convert-template

name	convert-template
description	Convert the arXivTeX paper in main/ into a submission copy for an officially-supplied venue LaTeX template (e.g. CVPR, ICCV, NeurIPS). Use when the user provides a venue template zip and asks to convert, reformat, or submit the paper to that venue, in anonymous review or camera-ready mode.

convert-template

Converts the modular arXivTeX paper under main/ into a standalone, compilable copy that follows an officially-provided venue LaTeX template. The user always supplies the official template as a zip — never fetch, guess, or reconstruct a venue template from memory or the web. Never modify main/ or main/main.bib; all output goes under submit/<venue>/.

When to use

Trigger when the user:

• Provides a path to a venue template zip (e.g. a CVPR/ICCV/NeurIPS author kit) and asks to convert, reformat, or prepare the paper for submission to that venue.
• Asks for an anonymous review draft or a camera-ready version of the paper in a specific venue's format.

Inputs to establish before starting

Ask only what is missing:

1. Path to the venue template zip.
2. Venue name (<venue>), if not obvious from the zip filename — used as the directory name under templates/ and submit/.
3. Mode: anonymous (blind review — no author names, affiliations, or identifying links) or camera-ready (full author/affiliation/link metadata). Ask if not stated.

Workflow

1. Unpack. Extract the zip into templates/<venue>/. If a directory of that name already exists with different contents, confirm with the user before overwriting.

2. Inspect the target kit. Read its sample .tex file, its .cls/.sty/.bst files, and any README/instructions bundled with it. Identify:

   • The required \documentclass line and options (columns, page size).
   • Required packages the kit's own class does not already load.
   • The kit's native title/author/affiliation macros and their exact call signatures.
   • The bibliography style the kit expects (bibstyle/bst name).
   • Any anonymous-mode toggle the kit defines (e.g. \iccvfinalcopy, \cvprfinalcopy, a final class option).

3. Scaffold the output directory. Create submit/<venue>/. Copy every .cls, .sty, and .bst file from templates/<venue>/ into submit/<venue>/ byte-for-byte. Never edit an official file's contents — if something about it seems wrong, flag it in the final report instead of patching it.

4. Copy paper content unmodified. Copy, byte-for-byte, into submit/<venue>/:

   • main/main.bib
   • main/secs/
   • main/figs/ (including main/figs/srcs/)
   • main/tabs/
   • main/algs/
   • main/appx.tex

   Do not edit any of these files. .bib content is never touched, per this repo's CLAUDE.md — if the venue needs a different citation style, that is a \bibliographystyle{...} change in the generated main.tex, not a .bib edit.

5. Generate submit/<venue>/compat.sty. This repo's content files use arXivTeX-only macros that the venue class will not define: \parahead, \figref, \tabref, \algref, \eqnref, \tablestyle, \cmark, \xmark, and the x/y/z/P/Y compact table column types (all defined in main/main.cls — read it for exact behavior). Re-implement each one used by the content files as plain LaTeX on top of packages the venue class already loads (or minimal, widely-available packages like array, pifont, if the venue class doesn't already provide the equivalent). This is what lets secs/, figs/, tabs/, algs/ compile unmodified against the new class.

6. Generate submit/<venue>/main.tex. New entry point built from:

   • The venue's own \documentclass line, required packages, and \input{compat.sty}.
   • Title, author, affiliation, abstract, and keyword values parsed out of the existing main/main.tex preamble (its \title/\author/\affiliation/\abstract/\keywords calls). These calls are not always made directly in main.tex — e.g. this repo's main/main.tex preamble does \input{secs/00_abstract.tex}, and the \abstract{...}/ \keywords{...} calls actually live inside that file. Follow any \input chains reachable from the main/main.tex preamble (before \begin{document}) to find where these values are really set — do not assume they're all literally in main.tex.
   • Re-emit the extracted title/author/affiliation/abstract/keyword text using the venue's own native macros from step 2. In particular, the abstract and keywords text pulled from secs/00_abstract.tex's \abstract{...}/\keywords{...} is extracted and re-emitted through the venue's native abstract/keywords mechanism (e.g. an abstract environment, \begin{abstract}...\end{abstract}, or the venue's own \keywords{...} macro) — secs/00_abstract.tex itself is NOT \input-ed verbatim as a preamble call in the new main.tex, since the venue class won't define arXivTeX's \abstract/ \keywords macros (or will define incompatible ones), causing a compile error or silently wrong output. This applies only to that title-metadata file; the rest of secs/ (body sections such as 01_introduction.tex) is still \input normally inside \begin{document}, unchanged from below.
   • Any paper-specific \newcommand/\renewcommand definitions from main/main.tex's own preamble (e.g. this repo's \newcommand{\method}{MethodName\xspace}) — these aren't arXivTeX-framework macros, so they won't be in compat.sty, but the body content still relies on them. Carry them over into the generated main.tex's preamble as-is.
   • The same \input{secs/...} order as main/main.tex, plus \input{appx.tex} if the original includes it.
   • \bibliographystyle{...} set to whatever the venue kit expects, and \bibliography{main} pointing at the copied main.bib.

   Mode-specific handling:

   • camera-ready: real author names, affiliations, and metadata links (\code, \project, \dataset values from main/main.tex).
   • anonymous: replace every author with "Anonymous Author(s)" and every affiliation with "Anonymous Institution"; replace \code/\project/\dataset/\demo URLs with the literal text "Link redacted for review"; enable the venue's anonymous-mode toggle found in step 2 if one exists.

7. Build and iterate. Run latexmk -pdf (or the kit's documented build command, if different) inside submit/<venue>/. Read compile errors and fix compat.sty/main.tex — never patch the venue's own .cls/.sty/.bst files to work around an error.

8. Report. Tell the user, in plain text:

   • What was auto-mapped (title/author fields, bib style, column macros).
   • Anything needing manual attention: page-limit overflow, a venue-mandated formatting rule not fully automated, a package the venue kit doesn't provide that the content relies on, or any content that could not be mapped 1:1.
   • Never silently drop content to make it compile — call out the gap instead.

Guardrails

• Never modify anything under main/, including main/main.bib.
• Never modify the official venue .cls/.sty/.bst files copied into submit/<venue>/ — if the official files seem to need a change, that means compat.sty or main.tex needs to change instead, or the issue belongs in the final report.
• Never fetch a venue template from the web or reconstruct one from memory. The user-supplied zip is the only source of truth.
• Re-running this skill after the user edits main/ fully regenerates submit/<venue>/ (byte-for-byte content, regenerated main.tex/ compat.sty). There is no incremental/live sync — say so if asked.