auto-paper-improvement-loop
GitHub对论文草稿执行多轮审查-实施-重编译的迭代改进循环。通过重置上下文确保审查独立性，利用编辑白名单限制修改范围，并支持断点续传与状态检查点，适用于需要高质量迭代优化的场景。
Trigger Scenarios
Install
npx skills add NeverSight/learn-skills.dev --skill auto-paper-improvement-loop -g -y
SKILL.md
Frontmatter
{
"name": "auto-paper-improvement-loop",
"description": "Run multi-round review-implement-recompile improvement cycles on a paper draft. Use when a draft needs iterative writing quality passes with reviewer independence (fresh context per review round), edit-whitelist gating, and crash-resumable state. Distinct from paper-reviewer-simulator (report only) and paper-draft-consistency-editor (single pass).",
"allowed-tools": "Read, Write, Edit, Bash, Glob",
"argument-hint": "[paper-dir] [--rounds <N>] [--edit-whitelist <ops>] [--mode writing|theory|format]"
}
Auto Paper Improvement Loop
Run controlled, multi-round review → implement → recompile cycles on a paper draft. Each review round uses a fresh context to prevent confirmation bias; an edit-whitelist gates what may be changed; state is checkpointed after each round so sessions can resume.
Use this skill when:
- a paper draft needs iterative writing quality improvement beyond a single-pass consistency edit
- reviewer independence matters: prior-context reviews inflate scores and miss real problems
- certain parts of the paper (theorems, numerics, citations) should be frozen during a writing pass
- a long improvement session may span multiple agent sessions and needs crash recovery
- you want a logged diff of what changed between draft versions
Do not use this skill as a substitute for real reviewer feedback — use paper-reviewer-simulator first to identify structural risks. Do not use this skill to make decisions about experimental results — use result-diagnosis or research-results-auditor before running improvement loops.
Pair this skill with:
paper-reviewer-simulatorbefore the first loop round to identify high-priority issuespaper-draft-consistency-editorfor a single targeted pass when full multi-round iteration is not neededpaper-writing-assistantwhen a round's review flags sections that need substantial rewritingsubmit-paperafter the final round to verify submission readiness
Skill Directory Layout
<installed-skill-dir>/
├── SKILL.md
└── templates/
└── improvement-log.md
Progressive Loading
- Read
templates/improvement-log.mdbefore starting a new loop. - Read
paper-writing-assistant/references/edit-whitelist-contract.mdto select or customize the edit whitelist preset for this loop. - Read
paper/.agent/writing-contract.mdwhen it exists to understand protected invariants. - Read
paper/.agent/PAPER_IMPROVEMENT_STATE.jsonwhen resuming an interrupted loop.
Core Principles
Reviewer independence is non-negotiable. A reviewer that continues from the writer's session context produces inflated scores. Each review sub-task must start with no memory of prior rounds or the author's intentions — only the paper text.
Edit-whitelist prevents scope creep. A writing-quality pass should not silently introduce new claims, new citations, or new numerical values. Declare what is frozen before the loop starts.
Two rounds is usually enough. Round 1 catches the most obvious issues. Round 2 catches what round 1's fixes introduced. A third round rarely finds genuinely new problems and risks over-polishing.
Checkpoint after every round. Multi-round loops over long documents take time. Write state after each completed round.
Step 1 — Configure the Loop
Decide before starting:
Rounds: 2 (default) | 1 (quick) | 3 (high-stakes submission)
Mode: writing | theory | format | full
Edit whitelist — FROZEN (may not be changed):
- [ ] Theorem/lemma/proof bodies
- [ ] Any numerical result values
- [ ] Citation keys and reference list
- [ ] Section structure and ordering
Edit whitelist — ALLOWED:
- [ ] Prose rewording for clarity and flow
- [ ] Paragraph restructuring within sections
- [ ] Caption rewording
- [ ] Transition sentences
- [ ] Notation consistency fixes
Save the configuration and a snapshot of the current PDF (or .tex hash) as the baseline.
Step 2 — Initialize State
Create paper/.agent/PAPER_IMPROVEMENT_STATE.json:
{
"loop_id": "<paper-dir>-<YYYY-MM-DD>",
"rounds_planned": 2,
"rounds_completed": 0,
"mode": "writing",
"edit_whitelist_frozen": ["theorems", "numerics", "citations"],
"baseline_tex_hash": "<sha256>",
"round_summaries": [],
"status": "in-progress"
}
Step 3 — Run a Review Round (Reviewer Independence Protocol)
For each round:
-
Prepare a self-contained review prompt that includes only the paper text — no prior review history, no author intent, no session context.
-
Run the review as an isolated task using
sidecar-task-runnerwith a fresh Codex session (codex exec --ephemeral), or explicitly start a new Claude session with no continuity. Never continue from the current agent session to run the review. -
The review prompt should ask for:
- section-by-section clarity issues (confusing sentences, missing transitions)
- argument flow problems (claims not supported by the evidence in that section)
- presentation issues (figures/tables not mentioned in prose, undefined notation)
- format violations against the writing contract
- a ranked list of the 5 most impactful fixes
-
Save the review output to
paper/.agent/sidecars/improvement-round-<N>/output.md.
Step 4 — Implement Fixes (Edit-Whitelist Enforcement)
For each fix from the review:
- Check whether the fix touches a frozen category. If yes, log the rejection:
REJECTED: [fix description] — touches frozen category [category] - For allowed fixes, implement them in the
.texsource. - Recompile to confirm the paper builds without errors.
- Log the implemented changes in the round summary.
Step 5 — Restatement Regression Check (Theory Mode)
When mode includes theory:
- For each theorem/lemma in the main paper, locate its corresponding restatement in the appendix.
- Confirm the statement body is byte-identical or semantically equivalent.
- Flag any drift between main-paper statement and appendix restatement.
This check catches accidental divergence introduced by prose edits near theorem environments.
Step 6 — Update State and Log
After each round, update PAPER_IMPROVEMENT_STATE.json:
{
"rounds_completed": <N>,
"round_summaries": [
{
"round": 1,
"review_output": "paper/.agent/sidecars/improvement-round-1/output.md",
"fixes_implemented": <count>,
"fixes_rejected": <count>,
"recompile_status": "success"
}
]
}
Write a human-readable log using templates/improvement-log.md.
Step 7 — Final Format Check
After all rounds:
- Page count is within venue limit
- No duplicate
\label{}keys - No
\ref{}to undefined labels - No obvious overfull hbox warnings in the compile log (check for
Overfull \hboxlines > 10pt) - Abstract word count is within venue limit if specified
Step 8 — Route Next Steps
submit-paper: run final submission preflight after the looppaper-reviewer-simulator: run a fresh simulation if structural issues were found during the looppaper-writing-assistant: draft new content for sections flagged as needing substantial work- Mark
status: "complete"inPAPER_IMPROVEMENT_STATE.json
Crash Recovery
If the loop is interrupted:
- Read
paper/.agent/PAPER_IMPROVEMENT_STATE.jsonto findrounds_completed. - Resume from the next round. Do not re-run completed rounds.
- If
recompile_statusis notsuccessfor the last completed round, fix the compile error before continuing.
Final Sanity Check
Before marking the loop complete:
- all planned rounds are done
- each round's review used a fresh context (no continuation)
- edit-whitelist rejections are logged
- paper compiles cleanly
- improvement log is saved
PAPER_IMPROVEMENT_STATE.jsonhasstatus: "complete"
Version History
- e0220ca Current 2026-07-05 21:34
