Guide · Agent skill
How to use the Paper Write agent skill (paper-write)
Updated · written with AI from the project's own documentation and checked against our catalogue data
Paper Write is an agent skill that drafts a LaTeX paper section by section from an outline and your research notes. It is aimed at researchers and graduate students who already have a plan and want a first LaTeX draft for a target venue. After reading this guide you will know what the skill does, how to install it, how to trigger it with a natural request, and what to check before you trust its output.
Paper Writewanshuiyin/Auto-claude-code-research-in-sleep · MIT Download the skill Quick start
- 1Install the skill. Download the ZIP from the directory page and unzip it into ~/.claude/skills/ or a project's .claude/skills/ folder, or upload it under Settings → Capabilities → Skills in the Claude apps.
- 2Prepare the plan. Create PAPER_PLAN.md with /paper-plan, or write a brief outline yourself. Add NARRATIVE_REPORT.md and your figures if you have them.
- 3Set the target venue. Name your venue in the request, such as ICLR, NeurIPS or an IEEE journal. If you do not, the skill defaults to ICLR.
- 4Trigger the draft. Ask in natural language, for example "write paper for NeurIPS", or use a phrase like 开始写.
- 5Add a style reference (optional). Append — style-ref: followed by a local path, PDF, arXiv id or URL to steer structure toward a reference paper.
- 6Verify citations and markers. Search the draft for [VERIFY] and DATA_NEEDED markers and check every citation and figure reference.
- 7Revise for submission. Edit the prose yourself, check numbers against your experiments, and run the venue checklist before you submit.
What the paper-write skill does
Paper Write reads a paper outline and research notes and turns them into LaTeX draft sections. Its default target venue is ICLR, and it also supports NeurIPS, ICML, CVPR (with ICCV and ECCV), ACL (with EMNLP and NAACL), AAAI, ACM venues such as ACM MM, SIGIR, KDD and CHI, and IEEE journals and conferences. The venue setting controls the style file and formatting.
The skill follows the venue's page limit. By default the main body limit is 9 pages for ML conferences, counted from the first page to the end of the Conclusion, with references and appendix not counted. For IEEE venues, references do count toward the limit.
- Drafts sections from PAPER_PLAN.md and NARRATIVE_REPORT.md
- Fetches real BibTeX entries from DBLP or CrossRef by default, to reduce invented citations
- Can mark unverified references with [VERIFY] markers when DBLP lookup is turned off
- Can optionally mirror the structure of a reference paper with the style-ref option
Install the paper-write skill
The skill ships as a ZIP download from the directory page. You can install it in one of two ways. For Claude Code, unzip the download into ~/.claude/skills/ to make it available everywhere, or into a project's .claude/skills/ folder to limit it to that project. In the Claude apps, you can instead upload the ZIP under Settings → Capabilities → Skills.
After installing, the skill's files should include SKILL.md. The skill is named paper-write, and its argument hint is shown as the usage pattern below.
- Claude Code, global: unzip into ~/.claude/skills/
- Claude Code, single project: unzip into the project's .claude/skills/
- Claude apps: Settings → Capabilities → Skills, then upload the ZIP
[venue-or-section] [— style-ref: <source>]Prepare your inputs before you start
The skill works from files you have already produced. The main input is PAPER_PLAN.md, the outline with a claims-evidence matrix, section plan and figure plan, usually created by /paper-plan. Other inputs are NARRATIVE_REPORT.md (the research narrative and primary content source), generated figures in figures/, the file figures/latex_includes.tex from /paper-figure, and a bibliography .bib file, which can be existing or newly created.
If there is no PAPER_PLAN.md, the skill asks you to run /paper-plan first or to provide a brief outline. It does not invent a plan on its own.
- PAPER_PLAN.md (required, or a brief outline you provide)
- NARRATIVE_REPORT.md (main content source)
- figures/ with generated PDF or PNG files, and figures/latex_includes.tex
- A .bib file, existing or to be created
Trigger the skill with a natural request
You do not need a special command to start drafting. The skill is triggered when you say phrases such as 写论文, write paper, draft LaTeX, 开始写, or ask the agent to generate LaTeX content from a paper plan. Say which venue you are targeting, or it will default to ICLR. You can also name a specific section to draft.
