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/newbook — Scaffold a Book Project

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.

Why this exists

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 from book.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.

Usage

/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.

What gets scaffolded

<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

Voice cast (default — customize via CLAUDE.md)

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.

What this skill does NOT do

  • It does not write prose. It writes stubs.
  • It does not invent citations. The .bib is empty.
  • It does not run biber or push to GitHub. Those are user actions.
  • It does not migrate existing decks or Substack posts into the book — those are pointer-only references.

Related skills

  • /newproject — same idea, but for an empirical research project (data, code, output).
  • /bibcheck — run on the book's .bib once you have entries.
  • /referee2 — run on a draft chapter once it exists.
  • /blindspot — run on every figure or table the book introduces.