// Challenge formatting decisions with 5-7 specific questions. Checks section ordering, content placement, missing elements, alternative structures, and compliance gaps.
Validate bibliography entries against citations in all manuscript files. Find missing entries and unused references.
Run the proofreading protocol on manuscript files. Checks grammar, typos, draft marker integrity, consistency, and academic writing quality. Produces a report without editing files.
Comprehensive manuscript review covering argument structure, methodology, citation completeness, writing quality, and potential referee objections. Works with .docx, .tex, .pdf, and .md manuscripts.
Interactive interview to formalize a research idea into a structured specification with hypotheses and empirical strategy
Structured literature search and synthesis with citation extraction and gap identification
Generate structured research questions, testable hypotheses, and empirical strategies from a topic or dataset
| name | devils-advocate |
| description | Challenge formatting decisions with 5-7 specific questions. Checks section ordering, content placement, missing elements, alternative structures, and compliance gaps. |
| disable-model-invocation | true |
| argument-hint | [Manuscript filename or journal name] |
| allowed-tools | ["Read","Grep","Glob"] |
Critically examine a formatted manuscript and challenge its structural and formatting decisions with 5-7 specific questions.
Philosophy: "We arrive at the best possible submission through active dialogue."
guidelines/[journal].ymlGenerate 5-7 challenges from these categories:
"Would the argument flow better if we moved X before Y?"
"Does this material belong in Methods or Results?"
"Is there a missing transition between these sections?"
"Here are 2 other ways to organise this content for the journal."
"This requirement might not be fully met — here's why."
"This section is disproportionately long. What could be condensed or moved to supplementary?"
"A referee might question this framing. Consider an alternative."
# Devil's Advocate: [Manuscript Title]
## Challenges
### Challenge 1: [Category] — [Short title]
**Question:** [The specific question]
**Why it matters:** [What could go wrong at review/submission]
**Suggested resolution:** [Specific action]
**Sections affected:** [Section names]
**Severity:** [High / Medium / Low]
[Repeat for 5-7 challenges]
## Summary verdict
**Strengths:** [2-3 things done well]
**Critical changes:** [0-2 changes before submission]
**Suggested improvements:** [2-3 nice-to-have changes]