Horizon Academic Writing skill
Horizon skills for research papers: text polishing, evidence audits and journal shortlisting that keep formulas intact
- 68 ★ on the repository
- Last commit
Minimal access
Why this level
- The skills edit manuscript text and may change TeX files in the project
- The Python checker scripts read the paper's files
Install
- Works in
In your terminal, with SkillFoxx CLI
npx skillfoxx add skills/horizon-academic-writingDetects the agents on your machine, shows the access level and pins the version.
Other ways to install
Access and checks
How we reviewMinimal accessThe tool runs nothing and makes no network calls.
- The skills edit manuscript text and may change TeX files in the project
- The Python checker scripts read the paper's files
This is third-party code. Review the repository files before installing.
What it does
Horizon is a set of six skills for scientific writing in English and Chinese-to-English translation, with LaTeX and TeX support. Ember polishes one paragraph as a coherent unit, Afterglow handles a manuscript in a balanced mode, and Aurora adds cross-section claim alignment and a final check after repairs. Aegis audits scientific defensibility: it collects core claims, checks methods and numbers, inspects the implementation when supplied and recommends minimum repairs. Journal-Recommender builds a verified journal shortlist. Jade, the Chinese thesis version, is listed as testing in the README. The shared principle is that an edit does not change claim strength, causality, hedges, numbers, units, citations or formulas. Modes include reader-oriented, strict minimal-diff, translation plus polishing, verification of an original against a revision and a consistency audit. Ember, Afterglow and Aurora ship check_preservation.py scripts that compare protected TeX structures, citation and reference keys, mathematics and numerical tokens. Semantic bindings of numbers still need a manual look.
Who it is for. Researchers and graduate students who write papers in English and want the text polished while claims, numbers and citations stay as they were.
Good fit when
- One introduction paragraph needs polishing without touching the surrounding text or protected LaTeX
- A manuscript with formulas is being prepared for submission and terms and claim strength must match across sections
- A Chinese academic paragraph has to be translated into English without strengthening its conclusions
- Before submission you want to see which claims lack support and where the methods are weak
- You need a journal shortlist for a paper with a topic fit check
Not a fit when
- The science of the paper is still unsettled: the skills polish language but do not assess novelty or invent a contribution
- Your text is in a third language: Horizon targets English and Chinese-to-English translation
- You need to write a literature review from scratch: the skills edit finished text
- You want to pick a journal without checking sources: recommendations rely on verified data the agent has to find
Example request
Polish this introduction paragraph with the Horizon-Ember skill in strict mode and show which numbers and citations stayed unchangedLimitations
- The skills do not assess novelty, design a contribution or construct a literature gap.
- The preservation scripts catch TeX structures, reference keys, mathematics and numerical tokens. Semantic bindings of numbers stay for manual review.
- Jade for Chinese theses is marked testing.
- The Aegis audit reports unchecked material separately from found defects and does not treat extra experiments as the only repair.
- The README targets Codex and Claude Code, and separate platform copies are not required.
How to disable. Delete the horizon-ember, horizon-afterglow, horizon-aurora, horizon-aegis and horizon-journal-recommender folders from ~/.claude/skills/ or from the project's skills folder. In Codex remove them the same way you installed them.
FAQ
How does Ember differ from Afterglow and Aurora?
Ember polishes one chosen paragraph and does not build a manuscript-wide context. Afterglow works on the whole manuscript in a balanced mode, and Aurora adds claim alignment across sections and a final check after repairs.
How do I install a Horizon skill in Claude Code?
Clone the repository and copy the folder with cp -r horizon-academic-writing/skills/horizon-ember ~/.claude/skills/. For one project use .claude/skills/ in its root. Invoke the skill with a command such as /horizon-ember or by phrasing a request.
What do the check_preservation.py scripts check?
They compare the original and the edit on protected TeX structures, citation and reference keys, mathematics and recognized numbers. They cannot see semantic bindings between numbers and claims, so those need manual review.
What does Aegis do?
Aegis audits a manuscript's scientific defensibility: it extracts the core claims, checks prior work, methods and numbers, inspects the implementation when code is supplied and maps claims to evidence. The report leads with the major risks.
Does Horizon work with LaTeX?
Yes, Ember, Afterglow and Aurora work on LaTeX and TeX source directly. Protected commands, formulas and citation and reference keys stay untouched, and the check_preservation.py scripts verify that after an edit.
Discussion
No questions or reviews yet.
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Comparison with similar tools
Cards that share the main search query, and how they differ.
| Tool | Official | Repository stars | Main difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Horizon Academic Writing (this card) | no | 68 | |
| Academic Research Skills | no | 56,682 | a general toolset for academic work, while Horizon focuses on text polishing with number and citation preservation checks |
| Academic Forge | no | 2,640 | an academic writing skill set; Horizon adds protected-TeX checking scripts and a separate Aegis audit |
README in short
The README describes the family's six skills, their modes and the step flow of Ember, Afterglow, Aurora and Aegis. It then covers installation for Codex and Claude Code, TeX preservation checks by script, the repository layout, skill-scoped version tags and the MIT license.
README badge
Original SKILL.md
--- name: horizon-aurora description: Manuscript-level academic polishing for English research papers and Chinese-to-English academic translation, with first-class LaTeX/TeX support. Use when asked to polish, proofread, copy-edit, language-edit, or reduce AI-sounding prose in a research manuscript whose scientific content is substantially settled. Reads the manuscript globally before editing, improves section and paragraph progression, reader expectations, claim-forward framing, lexical precision, and natural academic voice, while preserving claims, uncertainty, numbers, units, citations, mathematics, experimental settings, and protected TeX. Not for novelty assessment, contribution redesign, literature-gap construction, or experiment design. --- # Horizon-Aurora ## Objective