create-paper

name: create-paper description: | Scaffold a new LaTeX economics paper from a standard template. Use when: starting a new research paper and wanting a ready-to-compile LaTeX project with pre-loaded math macros, theorem environments, bibliography style, and a skeleton structure. license: MIT metadata: author: custom version: "1.0.0"

create-paper — LaTeX Paper Scaffold

When invoked, gather a few inputs from the user and create a ready-to-compile LaTeX paper project.

Usage

/create-paper [path]

path is the directory where the paper folder should be created. If omitted, use documents/paper/ relative to the current working directory. If the target directory already exists and contains files, ask the user before overwriting.

Step 1 — Gather inputs

Ask the user for the following. Accept anything they provide and use sensible defaults for anything left blank.

If the user invokes the skill with a short research description (e.g. /create-paper "DML and negative weights in DiD"), treat that string as the title and infer a draft abstract from it — tell the user what you assumed.

Step 2 — Create the directory

mkdir -p <path>

Copy the Makefile template:

cp ~/.claude/skills/create-paper/Makefile <path>/Makefile

Step 3 — Copy and fill main.tex

The canonical template lives at ~/.claude/skills/create-paper/template.tex. Copy it to <path>/main.tex:

cp ~/.claude/skills/create-paper/template.tex <path>/main.tex

Then edit the file in place, substituting all ALLCAPS placeholders with the user's inputs. Format AUTHORS using \and between names (e.g. Pascal Amiet \and Co-Author). Format KEYWORDS as a comma-separated list. If the user supplied project-specific macros, insert them after the comment % PROJECT-SPECIFIC MACROS -- add here. If the user requested extra sections, insert them before \section{Conclusion}.

The template content for reference:

% ============================================================
%  PAPER TEMPLATE
%  Replace all ALLCAPS placeholders with project-specific content.
%  Sections marked [OPTIONAL] can be deleted if not needed.
% ============================================================

\documentclass[english, 12pt, a4paper]{article}
\usepackage[T1]{fontenc}
\usepackage[utf8]{inputenc}
\usepackage{natbib}
\usepackage[english]{babel}
\usepackage{lmodern}
%\usepackage{subfigure}
\usepackage[top=1.25in, bottom=1.25in, left=1.25in, right=1.25in]{geometry}
\usepackage[pdftex]{graphicx}
\usepackage{verbatim}
%\usepackage[width=0.8\textwidth]{caption}
\usepackage{amsmath,amssymb,amsopn,amsthm,dsfont,mathrsfs,bm}
\usepackage{float,placeins,flafter,longtable,array,booktabs}
\usepackage{color}
\usepackage{booktabs}
\usepackage{threeparttable}
\usepackage{blindtext}
\usepackage[hidelinks]{hyperref}

\usepackage{xr}
\makeatletter

% ----------------------------------------------------------------
% THEOREM ENVIRONMENTS
% ----------------------------------------------------------------
\newtheorem{thm}{Theorem}
\newtheorem{cor}{Corollary}
\newtheorem{prop}{Proposition}
\newtheorem{lem}{Lemma}
\newtheorem{hyp}{Assumption}
\newtheorem{mydef}{Definition}
\newtheorem{remark}{Remark}[section]

% ----------------------------------------------------------------
% MATH MACROS  (add project-specific macros below the line)
% ----------------------------------------------------------------
\vfuzz2pt
\hfuzz2pt

\newcommand{\norm}[1]{\left\Vert#1\right\Vert}
\newcommand{\abs}[1]{\left\vert#1\right\vert}
\newcommand{\set}[1]{\left\{#1\right\}}
\newcommand{\interieur}[1]{\stackrel{\circ}{#1}}
\newcommand{\ind}[1]{\mathds{1}\left\{#1\right\}}
\renewcommand{\S}{\mathcal{S}}
\newcommand{\B}{\mathcal{B}}
\newcommand{\C}{\mathcal{C}}
\newcommand{\E}{E}
\newcommand{\V}{V}
\newcommand{\R}{\mathbb R}
\newcommand{\N}{\mathbb N}
\newcommand{\Z}{\mathbb Z}
\newcommand{\eps}{\varepsilon}
\newcommand{\deriv}[2]{\partial #1/\partial #2}
\newcommand{\Deriv}[2]{\frac{\partial #1}{\partial #2}}
\newcommand{\convL}{\stackrel{d}{\longrightarrow}}
\newcommand{\M}{\mathcal{M}}
\newcommand{\cl}{\text{cl}}
\newcommand{\sgn}{\text{sgn}}
\newcommand{\tr}{\text{tr}}
\newcommand{\Cov}{\text{Cov}}
\newcommand{\Corr}{\text{Corr}}
\newcommand{\Supp}{\text{Supp}}
\newcommand{\indep}{\perp \!\!\! \perp}
\def\CI{\text{CI}_{1-\alpha}}
\def\CR{\text{CR}_{1-\alpha}}
\newcommand{\bleu}[1]{\textcolor{blue}{#1}}
\newcommand{\convP}{\stackrel{P}{\longrightarrow}}
\newcommand{\convAS}{\stackrel{a.s.}{\longrightarrow}}
\newcommand{\convD}{\stackrel{d}{\longrightarrow}}
\newcommand{\convNor}[1]{\stackrel{d}{\longrightarrow} \mathcal{N}\left(0,#1\right)}
\allowdisplaybreaks

