Agent skill

Lit Review

by pedrohcgs in pedrohcgs/claude-code-my-workflow

Structured literature search + synthesis with citation extraction, thematic clustering, and gap identification.

MITAuto-check passedResearch & Science

Install Lit Review

skills CLI
$ npx skills add pedrohcgs/claude-code-my-workflow --skill lit-review -a claude-code

Project install by default; add -g for ~/.claude/skills/.

GitHub CLI
$ gh skill install pedrohcgs/claude-code-my-workflow lit-review --agent claude-code

Project scope by default; add --scope user for a personal install. Needs GitHub CLI 2.90.0 or later (public preview).

Manual copy
$ git clone --depth 1 https://github.com/pedrohcgs/claude-code-my-workflow.git skills-src && mkdir -p .claude/skills && cp -r skills-src/.claude/skills/lit-review .claude/skills/lit-review && rm -rf skills-src

Use ~/.claude/skills/ instead of .claude/skills for a personal install. The folder must contain SKILL.md.

Claude Code skills documentation · loads skills from .claude/skills/

Facts

Skill name
lit-review
GitHub stars
1.7k
Token cost
~1.4k tokens
SKILL.md length
219 words
Files
1
Skills in repo
59
Repo updated
First seen
Licence
MIT

At a glance

Structured literature search + synthesis with citation extraction, thematic clustering, and gap identification.

  • Works in 6 steps: Parse the topic from $ARGUMENTS. If a… → Search for related work using available… → Organize findings into these categories → …
  • User says find papers on X
  • SKILL.md covers Steps and Output Format
  • Instructions only: no scripts, shell commands, URLs or credentials in SKILL.md

What it does

Lit Review is an agent skill from pedrohcgs/claude-code-my-workflow. Structured literature search + synthesis with citation extraction, thematic clustering, and gap identification. Use when user says "find papers on X", "do a lit review", "what's the literature on...", "summarize what we know about...", "where's the gap in this field", "review recent work on Y". Produces a written review with BibTeX-ready citations. Uses WebSearch/WebFetch for recent work.

Its SKILL.md is about 1.4k tokens, which your agent loads only when the skill is triggered. It is a single SKILL.md file with no bundled scripts.

It sits in Research & Science, covering Citation management, Literature review and Academic paper search. It works with LaTeX. The repository describes itself as: A ready-to-fork Claude Code template for academics using LaTeX/Beamer + R. Multi-agent review, quality gates, adversarial QA, and replication protocols. The licence is MIT.

When your agent uses it

  • User says find papers on X
  • Do a lit review
  • Whats the literature on...
  • Summarize what we know about...

Example prompts

  • “find papers on X”
  • “do a lit review”
  • “s the literature on...”
  • “/lit-review”

Requirements

  • Pre-approved tools (allowed-tools): Read, Grep, Glob, Write, WebSearch, WebFetch, Agent, Task

Workflow steps

6 steps, taken from the first numbered list in SKILL.md.

  1. Parse the topic from $ARGUMENTS. If a specific paper is named, use it as the anchor.
  2. Search for related work using available tools
  3. Organize findings into these categories
  4. Identify gaps and opportunities
  5. Extract citations in BibTeX format for all papers discussed.
  6. Save the report to quality_reports/lit_review_[sanitized_topic].md

What it can do on your machine

Read from SKILL.md and the folder at commit ae72617. It shows what the files ask for, not the result of running them.

  • Tool permissions

    Pre-approves these tools, so the agent can use them without asking each time:

    • Read
    • Grep
    • Glob
    • Write
    • WebSearch
    • WebFetch
    • Agent
    • Task

    From allowed-tools in the SKILL.md frontmatter.

  • Runs code

    No scripts in the folder and no shell commands in SKILL.md (its code samples are markdown).

    From the folder's file list and the shell code blocks in SKILL.md.

  • Network

    No URLs in SKILL.md.

    From URLs in SKILL.md, links to its own repository left out.

  • Credentials

    Names no API keys, tokens, secrets or passwords.

    From names ending in _API_KEY, _TOKEN, _SECRET, _KEY or _PASSWORD in SKILL.md.

Context cost

Lit Review loads about 1.4k tokens when it runs. Until then it costs about 101 tokens; SKILL.md has 219 words of instructions outside code blocks.

Always · name and description, kept in context so the agent knows when to use it
~101
When it runs · the whole SKILL.md, loaded when a task matches
~1.4k

Estimates: characters ÷ 4, the usual rule of thumb; real counts depend on the model's tokenizer. Scripts and assets cost tokens only if the agent reads them.

Safety

Auto-check passed

The automated check found no risky patterns in SKILL.md.

Automated static check — not a guarantee. Review scripts before installing. It scans the text of SKILL.md for risky patterns (piping downloads into a shell, reading credential files, hidden Unicode, destructive commands); files beside SKILL.md are not scanned.

