# Plan Submission > Builds a backwards submission timeline from a conference deadline - days remaining (AoE-aware), abstract-registration offsets, author-list freeze, OpenReview/CMT/EasyChair/HotCRP/PCS account lead times and per-system steps, supplementary-material and code size limits, reciprocal-reviewing duties, and a dual-submission audit. Use when the user wants to plan a submission, asks how long until a deadline, mentions abstract registration, submission checklist, deadline countdown, "what do I need before the NeurIPS/ICML/CHI deadline", or asks what happens after submitting (rebuttal window, notification, camera-ready). Phase-aware - produces pre-submission, under-review, and camera-ready plans from venues/ profiles and flags overdue steps. - Skill: `shaishavmaisuria/plan-submission` (Agent Skill, multi-file: 6 files) - Install (CLI): `npx skillmds@latest add shaishavmaisuria/plan-submission` - Raw SKILL.md: https://api.skillmd.com/api/skills/shaishavmaisuria/plan-submission/raw - Safety review: pending - Works with: Claude Code, Claude.ai, OpenAI Codex - Category: Security - Author: shaishavmaisuria (https://skillmd.com/u/shaishavmaisuria) - Updated: 2026-09-17 - Page: https://skillmd.com/skills/shaishavmaisuria/plan-submission --- # Plan Submission Turn "the deadline is in N weeks" into a dated, phase-aware milestone plan. Works backwards from the paper deadline (or forwards through rebuttal and camera-ready if the deadline already passed), anchored to a `venues/conferences/-.yml` profile. Companion skills: `parse-cfp` (creates the profile), `preflight-check` (the T-3d desk-reject lint), `write-rebuttal`, `prepare-camera-ready`. ## When to use - "Plan my SIGSPATIAL submission" / "what do I need to do before the deadline?" - "How many days until the NeurIPS deadline?" (AoE confusion included) - "When do I have to register the abstract?" / "when does the rebuttal start?" - The user just picked a venue (via `select-venue`) and asks "what now?" ## Inputs - A venue + year (and ideally a track). The profile must exist at `venues/conferences/-.yml`; if it does not, run `parse-cfp` first — never plan from remembered dates. - Today's date, and any user-specific constraints (vacations, co-author availability, experiments still running). - `CONTACT_EMAIL` env var if the live re-verification fetch is used. ## Process 1. **Resolve the venue profile.** Locate `venues/conferences/-.yml`. Missing or from a previous cycle → route through `parse-cfp` to create/refresh it before planning. Check the profile's `verified:` block — if `confidence` is not `verified-live` or `verified.date` is old, treat every date as suspect. 2. **Re-verify the critical dates against the live CFP.** Mandatory before the user relies on the plan. Run: ``` python3 scripts/fetch_page.py "" ``` Confirm the abstract deadline, paper deadline, and timezone on the live page (deadlines slip mid-cycle — extensions are common, but so are silent corrections). On mismatch, update the profile first. If the page is JS-rendered or down, say so and mark the plan "dates unverified". 3. **Build the timeline.** Run: ``` python3 scripts/build_timeline.py venues/conferences/-.yml \ --track "" --today YYYY-MM-DD ``` The script is offline and deterministic: it detects the current phase (pre-submission / under-review / camera-ready), computes days remaining for every profile deadline, and emits dated milestones with standard backwards offsets (T-21d dual-submission audit and reciprocal-reviewing check, T-14d system accounts, T-10d author-list freeze, abstract registration at its real date, T-5d supplementary, T-3d preflight, T-2d draft upload, T-1d final upload). `--camera-ready YYYY-MM-DD` supplies a deadline the profile lists as null. `--format json` for machine use. 4. **Customize the milestones** using [references/milestone-playbook.md](references/milestone-playbook.md): what each milestone actually requires, why the offset is what it is, supplementary/code size limits, reciprocal-reviewing mechanics, and the AoE math. Adjust offsets for the user's constraints (e.g. co-author on leave at T-10d → freeze the author list earlier). Never move a HARD deadline; only prep milestones are adjustable. 5. **Add per-system steps** from [references/submission-systems.md](references/submission-systems.md) for the profile's `review.submission_system` — account lead times (OpenReview profile moderation can take ~2 weeks), what the submission form demands, conflict-of-interest entry, and each system's signature gotcha (HotCRP's "ready for review" checkbox, PCS metadata lock, EasyChair co-author email typos, CMT COI lists). 6. **Run the dual-submission audit interactively.** Quote the profile's `review.dual_submission` policy verbatim, then ask the user to inventory every overlapping manuscript by ANY co-author that is under review or planned elsewhere (including workshop versions and arXiv plans). Flag conflicts against the quoted policy; when the policy is ambiguous, say so and point at the CFP — do not adjudicate. 7. **Present the plan**: phase, key-dates table with days remaining, milestone table (OVERDUE items first, called out explicitly), per-system steps, policy gates, and the re-verify warning. If the paper deadline has already passed, do NOT pretend otherwise — plan the next phase and say plainly which deadlines are gone. ## Output A dated submission plan in Markdown: current phase, key dates with days-remaining (timezone noted), backwards milestone schedule with status (in Nd / TODAY / OVERDUE / PASSED), submission-system checklist, policy gates (dual submission, LLM policy, reciprocal reviewing), and the closing notice: *"Dates from `` (verified ``). Re-verified against `` on ``. Deadlines change mid-cycle — check the CFP again before each milestone."* ## Guardrails - Never invent a date. A `null` in the profile stays unknown in the plan, with an instruction on where to find it — a guessed deadline is worse than none. - Always state the timezone next to every deadline. AoE is common, not universal (SIGSPATIAL uses Pacific Time); a wrong assumption costs a day. - Never submit, register, create accounts, or click anything in any submission system on the user's behalf. The plan tells the user what to do; the user does it. - Past deadlines are reported as passed, never silently dropped or rescheduled. - One page per fetch-script invocation; cache stays under `.cache/` (gitignored); never commit fetched CFP text. ## Bundled files - [references/milestone-playbook.md](references/milestone-playbook.md) — what every milestone requires, default offsets and their rationale, supplementary/code limits, reciprocal reviewing, dual-submission audit, AoE math. - [references/submission-systems.md](references/submission-systems.md) — per-system walkthroughs: OpenReview, CMT, EasyChair, HotCRP, PCS. - `scripts/build_timeline.py` — deterministic phase-aware timeline builder (run it; do not compute date arithmetic by hand). - `scripts/fetch_page.py` — polite single-page fetcher for live CFP re-verification (vendored from `parse-cfp` so this skill is self-contained). - `scripts/venue_profile.py` — shared profile loader (YAML-subset parser + family merge), vendored for self-containment.