← LeaderboardThe Skill Leaderboard

talk

Create and audit presentations (Beamer or Quarto RevealJS). Combines talk creation, visual audit, and compilation. Replaces /create-talk, /visual-audit, /compile-latex (for talks).

Published by brycewang-stanford ↗brycewang-stanford/Auto-Empirical-Research-Skills

Try your first task

talk

Start a fresh conversation. Replace the highlighted placeholders.

Use talk to create a [format] presentation from [paper path] in [Beamer or Quarto RevealJS], preserving only claims supported by the paper and producing the corresponding slide file and advisory review.

Required inputs

  • [format]
  • [paper path]
  • [Beamer or Quarto RevealJS]

User-approved starter prompt based on a pinned source version; check current skill requirements before running. Task evidence ↗

SKILL.md

name: talkdescription: Create and audit presentations (Beamer or Quarto RevealJS). Combines talk creation, visual audit, and compilation. Replaces /create-talk, /visual-audit, /compile-latex (for talks).argument-hint: "[mode: create | audit | compile] [format: job-market | seminar | short | lightning] [--quarto] [file path]"allowed-tools: Read,Grep,Glob,Write,Edit,Task,Bash

Talk

Create, audit, or compile presentations (Beamer or Quarto RevealJS).

Input: $ARGUMENTS — mode and format/path.


Modes

/talk create [format] — Create Beamer Talk

/talk create [format] --quarto — Create Quarto RevealJS Talk

Generate a presentation from the paper.

Agents: Storyteller (creator) → storyteller-critic (reviewer)

Format Constraints

FormatSlidesDurationContent Scope
job-market40-5045-60 minFull story, all results, mechanism, robustness
seminar25-3530-45 minMotivation, main result, 2 robustness, conclusion
short10-1515 minQuestion, method, key result, implication
lightning3-55 minHook, one result, so-what

Workflow

Step 1: Parse Arguments

  • Format (required): job-market | seminar | short | lightning
  • Paper path (optional): defaults to paper/main.tex
  • Engine: Beamer (default) or Quarto RevealJS (--quarto)
  • If no format specified, ask the user.

Step 2: Dispatch Storyteller

Read the paper and extract: research question, identification strategy, main result, secondary results, robustness checks, key figures/tables, institutional background. Design narrative arc for the chosen format. Build the slide file with shared preamble if available.

The Storyteller follows these design principles:

  • One idea per slide — never cram two concepts onto one frame
  • Figures over tables; tables in backup — audiences absorb figures instantly; regression tables belong in backup slides where referees can inspect them during Q&A
  • Build tension — motivation → question → method → findings → implications
  • Transition slides between major sections — signal where the talk is going
  • All claims must appear in the paper — the paper is the single source of truth; never add results or claims that are not in the manuscript

Compile with XeLaTeX (Beamer) or quarto render (Quarto).

Save to paper/talks/[format]_talk.tex (Beamer) or paper/quarto/[format]_talk.qmd (Quarto).

Step 3: Dispatch Storyteller-Critic

After the Storyteller returns, dispatch the storyteller-critic to review across 5 categories:

CategoryWhat It Checks
Narrative flowDoes the story build properly? Is there a clear arc from motivation through results to implications? Are transitions smooth?
Visual qualityText overflow, font readability (>= 10pt), figure sizing, consistent formatting, overfull hbox warnings
Content fidelityEvery claim traceable to the paper — no orphan results, no unsupported statements
Scope for formatRight amount of content for the duration — not cramming a seminar into a lightning talk, not padding a short talk to seminar length
CompilationDoes it compile cleanly without errors or warnings?

Score as advisory (non-blocking). Save report to quality_reports/[format]_talk_review.md.

Step 4: Fix Critical Issues

If the storyteller-critic finds Critical issues (compilation failures, content not in paper):

  1. Re-dispatch Storyteller with specific fixes (max 3 rounds per three-strikes rule)
  2. Re-run storyteller-critic to verify

Step 5: Present Results

Report to the user:

  1. Generated file path
  2. Slide count and format compliance
  3. Storyteller-critic score (advisory, non-blocking)
  4. TODO items (missing figures, tables not yet generated)

/talk audit [file] — Visual Audit

Check existing slides for layout issues.

Run visual quality checks:

  • Text overflow on any slide
  • Font sizes (>= 10pt for projection)
  • Table readability
  • Figure sizing and labels
  • Consistent formatting
  • Overfull hbox warnings

/talk compile [file] — Compile Talk

3-pass XeLaTeX compilation for Beamer:

cd paper/talks && TEXINPUTS=../preambles:$TEXINPUTS xelatex -interaction=nonstopmode [file]

For Quarto:

cd paper/quarto && quarto render [file]

Principles

  • Paper is authoritative. Every claim must appear in the paper.
  • Figures over tables. Audiences absorb figures instantly. Put regression tables in backup slides for Q&A.
  • Less is more. Especially for short and lightning formats — ruthlessly cut.
  • One idea per slide. If you need a second point, make a second slide.
  • Audience calibration. Job market = demonstrate rigor and command of the literature. Seminar = sell the interesting result. Short = method and key finding. Lightning = sell the idea in one breath.
  • Advisory scoring. Talk scores don't block commits.
  • Worker-critic pairing. Storyteller creates, storyteller-critic critiques. Never skip the review.
talk by brycewang-stanford · The Skill Leaderboard