% PROJECT-SPECIFIC MACROS -- add here
% MACROS_PLACEHOLDER

% ----------------------------------------------------------------

\setlength{\parindent}{0pt}
\linespread{1.3}
\bibliographystyle{chicago}
\date{\today}

\begin{document}

% ----------------------------------------------------------------
% TITLE PAGE
% ----------------------------------------------------------------

\title{TITLE\thanks{ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS}}

\author{AUTHORS}

\maketitle
%~\vspace{-1cm}
%\hspace{5cm} \large{\textit{Preliminary and Incomplete}}

%\vspace{2cm}
\begin{abstract}
ABSTRACT
\smallskip

\textbf{Keywords:} KEYWORDS

\end{abstract}

\newpage

% ----------------------------------------------------------------
% INTRODUCTION
% ----------------------------------------------------------------
\section{Introduction}

% ----------------------------------------------------------------
% SETUP / MODEL
% ----------------------------------------------------------------
\section{Setup}

\subsection{Setting}

\subsection{Estimand}

% ----------------------------------------------------------------
% MAIN RESULTS
% ----------------------------------------------------------------
\section{Main Results}

\subsection{Main Result}

\begin{thm}[Main Theorem]
    \label{thm:main}
    % theorem statement
\end{thm}

\begin{proof}
    See Appendix~\ref{proof:main}.
\end{proof}

% ----------------------------------------------------------------
% SIMULATIONS  [OPTIONAL]
% ----------------------------------------------------------------
\section{Simulations}   % [OPTIONAL]

% ----------------------------------------------------------------
% EMPIRICAL APPLICATION  [OPTIONAL]
% ----------------------------------------------------------------
\section{Empirical Application}   % [OPTIONAL]

% ----------------------------------------------------------------
% CONCLUSION
% ----------------------------------------------------------------
\section{Conclusion}

% ----------------------------------------------------------------
% REFERENCES
% ----------------------------------------------------------------
\newpage
\bibliography{references}

% ----------------------------------------------------------------
% APPENDIX
% ----------------------------------------------------------------
\appendix

\newpage
\setcounter{page}{1}
\begin{center}
    {\huge Online Appendix}
\end{center}

\section{Proofs}
\label{proof:main}

% Proof of Theorem~\ref{thm:main}.

\section{Additional Results}   % [OPTIONAL]

% Additional tables, figures, or robustness checks.

\end{document}

Step 4 — Copy and clean references.bib

The canonical template lives at ~/.claude/skills/create-paper/template.bib. Copy it to <path>/references.bib:

cp ~/.claude/skills/create-paper/template.bib <path>/references.bib

Then open the file and remove all existing entries (they are from an unrelated project). Leave only the header comment:

% ============================================================
%  BIBLIOGRAPHY
%  Add BibTeX entries here.
% ============================================================

If the user mentioned any specific papers or cited works in their inputs, add those as BibTeX stubs (with % TODO: fill in comments on each field).

Step 5 — Try to compile (optional)

If latexmk is available on the system, offer to do a test compile:

cd <path> && latexmk -pdf -interaction=nonstopmode main.tex

Report whether it succeeded. If it fails, show the first error from the log. Do not run this step without asking first.

Step 6 — Report to the user

Confirm what was created and print the full file path to main.tex. Remind the user to:

• Fill any remaining % TODO stubs in references.bib
• Add project-specific macros near the % PROJECT-SPECIFIC MACROS comment
• Delete [OPTIONAL] sections they don't need
• Run make to compile, make watch to auto-recompile on save, make open to compile and open the PDF (or use their LaTeX editor directly)

Conventions

• The bibliography style is chicago (natbib). Use \cite{}, \citet{}, \citep{}.
• Theorem-like environments available: thm, cor, prop, lem, hyp, mydef, remark.
• Commonly used math shorthands already defined: \E, \R, \eps, \ind{}, \Cov, \indep, \convP, \convD, \norm{}, \abs{}, \set{}.
• Line spacing is 1.3; paragraph indent is off — use \medskip / \bigskip between paragraphs if needed.
• Color helper: \bleu{text} renders in blue — useful for draft comments.
• Build commands: make (compile + bibliography), make watch (auto-recompile on save), make open (compile + open PDF), make clean (remove aux files). latexmk handles the bibtex/biber passes automatically.
• TikZ diagrams: ready-to-paste snippets for DAGs, event study timelines, DiD 2×2 tables, methodology pipelines, and RD cutoff diagrams live in tikz-snippets.tex in the same directory as this SKILL.md. Copy the relevant snippet into main.tex. Each snippet notes the \usetikzlibrary{...} calls it requires — add them to the preamble if not already present. Also add \usepackage{tikz} to the preamble if inserting any TikZ diagram.