SKILL.md

The full file from pedrohcgs/claude-code-my-workflow at commit ae72617, republished under its MIT licence (© pedrohcgs). 219 words, ~1,376 tokens.

Download SKILL.mdSave it as .claude/skills/lit-review/SKILL.md (or your agent's skills folder).
name
lit-review
description
Structured literature search + synthesis with citation extraction, thematic clustering, and gap identification. Use when user says "find papers on X", "do a lit review", "what's the literature on...", "summarize what we know about...", "where's the gap in this field", "review recent work on Y". Produces a written review with BibTeX-ready citations. Uses WebSearch/WebFetch for recent work.
allowed-tools
Read, Grep, Glob, Write, WebSearch, WebFetch, Agent, Task
argument-hint
[topic, paper title, or research question] [--no-verify]

Literature Review

Conduct a structured literature search and synthesis on the given topic.

Input: $ARGUMENTS — a topic, paper title, research question, or phenomenon to investigate.


Steps

  1. Parse the topic from $ARGUMENTS. If a specific paper is named, use it as the anchor.

  2. Search for related work using available tools:

    • Check master_supporting_docs/supporting_papers/ for uploaded papers
    • Use WebSearch to find recent publications (if available)
    • Use WebFetch to access working paper repositories (if available)
    • Read any existing .bib file for papers already in the project
  3. Organize findings into these categories:

    • Theoretical contributions — models, frameworks, mechanisms
    • Empirical findings — key results, effect sizes, data sources
    • Methodological innovations — new estimators, identification strategies, inference methods
    • Open debates — unresolved disagreements in the literature
  4. Identify gaps and opportunities:

    • What questions remain unanswered?
    • What data or methods could address them?
    • Where do findings conflict?
    • How independent is the support? For any finding you call consistent or replicated, give the apparent count and the independent count — studies that share an experiment, dataset, sample or research team count once.
    • What went the other way? For each headline finding, search for null results and failed replications and report them, or say none were found and give the search terms used.
  5. Extract citations in BibTeX format for all papers discussed.

  6. Save the report to quality_reports/lit_review_[sanitized_topic].md


Output Format

markdown
# Literature Review: [Topic]

**Date:** [YYYY-MM-DD]
**Query:** [Original query from user]

## Summary

[2-3 paragraph overview of the state of the literature]

## Key Papers

### [Author (Year)] — [Short Title]
- **Main contribution:** [1-2 sentences]
- **Method:** [Identification strategy / data]
- **Key finding:** [Result with effect size if available]
- **Relevance:** [Why it matters for our research]

[Repeat for 5-15 papers, ordered by relevance]

## Thematic Organization

### Theoretical Contributions
[Grouped discussion]

### Empirical Findings
[Grouped discussion with comparison across studies]

### Methodological Innovations
[Methods relevant to the topic]

## Gaps and Opportunities

1. [Gap 1 — what's missing and why it matters]
2. [Gap 2]
3. [Gap 3]

## Suggested Next Steps

- [Concrete actions: papers to read, data to obtain, methods to consider]

