Review Literature

You must read and apply references/language.md from the installed reaper skill before you write any output.

Usage

You invoke this skill by name with a quoted topic. Slash-command hosts use /review-literature "<topic>".

review-literature "post-quantum threshold signatures"

Instructions

1. Gather Context

You read reaper-workspace/notes/paper-summary.md if it exists. You extract technical terms, authors, cited works, and the research domain. You combine these details with the research goal to create queries.

2. Search Structured Sources

You invoke the search-paper skill for all paper searches. The /search-paper skill selects archives, categories, and filters. You supply at least one query for each primary search target. You assign each query to one target:

• Direct: The query names the exact problem without an author, technique, negative-result, or survey filter.
• Author: The query names key authors and the topic.
• Technique: The query names the proof or construction technique.
• Variants: The query changes the direct query to a related problem or different assumption.
• Negative results: The query names attacks, impossibility results, or lower bounds.
• Surveys: The query requests surveys or systematization of knowledge papers.

You start one parallel subagent per query type if the host supports subagents. Each subagent invokes the search-paper skill and returns structured JSON. You start the web search in Step 3 as another parallel subagent. If the host cannot run subagents, you run the searches in sequence.

You give each subagent a small JSON object of about 100 words. The object contains the topic, authors, and 3-5 key concepts. You do not send the full paper summary.

3. Search the Web as a Fallback

You use web search for results that structured APIs can miss:

• Conference proceedings outside arXiv and ePrint.
• Blog posts and talks from reputable authors or institutions that do not duplicate a paper entry.
• Preprints on author websites that do not duplicate a proceedings entry.

You use the reputation criteria in references/venue-tiers.md. You discard blog posts and talks from other sources.

4. Trace Citations

You invoke the search-paper skill for the seed paper and the three most relevant results. You supply each arXiv ID and request up to 20 citations in each direction. Backward citations identify earlier results that the paper uses. Forward citations identify later improvements, attacks, or corrections. You remove duplicate results across sources. For papers without an arXiv ID, you use web search to find citing works.

5. Check Recent Papers

For an area with rapid changes, you invoke the search-paper skill for the ten newest papers. You check titles and abstracts. You include relevant recent results that the earlier searches missed.

6. Filter and Rank Results

You put each paper in one of two categories:

• Same Goal: The paper addresses the same or a similar problem.
• Same Approach: The paper uses a similar technique for another problem.

You use references/venue-tiers.md from the reaper skill for venue and author criteria. For conflicting claims, you prefer reviewed papers from leading venues and authors with domain experience. You flag conflicting preprints and verify them independently.

You assign relevance within each category:

• High: The paper addresses the target problem or supplies a result or technique that the research needs.
• Medium: The paper supplies related context or a useful component but does not meet High criteria.
• Low: The paper has an indirect relation that meets neither High nor Medium criteria.

You keep high and medium relevance papers. You keep low relevance papers only for a foundational result, a tier-1 venue, or a leading author.

7. Resolve Publication Venues

You invoke the search-paper skill's Venue Resolution Protocol for each kept paper. You prefer an arXiv ID, then an ePrint ID, then a title with the first author's surname. You save the returned venue or (preprint) in workspace notes. You do not infer a venue from a topic or institution. You keep papers from Tier 1 or Tier 2 venues in references/venue-tiers.md. You keep an ePrint or arXiv preprint only if an author or institution is reputable by the same file. You discard all other papers. Later steps use only the papers that you keep. You use one parallel subagent per paper if the host supports it.

8. Download and Analyze Papers

You invoke the search-paper skill to download papers with high relevance to reaper-workspace/papers/. You also download important papers with medium relevance. You supply an arXiv or ePrint ID. For each downloaded PDF, you invoke the analyze-paper skill with these arguments:

reaper-workspace/papers/<filename>.pdf --goal "<research-goal>" --output reaper-workspace/papers/<id>-notes.md

Slash-command hosts can use /analyze-paper <args>. You use parallel subagents for independent papers if the host supports them. Otherwise, you analyze papers in sequence.

