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Literature Survey · ai4s-research | DecimalAI

researchby ai4s-research

Literature Survey

ai4s-research/literature-survey

Source ai4s-research/ai4s-skills ↗License MIT

Use when the user wants a comprehensive literature survey on a specific research topic. Outputs a complete PDF survey (6–20 pages, 60+ real citations, 100+ recommended) with LaTeX source, topic-specific publication figures, and a classified literature table. Single-stage, no Python runtime.

SkillScore64Maintained

Automatic

Research pack

Last verified 10/6/2026

What it changes

Passed 13 of 20 test cases with the skill, and 7 of 20 without it.

Without skill36%

With skill64%

Checks it passed that the model alone missed

Prohibits importing LLM SDKs such as anthropic or openai.
Places figure floats directly in the section prose where they are first introduced.
Refuses to draft section prose until the bibliography contains at least 60 web-verified entries.

and 4 more in the full report

7 fixed9 passed either way9 still failing0 broke

Pass-rate lift: +28 pp
Tokens: +46%
Agent turns: 0%
Response time: -45%

Model gemini-3.6-flashMeasured 10/6/2026v116 of 25 cases passed with skill · 20 comparable

Tokens, turns and time describe resource use, not a dollar price.

Use this skill

Save it into your project's skills folder. Claude Code picks it up in its next session.

curl -fsSL --create-dirs -o .claude/skills/ai4s-research-literature-survey/SKILL.md https://app.decimal.ai/s/ai4s-research-literature-survey/SKILL.md

Want it pinned and updatable? pip install "decimalai>=0.15", then decimalai skills add ai4s-research-literature-survey, and start Claude Code with claude --plugin-dir "$(git rev-parse --show-toplevel)/.agents"

1 · One-time — install the CLI (docs ↗)

pip install "decimalai>=0.15"

2 · Get the skill — writes .agents/skills/ai4s-research-literature-survey/ and pins it in .decimal/skills.lock

decimalai skills add ai4s-research-literature-survey

No CLI? Get the same file — curl · raw file

curl -fsSL --create-dirs -o .claude/skills/ai4s-research-literature-survey/SKILL.md https://app.decimal.ai/s/ai4s-research-literature-survey/SKILL.md

Raw file: /s/ai4s-research-literature-survey/SKILL.md ↗ · machine-readable summary at /s/ai4s-research-literature-survey.json ↗

Safety checks: 3 of 3 passed

Code scan CleanIntent PassedContent Clean

See it in action

One of 6 test cases the skill fixed. Same model, same prompt, with and without the skill.

1 of 6

Prompt

Besides the compiled PDF and BibTeX file for a materials AI survey, what markdown deliverable must be generated alongside the bibliography build, and where is it saved?

What was checked, without and with the skill
Checked	Without skill	With skill
Saves the classified literature table in markdown format to output/literature-survey/<slug>/latest/literature_table.md.	Missed	Passed

case-23 · gemini-3.6-flash · 10/6/2026 · answers are capped and redacted

What's inside

The instructions your model reads when the skill loads.

SKILL.md154 lines7 files

Literature Survey

Overview

End-to-end literature survey builder. Single stage, full quality from the start. The agent (Claude Code / Cursor / Aider / Codex / …) does the entire build using its own tools (WebFetch, WebSearch, Write, Bash). This SKILL is procedure + reference playbooks + LaTeX template — no Python runtime, no LLM SDK.

The substantive work is decomposed into reference playbooks under references/:

Reference	Topic
`references/00-incremental-execution.md`	how to actually do this without losing work: batch sizes, persistence, resume — read first
`references/01-bibliography-expansion.md`	grow `bibliography.bib` to 60+ real entries (100+ recommended) via WebFetch (no memory)
`references/02-survey-figures.md`	taxonomy / timeline / coverage-matrix / area-map figures
`references/03-survey-section-playbook.md`	per-section structure for survey-shaped papers
`references/04-layout-discipline.md`	tables, figures, floats, cross-refs, author + disclosure footnote
`references/05-quality-gate.md`	self-check before delivery

Read the relevant reference before writing, not after. The full pass does not fit in a single turn — references/00-incremental-execution.md is the only execution mode that completes.

When to Use

User asks for a "survey" / "review" on a specific topic.
User has a research topic and wants a structured map of the field with citations.
User needs background reading curated for a thesis chapter or grant section.

When NOT to Use

User wants original research with experiments → paper-writer.
User wants only an outline / topic exploration → research-explorer.
User wants experiment code → experiment-suite.
Topic is too broad (e.g., "all of AI") — narrow it before starting.

Workflow

Step 1 — Understand the topic and scope

Confirm with the user:

Topic — specific research area (e.g., "federated learning in healthcare"). If too broad, narrow it first.
Scope — broad survey of a field vs. focused review of a sub-area.

Track record

Benchmark

13 / 20

test cases passed, vs 7 / 20 without

Adoption

Users: 0
Times used: 0

Safety and source details

SkillSafety

✓ 3 of 3 passed

Code scan15 of 15 checks clean

0 critical · 0 warning · 0 info — scanner v5 — 9/7/2026

View 15 scanner checks

live_secretremote_code_executionreverse_shelldata_exfiltrationssrf_metadataagent_snoopinganti_refusaldestructive_commandsobfuscated_unicodeunicode_homoglyphopaque_blobsuspicious_urltool_overreachtrigger_abuseprompt_injection_phrasing

IntentSafe

LLM judge · does the skill do what it claims

ContentClean

LLM judge · policy & harmful-content review

Source

Imported

ai4s-research / ai4s-skills

skills/literature-survey/SKILL.md

View on GitHub ↗

License MITImported 9/7/2026Version v1Bundled 6 files

More skills from the same source and nearby in the registry, with their headline benchmark lift.

Ready to supercharge your AI agents?

See it in action

What's inside

Literature Survey

Overview

When to Use

When NOT to Use

Workflow

Step 1 — Understand the topic and scope

Track record

Benchmark

Adoption

SkillSafety

Source

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