paper-agent: Skill for Claude Code

Research Paper Writing

Overview

Use this skill to turn a computer science research paper into a reviewer-friendly, high-clarity draft. Prioritize a clear research story, one-message paragraphs, evidence-backed claims, readable figures/tables, and skeptical self-review before submission.

Core Workflow

1. Clarify the paper story before sentence-level edits.
2. Load only the section-specific guide needed from references/.
3. Draft or revise paragraph-by-paragraph with one message per paragraph.
4. Run reverse outlining after each section: section thesis -> paragraph messages -> evidence/explanation.
5. Align every major claim in Abstract and Introduction with explicit support from experiments, proofs, measurements, case studies, user studies, analyses, artifacts, or other appropriate evidence.
6. Run adversarial review with references/paper-review.md before finalizing.

Global Principles

1. Keep one paragraph for one message only.
2. State the paragraph message in the first sentence.
3. Make nouns self-contained; define new terms before reusing them.
4. Maintain sentence-to-sentence flow through cause, contrast, consequence, refinement, or example.
5. Use a story-first structure: context -> problem/question -> gap -> contribution -> evidence -> scope/impact.
6. Treat claim-evidence alignment as a hard constraint; weaken or remove unsupported claims.
7. Read as a skeptical reviewer and resolve likely objections explicitly.
8. Treat visual quality as core content, not decoration.
9. Use clear overview, architecture, proof-roadmap, workflow, measurement, or design figures when applicable.
10. Use readable, minimal-ink tables with captions that explain setting, units, and takeaway.

Paragraph Clarity Check

Use this quick test whenever the user asks whether a paragraph flows or is clear.

1. Read as an external reader:
   • Does this paragraph have one explicit message?
   • Does the first sentence state what this paragraph will do?
   • Are all key nouns/terms readable without hidden context?
   • Does each sentence connect to the previous one with a clear relation?
2. Run reverse outlining for the current section:
   • Write down the section thesis or main claim.
   • Write down each paragraph topic sentence.
   • Write down the evidence, explanation, or reasoning under each paragraph.
   • Check mapping: topic sentence -> thesis, and evidence/reasoning -> topic sentence.
   • Revise or remove any paragraph that cannot be mapped cleanly.
3. If flow is still weak, add temporary section headers and explicit transition phrases during revision, then remove unnecessary scaffolding before finalizing.