The --goal flag controls reading depth and requires a relevance assessment. Later cycles can update these notes in place.

9. Verify Citations

You use the paper notes to check how the source paper uses each result with high relevance.

• Accuracy: You compare the cited claim with the original theorem.
• Model compatibility: You check that the result's assumptions hold in the source paper's model.
• Fair comparison: You check claimed improvements only after model compatibility passes. You compare the same target property and metric.
• Version changes: You check whether later versions correct or replace the cited result.

You record differences under ### Discrepancies with Paper Under Analysis in each <id>-notes.md. You summarize these differences in ## Gaps Identified for the formalization stage.

10. Set the Venue Bar

The venue bar is the standard that the paper must exceed. It comes from the target venue and from the related work. You write it to reaper-workspace/notes/venue-bar.md.

1. Target venue: You use the target venue in notes/clarified-goal.md. If the goal names no venue, you select the Tier 1 venue in references/venue-tiers.md that published the most Same-Goal Works.
2. Venue rules: You read the current call for papers. If it is not published, you use the most recent call and mark each rule (proxy: <year>). You record the template, page limit, anonymity rules, and mandatory sections, such as ethics or artifact availability.
3. Exemplar papers: You select 3-5 Same-Goal Works from the target venue or a peer Tier 1 venue from the last three years. If fewer papers qualify, you invoke the search-paper skill to find recent papers from the target venue on a related topic. You download each exemplar to reaper-workspace/papers/.
4. Bar measurement: You read each exemplar. You record its contributions, its novelty claim against prior work, and its evidence, such as proofs, experiments, baselines, and metrics. You also record its section list, page count, figure and table count, and writing and presentation practices.
5. Bar checklist: You write numbered checklist items from the venue rules and the exemplars. Each item names its source, such as the call for papers or exemplar E2. The items cover contributions, novelty, evidence, writing, presentation, and format. For contributions and novelty, each item states the improvement over the exemplars that the work must show.

venue-bar.md has title # Venue Bar and the level-two sections Venue Rules, Exemplar Papers, and Bar Checklist.

11. Write Output

You write reaper-workspace/notes/literature.md with title # Literature Review and these level-two sections:

Both literature tables use columns #, Title, Authors, Year, Venue, Key Contribution, Link, and Local Path. Same-Goal Works also uses Relation to Our Goal. Same-Approach Works uses Shared Technique. The Venue column contains a resolved Tier 1 or Tier 2 venue, or (preprint). Paper Index paths use papers/<filename>.pdf and papers/<id>-notes.md.

Fallback

Each search operation can fail independently. You continue the review with the available evidence.

• If all structured searches fail, you use web search for all queries. You add the exact error at the start of literature.md. The note states Structured paper search was unavailable. This review uses web search only.
• If citation search fails, you omit Citation Graph or use web results. You mark each affected row citation graph unavailable.
• If venue lookup fails, you treat the paper as a preprint.
• If a download fails, you mark Local Path unavailable. You state that the paper assessment uses only its abstract.
• If the call for papers or an exemplar is unavailable, you build the bar from the available sources. You mark each affected checklist item unverified in venue-bar.md.

Quality Criteria

• You find at least ten relevant works unless the area is very narrow.
• Both literature categories contain relevant papers.
• Each paper note contains results, strengths, weaknesses, and a specific relation to the goal.
• The summary explains the area without prior knowledge. Each gap specifies a research direction.
• Every paper comes from an actual search result.
• Every paper comes from a Tier 1 or Tier 2 venue, or is a preprint from a reputable author or institution.
• You use multiple structured sources unless you record a structured-search failure.
• You include forward and backward citations unless you mark citation search unavailable.
• Each bar checklist item names its source. The contribution and novelty items state the improvement over the exemplars.