Paper Writing

Workflow 3: Paper Writing Pipeline

Orchestrate a complete paper writing workflow for: $ARGUMENTS

Overview

This skill chains five sub-skills into a single automated pipeline:

/paper-plan → /paper-figure → /paper-write → /paper-compile → /auto-paper-improvement-loop
  (outline)     (plots)        (LaTeX)        (build PDF)       (review & polish ×2)

Each phase builds on the previous one's output. The final deliverable is a polished, reviewed paper/ directory with LaTeX source and compiled PDF.

Constants

• VENUE = ICLR — Target venue. Options: ICLR, NeurIPS, ICML. Affects style file, page limit, citation format.
• MAX_IMPROVEMENT_ROUNDS = 2 — Number of review→fix→recompile rounds in the improvement loop.
• REVIEWER_MODEL = gpt-5.4 — Model used via Codex MCP for plan review, figure review, writing review, and improvement loop.
• AUTO_PROCEED = true — Auto-continue between phases. Set false to pause and wait for user approval after each phase.

Override inline: /paper-writing "NARRATIVE_REPORT.md" — venue: NeurIPS, wait for my approval at each step

Inputs

This pipeline accepts one of:

1. NARRATIVE_REPORT.md (best) — structured research narrative with claims, experiments, results, figures
2. Research direction + experiment results — the skill will help draft the narrative first
3. Existing PAPER_PLAN.md — skip Phase 1, start from Phase 2

The more detailed the input (especially figure descriptions and quantitative results), the better the output.

Pipeline

Phase 1: Paper Plan

Invoke /paper-plan to create the structural outline:

/paper-plan "$ARGUMENTS"

What this does:

• Parse NARRATIVE_REPORT.md for claims, evidence, and figure descriptions
• Build a Claims-Evidence Matrix — every claim maps to evidence, every experiment supports a claim
• Design section structure (5-8 sections depending on paper type)
• Plan figure/table placement with data sources
• Scaffold citation structure
• GPT-5.4 reviews the plan for completeness

Output: PAPER_PLAN.md with section plan, figure plan, citation scaffolding.

Checkpoint: Present the plan summary to the user.

📐 Paper plan complete:
- Title: [proposed title]
- Sections: [N] ([list])
- Figures: [N] auto-generated + [M] manual
- Target: [VENUE], [PAGE_LIMIT] pages

Shall I proceed with figure generation?

• User approves (or AUTO_PROCEED=true) → proceed to Phase 2.
• User requests changes → adjust plan and re-present.

Phase 2: Figure Generation

Invoke /paper-figure to generate data-driven plots and tables:

/paper-figure "PAPER_PLAN.md"

What this does:

• Read figure plan from PAPER_PLAN.md
• Generate matplotlib/seaborn plots from JSON/CSV data
• Generate LaTeX comparison tables
• Create figures/latex_includes.tex for easy insertion
• GPT-5.4 reviews figure quality and captions

Output: figures/ directory with PDFs, generation scripts, and LaTeX snippets.

Scope: Auto-generates ~60% of figures (data plots, comparison tables). Architecture diagrams, pipeline figures, and qualitative result grids must be created manually and placed in figures/ before proceeding. See /paper-figure SKILL.md for details.

Checkpoint: List generated vs manual figures.

📊 Figures complete:
- Auto-generated: [list]
- Manual (need your input): [list]
- LaTeX snippets: figures/latex_includes.tex

[If manual figures needed]: Please add them to figures/ before I proceed.
[If all auto]: Shall I proceed with LaTeX writing?

Phase 3: LaTeX Writing

Invoke /paper-write to generate section-by-section LaTeX:

/paper-write "PAPER_PLAN.md"

What this does:

• Write each section following the plan, with proper LaTeX formatting
• Insert figure/table references from figures/latex_includes.tex
• Build references.bib from citation scaffolding
• Clean stale files from previous section structures
• Automated bib cleaning (remove uncited entries)
• De-AI polish (remove "delve", "pivotal", "landscape"...)
• GPT-5.4 reviews each section for quality

Output: paper/ directory with main.tex, sections/*.tex, references.bib, math_commands.tex.

Checkpoint: Report section completion.

✍️ LaTeX writing complete:
- Sections: [N] written ([list])
- Citations: [N] unique keys in references.bib
- Stale files cleaned: [list, if any]

Shall I proceed with compilation?

