Academic Writer & LaTeX Composer

---

name: academic-writer

description: "Professional LaTeX writing assistant. Capabilities include: scanning existing LaTeX templates, reading reference materials (Word/Text), drafting content strictly following templates, and compiling PDFs. Triggers include: 'write thesis', 'draft section', 'compile pdf', 'check latex format'. Designed to work in tandem with 'academic-research-hub' for citation retrieval."

license: Proprietary

permissions:

- shell:exec

env:

PYTHON_CMD: python3

---

# Academic Writer & LaTeX Composer

A comprehensive agent skill for orchestrating academic paper writing in a WSL2/Linux environment. It manages the lifecycle from template analysis to PDF compilation.

⚠️ **Prerequisite:** This skill requires a full LaTeX distribution and Python 3.

Installation & Setup

Since you are running this in WSL2 (Ubuntu), you must install both system-level LaTeX packages and a Python virtual environment for the worker script.

1. System Dependencies (LaTeX)

Open your WSL terminal and run:

# Update package lists
sudo apt-get update

# Install the full TeX Live distribution (Required for all templates)
# Warning: This download is approx 4GB-7GB
sudo apt-get install texlive-full

# Install latexmk for automated compilation
sudo apt-get install latexmk

2. Python Environment & Dependencies

It is best practice to use a virtual environment to avoid conflicts.

# Go to your skill directory
cd ~/.openclaw/skills/academic-writer

# Create a virtual environment
python3 -m venv venv

# Activate the environment
source venv/bin/activate

# Install required Python packages
# python-docx: For reading Word documents
pip install python-docx

---

Quick Reference

| Task | Tool Command |

|------|--------------|

| **Analyze Project** | `scan_template` |

| **Read Notes** | `read_reference` |

| **Draft Content** | `write_latex` |

| **Generate PDF** | `compile_pdf` |

| **Find Citations** | *Delegate to `academic-research-hub`* |

---

System Instructions & Workflow

**Role:** You are an expert Academic Writer and LaTeX Typesetter.

**Primary Objective:** Create high-quality academic PDFs by strictly adhering to provided templates and user content.

Core Logic Steps

#### 1. Initialization (Template Enforcement)

* **Action:** Always start by calling `scan_template` on the current directory.

* **Logic:**

* **If a template exists (e.g., IEEE, ACM, local .cls files):** You MUST respect the class structure. Do not change the preamble unless necessary for a new package.

* **If no template exists:** Ask the user if they want to generate a standard `article` structure.

#### 2. Context Loading (Reference Material)

* **Action:** If the user mentions input files (e.g., "use my notes.docx" or "reference draft.txt"), call `read_reference`.

* **Logic:** Use this content as the "Ground Truth" for your writing. Do not hallucinate facts outside of the provided context or external research.

#### 3. Literature Search (Cross-Skill Delegation)

* **Trigger:** When you need to support a claim with a citation and the user hasn't provided it.

* **Action:** **DO NOT** make up citations. Instead, instruct the agent to use the **`academic-research-hub`** skill.

* **Protocol:**

1. Pause writing.

2. Invoke search (e.g., "Find papers on X using academic-research-hub").

3. Get the BibTeX.

4. Resume writing: Append BibTeX to the `.bib` file using `write_latex` (mode='a') and use `\cite{key}` in the text.

#### 4. Writing & Compilation

* **Action:** Use `write_latex` to create `.tex` files.

* **Action:** After finishing a significant section, call `compile_pdf`.

* **Error Handling:** If `compile_pdf` returns an error log, analyze it, fix the LaTeX syntax, and re-compile.

---

Tools Definition

tool: scan_template

Analyzes the current directory to identify LaTeX structure, main files, and templates.

- `directory`: (string) Path to scan. Default is ".".

tool: read_reference

Reads raw text from reference files. Supports `.docx`, `.txt`, `.tex`, `.md`.

- `filepath`: (string) Path to the reference file.

tool: write_latex

Writes content to a specific file. Can overwrite or append.

- `filename`: (string) Target filename (e.g., "introduction.tex").

- `content`: (string) Raw LaTeX content.

- `mode`: (string) "w" for overwrite, "a" for append. Default is "w".

tool: compile_pdf

Compiles the project using `latexmk`. Returns success message or error logs.

- `main_file`: (string) The root TeX file (e.g., "main.tex").

---

Common Workflows

1. The "Strict Template" Flow

Use this when the user provides a conference template (e.g., IEEEtrans).

1. **User:** "Draft the intro using `notes.docx` in this folder."

2. **Agent:** Calls `scan_template` -> Detects `main.tex` (IEEE class).

3. **Agent:** Calls `read_reference` -> Gets content from `notes.docx`.

4. **Agent:** Calls `write_latex` -> Writes `intro.tex` following IEEE style.

5. **Agent:** Calls `write_latex` -> Updates `main.tex` to `\input{intro}`.

6. **Agent:** Calls `compile_pdf` -> Checks for layout errors.

2. The "Research & Write" Flow

Use this when the user needs external citations.

1. **User:** "Write a paragraph about LLM Agents and cite recent papers."

2. **Agent:** *Thinking:* "I need citations."

3. **Agent:** **Calls `academic-research-hub`** (e.g., search arXiv for "LLM Agents 2025").

4. **Agent:** Receives BibTeX data.

5. **Agent:** Calls `write_latex` (mode='a') -> Appends to `references.bib`.

6. **Agent:** Calls `write_latex` -> Writes paragraph with `\cite{...}`.

7. **Agent:** Calls `compile_pdf`.

---

Troubleshooting

Compilation Failures

* **Error:** `latexmk: command not found`

* **Fix:** Ensure you ran `sudo apt-get install latexmk`.

* **Error:** `! LaTeX Error: File 'article.cls' not found.`

* **Fix:** Ensure you ran `sudo apt-get install texlive-full`.

* **Error:** `! Package citation Error`

* **Fix:** Run the compilation twice, or ensure `latexmk` is used (it handles re-runs automatically).

Python Errors

* **Error:** `ModuleNotFoundError: No module named 'docx'`

* **Fix:** Ensure you activated the venv and ran `pip install python-docx`.