Drafts & templates

Required confirmation#

Before reading the workspace content, the agent asks one direct question and waits for the answer:

Should I generate:
A. a flexible journal draft, or
B. a manuscript for a specific journal template?

If B, which journal should I follow and where are its official template files?

The skill may list filenames to locate the workspace, but it does not open, summarize, or interpret source content before this checkpoint.

Draft mode#

Choose draft mode when the argument and evidence need to stabilize before formatting for a venue. The result uses familiar article sections and conservative LaTeX dependencies.

• Portable article structure with abstract, introduction, methods, results, discussion, and references as applicable.
• Ordinary, readable LaTeX files for easy editing and review.
• Neutral formatting that can be migrated to a journal later.
• An Overleaf-ready package even without a target journal.

Specific template mode#

Choose this mode when the target venue is known and you have official template material. The agent uses those files as constraints instead of recreating the journal style from memory.

Prepare the template package#

Place the full template package in a clearly named folder inside the source workspace. Include the sample article because it often documents required commands better than the class file alone.

journal-template/
├── sample-manuscript.tex
├── journal.cls
├── journal.sty                # if provided
├── bibliography-style.bst     # if provided
├── author-guidelines.pdf
└── template-notes.md           # optional

Changing mode later#

You can move from draft mode to a specific template after the manuscript stabilizes. Keep the original draft output, copy the original source materials and current official template into a new fresh folder, and start a target-mode pass.