## BibTeX Entries

```bibtex
@article{...}

---

## Post-Flight Verification (mandatory, CoVe)

Before returning the draft literature review to the user, run the Post-Flight Verification protocol from [`.claude/rules/post-flight-verification.md`](../../rules/post-flight-verification.md). Literature reviews are **very high** hallucination risk because WebSearch can return plausible-sounding fabricated citations. CoVe catches this architecturally.

### Steps

1. **Extract claims** from the draft. Each cited paper, each paraphrased finding ("Smith 2019 shows X"), each negative-literature assertion ("no prior work studies Y") is a claim.
2. **Generate verification questions** per claim. Specific ones: "Does Smith (2019, *JEL*) Section 3 actually report the finding that X implies Y? Is the venue correct?"
3. **Spawn `claim-verifier`** via the `Agent` tool with `subagent_type=claim-verifier`, in a fresh context — a named `Agent` call, not a conversation fork, which would inherit the draft. Pass: the claims table, the verification questions, the source-material pointers (paper URLs, DOIs, `master_supporting_docs/` paths). **Do NOT pass the draft text itself** — the fresh-context independence is what makes CoVe work.
4. **Reconcile:** if the verifier reports PASS, attach a green Post-Flight block to the output. If PARTIAL, mark the unverifiable claims with uncertainty flags in the BibTeX block. If FAIL, **remove or rewrite the contradicted citations** using the verifier's evidence before returning.

### Skip conditions

- `--no-verify` flag — user opts out for speed.
- User hands you ≤3 papers they already have read and confirmed; CoVe is overhead for content they've personally verified.

### Output contract

Append a Post-Flight block to the report (collapsed by default). See rule doc for the format.

---

## Important

- **Be honest about uncertainty.** If you cannot verify a citation, say so.
- **Prioritize recent work** (last 5-10 years) unless seminal papers are older.
- **Note working papers vs published papers** — working papers may change.
- **Do NOT fabricate citations.** If you're unsure about a paper's details, flag it for the user to verify. Post-Flight Verification catches most fabrications automatically; this rule is the backup.

© pedrohcgs, MIT. Rendered from Markdown: HTML in the file is shown as text, images as links, and headings moved down two levels. Raw file

Files

Just SKILL.md in .claude/skills/lit-review of pedrohcgs/claude-code-my-workflow.

Open the folder on GitHubat commit ae72617

Compare with similar skills

Lit Review next to the 5 skills that share the most tags, products or categories with it. Stars are the repository's; “used in” counts other GitHub owners with a copy.

Lit Review compared with similar skills
SkillStarsUsed inTokensAuto-checkLicenceRepo updated
Lit Review this skillpedrohcgs/claude-code-my-workflow1.7k—~1.4kAutomated safety check: PassMIT
Literature Review AgentAr9av/PaperOrchestra6791 repos~5.2kAutomated safety check: PassCustom licence
Arxiv MCP Serverblazickjp/arxiv-mcp-server3.2k—~353Automated safety check: PassApache-2.0
Arxiv Paper Writerappautomaton/latex-arxiv-SKILL458—~2.3kAutomated safety check: PassMIT
Arxiv Paper Writeryunshenwuchuxun/latex-paper-skills267—~3.2kAutomated safety check: PassMIT
Literature ReviewNorman-bury/research-writing-skill3.4k—~2.2kAutomated safety check: NotesMIT

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Works with

Questions about Lit Review

What does Lit Review do?

Structured literature search + synthesis with citation extraction, thematic clustering, and gap identification. Lit Review is an agent skill from pedrohcgs/claude-code-my-workflow. Structured literature search + synthesis with citation extraction, thematic clustering, and gap identification.

When should I use Lit Review?

Lit Review fits situations like: user says find papers on X; do a lit review; whats the literature on..; summarize what we know about...

How do I install Lit Review in Claude Code?

Run `npx skills add pedrohcgs/claude-code-my-workflow --skill lit-review -a claude-code`. Or copy the skill folder (.claude/skills/lit-review in pedrohcgs/claude-code-my-workflow) into .claude/skills/lit-review in your project. Claude Code loads it when a task matches its description.

How do I install Lit Review in Codex?

Run `npx skills add pedrohcgs/claude-code-my-workflow --skill lit-review -a codex`. Or copy the skill folder (.claude/skills/lit-review in pedrohcgs/claude-code-my-workflow) into .agents/skills/lit-review in your project. Codex loads it when a task matches its description.

Can I use Lit Review in Cursor, Gemini CLI or GitHub Copilot?

Cursor, Gemini CLI, GitHub Copilot and OpenCode also load SKILL.md folders. With the skills CLI, run `npx skills add pedrohcgs/claude-code-my-workflow --skill lit-review -a cursor` (or -a gemini-cli, github-copilot or opencode for the others). To copy it by hand, put the folder in .cursor/skills/lit-review, .gemini/skills/lit-review, .github/skills/lit-review and .opencode/skills/lit-review in your project.

What does Lit Review need to run?

SKILL.md names no scripts, command-line tools or credentials: Lit Review is instructions for the agent only. Its frontmatter pre-approves these tools: Read, Grep, Glob, Write, WebSearch, WebFetch, Agent, Task.

Does Lit Review access the network?

SKILL.md contains no URLs. Any network use would come from the scripts or tools the agent runs. This is read from the text; nothing was executed.

Is Lit Review safe to install?

Our automated static check of SKILL.md found no risky patterns, such as piping downloads into a shell, reading credential files or hidden Unicode. It is not a guarantee. Review the folder before installing.

What licence does Lit Review use?

Lit Review is published under the MIT licence (the repository's licence). It allows redistribution, so the full SKILL.md is shown on this page.

How many tokens does Lit Review use?

About 1.4k tokens (SKILL.md is roughly 5.5k characters). Agents keep only the skill's name and description in context until a task matches; then they load SKILL.md in full.

What are the alternatives to Lit Review?

Skills that share tags, products or a category with Lit Review: Literature Review Agent (Ar9av/PaperOrchestra, 679 stars), Arxiv MCP Server (blazickjp/arxiv-mcp-server, 3.2k stars), Arxiv Paper Writer (appautomaton/latex-arxiv-SKILL, 458 stars) and Arxiv Paper Writer (yunshenwuchuxun/latex-paper-skills, 267 stars). The comparison table on this page puts their stars, adoption, token cost, safety result and licence side by side.

Who maintains Lit Review?

pedrohcgs (a GitHub user) maintains it in pedrohcgs/claude-code-my-workflow, which has 1,655 GitHub stars. The repository holds 59 skills in this directory. The repository was last updated on September 27, 2026.

Source: pedrohcgs/claude-code-my-workflow on GitHub. Facts on this page come from the repository at the commit we read; the author's words are quoted as theirs.