| name | paperlocus |
| description | Reference-aware whole-paper reading and structured research-note generation. Use when the user wants to understand an entire paper, place it in the literature, compare it against core prior work or baselines, or decide whether a paper should be read as a method paper or as a Nature or Science-style evidence-chain paper. |
PaperLocus
See the public README in the repository root for the project overview.
Working Mode
- Treat this skill as a whole-paper reading and literature-positioning workflow.
- Produce the output in the user's preferred language. Default to Chinese if the user writes in Chinese.
- Build understanding from the paper itself first.
- Prefer a reusable Markdown note over a one-off loose summary.
Context Construction Strategy
- Do not dump the whole paper into context unless the user explicitly wants deep reading of the full text.
- Prefer a layered context:
- the current paper's title, abstract, introduction claims, method frame, and core experiments
- a small set of core related papers, not the entire bibliography
- a reusable Markdown note that records the paper's positioning and insights
- Prioritize:
- papers explicitly discussed or criticized in the introduction
- strong baselines repeatedly used in experiments
- only the same narrow subfield the user is currently working on
Input Acquisition
- Accept PDF, local file, arXiv link, DOI, webpage, screenshot, or title-only input.
- Prefer full text when available.
- If only a title or partial artifact is available, recover the minimum missing context before making strong claims.
- If some sections are missing or unreadable, say so explicitly and narrow the scope of the summary.
Input-Specific Handling
- For PDF or local files:
- extract title, abstract, section headers, introduction, method, experiments, and conclusion first
- skip acknowledgments, checklists, and boilerplate unless they matter
- For arXiv links, DOI links, or webpages:
- recover bibliographic metadata and the main paper text or abstract before summarizing
- prefer the paper itself over third-party commentary
- For screenshots:
- treat them as partial evidence only
- do not pretend to understand the whole paper from a screenshot unless the screenshot truly covers the needed sections
- For title-only requests:
- first recover abstract-level context and basic metadata
- if the paper text is still unavailable, provide a scoped triage note rather than a confident full-paper overview
First Decision: Classify The Paper Type
- Decide whether the paper follows a computer-science conference or arXiv narrative, or a Nature or Science-family narrative.
- If the type is unclear, state the uncertainty and default to the computer-science workflow unless the paper is clearly organized around scientific discovery and an evidence chain.
- Use the checklist below before committing to a branch.
- For concrete examples of the distinction, see references/paper_type_examples.md.
Paper Type Classification Checklist
- Prefer the computer-science conference or arXiv branch when most of the following are true:
- the abstract is centered on a new model, algorithm, framework, benchmark, or training recipe
- the paper structure looks like
introduction -> related work -> method -> experiments -> conclusion
- the introduction spends substantial space critiquing prior methods and motivating a technical design
- the main evidence is comparison against baselines, ablations, scaling curves, and benchmark metrics
- the contribution is framed as "we propose" more than "we discover" or "we show"
- Prefer the Nature or Science-family branch when most of the following are true:
- the abstract is centered on a scientific finding, mechanism, or empirical claim about the world
- the paper structure is organized around findings and evidence rather than a standalone method section
- the introduction emphasizes a scientific question, gap in knowledge, or competing explanations
- the main evidence is an accumulated chain of experiments, observations, or measurements supporting a conclusion
- the contribution is framed as "we find", "we reveal", or "we show that X is true", with methods serving the finding
- Mixed cases:
- If the paper appears in a science journal but still reads like a method paper, classify by narrative logic, not venue alone.
- If the paper proposes a method for a scientific domain, ask whether the central output is a tool or a scientific conclusion.
- When uncertain, say which signals conflict, then choose the branch that best matches how the results section is organized.
Computer-Science Conference Or arXiv Workflow
- Explain the paper as
built on A, changed B, therefore obtained C whenever the source supports that framing.
- Extract:
- the core sub-direction
- the key prior works the paper critiques
- the proposed framework
- the main claimed contributions
- For experiments, explain:
- why each experiment exists
- which claim it is meant to support
- what metrics and baselines matter
Nature Or Science-Family Workflow
- Identify the core scientific question.
- State what existing understanding the paper challenges, extends, or fills in.
- Separate the key finding from the method used to obtain it.
- Explain what each major experiment or dataset is meant to prove.
- Reconstruct the evidence chain that supports the central conclusion.
- State the mechanism-level explanation, scope of applicability, and limitations.
Anti-Hallucination Rules
- Separate
paper claim, evidence, inference, and open question when precision matters.
- Do not invent prior-work links, metrics, datasets, implementation details, or novelty claims that are not supported by the paper or a verified source.
- Treat hallucination broadly:
- not only fabricated facts
- also distorted positioning against the field
- also summaries that erase the comparison points a researcher would naturally use to understand the work
Output Template
Use a compact note with:
- one-sentence summary
- paper card
- paper type
- position in the literature
- introduction arc or scientific question
- method frame
- experiment design and core results
- main contributions
- limitations, counterexamples, and checks
- sections worth close reading