Template Compliance

Compare a research project's LaTeX preamble against the working-paper template bundled with the installed latex skill. Classify every difference, produce a scored report, and optionally apply changes interactively.

When to Use

After the template has been updated and you want to check older papers
Before submission — verify the preamble is clean and up to date
When a paper has mysterious compilation issues (often a stale preamble)
During periodic maintenance or system-audit
When starting work on a paper that hasn't been touched in a while

When NOT to Use

Setting up a new project — the separate init-project-research workflow copies the template; this skill audits an existing project
Fixing compilation errors — use latex first, then run this
Non-LaTeX projects — this skill is LaTeX-specific

Critical Rules

Never edit without --apply. Default mode is report-only. Without --apply, the skill produces a report and exits.
Never auto-apply Conflict items. Conflicts always require explicit user confirmation via the available structured-question mechanism.
Semantic comparison, not line-by-line. Compare packages, options, commands, and environments as logical units — not raw text diffs.
Preserve project-specific additions. Items classified as Keep are informational. Never suggest removing them unless they conflict with a template feature.
Template is the reference, not the authority. Projects may legitimately diverge. The skill reports differences — the user decides what to act on.
Compile after applying. If --apply makes any changes, always verify with latex.

Protocol

Phase 1: Locate & Parse

Resolve the project path. Accept as argument or use CWD. Resolve to absolute path.
Find the project's preamble files. The canonical location is the Overleaf document, accessed via the paper/ symlink in the project directory. Search in this order:
- New format (.sty files): paper/your-template.sty + paper/your-bib-template.sty (Overleaf symlink — preferred)
- Legacy format: paper/settings.tex (Overleaf symlink)
- If no paper/ symlink exists, check the project root for your-template.sty (or settings.tex)
- Project root: your-template.sty + your-bib-template.sty or settings.tex (for local-only projects without Overleaf)
- Any \input{settings} or \usepackage{your-template} in main.tex pointing elsewhere
NEVER check settings/style files in subdirectories like docs/, to-sort/, docs/venues/, or any non-paper location. Only the main paper's preamble is relevant.

New papers: copy templates/venues/_shared/user-math.sty in alongside the venue kit and \usepackage{user-math} (clash-safe; [notheorems] if the kit owns theorem envs) rather than hand-declaring \E/\Prob/\R/\argmax. Existing compiling papers are not retrofitted — see templates/venues/_shared/README.md.

If no preamble files are found, report error and exit.
Read the template. Resolve the sibling installed skill path, then use ../latex/templates/working-paper/ relative to this skill. Compare the two .sty files there, with settings.tex as a legacy fallback when present.

If no template files are found, report "Bundled working-paper template not found — reinstall or repair the latex skill" and exit.
Parse both files into semantic blocks:

| Block | What to extract | |-------|----------------| | Packages | Package name + options (e.g., [dvipsnames]{xcolor}) | | Hyperref | All \hypersetup{} key-value pairs + \urlstyle | | Bibliography | System (biblatex/natbib), all options, \addbibresource, source mappings, field clearing (\AtEveryBibitem), possessive citation commands | | Custom commands | All \newcommand, \renewcommand, \DeclareMathOperator, \newcolumntype | | Theorem environments | All \newtheorem declarations with their styles and counters | | Build config | Canonical .latexmkrc byte identity and optional .latexmkrc.local validity |

For packages, normalise options: \usepackage[a,b]{pkg} and \usepackage[b,a]{pkg} are equivalent.

Phase 2: Compare

For each semantic block, compare the project against the template. Detailed check tables for each block: references/comparison-checklist.md

Blocks to compare: Packages (missing, extra, options, load order, duplicates) · Hyperref (missing keys, different values, urlstyle, cleveref ordering) · Bibliography (system mismatch, options, source mappings, field clearing, possessive citations) · Custom Commands (missing, different definitions, column types, math commands) · Theorem Environments (missing, different styles/counters, numberwithin) · Build Config (canonical .latexmkrc identity and local-supplement policy)

Phase 3: Classify

Label every difference with: Adopt (missing from project, safe to add) · Keep (project-specific, informational) · Conflict (needs human judgement, always ask) · Drop (redundant/superseded).

Full classification rules and when-to-use-each-label guidance: references/comparison-checklist.md

Phase 4: Check Auxiliaries

Check main.tex (preamble loading, documentclass, printbibliography, no stale bibliography commands), compare .latexmkrc byte-for-byte with the resolved canonical, and inspect any .latexmkrc.local for a forbidden $pdf_mode assignment.

