A skill that scaffolds a book-shaped project in one step: folders, a memoir-based LaTeX skeleton, a custom style with voiced-sidebar callouts, a bibliography stub, a CLAUDE.md, a README.md, and one chapter file per chapter. Parallel to /newproject and /bibcheck.
This is the skill that produced AI Agents and the Research Worker.
Books are different from research projects. They have parts and chapters, named voices, an editorial standard for prose, a .bib that has to be auditable, a future online version, and a long-running rhythm where structure matters more than tooling. /newproject is right for an empirical paper. /newbook is right for a manuscript.
The skill is opinionated:
- memoir as the document class. Maximum flexibility; converts cleanly to HTML for the eventual online version.
- Palatino body, Gov 2001 palette for color, voiced sidebars as the design DNA.
- One chapter per file under
chapters/, all\input-ed frombook.tex. Enables parallel collaboration and HTML conversion. % SUBSTACK MAP:placeholder block in every chapter, so the book stays connected to the Substack drafts that fed it.flushbottom+\emergencystretch=3em— fewer overfull-hbox warnings on book-length text.
/newbook ai-agents-book --title="AI Agents and the Research Worker"
Arguments:
| Argument | Effect |
|---|---|
<slug> (required) |
Folder name. Spaces become dashes; lowercase. |
--title="..." (optional) |
Working title. Defaults to title-case of slug. |
--chapters=N (optional) |
Number of numbered chapters. Default 11. |
If you invoke with no arguments, the skill asks before creating anything.
<slug>/
├── CLAUDE.md # Voice cast, lineage rules, do-not list
├── README.md # What the book is, how to compile
├── book.tex # Main file; \input each chapter
├── style/
│ └── <slug>.sty # Palette, voiced-sidebar macros, chapter heads
├── chapters/
│ ├── 00_frontmatter.tex # Title, dedication slot, epigraph, preface
│ ├── 01.tex # Chapter stubs with TODO bullets and one voice
│ ├── 02.tex
│ └── … # through Chapter N (default 11)
├── bibliography/
│ └── <slug>.bib # Empty; ready for /bibcheck once populated
├── correspondence/ # Letters and email threads
├── decks/
│ └── README.md # Pointers (NOT copies) to source decks
├── figures/ # Generated figures
├── code/ # Reproducibility examples
├── drafts/ # Working drafts
├── progress_logs/ # Session continuity
└── substacks/ # Substack post sources that feed chapters
Each \voice{<name>}{<text>} sidebar gets a fixed color:
| Voice | Color |
|---|---|
| Fisher | slate |
| Ricardo / Thompson | warmgray |
| Skeptic | charcoal |
| Manager | ocean |
| IC | forest |
| Verifier | crimson |
| Goldin / Katz / Autor / Acemoglu | ocean |
| Schumpeter | warmgray |
Add or rename voices in style/<slug>.sty and document the cast in CLAUDE.md.
- It does not write prose. It writes stubs.
- It does not invent citations. The
.bibis empty. - It does not run
biberor push to GitHub. Those are user actions. - It does not migrate existing decks or Substack posts into the book — those are pointer-only references.
/newproject— same idea, but for an empirical research project (data, code, output)./bibcheck— run on the book's.bibonce you have entries./referee2— run on a draft chapter once it exists./blindspot— run on every figure or table the book introduces.