refine-notes

paper-deepstudy: refine-notes workflow

Invoke after /paper:study has produced notes/source.md, notes/titles.md, notes/xhs.md, and notes/wechat.md. Each invocation refines one platform's rendering based on the user's instruction.

Required first arg: xhs or wechat. Optional flag: --paper <slug> (default: most recently modified paper folder).

---

Stage 1: Setup

1.1 Resolve target paper and platform

Parse the user's command. The first positional argument selects the platform:

• xhs → operate on notes/xhs.md
• wechat → operate on notes/wechat.md

If neither is provided or the value is invalid, abort with: "Usage: /paper:refine-notes [xhs|wechat] [--paper ]".

Resolve target paper folder

Source the shared helper and resolve which paper folder this invocation targets:

source $CLAUDE_PLUGIN_ROOT/scripts/lib/resolve-paper.sh
resolve_paper "$@"
# After: $PAPER_DIR, $PAPER_SLUG, $PAPER_AUTODETECTED are set.
# If $PAPER_AUTODETECTED is "true", the helper already printed a warning to stderr.

If resolve_paper returns non-zero, abort with the helper's stderr message.

Strip trailing slash. Verify:

• $PAPER_DIR/notes/source.md exists. If not, abort: "No notes/source.md at . Run /paper:study on this paper first."
• $PAPER_DIR/notes/<platform>.md exists. If not, abort: "No notes/.md at . Run /paper:study or /paper:rerun-stage notes."
• $PAPER_DIR/notes/titles.md exists.

Set:

• SOURCE_PATH=$PAPER_DIR/notes/source.md
• TITLES_PATH=$PAPER_DIR/notes/titles.md
• EXISTING_PATH=$PAPER_DIR/notes/<platform>.md
• OUTPUT_PATH=$EXISTING_PATH (refine-notes overwrites in place)
• PLATFORM=<xhs|wechat>
• PLUGIN_ROOT=${CLAUDE_PLUGIN_ROOT}
• PROMPT_PATH=$PLUGIN_ROOT/prompts/<platform>-renderer.md
• TEMPLATE_PATH=$PLUGIN_ROOT/templates/notes/<platform>.md

Source the log-dispatch helper and extract plugin version:

source $CLAUDE_PLUGIN_ROOT/scripts/lib/log-dispatch.sh
PLUGIN_VERSION=$(grep -m1 '"version"' $CLAUDE_PLUGIN_ROOT/.claude-plugin/plugin.json | sed -E 's/.*"version"[^"]*"([^"]+)".*/\1/')

1.2 Show current rendering and solicit edit instruction

Read EXISTING_PATH. Show the user a preview (last 60 lines, or full file if shorter) along with this prompt (in user's invocation language):

Current notes/<platform>.md (<line count> lines, ~<char count> Chinese chars):

<preview>

What would you like to change? Examples:
  - "shorten paragraph 3"
  - "regenerate the hook with more concrete examples"
  - "remove the formula in §方法 and explain it in plain language instead"
  - "swap the embedded figure to figure-2.png"

Type your instruction (or 'cancel' to abort):

Wait for user input. Capture the instruction as EDIT_INSTRUCTION. If user says cancel, exit gracefully without modifying anything.

1.3 Detect content-level vs. rendering-level edits

Inspect EDIT_INSTRUCTION. Heuristics for "this is a content change, not just rendering":

• mentions adding a new fact / claim / number not in source.md
• mentions correcting a misunderstanding ("the paper actually shows X, fix this")
• mentions changing the take-away or section 9 conclusion
• mentions adding / removing a whole section (vs. rephrasing one)

If any heuristic fires, pause and ask:

This sounds like a change to the underlying notes content, not just the <platform> rendering. The right fix may be to update notes/source.md (which is the shared source for both xhs and wechat) and re-render both platforms.

Options:
  1. Apply only to <platform>.md (it'll diverge from source.md). Type 'rendering'.
  2. Update source.md and re-render both. Type 'source'.
  3. Cancel. Type 'cancel'.