Full check tables: references/comparison-checklist.md

Phase 5: Report

Produce a structured compliance report. Full format: references/report-format.md

Quality Score

Apply numeric quality scoring using the shared framework: ../shared/quality-scoring.md

Start at 100 and deduct per issue:

| Tier | Deduction | Examples | |------|-----------|----------| | Critical | -15 to -25 | Missing or divergent canonical .latexmkrc, natbib vs biblatex conflict, missing hyperref, hyperref/cleveref load order wrong | | Major | -5 to -14 | Missing common packages (booktabs, microtype, enumitem), missing dvipsnames, duplicate package loads, missing custom commands (\todo, \red, \blue), missing source mappings, missing field clearing, missing cleveref | | Minor | -1 to -4 | Missing optional packages, different hyperref colours, missing theorem environments, missing math operators, missing \numberwithin |

Verdicts

| Score | Verdict | Meaning | |-------|---------|---------| | 95-100 | Ship | Fully aligned with template | | 90-94 | Ship with notes | Minor gaps, acceptable to proceed | | 80-89 | Revise | Meaningful gaps — fix before submission | | 60-79 | Revise (major) | Significant drift — several features missing | | 0-59 | Blocked | Major conflicts or missing infrastructure — consider full resync |

Report Sections

Header: Project name, path, score, date
Summary table: Counts by classification (Adopt / Keep / Conflict / Drop)
Per-item detail: Grouped by semantic block, showing classification + what/why
Auxiliaries: main.tex and .latexmkrc checks
Recommendations: Prioritised list of suggested actions

If --apply is not set, end with:

Run `latex-template <path> --apply` to interactively apply changes.

Phase 6: Apply (--apply mode only)

Apply changes in dependency order to avoid compilation breakage:

Package options (e.g., add dvipsnames to xcolor)
Missing packages (insert in correct position relative to existing packages)
Hyperref configuration (update \hypersetup{} block)
Bibliography changes (only if user approves — always the available structured-question mechanism for system changes)
Custom commands (append after existing commands section)
Theorem environments (append after existing theorem section)
.latexmkrc (with approval, copy the resolved canonical verbatim; migrate legitimate project settings to .latexmkrc.local and never set $pdf_mode there)
Cleanup (remove duplicates, drop redundancies)

Apply Rules

Show a summary first. Before making any edits, present the full list of changes to be applied (Adopt + Drop items) and ask for confirmation.
Conflicts are always individual. Each Conflict item gets its own the available structured-question mechanism with the template version, project version, and context.
Keep items are never touched. They appear in the report but are skipped during apply.
Preserve comments and whitespace. When inserting packages, match the project's existing formatting style (e.g., if packages are grouped with comment headers, add to the right group).
Log what was changed. After applying, list every edit made.

Phase 7: Verify (--apply mode only)

After applying changes:

Compile with latex. This handles any secondary issues the changes might introduce.
Report the result:
- If compilation succeeds: report success + number of changes applied
- If compilation fails: report the error, suggest reverting specific changes, and note which change likely caused the issue

What This Skill Does NOT Do

Does not rewrite main.tex structure. Only checks \input{settings} and bibliography commands.
Does not check content quality. The separate proofread workflow covers prose quality when that additional review is wanted.
Does not manage .bib files. Use an installed bibliography validator, or perform direct cite-key and metadata checks.
Does not handle journal-specific formatting. Use retarget-journal for that.
Does not compare across projects. Checks one project at a time against the template.

Examples

Report only (default)

"latex-template ~/papers/costly-voice"

Produces a compliance report without making any changes.

Apply mode

"latex-template ~/papers/costly-voice --apply"

Produces the report, then interactively applies Adopt and Drop changes with user confirmation.

Current directory

"Check my template compliance"

Runs on the current working directory in report-only mode.

After template update

"I updated the template — check all my papers"

Run on each project individually. This skill checks one project at a time.

Cross-References

../latex/templates/working-paper/ — the bundled template this skill compares against
latex — used in Phase 7 to verify compilation after applying changes
audit-project-research — complementary: checks directory structure, this checks LaTeX preamble
Installed bibliography validator — optional complement for citation keys and metadata; this skill checks bibliography system configuration
init-project-research — creates projects from the template; this skill verifies ongoing compliance
retarget-journal — handles journal-specific formatting (different concern)