/paper-compile

name: paper-compile
description: "Compile LaTeX paper to PDF, fix errors, and verify output. Use when user says \"编译论文\", \"compile paper\", \"build PDF\", \"生成PDF\", or wants to compile LaTeX into a submission-ready PDF."
argument-hint: "[paper-directory]"
allowed-tools: Bash(*), Read, Write, Edit, Grep, Glob

Paper Compile: LaTeX to Submission-Ready PDF

Compile the LaTeX paper and fix any issues: **$ARGUMENTS**

Constants

• **COMPILER = `latexmk`** — LaTeX build tool. Handles multi-pass compilation automatically.
• **ENGINE = `pdflatex`** — LaTeX engine. Options: `pdflatex` (default), `xelatex` (for CJK/custom fonts), `lualatex`.
• **MAX_COMPILE_ATTEMPTS = 3** — Maximum attempts to fix errors and recompile.
• **PAPER_DIR = `paper/`** — Directory containing LaTeX source files.
• **MAX_PAGES** — Page limit. ML conferences: main body to Conclusion end (excluding references & appendix). ICLR=9, NeurIPS=9, ICML=8. **IEEE venues: references ARE included in page count.** IEEE journal ≈ 12-14 pages, IEEE conference ≈ 5-8 pages (all inclusive).

Workflow

Step 1: Verify Prerequisites

Check that the compilation environment is ready:

# Check LaTeX installation
which pdflatex && which latexmk && which bibtex

# If not installed, provide instructions:
# macOS: brew install --cask mactex-no-gui
# Ubuntu: sudo apt-get install texlive-full
# Server: conda install -c conda-forge texlive-core

Verify all required files exist:

# Must exist
ls $PAPER_DIR/main.tex

# Should exist
ls $PAPER_DIR/references.bib
ls $PAPER_DIR/sections/*.tex
ls $PAPER_DIR/figures/*.pdf 2>/dev/null || ls $PAPER_DIR/figures/*.png 2>/dev/null

Step 2: First Compilation Attempt

cd $PAPER_DIR

# Clean previous build artifacts
latexmk -C

# Full compilation (pdflatex + bibtex + pdflatex × 2)
latexmk -pdf -interaction=nonstopmode -halt-on-error main.tex 2>&1 | tee compile.log

Step 3: Error Diagnosis and Auto-Fix

If compilation fails, read `compile.log` and fix common errors:

**Missing packages:**

! LaTeX Error: File `somepackage.sty' not found.

→ Install via `tlmgr install somepackage` or remove the `\usepackage` if unused.

**Undefined references:**

LaTeX Warning: Reference `fig:xyz' on page 3 undefined

→ Check `\label{fig:xyz}` exists in the correct figure environment.

**Missing figures:**

! LaTeX Error: File `figures/fig1.pdf' not found.

→ Check if the file exists with a different extension (.png vs .pdf). Update the `\includegraphics` path.

**Citation undefined:**

LaTeX Warning: Citation `smith2024' undefined

→ Add the missing entry to `references.bib` or fix the citation key.

**`[VERIFY]` markers in text:** → Search for `[VERIFY]` markers left by `/paper-write`. These indicate unverified citations or facts. Search for the correct information or flag to the user.

**Overfull hbox:**

Overfull \hbox (12.5pt too wide) in paragraph at lines 42--45

→ Minor: usually ignorable. If severe (>20pt), rephrase the text or adjust figure width.

**BibTeX errors:**

I was expecting a `,' or a `}'---line 15 of references.bib

→ Fix BibTeX syntax (missing comma, unmatched braces, special characters in title).

**`\crefname` undefined for custom theorem types:** → Ensure `\crefname{assumption}{Assumption}{Assumptions}` and similar are in the preamble after `\newtheorem{assumption}`.

Step 4: Iterative Fix Loop

for attempt in 1..MAX_COMPILE_ATTEMPTS:
    compile()
    if success:
        break
    parse_errors()
    auto_fix()

For each error: 1. Read the error message from `compile.log` 2. Locate the source file and line number 3. Apply the fix 4. Recompile

**Stuck after 2 attempts?** If Codex plugin is installed, invoke `/codex:rescue` — Codex can independently read the LaTeX source and `compile.log` to spot issues Claude missed (e.g., conflicting packages, encoding problems, subtle macro errors). If not installed, continue with Claude's own diagnosis.

Step 5: Post-Compilation Checks

After successful compilation, verify the output:

# Check PDF exists and has content
ls -la main.pdf
# Check page count
pdfinfo main.pdf | grep Pages

# macOS: open for visual inspection
# open main.pdf

**Visual review (automated):** If the compiled PDF exists, read it directly to check visual presentation:

• Figure quality: readable labels, legible text, distinguishable colors
• Layout: no orphaned section headers, no awkward page breaks
• Figures appear near their first text reference (not pages away)
• Tables: aligned columns, consistent decimal precision
• No overfull content visibly extending past margins

This is a quick visual scan, not a full review — the improvement loop does deeper visual review.

**Automated checks:**

• [ ] PDF file exists and is > 100KB (not empty/corrupt)
• [ ] Total page count is reasonable (MAX_PAGES + appendix + references)
• [ ] No "??" in the PDF (undefined references — grep the log)
• [ ] No "[?]" in the PDF (undefined citations — grep the log)
• [ ] Figures are rendered (not missing image placeholders)

# Check for undefined references
grep -c "LaTeX Warning.*undefined" compile.log

# Check for missing citations
grep -c "Citation.*undefined" compile.log

Step 6: Page Count Verification

**CRITICAL**: Verify paper fits within MAX_PAGES.

**For ML conferences (ICLR/NeurIPS/ICML/CVPR/ACL/AAAI):** Main body = first page through end of Conclusion section (not necessarily §5 — could be §6, §7, or §8 depending on structure). References and appendix are NOT counted.

**For IEEE venues:** The TOTAL page count (including references) must fit within the limit. There is no separate "main body" counting — everything up to and including the references counts.

**Precise check using `pdftotext`:**

# Extract text and find where Conclusion ends vs References begin
pdftotext main.pdf - | python3 -c "
import sys
text = sys.stdin.read()
pages = text.split('\f')
for i, page i