paper-writing-skill
A Claude Code skill for research papers: a five-stage pipeline, section rules, a style audit and an independent red-team review.
- 250 ★ on the repository
- Last commit
- MIT
Minimal access
Why this level
- The skill edits the paper's `.tex` files in the project directory; keep them under version control.
Install
- Works in
In your terminal, with SkillFoxx CLI
npx skillfoxx add skills/paper-writing-skillDetects 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 skill edits the paper's `.tex` files in the project directory; keep them under version control.
This is third-party code. Review the repository files before installing.
What it does
paper-writing-skill, a Claude Code skill from the SNL UCSB lab, guides research paper writing through five stages. First 34 questions across six phases produce a `project_context.md` file, then the skill builds the paper architecture, drafts sections in a fixed order, checks consistency across sections and compresses the text by 30–50% with seven operations. Every `.tex` edit passes a style audit. Mechanical rules catch em-dashes, antithesis, passive voice and filler, while semantic checks cover definitions, coherence and grounding. An independent reviewer re-checks the text, `/loop` mode repeats the pass until sections are clean, and a separate workflow produces non-data figures.
Who it is for. PhD students and researchers writing conference or journal papers in systems, networking and machine learning.
Good fit when
- A paper nearing a conference deadline needs structure and a section plan.
- The introduction is rewritten a second time after the evaluation section is drafted.
- The text exceeds the page limit and needs compression.
- An independent check of the text is wanted before submission.
Not a fit when
- The text is not meant for a research publication.
- The rules are tuned for systems, networking and ML and the author's field is far from them.
- The author will not answer a long questionnaire: the skill starts with 34 questions.
Example request
/paper-writing: help me write the introduction for a paper on a network measurement system and run the independent red-team check.Limitations
Claude Code with a signed-in account and a cloned repository are required: the `./setup` script copies the skill to `~/.claude/skills/paper-writing/`. Rules are tuned for systems, networking and ML venues (SIGCOMM, NSDI, NeurIPS, ICLR); adapt them for other fields via the Customize section. Passive voice has zero tolerance in the audit, so the style may clash with the author's own. What the paper claims remains the author's decision. By its description the skill activates on any paper task: sections, `.tex`, Overleaf, rebuttals and camera-ready edits.
How to disable. Delete the `~/.claude/skills/paper-writing/` folder and the repository clone. Keep or delete the `project_context.md` file in the paper directory yourself.
FAQ
Where do I start?
Run `./setup`, open the paper directory, start `claude` and type `/paper-writing`. Without `project_context.md` the skill first runs a 34-question brainstorm.
How does the style audit work?
Mechanical checks M1–M18 run on every `.tex` edit. Semantic checks S1–S31 run in the independent reviewer pass.
What is the red-team?
An independent reviewer that did not write the text. It re-runs the checks and returns findings, not a yes or no.
Can the skill be used for another field?
Yes. Rules are customized through the Customize section of the README.
What does compression include?
Seven operations aimed at cutting the text by 30–50%.
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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| paper-writing-skill (this card) | no | 250 | |
| Social Science Paper Writing Skill | no | 463 | aimed at social science papers and literature reviews; this skill runs systems and ML papers through five stages |
| Academic Humanizer | no | 3,542 | softens the machine-like style of finished text; paper-writing-skill builds the whole paper and checks it with an independent reviewer |
README in short
The rules come from analysing real paper revisions: over 7,600 Overleaf edits, more than 100 tex versions and five peer-review cycles. The rationale for each rule is in `DESIGN.md`.