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.
When invoked, gather a few inputs from the user and create a ready-to-compile LaTeX paper project.
/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.
Ask the user for the following. Accept anything they provide and use sensible defaults for anything left blank.
| Field | Prompt | Default |
|---|---|---|
TITLE | Paper title | Untitled |
AUTHORS |
| Author name(s), comma-separated |
Author |
ABSTRACT | One-paragraph abstract or research idea description | (leave placeholder) |
KEYWORDS | 3–5 keywords, comma-separated | keyword one, keyword two, keyword three |
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS | Acknowledgements text | I thank ... |
MACROS | Project-specific LaTeX macros (optional) | (none) |
SECTIONS | Extra top-level sections beyond the defaults (optional) | (none) |
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.
mkdir -p <path>
Copy the Makefile template:
cp ~/.claude/skills/create-paper/Makefile <path>/Makefile
main.texThe 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}
references.bibThe 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).
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.
Confirm what was created and print the full file path to main.tex.
Remind the user to:
% TODO stubs in references.bib% PROJECT-SPECIFIC MACROS comment[OPTIONAL] sections they don't needmake to compile, make watch to auto-recompile on save, make open
to compile and open the PDF (or use their LaTeX editor directly)chicago (natbib). Use \cite{}, \citet{}, \citep{}.thm, cor, prop, lem, hyp, mydef, remark.\E, \R, \eps, \ind{}, \Cov,
\indep, \convP, \convD, \norm{}, \abs{}, \set{}.\medskip / \bigskip between paragraphs if needed.\bleu{text} renders in blue — useful for draft comments.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-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.