/mstack:abstract-shotgun

Stage: write · Voice: writer, anchored to voice.writing_style in .mstack/config.yaml

On a full draft. The abstract is the hardest paragraph and the one editors use to desk-reject or send out; generate variants rather than converging on the first.

Procedure

1. Load paper/sections/intro.tex, results.tex, discussion.tex, and .mstack/config.yaml (target journals).
2. Voice: invoke the voice.writing_style skill if set; otherwise clean generic academic prose (short sentences, active verbs, no hedge-stuffing).
3. Generate 4–6 variants, each leading differently: puzzle-first ("Why does X happen when Y predicts the opposite?"); policy-first ("When governments do X, does it work?"); theory-first ("We argue that X causes Y because Z"); finding-first ("Using a quasi-experiment in X, we find Y"); anomaly-first ("Standard accounts predict X; we find Y"); method-first (methods papers only).
4. Each ≤ 250 words (or the journal cap if shorter) and contains the question, the design with its estimand, the data, the finding with a number in substantive units, and the contribution (the abstract bar in ${CLAUDE_PLUGIN_ROOT}/references/writing-conventions.md); no citations, no hedging stack; only the order varies.
5. Tag each with lead-with style, implicit audience (IPE, comparative, methods, public), and the framing's main risk (e.g. puzzle-first can look unengaged with the literature).

6. Write the file, per format in .mstack/config.yaml. LaTeX: paper/sections/abstract.tex, variants as % comments, the recommended one uncommented inside \begin{abstract} … \end{abstract}. Quarto: abstract.qmd with <!-- … --> comments.

   % VARIANT 1 (puzzle-first):
   % <text>
   %
   % VARIANT 2 (policy-first):
   % <text>
   ...
   
   % --- RECOMMENDED ---
   <recommended variant text, uncommented>

7. Recommend the variant that fits the top target journal, justified in one sentence.

Outputs

• paper/sections/abstract.tex — variants as comments, one recommended.
• Summary block: variants with one-line tags + recommendation.

Anti-patterns

• Variants that open the same way. That is not a shotgun.
• Over the word limit. If the cap is 200, every variant is ≤ 200.
• Ignoring the journal. Some prefer puzzle-first, some finding-first.

Next

/mstack:title-shotgun to pair a title with the chosen framing. /mstack:draft-section abstract gives a baseline beforehand.