# Preflight Check > Deterministic desk-reject preflight linter for LaTeX paper submissions. Use it when a researcher asks "is my paper ready to submit", or mentions preflight, desk reject, submission check, page limit, anonymization, double-blind, missing checklist, or format/template compliance for a conference (NeurIPS, ICML, CHI, SIGSPATIAL, SIGMOD, ICDE, CVPR, LNCS...). Lints the .tex source against a machine-readable venue profile for documentclass and style-file options, margin/template tampering (geometry, savetrees, spacing hacks), anonymization leaks (author block, acknowledgments, repo links, first-person self-citations, \thanks, pdfauthor), required sections (NeurIPS checklist, ICML impact statement, AI-use acknowledgement, COI, CCS concepts/keywords), abstract length, keywords format, and page-limit risk. Every finding is reported with file:line. Runs bundled stdlib-only Python scripts; advisory only, never submits anything. - Skill: `shaishavmaisuria/preflight-check` (Agent Skill, multi-file: 10 files) - Install (CLI): `npx skillmds@latest add shaishavmaisuria/preflight-check` - Raw SKILL.md: https://api.skillmd.com/api/skills/shaishavmaisuria/preflight-check/raw - Safety review: pending - Works with: Claude Code, Claude.ai, OpenAI Codex - Category: Coding & Dev Tools - Author: shaishavmaisuria (https://skillmd.com/u/shaishavmaisuria) - Updated: 2026-09-17 - Page: https://skillmd.com/skills/shaishavmaisuria/preflight-check --- # Preflight Check Run a deterministic desk-reject lint over a LaTeX submission before the authors hit "submit". Venues explicitly desk-reject — without review — for page-limit violations, template tampering, anonymization leaks, and missing mandatory sections. Every one of those is machine-checkable from the source. This skill catches them while there is still time to fix them. ## When to use - "Is my paper ready to submit to NeurIPS / SIGSPATIAL / CHI / ...?" - "Check my paper for desk-reject risks" / "run a preflight" - "Did I anonymize this properly?" / "double-blind check" - "Am I over the page limit?" / "is my template compliant?" - Right after `tailor-to-venue`, and always before any actual submission. ## Inputs 1. The main `.tex` file of the submission (the one with `\documentclass`). `\input`/`\include` files are followed automatically. 2. A venue profile: `venues/conferences/-.yml` (schema in `venues/schema.yml`). If the venue has no profile yet, create one first with `parse-cfp` (or copy the nearest family file and fill it in). 3. Optional but strongly recommended: a compiled `.log` or `.pdf` next to the `.tex` (same basename) so the page-count risk check can run. ## Process 1. **Resolve the venue profile.** Find the matching file under `venues/conferences/`. Confirm the year matches the target deadline cycle. Ask the user which track they are submitting to — page limits differ per track (e.g. SIGSPATIAL Research = 10 pages excl. references, Demo = 4 incl.). Sanity-check the merged profile with: `python3 scripts/venue_profile.py venues/conferences/.yml --track ` 2. **Re-verify critical facts against the live CFP — mandatory.** Profiles are a starting point, never ground truth; a stale page limit causes the exact desk reject this skill exists to prevent. Fetch the profile's `cfp_url` and confirm: page limit + what it excludes, blind level, template invocation, required sections, and the deadline. If anything differs, update the profile YAML first and say so in the report. 3. **Run the full preflight:** ``` python3 scripts/run_preflight.py paper.tex \ --venue venues/conferences/-.yml --track "" ``` Or run checkers individually when the user asks about one dimension: | Script | Checks | Run | |---|---|---| | `scripts/check_template.py` | documentclass + options vs profile, year-versioned .sty (NeurIPS/ICML/ICLR), geometry/savetrees/fullpage, `\setlength` on layout dims, `\linespread`<1, negative `\vspace` patterns, column count, page-limit risk from `.log`/`.pdf` | `python3 scripts/check_template.py paper.tex --venue --track ` | | `scripts/check_anonymization.py` | `\author`/`\affiliation`/`\email`/`\orcid`/`\thanks` content, acknowledgments sections, funding/grant lines, identifying links (GitHub, personal pages) vs anonymized mirrors, first-person self-citations, hyperref `pdfauthor` | `python3 scripts/check_anonymization.py paper.tex --venue ` | | `scripts/check_sections.py` | every `format.required_sections` token: NeurIPS checklist, ICML impact statement, AI-use acknowledgement (ICDE), COI declaration, CCS concepts + `\keywords`, plus title/abstract/bibliography presence | `python3 scripts/check_sections.py paper.tex --venue ` | | `scripts/check_abstract.py` | abstract word count vs venue bounds (or the 150–250 norm), single-paragraph rule, citations/URLs in abstract, keywords format (ACM/IEEE Index Terms/LNCS 3–6) | `python3 scripts/check_abstract.py paper.tex --venue ` | Useful flags on every script: `--json` (machine-readable), `--strict` (warnings also fail), `--track `, `--venues-dir ` (when the profile lives outside this repo), `--no-inputs`. Anonymization adds `--force` to scan even at single-blind venues. 4. **Interpret severities for the user.