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/setup-paper

Starts a new paper from the repo's LaTeX boilerplate, filling title, authors and affiliations, inserting tagged placeholder text and compiling a test PDF.

Category: drafting
Field: finance
License: MIT (repo LICENSE, "Copyright (c) 2025 Alex Dickerson")
Updated: 2026-03-24
Stages: paper-drafting

Setup Paper

Scaffold a new academic paper from the repo's LaTeX boilerplate template. The template includes 6 table exemplars, 1 figure, and 2 equation styles — all tagged [REMOVE] — so Claude has maximum context on formatting conventions.

Examples

  • /setup-paper "My Paper Title" — basic scaffold with placeholder authors
  • /setup-paper "My Paper Title" --authors "John Smith (MIT), Jane Doe (LSE)" — with authors
  • /setup-paper "My Paper Title" --authors "John Smith (MIT)" --topic "asset pricing anomalies" — with topic-aware filler

Workflow

Phase 1: Parse Arguments

Extract from $ARGUMENTS: - Title (required): first quoted string or all text before -- - --authors (optional): comma-separated "Name (Affiliation)" pairs - --topic (optional): one-line description for smarter filler generation

If title is missing, use AskUserQuestion to prompt.

Phase 2: Resolve Target Directory

Determine where to write main.tex and references.bib:

  1. If cwd is inside projects/<name>/ (any depth), target = projects/<name>/latex/
  2. If cwd already ends with /latex/, target = cwd
  3. Otherwise, ask the user which project to target or whether to write to cwd

Create the target directory if it does not exist.

Phase 3: Locate Boilerplate

Find the repo root by walking up from cwd looking for boilerplate/template_main.tex. The boilerplate lives at:

Text Only
<repo_root>/boilerplate/template_main.tex
<repo_root>/boilerplate/template_references.bib

If the boilerplate files are not found, stop and tell the user.

Phase 4: Copy and Transform

  1. Read boilerplate/template_main.tex
  2. Read boilerplate/template_references.bib
  3. Write both to the target directory as main.tex and references.bib
  4. Update the {} line: replace template_references with references

Phase 5: Replace Placeholders

Find and replace these [REMOVE] placeholders in main.tex:

Find Replace with
[REMOVE] Your Paper Title Here User's title
[REMOVE] First Author\thanks{...} block Generated from --authors (see below)
[REMOVE] Second Author\thanks{...} block Remove if only one author, or replace
[REMOVE] We gratefully acknowledge... [REMOVE] Acknowledgments go here. (keep tag)
[REMOVE] This paper studies... (abstract) Topic-aware filler if --topic, else keep
[REMOVE] Keyword One; ... [REMOVE] Keyword One; Keyword Two; Keyword Three. (keep tag)
[REMOVE] G12; C12. [REMOVE] G12; C12. (keep tag)

Also replace the Internet Appendix title: | [REMOVE] Your Paper Title Here (in IA section) | User's title |

Author block generation from --authors "Name1 (Affil1), Name2 (Affil2)":

TeX
\author{
{\normalsize Name1\thanks{{\scriptsize
Affil1; \url{name1@university.edu}}}}
\and
{\normalsize Name2\thanks{{\scriptsize
Affil2; \url{name2@university.edu}}}}
}

If no --authors provided, leave the template's placeholder authors intact.

Phase 6: Write Filler Content

If --topic is provided, rewrite the introduction filler (~250 words) to: - Open with a concrete claim about the topic - Follow motivation → gap → contribution → roadmap structure - Cite \citet{FamaFrench_1992}, \citet{FamaFrench_1993}, and \citet{FamaFrench_2015} - Tag every sentence with [REMOVE]

Also write 2–3 sentence [REMOVE]-tagged filler for Data, Methodology, Results, and Conclusion sections that references the topic.

If no --topic, leave the template's default filler intact.

Do NOT remove the example tables, figures, or equations. These serve as formatting exemplars.

Phase 7: Compile

Run the standard build cycle using the pdflatex path from canonical local state reported by tools/bootstrap.py audit:

Bash
cd {target_dir} && pdflatex -interaction=nonstopmode main.tex && bibtex main && pdflatex -interaction=nonstopmode main.tex && pdflatex -interaction=nonstopmode main.tex

Report any errors or warnings. If pdflatex is not available, skip compilation and note it in the summary.

Phase 8: Summary

Print the structured summary below.

Table Exemplar Index

The template includes 7 table styles for reference:

Label Archetype Location Pattern
tab:example_panel Panel results + t-stats Data \scalebox{0.75}, 2 panels, \cmidrule, \addlinespace
tab:example_descriptive Summary statistics Data \scalebox{0.85}, no panels, percentiles
tab:example_definitions Lookup / definitions Data p{6cm} text column, \texttt{} mnemonics
tab:example_decomposition Multi-leg decomposition Results \scalebox{0.72}, Long/Short/L-S groups
tab:example_comparison Compact comparison Results \scalebox{0.78}, Mean + Alpha side-by-side
tab:example_summary Appendix summary Appendix A No scaling, counts + aggregate stats
tab:ia_example IA subsample results Internet Appendix \scalebox{0.80}, Roman numeral numbering (IA.I)

Output

Text Only
PAPER SETUP COMPLETE
====================

Title: {title}
Authors: {author list or "template placeholders (replace [REMOVE] tags)"}
Topic: {topic or "none"}
Target: {target_dir}
Files created:
  {target_dir}/main.tex       (from boilerplate/template_main.tex)
  {target_dir}/references.bib (from boilerplate/template_references.bib)

Compile: SUCCESS / FAILED / SKIPPED (pdflatex not available)
Pages: {N}

Section keys (for /write-section):
  introduction, data, methodology, results, conclusion, appendix-a, internet-appendix

Table exemplars (7):
  tab:example_panel, tab:example_descriptive, tab:example_definitions,
  tab:example_decomposition, tab:example_comparison, tab:example_summary,
  tab:ia_example

[REMOVE] items: {count} across {N} sections

Next steps:
  1. Search for [REMOVE] and replace all filler content with your text
  2. Add your .bib entries to references.bib (FF 1992/1993/2015 included as demos)
  3. Keep example tables as formatting reference until you replace with your own
  4. Run /build-paper to recompile after edits