/aris-research-lit

name: aris-research-lit
description: Search and analyze research papers, find related work, summarize key ideas. Use when user says "find papers", "related work", "literature review", "what does this paper say", or needs to understand academic papers.
argument-hint: "[paper-topic-or-url]"
allowed-tools: Bash(*), Read, Glob, Grep, WebSearch, WebFetch, Write, Agent, mcp__zotero__*, mcp__obsidian-vault__*
license: MIT
metadata:
  author: wanshuiyin/ARIS
  version: "1.0.0"

Research Literature Review

Research topic: $ARGUMENTS

Constants

• **PAPER_LIBRARY** — Local directory containing user's paper collection (PDFs). Check these paths in order:

1. `papers/` in the current project directory 2. `literature/` in the current project directory 3. Custom path specified by user in `CLAUDE.md` under `## Paper Library`

• **MAX_LOCAL_PAPERS = 20** — Maximum number of local PDFs to scan (read first 3 pages each). If more are found, prioritize by filename relevance to the topic.
• **ARXIV_DOWNLOAD = false** — When `true`, download top 3-5 most relevant arXiv PDFs to PAPER_LIBRARY after search. When `false` (default), only fetch metadata (title, abstract, authors) via arXiv API — no files are downloaded.
• **ARXIV_MAX_DOWNLOAD = 5** — Maximum number of PDFs to download when `ARXIV_DOWNLOAD = true`.

> 💡 Overrides: > - `/aris-research-lit "topic" — paper library: ~/my_papers/` — custom local PDF path > - `/aris-research-lit "topic" — sources: zotero, local` — only search Zotero + local PDFs > - `/aris-research-lit "topic" — sources: zotero` — only search Zotero > - `/aris-research-lit "topic" — sources: web` — only search the web (skip all local) > - `/aris-research-lit "topic" — sources: web, semantic-scholar` — also search Semantic Scholar for published venue papers (IEEE, ACM, etc.) > - `/aris-research-lit "topic" — arxiv download: true` — download top relevant arXiv PDFs > - `/aris-research-lit "topic" — arxiv download: true, max download: 10` — download up to 10 PDFs

Data Sources

This skill checks multiple sources **in priority order**. All are optional — if a source is not configured or not requested, skip it silently.

Source Selection

Parse `$ARGUMENTS` for a `— sources:` directive:

• **If `— sources:` is specified**: Only search the listed sources (comma-separated). Valid values: `zotero`, `obsidian`, `local`, `web`, `aris-semantic-scholar`, `all`.
• **If not specified**: Default to `all` — search every available source in priority order (`aris-semantic-scholar` is **excluded** from `all`; it must be explicitly listed).

Examples:

/aris-research-lit "diffusion models"                                    → all (default, no S2)
/aris-research-lit "diffusion models" — sources: all                     → all (default, no S2)
/aris-research-lit "diffusion models" — sources: zotero                  → Zotero only
/aris-research-lit "diffusion models" — sources: zotero, web             → Zotero + web
/aris-research-lit "diffusion models" — sources: local                   → local PDFs only
/aris-research-lit "topic" — sources: obsidian, local, web               → skip Zotero
/aris-research-lit "topic" — sources: web, semantic-scholar              → web + S2 API (IEEE/ACM venue papers)
/aris-research-lit "topic" — sources: all, semantic-scholar              → all + S2 API

Source Table

| Priority | Source | ID | How to detect | What it provides | |----------|--------|----|---------------|-----------------| | 1 | **Zotero** (via MCP) | `zotero` | Try calling any `mcp__zotero__*` tool — if unavailable, skip | Collections, tags, annotations, PDF highlights, BibTeX, semantic search | | 2 | **Obsidian** (via MCP) | `obsidian` | Try calling any `mcp__obsidian-vault__*` tool — if unavailable, skip | Research notes, paper summaries, tagged references, wikilinks | | 3 | **Local PDFs** | `local` | `Glob: papers/**/*.pdf, literature/**/*.pdf` | Raw PDF content (first 3 pages) | | 4 | **Web search** | `web` | Always available (WebSearch) | arXiv, Semantic Scholar, Google Scholar | | 5 | **Semantic Scholar API** | `aris-semantic-scholar` | `$ARIS_INFRA/tools/semantic_scholar_fetch.py` exists | Published venue papers (IEEE, ACM, Springer) with structured metadata: citation counts, venue info, TLDR. **Only runs when explicitly requested** via `— sources: semantic-scholar` or `— sources: web, semantic-scholar` |

> **Graceful degradation**: If no MCP servers are configured, the skill works exactly as before (local PDFs + web search). Zotero and Obsidian are pure additions.

Workflow

Step 0a: Search Zotero Library (if available)

**Skip this step entirely if Zotero MCP is not configured.**

Try calling a Zotero MCP tool (e.g., search). If it succeeds:

1. **Search by topic**: Use the Zotero search tool to find papers matching the research topic 2. **Read collections**: Check if the user has a relevant collection/folder for this topic 3. **Extract annotations**: For highly relevant papers, pull PDF highlights and notes — these represent what the user found important 4. **Export BibTeX**: Get citation data for relevant papers (useful for `/aris-paper-write` later) 5. **Compile results**: For each relevant Zotero entry, extract:

• Title, authors, year, venue
• User's annotations/highlights (if any)
• Tags the user assigned
• Which collection it belongs to

> 📚 Zotero annotations are gold — they show what the user personally highlighted as important, which is far more valuable than generic summaries.

Step 0b: Search Obsidian Vault (if available)

**Skip this step entirely if Obsidian MCP is not configured.**

Try calling an Obsidian MCP tool (e.g., search). If it succeeds:

1. **Search vault**: Search for notes related to the research topic 2. **Check tags**: Look for notes tagged with relevant topics (e.g., `#diffusion-models`, `#paper-review`) 3. **Read research notes**: For relevant notes, extract the user's own summaries and insights 4. **Follow links**: