Face paper link):
Phase 1: Searcher & Fetcher
- Input Resolution:
- Resolve input string/URL to canonical arXiv ID (e.g.,
2606.01075 from https://arxiv.org/abs/2606.01075, https://arxiv.org/html/2606.01075, or https://huggingface.co/papers/2606.01075).
- Fetch Metadata & Content:
- Primary: Fetch HTML paper content via
https://arxiv.org/html/<paper_id>.
- Secondary / Fallback: Fetch abstract page via
https://arxiv.org/abs/<paper_id> and PDF via https://arxiv.org/pdf/<paper_id>.pdf.
- Extract title, authors, submission/publication date, primary arXiv subject category (e.g. cs.CV, cs.CL, cs.LG).
Phase 2: Classifier
Classify paper into exactly one of four structural types:
- Method / Algorithm: Introduces a new model architecture, loss function, algorithm, or training strategy.
- Benchmark / Dataset: Introduces a new dataset, benchmark suite, evaluation protocol, or dataset curation strategy.
- System / Infrastructure: Introduces a software framework, execution engine, distributed training system, or hardware efficiency optimization.
- Survey / Review: Provides a comprehensive literature review, taxonomy, analysis, or historical overview of a field.
Phase 3: Writer & Finder
- Writer Agent Role:
- Synthesize a concise, high-impact TL;DR (1-2 sentences).
- Summarize background and core motivation.
- Provide a detailed technical methodology breakdown.
- Extract and present key mathematical formulations using LaTeX syntax (
$$...$$ block or \(...\) inline).
- Summarize main empirical results and benchmark performance metrics.
- Finder Agent Role:
- Identify 3-5 prior foundational papers build upon or compared against.
- Explain key conceptual or architectural differences relative to these prior works.
Phase 4: Criticizer (Independent Audit)
Perform an objective critical audit highlighting limitations, unverified assumptions, or practical constraints. Categorize every audit item with a clear severity level:
<b style="color:#dc2626">HIGH</b>: Fundamental bottleneck, unverified core baseline, theoretical weakness, or severe evaluation limitation.
<b style="color:#d97706">MEDIUM</b>: Practical implementation constraint (e.g. extreme hardware/compute overhead, sensitive hyperparameter tuning, limited dataset diversity).
<b style="color:#6b7280">LOW</b>: Minor scope boundary, missing non-critical ablation, or formatting/clarity artifact.
Phase 5: Figure Extraction
- Locate the main overview diagram or Figure 1 from the arXiv HTML content (typically inside
<figure> tags or image elements like x1.png, fig1.png).
- Download or copy the image asset to
output/<YYYY-MM-DD>/<paper_id>/assets/figure1.png.
- Extract and save the corresponding figure caption text.
- Fallback: If HTML image extraction fails, create a placeholder overview or extract figure caption reference.
Phase 6: Assembler
Generate both report.md and self-contained report.html in output/<YYYY-MM-DD>/<paper_id>/.
Output Templates & Schemas
1. report.md Template
# [Paper Title]
**Authors:** [Authors List]
**ArXiv ID:** [arXiv:[paper_id]](https://arxiv.org/abs/[paper_id]) | **Date:** [YYYY-MM-DD] | **Category:** [Primary Category]
**Paper Type:** [Method / Benchmark / System / Survey]
> **TL;DR:** [One-paragraph concise distillation]
---
## Overview Figure

*Figure 1: [Figure Caption]*
---
## 1. Background & Motivation
[Context, problem formulation, and limitations of existing methods]
## 2. Methodology & Key Formulations
[Detailed technical breakdown]
$$
[Mathematical Equation]
$$
## 3. Experimental Results & Benchmarks
[Key quantitative findings, comparison tables, and baseline evaluations]
## 4. Critical Analysis (Audit)
- **[HIGH]** [Limitation 1]
- **[MEDIUM]** [Limitation 2]
- **[LOW]** [Limitation 3]
## 5. Related Papers
- [[Prior Paper Title]](https://arxiv.org/abs/XXXX.XXXXX) - [Brief relation and key distinction]
