paper-figures

Paper Figures Skill

Figures are information. A survey/review report covering downloaded papers MUST include key figures — architecture diagrams, experimental results, comparisons. Do NOT write a text-only survey when figures are available.

3-step workflow

Step 1 — Extract figures from downloaded papers

Your brain prompt supplies the script's absolute path as {{EXTRACT_FIGURES}}. Invoke it once per paper:

{{EXTRACT_FIGURES}} data/papers/<paper-id>.pdf   # single PDF
{{EXTRACT_FIGURES}} data/papers/<arxiv-id>        # arXiv source directory

This creates data/papers/<id>_figures/ with extracted images and a manifest.json listing each figure with caption and page number.

Step 2 — Review captions and classify every figure

Read every manifest:

cat data/papers/*_figures/manifest.json

Record your decisions in notes/memory.md under a ## Figure Review section. Every figure must end up in one of three states:

• USE — essential for understanding the topic; will be included in the report
• SKIP — irrelevant, redundant, or low quality
• UNREVIEWED — caption not yet read (only acceptable as a transient state)

Select figures that are:

• Essential for understanding the topic (architecture diagrams, system schematics)
• Key experimental results that support your narrative
• Useful comparisons across methods, systems, or time periods
• Visually informative (not just tables rendered as images)

Step 3 — Include USE figures in the report

For each figure marked USE, embed it directly in LaTeX:

\begin{figure}[t]
  \centering
  \includegraphics[width=\linewidth]{../data/papers/<id>_figures/<filename>}
  \caption{<Your caption describing the figure in the context of your survey>. Adapted from \cite{<key>}.}
  \label{fig:<label>}
\end{figure}

Rules

• Coverage: survey/review reports include at least 3-5 USE figures from downloaded papers, in addition to any figures you generate yourself.
• Captions: write your OWN caption in the context of the survey narrative — do not copy the original caption.
• Attribution: always cite the source paper with \cite{}.
• No skipping the review step: every extracted figure must be classified before writing the report.
• Complementary: you may also generate your own figures (see skills/matplotlib-figures/SKILL.md) for data summaries, timelines, or cross-paper comparisons not found in existing figures.