Manuscript scaffold

Turn an empty or half-formed project into a manuscript skeleton that compiles, matches the target venue's shape, and is ready for real writing.

Scope

This works inside the project that is already open. Oleafly gives the assistant no tool that creates a project or instantiates a template, so if the user wants a separate project, say so plainly and point them at New Project in the app; then continue here once it is open.

Everything below writes ordinary files with create_file and write_file, switches the compile entry point with set_main_doc, and proves the result with compile.

1. See where you are writing

1. list_files to get the current tree.
2. read_file on project.json. The fields that matter are engine (xetex for bundled Tectonic, latexmk for a system TeX distribution, typst, markdown) and main_doc.
3. If the project already has content, project_map shows sections, labels, bib keys and unresolved citations. Never overwrite existing work: either extend it, or write the skeleton alongside it and ask which one becomes the main document.

Record a short plan with update_todos if the scaffold has more than three steps.

2. Resolve the target

Ask for anything you cannot infer from the project or the conversation:

• venue or journal, and the exact track or article type;
• year or submission cycle;
• stage: initial submission, revision, camera ready;
• anonymity: blind, double blind, or open;
• engine preference, if the user has one.

Do not blend rules from two venues that share a name. If the user does not know the venue yet, build the generic article scaffold and say it is provisional.

3. Read the venue guidance before writing

load_skill with id venue-templates, then pull the reference that matches the family with read_skill_file. The map:

Its bundled scaffolds are readable the same way: assets/journals/neurips_article.tex, assets/journals/nature_article.tex, assets/journals/plos_one.tex, assets/journals/elsarticle-template-num.tex (also -num-names and -harv), assets/posters/beamerposter_academic.tex, assets/grants/nsf_proposal_template.tex, assets/grants/nih_specific_aims.tex.

Two rules from that skill carry over unchanged: a bundled scaffold is not an official template, and page limits or style file names must come from the venue's current author instructions rather than from memory. When the user needs the official kit, tell them to download it and drop it into the project.

references/venue-map.md in this skill maps each family to a starting file, an engine, and a bibliography style, including which Oleafly asset to use when no vendored scaffold fits.

4. Choose the engine deliberately

set_main_doc switches the engine automatically from the extension, so pointing at main.typ moves the project to Typst. Never write pdflatex anywhere; Oleafly does not accept it as an engine name and a project or template that declares it is dropped silently.

Typst limits to say out loud before you commit to it: no SyncTeX, no isolated figure compile, no conversion exports, and @preview packages need network on first compile. Prefer built-in Typst features for anything that must work offline.

5. Write the skeleton

Standard layout, adjusted to the venue:

main.tex
sections/introduction.tex
sections/related-work.tex
sections/method.tex
sections/experiments.tex
sections/conclusion.tex
references.bib
figures/

Steps:

1. read_skill_file the scaffold you picked (from venue-templates/assets/... or from this skill's assets/).
2. create_file the sections/ and figures/ folders.
3. write_file main.tex with the preamble, title block, abstract, and one \input{sections/...} per section.
4. write_file each section file with a \section{...}, a \label{sec:...}, and one or two sentences of placeholder prose that names what belongs there. Do not write filler that could be mistaken for real claims.
5. write_file references.bib with the entries the user already has, or an empty file with a single comment-free placeholder entry removed before compile. Never invent bibliographic data.

This skill's own scaffolds, in assets/:

Each of the three compiles on its own with Tectonic's bundle (or the pinned Typst CLI), so copy one in first, compile, and only then split the section bodies out into sections/*.tex and replace them with \input.

Bibliography ordering trap: IEEEtran.bst builds a broken .bbl when nothing is cited yet, so the IEEE scaffold ships without the two bibliography lines. Add \bibliographystyle{IEEEtran} and \bibliography{references} once references.bib holds at least one entry that the text actually cites. plainnat tolerates an empty bibliography, which is why assets/article.tex keeps its bibliography lines from the start. Typst's bibliography("references.bib") fails on an empty file for the same reason, so add that line with the first entry too.

House style while writing LaTeX: one sentence per source line, ~ before every \ref and \cite, \cref from cleveref for cross-references, booktabs for tables, caption above tables and below figures, \label after \caption, \[...\] rather than $$...$$, align rather than eqnarray.

6. Point the compiler at it

Call set_main_doc with the new main document. Skip this only when the project already compiles from that exact path.

7. Compile and verify

1. compile. Success looks like success: true with an empty errors list.
2. On failure, get_log for the tail and hand the loop to oleafly-latex-build rather than guessing here.
3. On success, confirm the shape: get_pdf_text to check that the title, abstract and section headings landed, and verify_pdf_pages when you need to see the layout (two columns, page count, a title block that has not collided). verify_pdf_pages is off unless the user enabled PDF page capture in Settings; if it returns unavailable, use get_pdf_text and say what you could not check.

8. Seed the research layout

Create research/sources/ and research/notes/ so literature work has somewhere to land, matching oleafly-research-loop. Add a one-line research/notes/README.md naming what goes where. Skip this if those folders already exist.

9. Hand off

• Prose, evidence discipline, IMRaD structure, reporting guidelines: scientific-writing.
• Literature and citation keys: oleafly-literature-sweep and citation-management.
• Figures: oleafly-figure-prep.
• Compile failures: oleafly-latex-build.
• Turning the finished shell into something reusable: template-generate.

Failure handling

Artifacts

main.tex or main.typ, sections/*, references.bib, figures/, research/sources/, research/notes/, and a compiled PDF.

Done when

• Venue, track, stage and anonymity are recorded or explicitly marked unknown
• The engine is set and the extension matches it, and pdflatex appears nowhere
• main.tex (or main.typ) inputs every section file
• references.bib exists and contains no invented entries
• set_main_doc points at the new main document
• compile returns success with an empty error list
• The PDF was checked with get_pdf_text, and with verify_pdf_pages when it was available
• research/sources/ and research/notes/ exist
• The next skill is named for the user

From a terminal

Outside the app (a terminal, or a coding agent with a shell), the oleafly command does the same work. Always pass --json and check ok.