paper-writer — Claude Code skill: what it does, how to install
A skill that writes paper prose from the author's own notes, results and drafts, for a paragraph or a whole manuscript. Every claim has to trace to a source.
npx skills add HKUSTDial/Supervisor-Skills --skill paper-writer -a claude-codeWhat paper-writer does
You bring the ideas, the study design and the results. The skill brings the English, whether the work is experimental or textual, and whether you want one paragraph or a finished draft.
The workflow runs in six phases, opening with scoping, an evidence inventory and a plan of the sections before a single sentence is written. A claim without a source gets searched for, reworded or cut. Bracketed placeholder tags never survive into the output, and a statement is never allowed to be stronger than its evidence. Finished results and expected results get different wording, so they cannot blur together.
Citation checks are handed to sub-agents with a fresh context. Where the environment has no scholarly search tool and no shell access to public indexes, the skill cites only your own references and says so in the delivery note. Introductions are passed to intro-drafter, language polishing to paper-polish. The licence is CC-BY-NC-SA-4.0, so commercial use is ruled out.
What it helps with
- turn rough notes into a Methods section
- draft an abstract from finished results
- write an introduction paragraph from a half-formed idea
- produce a complete first draft of a paper
- check that each claim in the text has a citable source
Example prompts for the agent
- Take
results.mdand write the Methods section from it, numbers included. - Draft the Discussion in the style this venue expects.
- Give me a full first draft of the paper from these notes and tables.
How to install paper-writer
1Skills CLI (Vercel)
npx skills add HKUSTDial/Supervisor-Skills --skill paper-writer -a claude-code2Manually: put the files in place
~/.claude/skills/paper-writer/SKILL.mdCopy the whole skill folder; for one project use .claude/skills/paper-writer/
1Skills CLI (Vercel)
npx skills add HKUSTDial/Supervisor-Skills --skill paper-writer -a codex2Manually: put the files in place
.agents/skills/paper-writer/SKILL.mdFor all projects use ~/.agents/skills/
1Skills CLI (Vercel)
npx skills add HKUSTDial/Supervisor-Skills --skill paper-writer -a cursor2Manually: put the files in place
.cursor/skills/paper-writer/SKILL.mdCursor also reads .agents/skills/ and .claude/skills/
1GitHub CLI
gh skill install HKUSTDial/Supervisor-Skills paper-writer2Manually: put the files in place
.github/skills/paper-writer/SKILL.md1Skills CLI (Vercel)
npx skills add HKUSTDial/Supervisor-Skills --skill paper-writer -a gemini-cli2Platform CLI
gemini skills install https://github.com/HKUSTDial/Supervisor-Skills --path skills/paper-writerManually: put the files in place
.devin/skills/paper-writer/SKILL.mdThe legacy .windsurf/skills/ path still works
Skills CLI (Vercel)
npx skills add HKUSTDial/Supervisor-Skills --skill paper-writer -a opencodeClaude.ai
Zip the folder and upload it in Settings → Capabilities → Skills
Step by step, with commands for each platform: How to install skills in Claude Code: five ways
Questions about paper-writer
How do I install paper-writer in Claude Code?
Run npx skills add HKUSTDial/Supervisor-Skills --skill paper-writer -a claude-code. The skill file ends up at ~/.claude/skills/paper-writer/SKILL.md.
What does paper-writer do?
It writes paper prose from materials you supply: a section, a paragraph, or a whole manuscript. Facts are tied either to your files, to retrieval the session actually performed, or to background knowledge in the field that carries no numbers or names.
What happens without a scholarly search tool?
The skill falls back to a closed-book mode, citing only the references you provided and keeping citation statements at citation level. The delivery note records that no independent retrieval was available.
