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paper-scout

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Fetch arXiv papers by date range and topics, rank them for research value, and produce introduction digests. Use when the user wants a literature sweep, daily or weekly paper triage, or a written overview of the best papers in a niche — without relying on the arxivterminal local database.

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How to use this skill

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Source SKILL.md: https://github.com/ZhihaoAIRobotic/ClawPhD/blob/HEAD/clawphd/skills/paper-scout/SKILL.md

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Paper Scout (arXiv pipeline)

Built-in tools implement a three-step workflow inspired by PaperFlow (arXiv query + metadata-style scoring) and PaperBrain (LLM screening of title/abstract + narrative digest).

Tools

ToolPurpose
arxiv_fetch_rangeCrawl submittedDate in [start_date, end_date], optional keywords (OR in title/abstract), categories (default cs.AI, cs.LG, cs.CL, math.OC). Returns JSON papers.
arxiv_rank_papersEnhanced metadata score every paper; optionally enriches the top pool with Semantic Scholar / OpenAlex signals and optionally runs one batch LLM call for shortlist scoring; returns selected (top N).
arxiv_paper_digestIntroduction report (Markdown) for the selected list; uses metadata, bibliometric cues, and LLM rationale when available.

Recommended workflow

  1. Fetch
    Call arxiv_fetch_range with start_date, end_date, keywords, and optionally categories / max_results.
    Pass the returned JSON (whole object) into the next step.

  2. Rank
    Call arxiv_rank_papers with:

    • papers_json: the string from step 1 (or json.dumps of the object).
    • interest_keywords: what “high value” means for the user (used for scoring and LLM).
    • top_n: how many papers to keep.
    • use_external_ranking: defaults to true; uses Semantic Scholar first and OpenAlex fallback for stronger selection.
    • use_llm_refinement: true for stronger selection (needs OpenRouter / VLM configured for ClawPhD).

  3. Digest
    Call arxiv_paper_digest with:

    • selected_papers_json: json.dumps of the selected array from step 2, or the full rank output object.
    • interest_keywords: same as step 2.
    • language: zh or en.

Notes

  • No arxiv Python package is required; queries use the public Atom API via httpx.
  • External ranking uses Semantic Scholar first and OpenAlex as fallback. It works without a key, but if you have one you can pass semantic_scholar_api_key or set SEMANTIC_SCHOLAR_API_KEY / S2_API_KEY.
  • LLM refinement and rich digest need a configured multimodal/text provider (same stack as diagram tools — typically OpenRouter).
  • For local cached papers and interactive CLI workflows, still use the arxivterminal skill (arxiv fetch, scripts/arxiv_search.py). All papers are stored under paper_library/{subject}/{date}/ in the workspace root, where {subject} is a snake_case topic slug and {date} is YYYY-MM-DD.

Example (conceptual)

arxiv_fetch_range(start_date="2026-03-01", end_date="2026-03-10", keywords=["world model", "VLA"], categories=["cs.RO","cs.LG"])
→ arxiv_rank_papers(papers_json=<output>, interest_keywords=["world model","VLA","embodied AI"], top_n=5, use_external_ranking=true, use_llm_refinement=true)
→ arxiv_paper_digest(selected_papers_json=<selected>, interest_keywords=[...], language="zh")