Beamer Skill

An AI coding assistant skill for creating, compiling, reviewing, and polishing academic Beamer LaTeX presentations.

Supports Claude Code, OpenAI Codex CLI, Google Antigravity, and VS Code AI extensions (Copilot, Cline, Cursor).

Full lifecycle: create → compile → review → polish → verify.

Features

Action	Description
create [topic]	Collaborative, iterative lecture creation with phase gates (material analysis → needs interview → structure plan → draft → quality loop)
compile [file]	3-pass XeLaTeX + bibtex with post-compile diagnostics
review [file]	Read-only proofreading report (grammar, typos, overflow, consistency, academic quality)
audit [file]	Visual layout audit (overflow, fonts, boxes, spacing)
pedagogy [file]	Holistic pedagogical review with 13 validation patterns
tikz [file]	TikZ diagram review and SVG extraction
excellence [file]	Comprehensive multi-dimensional quality review
devils-advocate [file]	Challenge slide design with pedagogical questions
visual-check [file]	PDF-based visual verification of compiled slides
validate [file]	Structural validation against skill constraints
extract-figures [pdf]	Extract figures from paper PDFs for direct inclusion in slides

Highlights

• Quality scoring system — automated rubric (start at 100, deduct per issue) with Excellent/Good/Needs Work/Poor thresholds
• No overlays — no \pause, \onslide, \only. Uses multiple slides and color emphasis instead
• Content density guards — upper bounds (7 bullets, 2 equations, 5 symbols per slide) and lower bounds (every slide earns its place)
• Box overflow detection — Beamer suppresses overflow warnings inside blocks; the skill catches them via visual audit
• Motivation before formalism — every concept starts with "Why?" before "What?"
• TikZ precision — mathematical accuracy enforced via \pgfmathsetmacro (no hardcoded approximations)
• Semantic color system — colorblind-safe palette (\pos{}, \con{}, \HL{}) with WCAG AA contrast (≥ 4.5:1)
• Figure extraction — pull figures directly from paper PDFs via pdf-mcp, ready for \includegraphics
• Timing allocation — built-in slide-count heuristics for 5min lightning talks through 90min lectures
• Columns & layout rules — enforced columns[T] patterns with gap/width constraints
• Backup slides — automatic appendix section for anticipated Q&A
• Algorithm & code support — algorithm2e, listings, pgfplots integration with per-slide line limits
• XeLaTeX only — modern font handling, 16:9 aspect ratio, 10pt default

Prerequisites

TeX Distribution

A full TeX distribution with XeLaTeX is required:

# macOS
brew install --cask mactex

# Ubuntu/Debian
sudo apt install texlive-full

# Arch
sudo pacman -S texlive

pdf-mcp (Recommended)

Install pdf-mcp (fork with file-based image extraction — avoids base64 token bloat) so Claude Code can read large PDFs (papers, references) and extract figures directly:

pip install git+https://github.com/Noi1r/pdf-mcp.git
claude mcp add pdf-mcp --scope user pdf-mcp

If you use a SOCKS proxy, also install socksio (required by httpx for SOCKS support):

pip install socksio

This enables the create action to analyze research papers and extract-figures to pull figures for slide inclusion.

Installation

Clone the repo first:

git clone https://github.com/Noi1r/beamer-skill.git

Claude Code

Copy the skill directory into your Claude Code skills folder:

mkdir -p ~/.claude/skills
cp -r beamer-skill/beamer ~/.claude/skills/

Restart Claude Code. The skill will be automatically detected and triggered when you mention beamer, slides, lecture, tikz, or related keywords.

OpenAI Codex CLI

Copy AGENTS.md and references/ into your project root:

cp beamer-skill/beamer/AGENTS.md your-project/AGENTS.md
cp -r beamer-skill/beamer/references your-project/references

Codex CLI automatically reads AGENTS.md from the working directory. The main file contains core rules and action summaries; detailed workflows are in references/ and referenced as needed.

Google Antigravity

Antigravity is compatible with the SKILL.md format. Copy the skill directory:

mkdir -p ~/.claude/skills
cp -r beamer-skill/beamer ~/.claude/skills/

The same SKILL.md used by Claude Code works with Antigravity without modification.

VS Code — GitHub Copilot

Copy the Copilot instructions file into your project:

mkdir -p your-project/.github
cp beamer-skill/.github/copilot-instructions.md your-project/.github/

Copilot Chat automatically reads .github/copilot-instructions.md and applies the rules during conversations.

VS Code — Cline

Copy the Cline rules file into your project:

mkdir -p your-project/.clinerules
cp beamer-skill/.clinerules/beamer.md your-project/.clinerules/

Cline automatically loads all files in .clinerules/ as custom instructions.

VS Code — Cursor

Copy the Cursor rules file into your project:

mkdir -p your-project/.cursor/rules
cp beamer-skill/.cursor/rules/beamer.mdc your-project/.cursor/rules/

Cursor automatically loads .mdc files from .cursor/rules/. The globs field in the frontmatter ensures the rules activate for .tex, .bib, and .sty files.