- [[Prior Paper Title 2]](https://arxiv.org/abs/XXXX.XXXXX) - [Brief relation and key distinction]
2. report.html Template (Self-Contained)
<!DOCTYPE html>
<html lang="en">
<head>
<meta charset="UTF-8">
<meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width, initial-scale=1.0">
<title>Paper Report: [Paper Title]</title>
<script src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/npm/mathjax@3/es5/tex-mml-chtml.js" async></script>
<style>
:root {
--font-family: -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, "Segoe UI", Roboto, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif;
--bg-color: #0f172a;
--card-bg: #1e293b;
--text-color: #f8fafc;
--text-muted: #94a3b8;
--accent-color: #38bdf8;
--border-color: #334155;
}
body {
font-family: var(--font-family);
background-color: var(--bg-color);
color: var(--text-color);
line-height: 1.6;
max-width: 900px;
margin: 0 auto;
padding: 2rem 1rem;
}
header {
border-bottom: 1px solid var(--border-color);
padding-bottom: 1.5rem;
margin-bottom: 2rem;
}
h1 { color: #ffffff; font-size: 2rem; margin-bottom: 0.5rem; }
.meta { color: var(--text-muted); font-size: 0.95rem; margin-bottom: 1rem; }
.meta a { color: var(--accent-color); text-decoration: none; }
.tldr-box {
background: rgba(56, 189, 248, 0.1);
border-left: 4px solid var(--accent-color);
padding: 1rem 1.25rem;
border-radius: 0.375rem;
margin-bottom: 2rem;
}
section {
background: var(--card-bg);
border: 1px solid var(--border-color);
border-radius: 0.5rem;
padding: 1.5rem;
margin-bottom: 1.5rem;
}
h2 { color: var(--accent-color); border-bottom: 1px solid var(--border-color); padding-bottom: 0.5rem; }
.figure-container { text-align: center; margin: 1.5rem 0; }
.figure-container img { max-width: 100%; height: auto; border-radius: 0.375rem; border: 1px solid var(--border-color); }
.caption { font-size: 0.875rem; color: var(--text-muted); margin-top: 0.5rem; }
.badge {
display: inline-block;
padding: 0.15rem 0.5rem;
border-radius: 0.25rem;
font-weight: bold;
font-size: 0.8rem;
}
.badge-high { background: #7f1d1d; color: #fca5a5; }
.badge-medium { background: #78350f; color: #fde68a; }
.badge-low { background: #374151; color: #d1d5db; }
code, pre { background: #0f172a; padding: 0.2rem 0.4rem; border-radius: 0.25rem; }
ul { padding-left: 1.25rem; }
li { margin-bottom: 0.5rem; }
</style>
</head>
<body>
<header>
<h1>[Paper Title]</h1>
<div class="meta">
<strong>Authors:</strong> [Authors List]<br>
<strong>ArXiv ID:</strong> <a href="https://arxiv.org/abs/[paper_id]">arXiv:[paper_id]</a> |
<strong>Date:</strong> [YYYY-MM-DD] |
<strong>Category:</strong> [Primary Category] |
<strong>Type:</strong> [Method / Benchmark / System / Survey]
</div>
<div class="tldr-box">
<strong>TL;DR:</strong> [One-paragraph concise distillation]
</div>
</header>
<main>
<section>
<h2>Overview Figure</h2>
<div class="figure-container">
<img src="assets/figure1.png" alt="Figure 1 Overview">
<div class="caption">Figure 1: [Figure Caption]</div>
</div>
</section>
<section>
<h2>1. Background & Motivation</h2>
<p>[Context and background problem statement]</p>
</section>
<section>
<h2>2. Methodology & Key Formulations</h2>
<p>[Technical explanation]</p>
<div>
$$[Mathematical Equation]$$
</div>
</section>
<section>
<h2>3. Experimental Results & Benchmarks</h2>
<p>[Quantitative evaluation & metrics]</p>
</section>
<section>
<h2>4. Critical Analysis (Audit)</h2>
<ul>
<li><span class="badge badge-high">HIGH</span> [Limitation 1]</li>
<li><span class="badge badge-medium">MEDIUM</span> [Limitation 2]</li>
<li><span class="badge badge-low">LOW</span> [Limitation 3]</li>
</ul>
</section>
<section>
<h2>5. Related Papers</h2>
<ul>
<li><a href="https://arxiv.org/abs/XXXX.XXXXX">[Prior Paper 1]</a> - [Brief relationship]</li>
<li><a href="https://arxiv.org/abs/XXXX.XXXXX">[Prior Paper 2]</a> - [Brief relationship]</li>
</ul>
</section>
</main>
</body>
</html>