write-paper

Installed resources

Keep the working directory at the user's project. Resolve this loaded SKILL.md with Path(path).resolve() before locating resources; follow symlinks. Bare helpers/, references/, and template paths are relative to that real skill directory. A path written as skills/<name>/... means the installed <name> skill's directory from the agent's skill catalog, not a path in the user's project. Locate each dependency by its public skill name; copied skills need not be siblings. If a dependency is absent, report the missing skill and install it before that step. Shared writing files are bundled in how-to-write-ideas-report/references/.

Paper Writer

A working-rules guide for writing scientific papers, distilled from John Martinis's Notes on Writing a Scientific Paper and Jan von Delft's Style Guide. The source documents live in references.md and sources/; consult them when this SKILL.md leaves a question open. Beside them sits a model letter that executes these rules — Ho et al., PRL 122, 040603 (2019), see Source material. Imitate the model letter on any open style judgment call.

Scope note. This skill is for real manuscripts — papers reporting completed (or near-complete) experimental, theoretical, or computational results. It is not for the upstream ideas/plan report produced by brainstorm-ideas report mode. If the user has not yet finished the work, push back: a paper requires results.

Use skills/how-to-write-ideas-report/references/writing-workflow.md for KB loading, citation handling, missing references, output formats, and Typst/diagram mechanics. The manuscript-specific rules below override shared defaults when venue templates or figure-first sequencing require it.

The Iron Rules

These seven override everything else.

1. Figures first, then prose. Plot every figure you intend to publish before writing a single section. Figures are the backbone; the text serves them. If you cannot draw the story in 4–8 figures, you do not yet know the story.
2. Polish what readers actually read. 95% of readers read only the title, abstract, introduction, figures + captions, and conclusions. These five elements deserve disproportionate iteration. Write them last — but iterate them most.
3. State main results explicitly. Use at least one sentence per main result that names it as such: "This figure / equation / observation is our (first / second / Nth) main result." Do not assume the reader will identify which sentence is the punchline.
4. One concept per sentence. If you must break this rule, both concepts must be simple. Long compound sentences with three new ideas are how readers drop out.
5. Never plot anything in arbitrary units. If you reach for "a.u." on an axis, the axis is wrong; find the right normalization (dimensionless ratio, calibrated scale, or experimental control). "a.u." plots are a known integrity red flag.
6. Target journal before story. Before proposing story lines, discuss the target venue with the user and download its official author template. If the user deliberately has no target yet, record that choice. Venue constraints shape the narrative, figure count, length, and format.
7. Iterate the story with the user. Once the figures or figure plan are available and the target venue is known, propose 1–3 plausible story lines for the user to choose, reject, or combine. Do not draft prose until the user has selected the paper's narrative.