Because the default venue is ICLR and anonymous submission is on by default, tell the agent if you are preparing a camera-ready version or an IEEE submission, since the skill treats those differently.
- "Write paper for NeurIPS from my PAPER_PLAN.md"
- "Draft LaTeX for the related work section"
- "开始写" when your plan and notes are in the project folder
- For a camera-ready version, say so, because the anonymous author block is switched off
Use the optional style-ref feature
If you add — style-ref: followed by a source to your request, the skill first analyses that reference paper and uses it as structural guidance. Accepted sources are a local TeX directory or file, a local PDF, an arXiv id (such as 2501.12345 or arxiv:2501.12345), or an http(s) URL. Overleaf URLs and project IDs are rejected. To use an Overleaf project, clone it locally first with /overleaf-sync setup and pass the local path.
The feature only steers structure: section count and ordering, theorem density, caption length, sentence cadence, math display ratio and citation style. It is meant for structural mimicry, not for copying wording. Without the flag, the skill behaves as it does normally.
- Only structure is taken from the reference, never prose, claims or terminology
- Reviewer sub-agents do not receive the style profile, to keep cross-model review independent
- Requires the helper tools/extract_paper_style.py, with optional Python dependencies
Check the output before you use it
The skill checks citations against DBLP or CrossRef when that option is on, and it can use reviewer backends such as Codex through MCP for section review. Reviewer backends need their own accounts or API keys. If the research plan contains missing evidence, the skill inserts HTML-comment DATA_NEEDED markers instead of making up results, so you can search for them with grep.
Treat every draft as a starting point. Verify the accuracy of every claim, every number and every reference, and rewrite prose where needed before submission.
- Search the draft for [VERIFY] and DATA_NEEDED markers and resolve each one
- Check every number against your own experiment logs
- Confirm every BibTeX entry and citation key
- Review the output against the venue's checklist before submitting
What people use it for
- Turning a PAPER_PLAN.md outline into a first LaTeX draft for an ICLR or NeurIPS submission
- Drafting a section, such as related work, for a conference paper under a page limit
- Producing an IEEE journal or conference draft with the venue's formatting rules applied
- Generating a camera-ready version by setting anonymous mode off
- Using a reference paper's structure as a guide for a new draft via the style-ref option
Frequently asked questions
Is the paper-write skill free to use?
The skill is released under the MIT licence, as stated on its directory page. Some parts may need accounts or keys of your own, such as reviewer backends like Codex, which the source says need their own accounts or API keys.
How do I install paper-write in Claude Code?
Download the ZIP from the directory page and unzip it into ~/.claude/skills/ for all projects, or into the project's .claude/skills/ folder for one project. The folder should contain SKILL.md.
Can I install paper-write in the Claude apps?
Yes. Open Settings → Capabilities → Skills and upload the ZIP file.
What do I need before I can use paper-write?
You need Claude Code or a compatible agent runtime with the listed tools, including Bash, file read and write, and web search. You also need a PAPER_PLAN.md outline or a brief outline from you. Optional extras include NARRATIVE_REPORT.md, figures/latex_includes.tex, a local .bib file, and the Python helper for style-ref.
Why does the skill ask for a plan first?
The skill drafts from your outline and research notes rather than inventing content. If no PAPER_PLAN.md exists, it asks you to run /paper-plan or give it a brief outline.
How does paper-write avoid fake citations?
By default it fetches real BibTeX entries from DBLP or CrossRef. If you turn that off, it uses an older approach that searches for references and marks unverified ones with [VERIFY], so you still need to check each one.
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Our verdict
Paper Write suits researchers who already have a paper plan and want a structured first LaTeX draft for a target venue, especially those working inside the wider Auto-claude-code-research-in-sleep workflow. It is a poor fit for anyone without an outline or research notes, or anyone expecting a submission-ready paper, since the output needs expert review for accuracy, originality and citations.
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