Phase 4: Compilation

Invoke /paper-compile to build the PDF:

/paper-compile "paper/"

What this does:

• latexmk -pdf with automatic multi-pass compilation
• Auto-fix common errors (missing packages, undefined refs, BibTeX syntax)
• Up to 3 compilation attempts
• Post-compilation checks: undefined refs, page count, font embedding
• Precise page verification via pdftotext
• Stale file detection

Output: paper/main.pdf

Checkpoint: Report compilation results.

🔨 Compilation complete:
- Status: SUCCESS
- Pages: [X] (main body) + [Y] (references) + [Z] (appendix)
- Within page limit: YES/NO
- Undefined references: 0
- Undefined citations: 0

Shall I proceed with the improvement loop?

Phase 5: Auto Improvement Loop

Invoke /auto-paper-improvement-loop to polish the paper:

/auto-paper-improvement-loop "paper/"

What this does (2 rounds):

Round 1: GPT-5.4 xhigh reviews the full paper → identifies CRITICAL/MAJOR/MINOR issues → Claude Code implements fixes → recompile → save main_round1.pdf

Round 2: GPT-5.4 xhigh re-reviews with conversation context → identifies remaining issues → Claude Code implements fixes → recompile → save main_round2.pdf

Typical improvements:

• Fix assumption-model mismatches
• Soften overclaims to match evidence
• Add missing interpretations and notation
• Strengthen limitations section
• Add theory-aligned experiments if needed

Output: Three PDFs for comparison + PAPER_IMPROVEMENT_LOG.md.

Format check (included in improvement loop Step 8): After final recompilation, auto-detect and fix overfull hboxes (content exceeding margins), verify page count vs venue limit, and ensure compact formatting. Any overfull > 10pt is fixed before generating the final PDF.

Phase 6: Final Report

# Paper Writing Pipeline Report

**Input**: [NARRATIVE_REPORT.md or topic]
**Venue**: [ICLR/NeurIPS/ICML]
**Date**: [today]

## Pipeline Summary

| Phase | Status | Output |
|-------|--------|--------|
| 1. Paper Plan | ✅ | PAPER_PLAN.md |
| 2. Figures | ✅ | figures/ ([N] auto + [M] manual) |
| 3. LaTeX Writing | ✅ | paper/sections/*.tex ([N] sections, [M] citations) |
| 4. Compilation | ✅ | paper/main.pdf ([X] pages) |
| 5. Improvement | ✅ | [score0]/10 → [score2]/10 |

## Improvement Scores
| Round | Score | Key Changes |
|-------|-------|-------------|
| Round 0 | X/10 | Baseline |
| Round 1 | Y/10 | [summary] |
| Round 2 | Z/10 | [summary] |

## Deliverables
- paper/main.pdf — Final polished paper
- paper/main_round0_original.pdf — Before improvement
- paper/main_round1.pdf — After round 1
- paper/main_round2.pdf — After round 2
- paper/PAPER_IMPROVEMENT_LOG.md — Full review log

## Remaining Issues (if any)
- [items from final review that weren't addressed]

## Next Steps
- [ ] Visual inspection of PDF
- [ ] Add any missing manual figures
- [ ] Submit to [venue] via OpenReview / CMT / HotCRP

Key Rules

• Don't skip phases. Each phase builds on the previous one — skipping leads to errors.
• Checkpoint between phases when AUTO_PROCEED=false. Present results and wait for approval.
• Manual figures first. If the paper needs architecture diagrams or qualitative results, the user must provide them before Phase 3.
• Compilation must succeed before entering the improvement loop. Fix all errors first.
• Preserve all PDFs. The user needs round0/round1/round2 for comparison.
• Document everything. The pipeline report should be self-contained.
• Respect page limits. If the paper exceeds the venue limit, suggest specific cuts before the improvement loop.

Composing with Other Workflows

/idea-discovery "direction"         ← Workflow 1: find ideas
implement                           ← write code
/run-experiment                     ← deploy experiments
/auto-review-loop "paper topic"     ← Workflow 2: iterate research
/paper-writing "NARRATIVE_REPORT.md"  ← Workflow 3: you are here
                                         submit! 🎉

Or use /research-pipeline for the Workflow 1+2 end-to-end flow,
then /paper-writing for the final writing step.

Typical Timeline

Total: ~45-90 min for a full paper from narrative report to polished PDF.