How to use the Thesis Advisor agent skill: outline, drafts and review

What the Thesis Advisor skill makes the agent do

The skill first asks you once for anything missing: degree level and discipline, thesis type (empirical, theoretical, review or design), word count and chapter requirements, your existing material, and any direction already set by your supervisor. It then judges whether your research question is specific enough and what your contribution could be. If the topic is too broad, it offers two or three narrowing options and leaves the choice to you.

It then builds one of three things: a thesis outline, chapter drafts written from your material, or a literature-review framework organised by theme or timeline. The skill is designed not to invent data, results or references. Missing data is marked [TO ADD: data] and unsupported sentences are marked [CITATION NEEDED], so you can search the document and fill the gaps yourself.

• Outline: chapters in the discipline's usual order, level-2 and level-3 headings, writing points and target word counts per section, and an abstract framework with placeholder sentences.
• Chapter drafts: connected paragraphs built from your material, with each claim tagged to your reference number or data table name.
• Literature-review framework: subsections listing existing positions, points of disagreement and how each relates to your thesis, using only literature you provided.

Install the Thesis Advisor skill

Download the ZIP file for the thesis-advisor skill from the skill's page on this directory. The skill is a folder containing a file named SKILL.md. Unzip it into one of these locations, depending on how you want to use it:

• Personal use across projects: ~/.claude/skills/
• A single project: the .claude/skills/ folder inside your project
• Claude apps: upload the ZIP under Settings → Capabilities → Skills

What you need before you start

The skill asks the agent to create a Word document, so the agent needs a Word document tool available in its environment. The skill says to use the document tools available there. Without one, the agent cannot deliver the file in the format the skill describes.

The skill runs no scripts and uses no network access. It works from your own text and files, so have your research question, reference list, data tables and word requirements ready to paste or attach.

How to trigger the skill with natural requests

You do not need a special command. Describe what you need in plain language, and mention the topic and your material. The skill's own quick prompts show the style: ask it to refine a topic into an outline you can write from, or to build a literature-review framework from the papers you name.

• Refine this topic into a thesis outline I can write from: [your topic and research question]
• Build a literature-review framework from these papers: [paste your reference list]
• Draft the Methods chapter from my notes, marking any missing data as [TO ADD: data]
• Check which sentences in my draft lack support and mark them [CITATION NEEDED]

Examples of a good session

Start with the topic and the boundaries. Give the agent your degree level, thesis type, target word count and the material you already have. Expect a short topic assessment before the outline. After the Word document is produced, read the list of things you must still do yourself, such as adding data, looking up literature and verifying academic statements.

Work chapter by chapter. Ask for the outline first, then request a draft of one chapter at a time. The skill writes chapter drafts as connected paragraphs of 150 to 300 words, each opening with a topic sentence.

Safety notes and limits

The skill will not generate references, authors, years or quotations that are not in your material. When you ask for reading suggestions, it gives search keywords and database directions only. It contains no search or database tools, so it cannot check whether a source exists.

If you ask it to write the whole thesis, it states that it provides structure, drafts and revision only. Submitting AI-written work may breach your institution's academic integrity rules, so check them before using any draft text.

• No live literature search: you must look up and verify every source yourself.
• Results and conclusions are not written for you unless you supply the results.
• The skill's own guidance is to treat placeholders as your to-do list.

Tips for getting the most from it

Give the agent your real material, not summaries of it, so that claims can be tagged to the correct source. The chapter that most needs material is the one the agent flags as weakest in the outline; gather that material first.

• Search the document for [TO ADD: data], [CITATION NEEDED] and [TBD: method] to find every gap.
• Keep one term per concept; the skill places a glossary at the top of the outline.
• Ask for a revision of a single chapter after you have added your own data.