** - `ERROR` — documented desk-reject grounds at this venue. Must fix. - `WARN` — judgment call (e.g. one negative `\vspace` is normal; eight is space compression). Walk through each with the user. - `INFO` — confirmations and pointers to manual checks. Do not pad the report with these; summarize. Exit codes: 0 = no errors, 1 = errors found (or warnings with `--strict`), 2 = bad arguments/missing files. 5. **Do the manual checks the linter cannot do.** Source-level linting cannot see compiled-PDF metadata, where the references actually start, supplementary files, or submission-form fields (COI declarations at ICDE live in CMT, not the PDF). Work through [references/manual-checks.md](references/manual-checks.md) with the user. 6. **Fix and re-run until clean.** Quote each finding's `file:line`, propose the minimal edit, apply it if asked, and re-run the affected checker. For the reasoning behind each check (which venue desk-rejects for what, with sources), see [references/desk-reject-triggers.md](references/desk-reject-triggers.md). ## Output A findings report (text or `--json`) per checker or combined via `run_preflight.py`: severity, check id, `file:line`, message, summary counts, and a verdict (`FAIL` if any ERROR, `PASS with warnings` if only WARNs, else `PASS`). Present it to the user as a fix-list ordered by severity, then offer to apply fixes one at a time. ## Worked example A NeurIPS submission that still carries author identity and last year's style file. Running the combined checker: ``` python3 scripts/run_preflight.py paper.tex \ --venue venues/conferences/neurips-2026.yml ``` ``` ============================================================================= PREFLIGHT REPORT paper.tex venue: neurips-2026 track: main ============================================================================= -- template -------------------------------------------------------------- [ERROR] template/style-file-year paper.tex:1 — uses neurips_2025.sty; NeurIPS 2026 requires neurips_2026.sty [WARN ] template/negative-vspace paper.tex:312 — negative \vspace before figure; isolated, likely fine -- anonymization --------------------------------------------------------- [ERROR] anonymization/pdf-metadata paper.tex:14 — \hypersetup{pdfauthor=...} leaks the author into PDF metadata [WARN ] anonymization/author-block paper.tex:22 — \author populated; the .sty hides it at submission, but scrub the source [WARN ] anonymization/self-citation paper.tex:88 — "our previous work [12]" — rewrite in third person -- sections -------------------------------------------------------------- [ERROR] sections/missing:neurips-checklist paper.tex — no NeurIPS checklist found; a missing checklist is a desk reject -- abstract -------------------------------------------------------------- clean. ============================================================================= VERDICT: FAIL — fix ERRORs before submitting (3 error(s), 3 warning(s), 0 info) Profiles can go stale: re-verify limits/policies at https://neurips.cc/Conferences/2026/CallForPapers ============================================================================= ``` How to present this: lead with the three ERRORs as a numbered fix-list (`neurips_2026.sty`, drop the `pdfauthor` leak, add the checklist), each with its `file:line` and the one-line edit; then walk the WARNs as judgment calls. Re-verify the page limit and checklist requirement at the `cfp_url` before the user relies on the verdict, then re-run the affected checker after each fix. ## Adapt to your discipline Profiles can represent conferences, journals, and workshops in any field. Add venue YAMLs with your community's rules — the checkers only read the profile, so new disciplines need data, not code. ## Guardrails - A clean preflight is necessary, not sufficient — never tell the user the paper "will not be desk-rejected"; say "no machine-checkable desk-reject triggers found". - Always re-verify page limits/deadlines/policies against the live `cfp_url` before the user relies on them (step 2 is not optional). - Never submit to any system on the user's behalf; stop at the report. - Never paste large portions of the user's paper into the report — quote at most the flagged line. - Citation problems are out of scope here: route them through `verify-citations`. ## Memory This skill uses the shared `.paper-memory/` convention in the user's paper directory, following [`paper-memory-convention.md`](../paper-profile/references/paper-memory-convention.md). - **At start:** read `.paper-memory/lessons.md` (and `profile.yml` for venue tier / constraints). Skip re-flagging issues already recorded and acted on; lead with any `recurring` desk-reject habits this author has (e.g. "you tend to compress layout near the page limit"). - **At end:** append each finding worth remembering as one dated entry in the shared format `- [YYYY-MM-DD] (preflight-check | ) issue -> recommendation` (use `reflect-and-improve`'s `reflect_log.py append`, which dedupes and dates). Tag a repeat-across-papers habit `recurring`, a one-off `this-paper`. - Create `.paper-memory/` on demand if absent and offer to add it to the project `.gitignore`. It is local-only; never upload it or copy it into this repo.