Wait for user. If source, exit this skill and show the user this guidance:

"To update source.md and re-render both platforms:

1. Manually edit notes/source.md with your content change.
2. Do NOT run /paper:rerun-stage notes — that re-runs notes-writer and would overwrite your source.md edits.
3. Instead, run /paper:refine-notes xhs and /paper:refine-notes wechat separately, with a rendering-level instruction like 'sync to updated source.md' for each. The renderers read source.md on each invocation, so they'll pick up your edits."

(A future Plan 3b may add a dedicated /paper:rerender-notes command for this workflow.)

(Do NOT auto-modify source.md from this skill.)

If rendering, proceed to Stage 2 with the original EDIT_INSTRUCTION.

If cancel, exit gracefully.

If no heuristic fires (instruction is rendering-level), proceed directly to Stage 2.

---

Stage 2: Backup + dispatch + write

2.1 Backup the current rendering

Compute the next available .bak.NN suffix using shell logic (no separate helper script needed):

NN=1
while [ -e "$EXISTING_PATH.bak.$NN" ]; do
  NN=$((NN + 1))
done
BAK_PATH="$EXISTING_PATH.bak.$NN"
cp "$EXISTING_PATH" "$BAK_PATH"

After this, the prior version is preserved at $EXISTING_PATH.bak.<NN> for rollback.

2.2 Dispatch the renderer

Read PROMPT_PATH (the matching xhs-renderer.md or wechat-renderer.md from Plan 1 — they already declare EDIT_INSTRUCTION and EXISTING_PATH as inputs). Re-pick figures from the existing rendering's frontmatter (do NOT change the figure selection in this skill — that's /paper:reselect-figures's job).

Read EXISTING_PATH's YAML frontmatter to extract its current figures: list. The frontmatter typically contains basenames (e.g. page_3_img_1.png). Reconstruct absolute paths by prepending $PAPER_DIR/images/ to each basename. Set SELECTED_FIGURES to the resulting list of absolute paths.

Dispatch via the Agent tool:

Agent(
  description: "<platform>-renderer applying user edit",
  subagent_type: "general-purpose",
  prompt: <contents of $PROMPT_PATH> + concrete inputs:
    SOURCE_PATH=$SOURCE_PATH
    TITLES_PATH=$TITLES_PATH
    OUTPUT_PATH=$OUTPUT_PATH
    TEMPLATE_PATH=$TEMPLATE_PATH
    SELECTED_FIGURES=<list of figure paths from current frontmatter>
    EDIT_INSTRUCTION=<verbatim user instruction>
    EXISTING_PATH=$BAK_PATH    (so the renderer can read the prior version for context)
    PLUGIN_VERSION=$PLUGIN_VERSION
)

Wait for completion. Log the dispatch:

log_dispatch xhs-renderer notes/xhs.md ok   # or wechat-renderer notes/wechat.md ok

If the renderer failed: log with failed status.

2.3 Verify output

If $OUTPUT_PATH no longer exists or is empty, restore from backup:

if [ ! -s "$OUTPUT_PATH" ]; then
  cp "$BAK_PATH" "$OUTPUT_PATH"
  echo "WARN: renderer produced empty output; restored from $BAK_PATH"
fi

---

Stage 3: Show diff and offer iteration

Show the user a brief summary (in their language):

✓ Applied edit to notes/<platform>.md
  Backup: notes/<platform>.md.bak.<NN>
  Diff (lines changed): <wc -l before> → <wc -l after>

Want another round? Run /paper:refine-notes <platform> again.
Want to roll back? cp notes/<platform>.md.bak.<NN> notes/<platform>.md

---

Notes

• Translation: Chat-facing prose to user is in user's invocation language. The rendering itself stays Chinese (the renderer prompt enforces this).
• No idempotence skip. Each invocation produces a fresh edit. Backups accumulate as .bak.1, .bak.2, etc.
• Failure modes:
  • User cancels → no mutation, no backup created.
  • Renderer fails / produces empty output → restore from backup automatically, surface warning.
  • User instruction is a content change → defer to user via the source/rendering split prompt in Stage 1.3.