Platform Comparison

Platform	Instruction file	Content level	Auto-trigger
Claude Code	SKILL.md	Full (~55KB)	Yes (keyword matching)
Antigravity	SKILL.md	Full (~55KB)	Yes (keyword matching)
Codex CLI	AGENTS.md + references/	Medium (~30KB total)	Yes (auto-reads AGENTS.md)
VS Code Copilot	.github/copilot-instructions.md	Compact (~5KB)	Yes (auto-reads)
VS Code Cline	.clinerules/beamer.md	Compact (~5KB)	Yes (auto-reads)
VS Code Cursor	.cursor/rules/beamer.mdc	Compact (~5KB)	Yes (glob-triggered on .tex)

Usage

Once installed, the skill is triggered automatically when you mention beamer, slides, lecture, tikz, or related keywords.

Create a lecture from a paper:

Help me create a beamer presentation based on this paper: /path/to/paper.pdf

Extract figures from a paper:

Extract figures from /path/to/paper.pdf for my slides

Compile slides:

Compile my slides: /path/to/slides.tex

Full quality check:

Run excellence review on /path/to/slides.tex

Proofread only:

Proofread /path/to/slides.tex

Customization

Default Presenter

The skill defaults to:

\author{Presenter: [name]}
\institute{Shanghai Jiao Tong University}

To change this, either:

• Tell the AI assistant your name/affiliation when creating slides, or
• Edit the preamble section in the corresponding instruction file (SKILL.md, AGENTS.md, or the VS Code config)

Custom Templates

If you have a custom beamer preamble, header file, or theme, simply provide it. The skill will use yours instead of the built-in default.

Examples

The example/ directory contains real-world examples generated entirely by this skill:

Example	Topic	Type
zkagent_slides	zkAgent — zero-knowledge proof agents	Theoretical CS / cryptography
slides	TWIST1⁺ FAP⁺ fibroblasts in Crohn's disease	Basic research (with extracted figures)
slides_EP	Endoscopic papillectomy outcomes	Clinical retrospective study

Each example includes the source paper (PDF), the generated .tex, and the compiled .pdf. The figures/ directory contains images extracted from the source papers via extract-figures.

Benchmark: With Skill vs. Without Skill

Automated evaluation comparing Claude Code with the beamer skill against a baseline (no skill). Each test was run by an independent subagent; assertions check objective, verifiable properties of the output.

Test 1 — create: 10-min talk from a cryptography paper

Assertion	With Skill	Baseline
.tex file generated	Pass	Pass
aspectratio=169, 10pt	Pass	Pass
No overlay commands	Pass	Pass
Slide count in 8–12 range	Pass (11)	Pass (12)
References slide (thebibliography)	Pass	Fail
Backup slides after \appendix	Pass	Fail
Semantic colors (\pos, \con, \HL)	Pass	Fail
Pass rate	7/7 (100%)	4/7 (57%)

Test 2 — review + validate: proofread an existing slide deck

Assertion	With Skill	Baseline
Review report generated	Pass	Pass
5-category classification	Pass	Fail
Standard issue format (Location / Current / Proposed / Severity)	Pass	Fail
Separate validation report	Pass	Fail
Structured validation table (slide count, aspect ratio, hard rules)	Pass	Fail
Original .tex unmodified (read-only)	Pass	Pass
Pass rate	6/6 (100%)	2/6 (33%)

Summary

Metric	With Skill	Baseline	Delta
Overall pass rate	13/13 (100%)	6/13 (46%)	+54 pp
Mean tokens	~65k	~50k	+30%
Mean wall time	~230s	~130s	+73%

The skill guarantees structural compliance (references, backups, semantic colors, formatted reports) that the baseline consistently misses. Token/time overhead is moderate (~30%/~73%) relative to the quality gain.

File Structure

beamer-skill/
├── beamer/
│   ├── SKILL.md                    # Full skill (Claude Code / Antigravity)
│   ├── AGENTS.md                   # Codex CLI main file
│   └── references/                 # Codex CLI detailed rules
│       ├── create-workflow.md      #   Phase 0-5 creation workflow
│       ├── tikz-standards.md       #   TikZ quality standards & patterns
│       └── review-actions.md       #   review/audit/pedagogy/excellence/validate
├── .github/
│   └── copilot-instructions.md     # VS Code Copilot
├── .clinerules/
│   └── beamer.md                   # VS Code Cline
├── .cursor/
│   └── rules/
│       └── beamer.mdc              # VS Code Cursor
├── example/                        # Real-world examples
│   ├── 199.pdf                     # Source paper (zkAgent)
│   ├── zkagent_slides.*            # Generated slides
│   ├── slides.*                    # Crohn's disease fibrosis
│   ├── slides_EP.*                 # Endoscopic papillectomy
│   └── figures/                    # Extracted paper figures
├── README.md
└── LICENSE

License

MIT