init

Prepare the current folder, which holds a paper written with the official ACL LaTeX template, for the other acl-paper skills. LaTeX setup is out of scope: the template is assumed to be there.

PK below means python3 ${CLAUDE_PLUGIN_ROOT}/scripts/paperkit.py, run from the project root.

Ask the user every question in this skill; settle nothing by yourself. Existing files are extended, never overwritten.

1. Find the paper

Find .tex files that contain \documentclass and \usepackage[...]{acl}. One hit is the main file. Several hits: ask which. None: stop and say this plugin expects the ACL template (github.com/acl-org/acl-style-files).

2. pdftotext

Run command -v pdftotext. When it is missing, stop with ⚠️ and give the install command (macOS: brew install poppler, Debian/Ubuntu: sudo apt install poppler-utils, Windows: poppler via conda-forge or WSL). Re-check once the user says it is installed, then continue.

3. Python environment

The scripts for the literature sources run in a Python environment the user picks. Collect the candidates, then ask with AskUserQuestion:

• existing envs in the project (.venv/, venv/, env/)
• conda envs (conda env list, if conda exists)
• a new uv venv .venv in the project (offer only if uv exists, create only if picked)
• a path the user types

Resolve the choice to the interpreter's absolute path (<env>/bin/python) and confirm it runs (<python> --version, 3.10 or newer).

4. Packages

First settle the English variant. Run PK detect-english --main-tex <main.tex>: it counts American and British spellings in the existing text and returns a recommendation with its reason. Ask with AskUserQuestion, putting the recommended variant first with "(Recommended)" and the counts in its description (e.g. "British: 14 of 16 variant spellings, such as analyse, modelling"). Name mixed usage when both counts are above zero, since proofread will then flag the minority spellings.

Also ask, in the same AskUserQuestion round, whether the literature goes into git (check git rev-parse --is-inside-work-tree; outside a repo, still ask, since the project may become one or sync to Overleaf):

• files (Recommended): ignore literature/pdf/ and literature/md/. Publishers' PDFs are often not redistributable and make the repo large; notes, index and archive.bib stay versioned, and PK add can re-fetch the papers.
• all: ignore the whole literature/ folder, notes and archive included.
• none: version everything, for private repos where co-authors should get the PDFs too.

Also ask, in the same round, what the paper is submitted to; guidelines-check, camera-ready, reviewer, rebuttal, revision and proofread branch on it:

• venue: acl-arr (ACL, EMNLP, NAACL, ... via ARR) or semeval (a SemEval shared task; its rules and submission differ from ARR).
• paper_type: long or short for acl-arr; semeval-system or semeval-task for semeval.
• stage: review (the version for peer review) or camera-ready (accepted, final version). The acl{...} option in the main file hints at it.

Then run PK init --python <python> --main-tex <main.tex> --english <us|uk> --gitignore <files|all|none> --venue <venue> --paper-type <type> --stage <stage>. It writes paper.config.json (including venue, paper_type, stage), literature/{pdf,md,notes}/, literature/archive.bib, literature/index.md and report.md, keeping what exists.

Then run PK doctor. For each source with missing packages it prints the exact install command. Show it and ask before running it. (acl-anthology needs typing_extensions alongside; the command already lists it.)

Tell the user that the first ACL Anthology search downloads the Anthology metadata (about 300 MB, git clone) into ~/.cache/acl-paper/anthology, shared by all projects. Offer to fetch it now with PK anthology-update.

5. Bib keys

Read the paper bib named in paper.config.json. Native keys are the source's own: ACL Anthology keys look like hellwig-etal-2025-still, arXiv keys like vaswani2023attentionneed. When existing entries follow another scheme, show three examples and ask which scheme new entries follow. Store the answer as key_scheme in paper.config.json (native, or a short description such as AuthorYear like Smith2020). Later skills apply it without asking again.

The template's custom.bib ships sample entries (Aho:72, ...). The first bib sync moves every uncited entry into literature/archive.bib; say so.

6. CLAUDE.md

No CLAUDE.md: copy ${CLAUDE_PLUGIN_ROOT}/templates/CLAUDE.md. Existing one: add each missing section of the template (Purpose, Project, Literature rules, Style, Terminology) and leave the rest untouched.

Then fill ## Style. Strongly recommend doing it now, because the writing and proofread skills read the user's own rules from there. Offer:

1. the example profile ${CLAUDE_PLUGIN_ROOT}/templates/style-profile.md: show it, let the user drop or change rules, insert the rest
2. a short interview: British or American spelling, words they dislike, citation habits, caption and table conventions
3. leave it empty for now (say what that costs)

7. Finish

Run PK sync and PK doctor. Report what was created, the chosen environment, and any ⚠️ still open. Close with the next steps: /acl-paper:proofread for a first report, the acl-anthology and arxiv skills for literature, /acl-paper:new-source for further sources.