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

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.

• command: ${PYTHON_CMD} scripts/writer_tools.py scan_template {{directory}}
• params:
  • directory: (string) Path to scan. Default is ".".

tool: read_reference

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

• command: ${PYTHON_CMD} scripts/writer_tools.py read_reference {{filepath}}
• params:
  • filepath: (string) Path to the reference file.

tool: write_latex

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

• command: ${PYTHON_CMD} scripts/writer_tools.py write_latex {{filename}} {{content}} {{mode}}
• params:
  • 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.

• command: ${PYTHON_CMD} scripts/writer_tools.py compile_pdf {{main_file}}
• params:
  • 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.